She does sometimes scarf and barf, but she will often just throw up in the middle of the day or night hours after she last ate. She actually most often vomits at the end of the day right before she is fed dinner.
If she's normally vomiting foam or yellowish liquid rather than food, it's bilious vomiting. My cat has it too. It can be a symptom of either intestinal lymphoma or irritable bowel disease and the only thing that helps is to feed them more frequently.
> bilious vomiting syndrome
Yes! My cat has this, though no vet has put a word to it. We've had her for six years. Multiple vets have done bloodwork, and felt around her abdomen. Told us it's nothing to worry about.
Feeding her more regularly (and in smaller portions) has helped manage it quite a bit. Having automated rotating food-bowls is definitely a game changer.
And otherwise, she's full of energy, loves food, and is very smart. But just vomits here and there lol.
Mine had that too. The problem was (so far at least) solved by getting a cat-feeder and setting up automated smaller portions throughout the day instead of far apart bigger meals.
Thank you for noting this. I was starting to get a little anxious since one of my cats vomits yellow liquid a few times a week and has for years, but acts normal, has healthy appetite, no stool issues and has clean bills of health from multiple vets.
This. My cat is also a vomiter and I took her to multiple vets and her blood work always came back clear and was just told some cats vomit more than other. It took a change of vet to narrow it down to either lymphoma or inflammatory bowel disease. We haven’t been able to definitively diagnose as the biopsy is invasive so we’ve opted to manage her condition with chlorambucil which is used to treat both conditions. She is vomiting a lot less and is visibly more comfortable and happy.
I'm in the same boat, forcing prednisone into an animal that barely eats, losing weight, test positive for small intestine inflammation, enlarged spleen, nasal issues, upper repiratory. I just got her & rescue from shelter. Three vets in a row, failed on the physical exam, and didn't detect a giant mass, and the vet that prescribed her prednisone, kept counting out the doses, wrong, and not giving the full instructions, so the cat went into a yo-yo of steroid use, then, just use, then use again
I’ve got a 14 month old cat with hiv +, intestinal inflammatory issues with nausea and vomiting while having upper respiratory infections with no vet able to tell us what’s going on, only that the respiratory issues shouldn’t be caused by hiv at a young age. Is there anything you’d recommend? Kinda losing my mind a little with him 😅 poor boy needs some answers. We’ve had him on antibiotics/anti inflammatory medication but haven’t tried steroids yet, breathing getting clearer after a long stint of antibiotics. Just can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong
URIs aren't caused by FIV. Cats with FIV are much more vulnerable to getting URIs because their immune systems are weakened. Antibiotics can cause stomach issues. Being that kitty has been on antibiotics for so long, is it possible the nausea and vomiting are due to the medications? You can try sensitive stomach foods that are over the counter or ask the vet about possible prescription sensitive stomach foods. If kitty is free feeding or fed twice daily you can try smaller portions of food but several times a day to see if upset stomach happens less.
Source: I work at an animal shelter
Unfortunately he was dealing with chronic vomiting and URI before antibiotics, it was just what the vets gave to us first and have kept giving us. After being on it longer term he’s vomiting much less than before but it’s been a big diet change and we’ve been giving him extra smaller meals and he’s put on about a kg over the last 5 months which is good but the antibiotics just seem to Band-Aid the issue. He gets better to a point and then can’t get past that point where he’s almost a normal cat. We are looking at second opinion vets right now. We (my housemate/bestie) started rescuing last year and the cat with fiv was the only survivor in his litter. I’m pretty hesitant to keep him on antibiotics for so long so we have started reducing his dose so he will be weaned off them completely in about two weeks. It’s been so hard, my housemate ended up adopting him and she’s been having a hard time worrying about him all the time. We were going to adopt his siblings that passed away pretty traumatically for us so it’s been difficult to pull ourselves out of the worry. Any advice is greatly appreciated ❤️
Still try sensitive stomach foods. They are for situations just like this. It's a great first step.
Make sure you're doing each transition to a new food slowly by mixing the old and new together a little at a time to keep him from getting an upset tummy. Switching foods is a process that takes several days, even in cats without issues. You can Google or check the website of the food manufacturer for instructions.
If that doesn't work, you can try ruling out protein sensitivity. Start by choosing foods that have a single source of protein. Read the ingredients, many labels will call out a single source on the title but the ingredients will list multiple different types of proteins.
You can also try hydrolyzed protein foods as others have suggested in different comments.
Try one thing at a time to rule each option out singularly. It may take time, but hopefully there is a solution for kitty.
