Many pet owners know the dread that comes when your furry friend begins acting a little strangely, and one woman spent hundreds of dollars to get to the bottom of her cat’s constant sneezing.
Lisa Næss, 33, lives in Harstad, Norway, with her fiance, daughter and their beloved orange cat, Oscar. When they moved to a rural area, formerly indoor cat Oscar was allowed the freedom to go outside, while wearing a GPS collar to track his whereabouts.
“The first day we let him out, he proudly came home with a rotten piece of bread, and we thought that would be his only catch,” Næss told Newsweek.
But he settled into outdoor life, catching rodents and learning to get along with neighborhood cats, and everything was going well — until, out of nowhere, “he started vomiting a lot.”
Tiktok @pokemomlisa
Terrified he had ingested poison, and concerned about a cut on his neck, Næss rushed Oscar to the veterinarian — but as he behaved “exemplarily,” the vet was unconcerned, and simply advised her on an ointment and antibiotics.
But when the vet went out of the room, Oscar began sneezing repeatedly.
“This sneezing was very strange, so I filmed it to show her,” Næss said, which turned out to be the right thing to do, as the vet immediately wanted to put Oscar under anesthetic to see if something was lodged in his nose and throat.
“We were naturally very scared, and I shed a few brave tears,” Næss said. “I was genuinely afraid that he had eaten some plastic or something else life-threatening that would be impossible to operate out.”
Thankfully, copywriter Næss didn’t get the devastating news she was dreading, and the revelation of what was wrong with Oscar has led to her going viral on TikTok, after she shared an update to her account @pokemomlisa.
The video shows Oscar’s wild sneezing, with the words: “He went under anesthesia and the vet called me to tell that he…had this piece of literal GRASS stuck inside his nose and throat.”
She added: “His grass snorting period cost us over $400. Not cool, Oscar.”
Næss told Newsweek: “We were so relieved, and we immediately saw the humor in it. We had imagined all sorts of horrors, and then it was ‘just a blade of grass.'”
TikTok users loved the video, which has over 239,000 views since being shared on August 27, with one commenter revealing the same thing had happened to their cat, and they spent “€600 ($666) to figure out it was a piece of grass.”
Another wrote: “We just spent $550 bringing our cat to the emergency vet on a Saturday for sudden extreme drooling. Turns out he was stressed out from the noise outside our apartment.”
Tiktok @pokemomlisa
Luckily for Næss, the original bill dropped down massively thanks to their pet insurance, and now that Oscar is confirmed to be safe and healthy, she decided to share the story on TikTok “because I thought it was pretty funny.”
“The funniest part is reading the comments on the video. So many people have experienced the same thing, with both dogs and cats,” said Næss, who also shares clips of Oscar to her Instagram page, @oscar_of_the_north.
“I’ve joked that we should all create a museum of all the blades of grass our pets have eaten, and we can put the price tag from the vet as a description under each piece!”
Cats are known to hide symptoms of illness or injury, which stems from survival instincts to avoid being a target of predators, according to the Animal Humane Society.
Cat owners are advised to carefully watch their pet’s eating, drinking and litter box habits, as well as their behavioral habits, and contact a vet if they notice any changes.
Næss added: “If you feel that there is still something wrong with your pet — even if the vet doesn’t see it — you’re the owner and you’re the one that knows your pet the best. If you have a gut feeling — stick to it!”
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.