Readers Respond: Dietary Indiscretion - Tell us the worst thing your pet has eaten

Finally, pets eat odd things because ... well, who knows? Some articles of ingestion will remain a mystery. Please share your stories and warnings here. You may help prevent an emergency.

Related Reading: Pets Eat the Ickiest Things

Tell us what happened

Now Wireless

Our puppy is adorable and the love of our lives but sometimes she amazes us with what she has a taste for. We recently came home and discovered that she literally chewed through the wall in our hallway in 3 places!! She is usually very well monitored but there are still a few times when 100% supervision isn't possible. We discovered that she LOVES electrical cords and has eaten many different kinds. Carpet cleaner power cord (right off the wind up spot of the cleaner), ipod chargers, cell phone chargers, etc..... This morning I woke up to her vomitting and discovered that she ate the plug and casing from an electric blanket (the cord was not attached or plugged in due to her cord fascination). not only did she eat the metal prongs and plastic casing but she also pulled out many strings of wiring from the blanket and swallowed those up as well. It came out in several clumps of solid mangled wire piles. Any suggestions on how to curb her weird cravings so she doesn't hurt herself??

—Guest Bella's mom

Cat ate a needle

My cat ate a sting that had a needle attache to it. The needle was too large and my cat too small for the needle to pass safely on it's own, so she had to have emergency surgery.

—Guest misty thomas

Desitin

Since I used this for info, I thought I would post what I found out... My dog also got into a nearly new tube of Desitin, called the vet, they said to call the Animal poison control center. Paid $60 for them to tell us it was fine in this amount (less than 2oz) but still might develop the allergic reaction. Still made her vomit just to be safe as they said it would lessen the changes of diarrhea.

—Guest Bobbie

Would absolutely eat anything!!

We had a golden-lab mix that would absolutely eat anything. We could not keep disposal razor blades on the side of the tub because he would grab it, chew the blades out and eat the plastic handles. We also found a few steak knives that had obviously been chewed. And wood!!! Anything wood...coffee table legs, dining table legs, rocking chair, constantly finding fragments of sticks from the yard in the carpet. He was always stealing my bras because he loved the elastic straps. He would eat the straps and leave me with two useless cups. Very weird dog but we loved him so much. Unfortunately he died from injuries after being hit by a car. Miss him to this day. He was a riot.

—Guest Cindy

He ate WHAT!?!

Shaft is my dog/son. Whatever Mom likes toeat or drink he'll give a try. After putting everyting out of reach except my can of coffee. Shaft tried to make coffee he ate about 2 cups of coffee out of the can drank a lot of water and threw up a lot . When I came home from work and called his vet his response was, "He ate what?" He was pretty shaky for a few hours but came out of it with no lasting harm. Mom leaves nothing that he may mistake for food whitin my boys reach!

—Guest babycat9

Plastic-eating Cat

Althouhg I am determined not to spend too much time on this, I had to respond to Shelby's NOT CAT FOOD. Our Cornie loves plastic. One day in a grand attempt to get organized we bought several large vacuum bags for bedding, etc. Everyone once in a while one did not work so we decided we bought cheap, got cheap. After completing our project and the next day finding everything ballooned back up we rembered that Cornie had been "helping us." It took us until then to realized he had actually punctured the bags. We still love him but are much more aware of how he is "helping" us.

—Guest Pat, SE Idaho

Tinsel

A cat of mine, when she was a kitten, once ate an entire long string of tinsel. No-one realized it until it came back out. Fortunately for her it had been compressed into a big poopy knot, and she passed it without any more damage than a bit of abrasion and soreness. As the vet said, she was one lucky cat. I've not had tinsel in the house since.

—Guest Eucritta

A needle

We had a domestic shorthair who grabbed a thread when my wife was sewing and swallowed the needle. We took her to the vet who x-rayed it and told us to leave her there overnight for observation. He said it should pass right through. And that's just what it did! She passed it the next day. No harm done. The vet said she was in more danger from the thread than the needle, because as it passes through the intestines, they "shrink away" from the point as it passes. We were very happy indeed and we got to keep the needle as a souvenir!

—thebiggestmac

Can I post just one?

I have a 3 year old Westie, Meagan. In the years I've had her, she's eaten so many things....eye glasses, shoes, furniture, cords... The worst so far was a bottle of Tylenol she chewed and spit out. 2nd worst is part of a thermacare patch (they have iron in them so they can be really poisonous to dogs) 3rd worst is a toad...totally bad. And most recent would be a whole entire volcano taco from Taco Bell. I was doing laundry and she managed to get it off the table and eat it in the 30 seconds I was grabbing hangers. Geez.

—Guest Michelle

shoes, florescent crayons, and more...

Our Brittany Spaniel would eat shoes, but never a whole pair. Just one of each. She once ate florescent crayons and the neighbors asked what was glowing in our backyard at night. She also ate a salt and flour clay project that one of my cub scouts had set aside to harden. She promptly threw it up, and when I reprimand her, the cub scout reminded me "She's only human!" My Jack Russel terrier has eaten our couch, and has attacked many throw pillows. She would eat any human food offered to her; loves fruit and vegetables, but bananas are her favorite, and she can "hear" you peel a banana from the next room. We stopped using tinsel on our Christmas tree when our cat decided it was a tasty treat. (Silver tinsel hanging out of a cats' behind is never a pretty sight!)

—Guest mombenne

the crazy thing is!

I have 2 yellow lab puppies - Misty and Daisy. They both are a little over a year old now and they seem to love eating their collars off one another when they are playing with each other. Like really eat the collars until there is nothing left. I have had to by 6 in a year! No trips to the vet yet, every thing comes out fine!

—Guest lab lover

Kahlua

My mother was making kahlua for christmas one year, and after stirring in the coffee, they left it out on the back porch to sit. (I don't know why, I've never made it before.) After a few hours, they went to bring it in and found about 3/4ths of it gone! The family dog had been outside, and when she was let in she started bouncing off the walls. It didn't take long for my family to figure out what had happened, and they rushed to the vet's to get the dog's stomach pumped. It was the worst christmas ever, with everyone too worried about her to celebrate. She ended up fine, and lived a long, happy life after the experience, though we made sure not to let her near kahlua again. As for the 1/4 barrel of kahlua left? My father put it in bottles and gave it to extended family as a christmas present. It was the most expensive booze anyone ever tasted!

—Guest Bailey

An expensive and sore experience

When I was a kid I was thrashed for stealing a five pound note my father had left on the breakfast table. I hadn't stolen it. The next week, two ten pound notes went missing. Again I was thrashed. I decided to investigate. I went into the remote part of the garden where we threw our Dachshund's poo. Using tweezers I dissected them and found two fine metal lines consistent with the ones put into bank notes. I showed my father and he offered the dog more bank notes - she was very keen to gobble them up. My father lost the money and I got a very sore butt. And he didn't apoligise!

—Guest Prue Ramage

Icky foodstuff

My dogs eat any kind of poo - it is disgusting. They are not fussy - sheep poo, cow poo you name it. Their own if you don't watch them. It is disgusting and anything they don't eat they roll in. I do feed them and feed them well I don't get why they do that.

—AnnMcCarthy

That's not food, cat!

My cat has a taste for plastic bags. He loves the things..chews big holes in them. I can't put bags in the trash can, line his litter box, or keep anything around in a grocery bag or ziplock. You don't realize how many things come wrapped in plastic until you have to keep every spec out of the cats reach! He will eat the plastic off of anything.

—Guest Shelby