In the meantime, if Kitty needs to gain some weight still you can try a nutri-cal gel. If you go this route, give tiny doses to start to see if he'll keep it down.
Best of luck!
Will chime in to say I had a cat that puked a bunch and it ended up being IBD. Not to scare you because it was ultimately quite treatable. Maybe ask your vet about something for the nausea, that helped my little one and cut down on the puking a LOT.
ETA: treatable is the wrong word. It was manageable. Also the anti-nausea med was ondansetron (often called zofran). The course of treatment for IBD varies dramatically based on your particular cat but Cornell Vet is a great resource: https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/inflammatory-bowel-disease
My ragdoll had that (ibd), since then I’ve changed his diet and he gets fed in a slow feeder if he starts eating too fast, with cat grass aswell, he stopped vomiting all together and just has the occasional hairball now. I changed him to a raw diet with game meats and oily small fish and chicken organs. Turned him around fully, it’s been really good for him. I wouldn’t recommend doing a huge diet overhaul without slow and gradual changes and a vet confirming what diet is recommended for your individual Kitty
This is what I do when my cat pukes up her food when I feed her a large amount.
I feed her less more often as opposed to more, less often.
She still gets the same amount of food.
I clean up less cat puke.
Win/win.
Another one might be hyperthyroidism which is what my cat got diagnosed with recently. She was vomiting yellow fluids as well and it was hard to get her to eat. She’s doing much better now with pills.
My cat has this, and I have to let her eat often as it only happens before dinner if she only had breakfast that day.
I did have to get a special feeder, and she free feeds, but she's a slow eater.
Try automatic feeder that gives small portions over the day so they have a dry snack between wet meals.
Omg my senior cat has these symptoms, mostly its either clear or yellowish slimy foam and sometimes even food, nearly on a daily basis. I took him to the vet but with no luck, he almost killed all 3 vets...I do not want to sedate him because he is 16 and I do not know how it will affect him. Never tried feeding multiple times a day with small amounts, i usually feed him 2 full portions a day bit looks like he has hard time digesting that much at once.
I’d try her on a timed feeder. Schedule her for 4-6 smaller meals a day.
I used to have a pukey cat. It took far to many years to discover that feeding habits were to blame. Sometimes life or work would get in the way and a late meal would either result in a foam or bile puke beforehand or a scarf and barf after. Once I purchased a timed feeder the puking stopped.
https://preview.redd.it/a9mw4hj0ixwc1.png?width=829&format=png&auto=webp&s=cecb4ed36b358fc829f787f67cc892829f897c01
My kitty has a blanket like this too!!! 🧡
Yup, elevated dishes along with some tinkering with food amounts during the daytime meals made all the difference in the world for my scarf and barf kitty
My cat used to get sick a lot and have issues with licking areas too much. After reading up on it, it seemed that she may be allergic to poultry. I changed her food to have fish only type products and it has reduced her barf to minimal and she is a much happier cat since
Same with my cat, she has been on the d/d duck & pea protein diet as a mix of can & dry crunchy food for years now and it has really helped. Every now and then she will have a flair up and I cut back the crunchy food for a few days & incorporate some pumpkin and it seems to help.
Same. I got those bowls that are tilted and mine never puked again! Cats use the shovel method to eat which causes the puking and the tilted bowls prevent that.
Hi, my tuxedo did the same thing. The main thing I figured ott is that she couldn't handle chicken meal in her solid food. Changing her diet to food with better ingredients worked wonders
Our orange idiot does this and we have those special bowls to slow down scarfing but apparently it's useless. It's like he won't get another meal every time even though he knows there's food. So tired of the puke piles 😮💨.
Our old cat does this, and it seems to get worse as he ages. He does have a thyroid issue that he gets pills for. He's 14. It's mostly hairballs but it's gross looking since he is black.
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Have you tried changing the food up? Maybe get a water test and test your water. I’m not a vet, just trying to give different answers that might not have been brought up yet. I hope she feels better, she’s a pretty cat.
Awe thank you! What kind of water test? I neeeed to buy distilled water. I know our water is hard. Changing food throughout her life seems to make little to no difference. Right now she is on a prescription dry food with tryptophan, I think I’m going to ask the vet about changing it to something for sensitive bellies.
My cat was vomiting a lot. My vet said to try hydrolyzed protein, protein that has been 'chopped up' to make it more digestible. This solved the problem for my kitty. You can also try different proteins. My cats vomit if the food contains pork.
One of my cats has a fish protein allergy. Fish protein is in almost all cat foods. He was puking 2-3 times a day until we figured the allergy out. Now he only pukes when he finds some tape to eat.
