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Advice from Cat Owners?

monkeyprincess

monkeyprincess

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Messages
2,873
I know a lot of you are big cat lovers, so I thought I would see if anyone had any advice. One of my cats has always had a sensitive stomach and vomits every so often. Sometimes the cause is hairballs, which I treat with Lax Aire. He also tends to overeat and eat quickly, which sometimes causes him to vomit shortly after. But lately, he has been vomiting more frequently (like every other day), and he doesn't seem to have a hairball. It is usally partially digested cat food, and he seems to do it during the day when we are at work. Other than the vomiting, he seems completely normal, and he is drinking plenty of water. Has anybody experienced something like this? He has a yearly check-up next month, so I was hoping to hold off until then, but should I get him to a vet sooner?
 
I have a cat that vomits more often than most cats as well. When I first started feeding her wet food (she has bad teeth, which will be getting fixed soon) she would gorge and then upchuck, every time. It got to the point where I would feed her forkfuls at a time in her dish, which was really time consuming. THEN she became so used to our feeding schedule (first thing in the morning, when we return home from work, and then once more before bed) if we didn't feed her on that schedule she would start to vomit up a little stomach acid. Almost like her tummy would start churning in preparation for food and then when we weren't on the ball she would throw up a little.

So now she is accustomed to the way things work and she throws up a lot less. I still feed her a little at a time rather than a whole days worth (hence the three feedings) and it seems to help a lot.

My recommendation, since your cat seems otherwise fine, is to split up his feedings and see if he can be kept full longer rather than being fed once a day. Perhaps this will lessen his desire to gorge since when you put the next round of food down he will not be as ravenous.

Good luck!
 
Thanks Clairitek. Glad to know I'm not the only one with this problem. I'm just hoping it is the overeating and not anything more sinister that is causing the recent rash of vomiting. My problem is of course complicated by the fact that we have another cat who is the complete opposite and only nibbles at his food throughout the day, so I always feel a need to make sure there is plenty of food for him in case the aforementioned overindulging cat eats more than his fair share. I'm an enabler :oops: We often have to physically remove the overeater from the bowls when he starts chowing down too fast or moves on to the other cat's bowl. I get embarrassed for him! I do feed them twice a day, but I definitely give the majority of the food in the morning. I think I will cut back on the first feeding to see if that helps.
 
i'd take the cat to the vet and get tests done if for no other reason than to establish a base line for future reference. also, buy some fresh wheat grass [growing in little black pots] or grow your own and leave it available for your cat to munch on. drinking plenty of water could also be a sign of disease..... and the throwing up can be a sign of other bowel issues as well. be safe, not sorry. if nothing is actually wrong medically per confirmation with the vet, splitting the food up into smaller servings is a great idea. exploring other cat foods is also an idea. age of your cat will also play a factor in all this.
 
One of my cats was the same way. She would vomit all the time and also drank a lot of water. She lived to be 17! She was consistant, though, and it sounds like your cat's problem has increased. I'd take him in just to be sure he's okay. Also, how old is he? Cats do need their food forumlas switched as they age.

Oh, and sprinkling cat nip on top of the food is suppose to help digestion. That I would say is a last resort though as who knows what your cat will do. My current one would tip the bowl over and roll around in it.
 
Hi MP,

Do you have my cat's twin? We JUST started having this happen with our piggy cat (he's awful, and LOUD about food...argh). He's the lighter one in my avatar, but the pic was from when he was a kitten. Anyhow, I noticed that ours started up when we bought our last bag of cat food. Both of our cats actually have begun overeating and inhaling their food. It's gotten so bad that we can only feed them 10-15 kernels at a time unless I want to A. clean up kitty vomit or B. hold him over the toilet (don't laugh, it works). It's just gross and annoying!

Anyhow, I thought I'd throw that out there, in case you might have recently bought a new bag of even the same brand of food. We feed ours the Costco Kirkland light hairball remedy one (lamb and rice, maybe?). We had them on Royal Canin but said piggy cat couldn't handle it. I loved how their coats felt, but he always had loose, smelly stools. :knockout:
 
Margaret,who's 17, has always had a touchy stomach and vomits frequently. I'd still move the vet visit up though. Last year she began vomitting more frequently and we found out she had a cancerous tumor and needed surgery. Better to check it out.
 
Thanks for the advice movie zombie and MC. I will see if DH can get him to the vet sometime this week (I can't until Saturday), but I'd hate to overlook a problem that can be treated if we catch it early. My cat is 6 years old, and he has been eating Science Diet light adult/hairball control for a couple of years. We tried an all natural kind with no fillers about a year ago for about a month, and he threw up constantly, so we switched back. I just got a new bag of food a couple weeks ago, so unless that bag is bad, I don't think his diet is contributing. He hasn't increased his water intake, but he drinks enough that I'm not worried the vomiting is dehydrating him.

Tammy, that's so weird we're dealing with the same issue. I sometimes worry because the chunky one hardly chews his food and their big chunks!

