Q Our 2-year-old cat Hershey keeps chewing and eating fabrics, and nothing seems to stop him. He ended up in the hospital with a bowel obstruction and needed surgery to remove it. We are at our wits’ end. Please help us.
A Pica is a behavioral disorder that can affect both animals and humans and is defined as the ingestion of non-food materials. The term pica is the Latin word for magpie, a bird well known for eating anything and everything indiscriminately!
The materials eaten may be fabrics (wool and cotton), plastics, paper, stones, sand, pebbles, cat litter and many more. When cats and dogs eat plants, that can be called pica, too; however, it is not usually a major issue as the motivation and the need differ from those of classic pica. It is important to prevent pica because of the potential for poisoning, bowel perforation and/or blockage, and dental problems, as teeth may become