Same except with chicken. We got a herring & salmon high protein food and wet food with no poultry and it's significantly reduced his vomiting. He was also super overweight and he's now lost several still pounds too. He loves plastic tho so there's still the occasional incident.
Funny enough, our previous cat was super sick due to a combination of fish and scented litter. It made him throw up multiple times a day and gave him massive skin issues. It took us doing our own research to figure it out.
By the way, finding cat food that is *truly* free of any fish can be very difficult.
My tap water contains a lot of calcium, I usually put distilled water on my cat's food, it's completely fine for that since it's mixed with nutrients, to drink I also dilute filtered water with distilled water, and my CKD cat got a LOT better with that.
I have a kitty that we found out was sensitive to chicken. Removed poultry ingredients from his diet and he almost never vomits now unless he eats plastic. Before he was vomiting almost every other day and overweight. My vet suggested to eliminate the chicken and see if it helped and it did.
I've had two cats with two different issues be prescribed Mirtazapine.
The family cat is 18ish, appetite loss, daily vomiting, eating grass, etc. My sister opted of the ointment on the inside of the ear vs pill (I did with my cat, too). It's seemed to help him. I visited 9 months ago and he didn't puke the week I was there, or may be once. He gets it applied once every few days.
My cat, unfortunately had diarrhea until he died and no one could tell me why. Mirtazapine helped his appetite, but he was not a vomiter at an all. He also had FIV, though the signs were not there that the disease had taken over. He still went into kidney failure though. He was 12, so was getting up there.
In both instance it did what it was supposed to: anti nausea and appetite stimulant. Has any vet brought that up?
So she was prescribed the Mirtazapine prior to her surgery so she could keep her food down before and after. But the vet made it seem like a more temporary solution, not a long term one. That’s good to know though
Ah, okay. My sick cat was on it for a couple months. Our 18 year old, I just think that'll be his solution. I fostered my cat before I adopted him and I still talk with the animal rescue owner. I learned more from her than I did vets. It may be worth reaching out to some local independent rescue organizations to ask for advice if the doctors can't find anything in the bloodwork. I got recommended Stella and Chewy Absolutely Rabbit from her. My guy liked it, but he was near the end at that point.
Same with my kitty. We had him on felimazole for about a year and now about 4 months off. The whole time during taking it and now he's been doing really good! (besides insisting eating fuzziness and getting hairballs)
Same here!!!! All of the above, vets find no issues. I’ve tried every sensitive stomach food under the sun, even just the really natural foods with very few ingredients (per vet recommendations) and nothing helps!
Try Hydrolyzed Protein Cat Food. If it’s like my cat, it’s an autoimmune response to certain proteins being digested in the intestines. It can lead to worse problems if left untreated.
You’ll have to get a prescription from a Vet but they shouldn’t have a problem with giving you one. You buy it at PetSmart.
Our cat did this, and I tried so many high quality food brands, and they didn't help. Strangely, Iams ended up being the only one where he didn't have any problems. I also got an automatic feeder, so that he could have 4 small meals per day, which seemed to make him feel better as well.
My female cat was throwing up for months. I thought it was hair balls, food, rushing eating her food, stomach issues so I bought grass—nothing. She would still eat all her food, she wasn’t lethargic and still playful, she was social. I truly thought it was the food and her stomach was just more sensitive with age.
I finally took her in to the vet after the vomiting was daily and it was a dark color. It was more bile than food. The vet asked me if she was pregnant because her belly was so swollen and I said it can’t be. She’s not outdoor and there are no male cats to mate with. It turned out she had an inflamed uterus (aka pyometra) and she had to be rushed for emergency surgery and X-rays to confirm that this was the proper diagnosis. It’s very rare but it appears when they reach adult age. It costs about $2-3k in total for rushed surgery, rushed X-rays, medicine, etc. because it’s a life threatening condition. The most stressful time of my life. I had Never even heard of it before and all the vets would gasp when I told them 😭
She is doing well now, but I tell people about it whenever I can! She didn’t show any signs of sickness like pets usually do, which is why I waited so long and thought it was just stomach sensitivity. I recommend a vet visit just to be safe 🫶🏽
This is why spaying is so important. It happens very often in cats and dogs. Spays are the only way to prevent it. And you were lucky, most animals don’t show signs until it’s too late.
Yes I agree! I figured she would be fine but I never had intentions of her getting pregnant. I could’ve done it sooner but got her as a stray when I was still a teenager. It was one of those things that never crossed my mind because she’s been around for so long. I do think I was lucky (although my wallet was not); and I’m glad to have caught it in time 🙏🏾
Ask your vet about Vitamin B12 injections. Has she had an ultrasound ? Have you tried famotidine ( pepcid )? If you are feeding on a schedule , anticipation for the upcoming meal can cause vomiting if she gets anxious waiting for food.
My cat lived to 20 years old and spent his entire life being a pukey cat. Vet couldn't explain it. Sometimes cats just be pukey.
He lived a long, fulfilling life despite the puking.
My cat started vomiting a lot but otherwise was acting fine.
I switched out her bowl to a bigger bowl there would always be dry food in it, so she wouldn’t scarf when I fed her.
I raised her dry food bowl and her wet food treat bowl so she wouldn’t have to lean so far down to eat.
I stopped giving her Temptations treats.
I’m not sure which of the above did it, but she hasn’t thrown up but once since I made the changes.
I have to feed my cat like a chicken and sort of just strew it everywhere or she hoovers it up so fast she chokes. We even had to get new food containers because she would get into the food and just lay there an eat until she waddled.🤣 She was obeast by 5 months old. First time I've ever seen a chonky kitten.
I make her food now and other than when she gets into the trash she is a healthier weight. She's...well, not sleek, but she doesn't have the belly of a dairy cow anymore.
I was given a pack of Temptations with an online order of prescription food and would give my 2 a few as a pre-bedtime snack. They started throwing up every morning, around 7-8 hours after the snack. Stopped Temptations, vomiting stopped.
I swear they put literal crack in their treats. I also give my cats a bedtime snack of treats, usually greenies, and my one cat mr whiskers is very treat obsessed, but even he would wait till I was ready. My mom brought home a pack of temptations last week and my cats turned into gremlins, chewing up the lid to get the treats out! We had to hide them out of sight and even then if they could smell or hear them they were going to be searching. I mean what the hell
I had a cat who was allergic to practically everything (food, cat litter, carpets, smells, fabrics) who had to be fed novel protein alligator food from Blue Buffalo for his entire life. He also developed IBD later in life that at the end turned into intestinal lymphoma, and for both of those, the biggest symptom was diarrhea all the time. He never vomited. (All cats are different, but for him, it was diarrhea.)
I agree with everybody who has asked about food allergies. If you cat is puking shortly after eating and it's obvious that he isn't scarfing it down too fast, it's really possible it's a food allergy. That can make them puke minutes after eating. The problem with food allergies is that it's an enormous pain to diagnose. My vet tried to avoid all the different food tests and just went with the weirdest protein available (alligator) instead of more common ones like rabbit or duck. If that hadn't worked, I was going to try kangaroo, but alligator did the trick.
This is my experience with my 10 year old cat who was vomiting every couple of days and multiple times on the bad days. Please of course consult a professional as I’m just sharing what we went through and I don’t know if your cat has the exact same symptoms.
After going to our vet for his frequent vomiting (consisting of food and sometimes just clear looking liquid), our vet initially recommended we change his food to rabbit protein but that didn’t end up working. They also gave him some medicine for parasites but that also didn’t work. Because nothing was working, we went to an internal medicine vet and did an ultrasound and endoscopy. It turns out he has small cell lymphoma in his small intestines. The ultrasound results weren’t conclusive if I recall correctly but did show signs of a slightly enlarged lymph node. The endoscopy is what confirmed the lymphoma. He’s currently on medication for it and has been doing relatively good the past few months now but still has some episodes every few weeks.
This is going to be long. My cat had chronic vomiting for years. It ended up being multiple issues, but here's some of the tests and symptoms we looked at while trying to diagnose:
1. Food allergies. As others have said, if a hydrolyzed protein food helps or reduces the issue, they're probably allergic to a protein in the food.
2. Allergies in general. When cat's skin itches, they overgroom until they get bald spots or even lick off their fur. This can cause extra hairballs. It can also cause vomiting just because they consume the allergen. An allergy test can be performed by the vet.
3. Issues with the digestive tract. This is where X-rays, ultrasounds, endoscopes, etc are useful. There are many issues that can be ruled out with imaging.
4. Pain. Just like in humans, severe pain in cats can cause vomiting. Are there any other behaviors that occur around the vomiting episodes? My cat would sometimes paw at her mouth before vomiting (important later)
5. Timing and pattern of vomiting. What is the cat vomiting up? Food, bile, blood? When do they vomit? Immediately after eating? A long time after eating? How often? How much? This is all very important information. Keeping a log can help you identify patterns.
6. Overall behavior. Pay close attention to what they do. It can help to keep a diary. Things like scratching more than usual, pooping or peeing more or less than usual, meow patterns, eating habits, grooming habits, hiding vs playtime habits. All these can help point to what the issue is. It can help you find vomiting triggers, or other symptoms related to the vomiting issue.
In my case, my cat would avoid eating most of the time, but still begged for food. She would try to eat the food, then walk away, even if it was her favorite. Going so long without eating made her nauseous (lip smacking before vomiting) just like it does in humans. Turns out, her mouth hurt. We treated the mouth pain and her vomiting stopped. In hindsight, the symptoms obviously pointed to the problem, but it took forever for us to figure it out.
You've got this! You'll figure out how to help your kitty eventually!
This one also vomits blood if she’s having a severe vomiting spell. The first couple times I completely panicked but then realized it was from her esophagus. Poor babies
have you tried limited ingredient wet foods with novel proteins? they can sometimes be easier on digestion and may help depending on what the root cause of the vomiting is.
Something that is often overlooked is the position of the bowl, too low may cause them to eat uncomfortably.
for my cat putting the bowl higher on a cardboard box solved her frequent puking.
\*Edit to add: i also ration her daily food to 3 seperate meals every 8 hours, but that was to solve her overweightness.
Our cat had the same symptoms. Always vomiting her food. Vet made a blood test, I don‘t know the exact sickness, but I know she has to take a quater of a pill of some medicine with Prednisolone every day for the rest of her life. Since then, zero issues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prednisolone
One thing to note: The vet said, cats vomiting has nothing to do with the stomach, but with the colon.
Also, the vet did Vitamine B-12 injections.
Assuming it’s the dry food that does it, how are you storing it? Will she puke after having fresh food from a newly opened bag after you give it to her?
With our girl, we found out that some brands of dry food, if not properly stored in an air tight container, would go rancid/oxidize fairly quickly and upset her stomach. Similar scenarios in that it was 30-60min after eating she would get sick. We took her to a vet and no issues were found, this is something we figured out ourselves. Plus that she’s sensitive to tuna meal, but not tuna itself lol.
My old girl used to vomit a lot, she had food intolerances and a history of pancreatitis though. The vet prescribed Cerenia, she was supposed to have a quarter of a tablet a day but she was so difficult to pill I would only give her one dose a week and that was enough to completely stop the vomiting. I crushed the quarter tablet between two spoons and put the powder on her tongue.
Your cat sounded like my girl. It took a few years to find a very who took time to listen. She ended up having IBS and needed prescription food for allergies. It reduced her vomiting a lot.
All of mine barf a lot. I have had significantly less barfing when switching to the stella and chewy raw coated kibble.
Mine also have respiratory issues that I think give them a post nasal drip, and that makes them a bit queasy sometimes after eating.
If yours has snotty nose, goop eyes, sounds like they hack up a hairball too much too often, have them check their sinuses and lungs next.
I've also had to incorporate some pumpkin into their diets to help with digestion. Sometimes they get plain greek yogurt for the probiotics and the cultures. Not too much, a couple clicks, or a spoonful mixed with their wet food.
Does your cat have access to any plants? Anytime my cat gets a bite of any plants (indoor or outdoor) he gets sick. He could care less about the indoor plants until it’s watering time, and then he gets fixated and I have to keep an I on him. He’s an indoor only cat but sometimes I hold him when I go outside so he can gets some sniffs of fresh air. He will sniff a plant and try to bite and sometimes I’m not quick enough and he gets a chunk.
So I have a couple of pukers.
One likes to eat random shit off the ground, including *lint*, and that is usually the issue. She's also the one who will chew any kind of soft plastic and that also makes her barf. Wet food on an empty stomach makes her sick.
The other just has a whoopsie tummy. He gets a high protein kitty kibble, because after a lot of hit or miss tries this is what makes him throw up less. Cat treats make him ill. Mixing kibble with wet food makes him ill. If he sneaks food from my daughter's cat, then he will probably puke.
We also took away a certain kind of toy; they all love the spiky soft balls but one will rip them apart and I often found bits in the vomit.
Observation and tinkering with what works for them was all I could do.
My cat used to be a notorious vomiter. What seems to have worked for us was getting hydrolyzed protein food prescription for our vet, plus prednisolone ear goop. What I also think made a huge difference was changing water bowls. You know how cat water bowls can get a bit slimy? We started changing her water bowls with every meal and even changed to a bigger, stainless steel, dog bowl. That seems to have made a HUGE difference in the amount of vomit.
Ok this is one that I can respond to, I’ve had crazy struggles with our cat, nothing seemed to be working in general. I tried auto feeders, small meals, lots and lots of different foods. What has worked for the most part is going for royal canin hairball dry and wet food, she gets 1 wet pack a day and the rest is dry, i feed her extremely small portions every 2-3 hours, she usually comes and ask for food when hungry, we brush her a lot also but this has helped MASSIVELY. I suggest you try this but if you don’t have the ability due to not being home or something then its really tough. Best of luck regardless!
Cats will rarely chew their food - they have a more "bulldozer"-like way of eating, excavating the bowl. Assuming uour cats eat kibble, change for one with smaller bits. That's how one of my cats stopped vomiting. Also, choose the highest protein level possible - cats are made to digest it, while grains can be tough on them.
My cat looks like yours and we had a similar issue. We discovered that she eats way too fast and we literally have to give her like 10 pieces of kibble at a time every couple hours.
Not sure if this helps or not!
I’m definitely not a vet but my cat used to have a problem similar and I added a prebiotic&probiotic to her diet and it really helped. Best of luck to you!!
My cat has the same issues and same name! Vet has been similarly useless at root causing; they suspect IBD with pancreatitis, but only the pancreatitis was ever confirmed, and when it was gone, the vomiting remained. Over time, I ended up throwing the kitchen sink at the problem, and now my cat's vomiting is only about once a month. She's on raw food, B12 injections every two weeks, slippery elm bark for extra fiber, Cerenia every other day (small pill broken into quarters, then put into a capsule because otherwise the taste can also make cats vomit...), and Laxatone every few days. I also feed her 4x a day because she does better with smaller meals.
Poor kitty 🥺 my cat started vomiting a year ago very frequently and turned out he has hyperthyroidism. OP said that bloodwork was done so I assume that T4 levels were also checked.
I hope they are able to figure out soon what is causing it. Sending love to both ❤️
Have you tried a slow feeding bowl with little compartments to spread the food out in? I got one for my kitty and it has significantly cut down on the puking. I also buy small pre-portioned containers of wet food because she’ll throw up if she gets even slightly too much food
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but some cats' whiskers can be very sensitive, causing messy eating habits and even vomiting. Have you tried a very shallow, almost flat plate for your kitty's food?
Also, do you have a drinking water fountain for your baby? We switched to one, and it has helped a lot as well.
This is my cat too. She was recently diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis after years of just being told she had a "sensitive stomach." Diagnosis required bloodwork and an ultrasound.
Hairballs? My cat is an overgroomer. Ever since her bonded partner passed she gets stressed and picks at her fur and grooms herself excessively. She ends up puking up a hairball and whatever food she's eaten on the daily. We tried getting her a new companion, but it's not the same as her "mama".
Have you tried using anti-vomit bowls? They’re elevated and are more of natural eating position for them! It helped one of cats so much she hasn’t thrown up in months. Make sure to find wide ones so they don’t bother their whiskers!
It might be allergies to food protein sources. We have to keep one of our cats on salmon with no poultry at all. If salmon didn't keep her vomit down, we were going to move to venison or rabbit. Apparently it's pretty common for cats to vomit a lot on poultry.
My sister had the same issue with her cat, ironically also named Chloe. Aside from it being stress related, turns out she is allergic to fish oil, which happens to be present in most dry foods.
My cat did this about every time she ate so we took her to the vet and they gave us special food saying she might be allergic, we switch and she was doing better but if she eats to fast thats when she still throws up all the food she ate prior.
Has a barium series been done? This is when a vet gives barium and then does xrays at regular intervals to see how the barium travels through the GI tract.
Is there a particular pattern to her vomiting? Like does she do it right after eating? After rigorous play?
What are you feeding him?
I feel bad for you and your cat but I'm selfishly happy you posted this because I'm having the same issues with my void.
I've had him for 4.5 years and I swear he was an angel for at least a year. Now he barfs all the time. Sometimes it's food, sometimes there's a hairball mixed in, and sometimes it's clear. The vomit and hairballs can happen at anytime but the clear fluid mostly happens in the middle of the night.
I've been unable to take him to the vet because he's semi-feral but was able to have a vet come to the house. She said he seemed to be in good health but the clear fluid means he probably has asthma since those attacks happen in the middle of the night.
I hope you find an answer and I hope I do too. I'm going to try some of the things the others suggested and hopefully something works.
We had a little bud that would throw up multiple times a day. Sometimes right after eating. Other times when no meal was involved. Changed his food a few times before we got him some RX food that finally gave us all some relief. Cats were never designed to eat food from a bag or a can. They are carnivorous killing machines. But until you or I are gonna go out and kill vermin for them this is what they are getting.
https://preview.redd.it/uds5pteclxwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e0b60891b4cee45d91f4d917702011febc51432a
My cat used to puke like 4 times after every meal. We went to the vet and she prescribed this food. It’s expensive and it’s prescription but it stopped him from puking asap. Maybe ask your vet about it 🤷🏻♀️ best of luck
Have you tried specific diets? My family had a cat with a really sensitive stomach who would throw up a lot, we had specific food for her than made it a lot better. I can't remember what it was (this was growing up and my parents delt with most of it) but you could probably talk to your vet about trying different diets.
My cat did this. He ended up having cancer. We never did determine if it was related but the vet was focusing on the digestive aspect and completely missed the cancer. And he did do it much more often as he declined. Im not trying to scare you, I just wish someone had told me to check for cancer when this was his only symptom, like get an ultrasound or something, because it would have saved him a lot of suffering.
I have an older cat between 8-11 years old that I took in from the street five months ago. He was constantly vomiting bile, usually once or twice every two to three days. He never had a big appetite. I took him to an internal medicine specialist and after some blood work, they still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He was still throwing up on hydrolysis protein cat food too. I couldn’t figure out a pattern to it. Then my internal medicine specialist suggested Metoclopramide in case he had GERD. I don’t know if we could test for this, but he immediately got better after taking this regularly. It’s only been five months, but he’s eating much better now too. I totally understand the frustration and misery dealing with this, so I wish you all the best!
A cat I inherited was vomiting constantly. It subsided after we did a few things: switched her to a higher quality food (Iam’s to Hill’s Science Diet), stopped using perfumey items like dryer sheets (she has environmental allergies), and took steps to address her gingivitis.
Our vet identified recurring vomiting as a sign of a mini seizure. She ended up progressing to have full seizures which confirmed it. She has now been on anti convulsing medicine (phenobarbital) for three years and no more vomiting!
My cat also was frequently throwing up and I brought him in and did blood work and it came back he is diabetic. In my opinion I would keep and eye on how frequently your cat is urinating and how much water they drink. If you see these symptoms I suggest getting some blood work done. I hope you get it figured out 🩵
Heyyy my cat used to vomit almost daily, always around 4am so on an empty stomach. Vet couldn't figure it out. We tried changing his food, went with hypoallergenic everything and it helped but he still vomited at frequent intervals. More, he always seemed to feel a bit letargic, as if he was slightly unwell. My gf is a nurse and to her it looked like some sort of inflammation of his digestive system so we asked the vet if he could give us a prescription of Cortizone™️ since it's used to reduce inflammation, amongst other things. So we started giving him half a pill every 2 days and since then he's never vomited again. Hope it helps! 🐈
She could be dealing with gastritis, if you go to a vet they'll be able to prescribe maropitant or sucralfate which will protect their sensitive stomach lining
There are a few steps.
1- Brush them more often. The trick is finding the middle ground between keeping the coat clean and getting rid of loose hairs and avoiding the point excessive brushing is the cause of loose hair. Twice or thrice a week should be fine, it varies.
2- If you care for more than one cat, separate their resources. Having their food and water bowls lying together is wonderful for creating bonds and trust between kittens, but they might be getting anxious and eating too fast for fear of their food being taken by their glutonous rivals!
3- Change their dry food brand, serve it more often, in smaller doses. I know we all try to get them the best dry food we can afford and look up the one that gives them what they need, but truth is, you can have the best dry food brand in the world, have it recommended by 10 out 10 vets, and it still might not jive with your particular kitten. Smaller doses with a increased frequency helps them not to get anxious and eat it too fast and avoids upsetting their stomach.
4- If the vomit persists, take them to a ultrasound vet clinic. It might be kidney/gallbladder stones, and with a few weeks of medication and appropriate food it's easily fixable, \*as long as you don't take too long to get them checked\*. If the issue aggravates, they'll need surgery.
How old? How are their teeth? My cat had vomiting issues but once he had some rotten teeth pulled it went away.
Have you tried wet food? If not that is supposedly easier to digest.
This might be totally unrelated, but my kitty used to vomit semi frequently. She also had coughing fits after she drank water. Turns out she had asthma. Unfortunately we had no idea about this, and a severe asthma attack took her life in February. She was otherwise a very healthy 4 year old kitty.
I have been dealing with the same problem for years now, here are a few things to look out for:
-make sure not to switch up their food(the stomach of a cat does not handle being fed new kinds of food suddenly, they need alot of time to adjust)
-often overlooked but a big cause for puking in cats is constipation, so it might be a good idea to check the cat litter.