Lulu, you convinced me to get him to the vet ASAP. I love that boy so much, and I don't want to take any chances!
 
One of my cats does this as well. I switched them to Evo dry food. It's made of uf 88% protein, so it's much closer to a cat's natural diet. It has really helped a lot.

Also, do you free feed? We do this, just leave out a bowl of dry food. Cats are really good at knowing when they've had enough. Usually they will just walk up to the bowl, have a few bites, and move on.
 
Definitely get him in to see the vet. Our 17-year old cat began to vomit after eating, but we figured he was throwing up because he was eating too much, too quickly. This went on for almost two weeks until we brought him to see his vet. I feel horrible now for waiting that long, but we weren't overly concerned at first since he was eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, napping, and playing just as he usually did. He was diagnosed with cancer and has an intestinal tumor that is inoperable. He is on a special diet now (ID Gastrointestinal Health) and gets Depo-Medrol shots every six weeks, and his cancer has been in remission for about a year now. He's back to being our fat and happy boy again!

ETA: I just reread my post, and I definitely didn't mean to scare the pants off of you! It's so hard for me now to not worry when one of my cats vomits after having experienced the worst-case scenario! I'm now Inspector Vomit whenever one of them throws up.
 
My cat is having the same sort of issue. She's 3 years old and the vomiting started when she was about 2. I brought her into the vet and let them know that she would vomit almost right after I would give her wet food. The vet checked her out and said she seems healthy and to just give her a good quality dry food. Well now it seems to be happening with the dry food too, but only once every couple of months, but it happened this morning :( I'm going to take this post today and the above comment as a sign to bring my kitty into the vet.
 
Glitz|1328049035|3115874 said:
My cat is having the same sort of issue. She's 3 years old and the vomiting started when she was about 2. I brought her into the vet and let them know that she would vomit almost right after I would give her wet food. The vet checked her out and said she seems healthy and to just give her a good quality dry food. Well now it seems to be happening with the dry food too, but only once every couple of months, but it happened this morning :( I'm going to take this post today and the above comment as a sign to bring my kitty into the vet.
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Hi Glitz, I hope my post above didn't scare you. When Potato was vomiting, it was happening every single day, after every meal. Our other cat vomits every few months, but he has a perfectly clean bill of health. As my husband reminds me, "Everybody pukes sometimes." It's the persistent vomiting that raises a red flag for me.
 
Hi monkeyprincess, I agree with all the previous posters. It could be so many things and only the vet can diagnose this definitively. But for the meantime I agree with feeding your cat small amounts at a time. One of our cats had similar symptoms and it turned out to be a pancreatitis and the treatment was basically feeding him a small amount of food at each meal during the day. That really helped. In any case I hope whatever it is will be easily treatable and that everything will be OK. Sending dust to your darling kitty.

ETA: Re free feeding- not all cats are good about knowing when they have had enough to eat so I would caution you about this. Of course if your cat is one who does know when enough is enough that's great but we have had a couple of cats that definitely kept eating and eating and eating...so not all cats are equal in that regard. And for that reason we do not leave any dry food out throughout the day. We feed them at mealtimes- no snacking in between.
 
A trip to the vet to rule out disease or infection is definitely in order. If all tests are negative, the cat could be suffering from an allergy to food or a substance in the house. Check cat food label for corn or wheat by-products, common causes of food allergy in cats. Canned food has a higher water content than dry is easier to digest.

Also, if you free feed, try feeding 2-3x day and don't leave food out. Smelling food triggers a cat's digestive system to begin working. Constantly smelling food, even if it is only an empty bowl that the food was once in or a bag of dry food left out will keep the digestive system primed and ready to go all day. Munching on dry food throughout the day keeps the digestive system working and the stomach never gets the chance to completely empty as it should. The digestive system requires quite a bit of energy to operate. Keeping it going throughout the day by allowing constant access or exposure to food is pulling valuable resources from other systems. The result could lead to poor coat conditon, tendency towards cystitis & diabetes, and may even prematurely age a cat.
 
Thanks for all the advice. My husband is taking the kitty to the vet tomorrow morning, so hopefully we can rule out anything serious. I do a combo of meals/free feeding, meaning I put food out in the morning, and they eat most of it, but there is still a little left when I go to work. Then I feed them a smaller meal in the evening when I get home, and again, they eat almost all of it shortly after I feed them, but there is still some left which they eat during the night. Like I said, the second cat complicates things because he only eats a little bit at a time, so I worry that if I didn't leave the food out, he wouldn't get enough. I'll let you know what we find out.
 
monkeyprincess|1328053518|3115935 said:
Thanks for all the advice. My husband is taking the kitty to the vet tomorrow morning, so hopefully we can rule out anything serious. I do a combo of meals/free feeding, meaning I put food out in the morning, and they eat most of it, but there is still a little left when I go to work. Then I feed them a smaller meal in the evening when I get home, and again, they eat almost all of it shortly after I feed them, but there is still some left which they eat during the night. Like I said, the second cat complicates things because he only eats a little bit at a time, so I worry that if I didn't leave the food out, he wouldn't get enough. I'll let you know what we find out.
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We let our cat free feed, also...the one I had who lived to be 17 always free fed. If my current cat runs out of food during the night he WILL attack me! I know he's out of food b/c I'll feel claws digging into my feet or hand. He bites that hand that feeds him - lol.

When your husband goes in, maybe he can ask about the free feeding and see what the vet says?
 
Hi
I don't have time to answer more specifically, but being a vet, I think you can wait until your kitty's check up next month (or just do the check up a month early!)
 
Hi MP!

I haven't read the other responses so sorry if I'm just repeating what others have said. :))

My cat does this regularly as well. Smaller more frequent feedings seem to help, as opposed to a big meal in one go. Also, the vet recommended to put his bowl on a box at head hight so that he stands up straight to eat, rather than having his head on the floor, it's supposed to aide in digestion or something.

Good luck! I hate cleaning up the cat vomit, but it's worse when he throws up and the other cat is lining up ready to eat it! :knockout: (eww sorry, couldn't resist) :cheeky: :halo:
 
I had a cat who did this with wet cat food, but not with tuna from a can (meant for humans) or dry food. I ended up changing him to dry food 100% because it was the only food he would not gorge.
 
Just wanted to update - My husband took the cat in this morning, and the vet checked him over and ran a few blood tests. So far everything looks okay and he seems healthy, but we have to wait on some of the results. She did say he has put on some weight since last year, which I kind of suspected, so she is switching him to a diet food and wants us to lower his food intake to see if that helps.
 
HUGS! I hope you can figure out something to feed the kitty to sooth his tummy. When we got our bengal (she was 3) after she was retired and fixed they were feeding her royal canin cat food-we switched her to Orijen cat food (fish flavor). It's not cheap (about 65.00 + tax for 7.5 kilos I think) but she loves it and won't touch any wet cat food. It's here in Canada so I'm not sure if you can get it where you're at but it doesn't hurt to check (says it is in 60 countries). If anyone has stomach issues with their pet I highly recommend it-all natural and no chemicals and filled with tons of goodies and vitamins for your pet. Thankfully we only have one cat so the bag lasts a couple of months!

http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/about/

This is what type we feed her (it stinks btw so we keep it in a large plastic bucket with a lid)
http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/products/6fishcat.aspx
 
MC|1328057529|3115987 said:
We let our cat free feed, also...the one I had who lived to be 17 always free fed. If my current cat runs out of food during the night he WILL attack me! I know he's out of food b/c I'll feel claws digging into my feet or hand. He bites that hand that feeds him - lol.
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Ha mine does this as well. If he's out of food he will let you know. Usually it's a lot of meowing, along with a "gentle" patting. Sort of like he's tapping you on the arm/shoulder/head to wake up. If it wasn't so annoying it would actually be really cute.
 
Update: My cat's bloodwork came back yesterday, and everything checked out fine, except he has a slightly elevated glucose level and an elevated liver enzyme. The vet said that if he does not lose some weight, he is at risk for developing diabetes and fatty liver disease. She wants to retest him in a month when they go in for vaccinations. She thinks the liver enzyme could possibly be making him sick, but she's not sure. He is vomiting less frequently and hasn't for a couple days. The overeater is on an Rx diet food and the other one is continuing with the old kind, so we are teaching the cats to eat separately, and we pick up their food when the stop eating. The non-overeater is not happy with the new arrangement and has been very vocal about his displeasure, but hopefully, he'll get used to it soon. Thanks for all your comments. Glad I took him in and hopefully his new diet will help him live a longer, healthier life.
 
Glad to hear it's nothing serious.!
 
I've read a lot from cat forums prior to getting my cat on the pros and cons of wet vs dry. Whilst it doesn't say that either caused more upchuck to my memory (which i admit is sketchy), the clear message was that wet food was better than dry from a perspective of health benefits for your cat.

It was the opinion of those websites that cats on a high quality wet food ONLY diet, never (rarely) developed feline diabetes. While cats on dry diets were very susceptible to it over time. This was a contentious view with vets and dieticians in both camps, but it wasn't one oddball, the divide seemed quite large with lots of vets on both sides of the camp. Just for you to consider.
 
My 16 year old little old lady was a chronic puker for years. Finally, a few years ago, during her annual vet visit, we discovered that she had lost a lot of weight. They did a bunch of tests and determined that she has Irritable Bowel Disease. She was started on Prednisolone and has been SO much better! Unfortunately, she was also diagnosed with hyperthryroidism last year, which was also contributing to her weight loss, so she is now also on Methimazole.

If the vomiting continues, I would ask your vet to test for IBD or intestinal lymphoma, which can mimic IBD. Hope your kitty feels better!
 
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