I lived through the same thing. But our cat had PICA disorder and would eat ANYTHING. He didn't settle for thread. He ate absolutely anything off the floor or table that would fit in his mouth. We paid $1,500 for a surgery to fix his stomach and bowel and the doctor told us with his "problem" he should really be on some sort of cat prozac for life...and that he'd likely do it again. 6 mos. later he ate something again that caused a blockage and we had to put him down. The vet pulled all sorts of crazy things out of him. It was really sad and we felt terrible: