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katchus_gw

Cat vomitting

17 years ago

I thought I had posted this a few days ago, so my apologies if this is indeed a duplicate.

I have a 5 year old female cat who vomits quite often after she eats (maybe once a week). I believe it is because she eats very fast because the food comes up almost whole when she vomits. It cannot be good for her and it's really gross to have to clean up also!

I used to feed her once a day (which I found was leading her to vomit more often), so now I leave food out all the time for her and her sister to eat whenever. This has reduced the vomitting, but not made it disappear.

She eats Purina Cat Chow and always has plenty of food and fresh water available to her. This isn't a hairball she is coughing up either, it is vomit.

Any suggestions? Please!

Comments (5)

  • 17 years ago

    Try elevating her food bowl. Some cats have a hard time leaning down to eat, and it causes them to vomit. My cat had the same problem, and elevating it just an inch has made a huge difference.

  • 17 years ago

    Some cats and barfy. If you have taken her to the vet to rule anything out - there are a few things you can do..

    You can put golf balls or large rocks in their food dish so she has to eat around them, which will encourage her to eat more slowly.

    Feed her small meals a few times a day so she doesn't have the opportunity to eat a lot at once.

    Switch to a food with a higher caloric content per cup - then she will need to eat less food to get the energy she needs for the day. If you do this you will have to measure out their food, though - because they will still eat the same amount if allowed and turn into little chunkers, if not careful.

    My sister has a 17 year old cat that she has had his whole life - and he's been barfy his whole life. He vomits about 2x per week. Sometimes undigested, sometimes not - the vet has found nothing wrong with him. She knows the classic howl he makes before he does it, and she keeps newspapers around to toss under his face to catch most of it.

  • 17 years ago

    Like others here have suggested, it might be nothing at all. But I feel I have to also offer further advice. Not meaning to get you overly concerned, but I would take her to your vet just to get her thoroughly checked out and make sure it is not the start of anything.

    My beloved male cat was 7 years old when he started that same kind of vomiting 6 years ago. He would vomit undigested food or partially digested food just maybe every week or 10 days. Gradually, his vomiting increased but I was not overly concerned because he seemed fine otherwise, the vomiting was not "that often" I thought, and he never lost any weight. Also, other people who had had more cats than I and for a longer period of time, told me "cats just vomit---that is what they do". (According to what I have since learned, that is not entirely true.) Finally, when the vomiting had increased to more frequently than it had been, I took him to the vet and that particular vet said, "he was not concerned" since my cat was "not losing weight" and in fact "was slightly overweight". He didn't really suggest further testing but suggested he was allergic to something in his food and to just try different foods. I did that for a few years with success some days and not others. Meanwhile, the vomiting never stopped but slowly increased in frequency. By last year, the vomiting had increased to at least every day and he did start losing weight as well as starting to get some diarrhea, so I took him to a different vet. To make a long story short, she sent us to a regional small animal hospital to an Internal Medicine Vet who did all kinds of tests. They think that he originally for most of those years had Inflammatory Bowel Disease, but that it eventually "morphed" into Lymphoma. He is getting chemo and large doses of steroids every day, but they still say he only has about maybe 12 to 16 months left. I feel so bad and wonder if I had taken him to a more responsive vet in the beginning, and sooner, if things would have turned out differently and if I could have avoided the years of irritation to his bowel where IBS turned into lymphoma.

    Again, I don't want to scare you since it may be nothing more than your cat eating too fast. But, I am compelled to tell you my story since I wish someone had said this to me 5 or 6 years ago.

  • 17 years ago

    Yes I have taken her to the vet and she is as healthy as can be!

    I have tried the golf ball thing in the past and it doesn't seem to slow her down any. :) Also I am often now home for 12 hours at a time so feeding her throughout the day is not really possible.

    But I will definitely try the elevated food dish! That actually sounds like it may work?!?! Here's hoping!

    Also cat11 I am sorry to hear about your darling cat, but thank you for the story. The more information the better!

  • 17 years ago

    Just to let you know...I have tried elevating her food bowl and so far so good??? It has only been 5 days, but no vomit in the last 5 days! Yay! Thanks for the suggestions. :)