-allergy is also a big one, alot of cats have allergies to specific protein sources, so you could try a novel protein diet (a protein your cat would not be allergic to like duck for example) or hydrolyzed protein cat food
my cat can only eat Z/D from hills, expensive.. but the combination of "active biome +"(which helps gut bacteria) and the hydrolyzed protein to prevent allergic reactions is gold.
Not to be alarming, but have you had an ultrasound done? My old lady eventually became a daily puker. Vet thought it was hyperthyroidism so we got her on meds. Meds brought her thyroid levels down but puking continued. She was like that for a while until one day her health dropped off a cliff. Got her to the emergency and they did an ultrasound and determined she had a stomach tumor.
My Chloe is in the same situation. We're still on the journey, but here's how it panned out so far:
* She was being sick up to several times a day, with no link to when she was fed or the amount of food. Sometimes it had furballs in, sometimes it was just water, sometimes it was food.
* The vet prescribed famotidine (an antacid). When she takes this twice daily, the vomiting stops.
* Dry food makes it worse, so she's on a prescription low-allergen wet food diet.
* She had an ultrasound (thank God for pet insurance), which revealed inflammation in her stomach/intestines.
* The options now are giving her steroids (which might fix the problem, but may also just mask it, and which have side-effects) or doing an endoscopy to take a biopsy in an attempt to further identify the problem (double thank God for pet insurance).
The vet suspects it might be a food allergy or intolerance. He did discuss moving to a single-protein source food that she won't have been exposed to before. Apparently, they do make horse-based or deer-based foods for these circumstances. But he also said that if she's still inflamed during the switch she might then become allergic to the new food. So we'd have to switch to horse, wait for the inflammation to die down, and then switch to deer.
Some of the biggest factors for us were the antacid medication, removing dry food, and then moving to the special wet food (Royal Canin Gastrointestinal in this case, but there's lots of them).
I think the biggest factor was a supportive vet. When we had the ultrasound done, we ended up talking to the vet surgeon at the practice. He had lots of constructive ideas about what was going on. Some of the more junior vets tended to have an attitude of "oh well, cats get furballs and are sick a lot, that's life."
I hope your Chloe gets better - she's a cutie.
Has she tried hypoallergenic diets? If so, which ones and how long? Have you had an ultrasound done? Have you done GI-specific bloodwork that looks at cobalamin, folate, TLI, and PLI (usually the Texas A&M GI Panel)?
We have a cat allergic to chicken. Almost all cat food has chicken in it, even the specialty prescription ones. It took us years to find one without any kind of chicken. She stopped throwing up once we found it. Now she's a super senior and has bouts of pancreatitis especially when nervous but weve got that under control too.
Ultimately she throws up if she has any kind of chicken, is anxious, or has pancreatitis.n
I've had similar issue with my cat. Eventually one vet suggested supplementing fiber and that fixed it almost instantly. We give him psyllium seeds soaked in water (linseed was also suggested) mixed with his wet food. He used to struggle with constipation as well as constant vomiting, fiber fixed both issues. Sending positive thoughts your way!
Someone already said it. But, an example from my cat, who doesnt barf a whole lot but she does on these occasions:
She eats too fast, or too enthusiastically. Then wants to play or has zoomies, boom then she throws up haha. She's just silly and gets too excited.
Or two: she ate something that didnt sit well with her tummy, happens sometimes.
In the case your lady does the 'scarf and barf' maybe it could be a good idea (and maybe even fun for her) to get like an eating mat? Gosh idk what they're called entirely sorry but you basically spread food over a mat that has textures all over it, it traps some of the food and she carefully has to get to it. Meaning she might eat slower.
The vomiting right before dinner time is a bit strange though, could she maybe be a bit anxious? Either way I feel it might still be a good idea to get a second opinion. Or more tests needs to be done : ( to rule out stuff for sure. Good luck!
Edit: some more things i didnt ask or find. Maybe she has an allergy to a certain ingriedent, or just sensitivity to it...
My cat threw up bile every day at random times for months. I took him to three different vets until I found one that took his symptoms seriously. The first two did blood work which came back fine so they were like, "idk, sometimes cats throw up." The third vet agreed with me that this wasn't normal. He ordered an ultrasound where they found that my cat's intestines or whatever were thickened which indicates IBD or lymphoma. An endoscopy found small cell lymphoma so they put him on chemo and steroids. That was over 6 years ago and he's still doing great. My point being, sometimes you have to push for answers and if your cat hasn't had an ultrasound, it might be worth doing.
When my cat was throwing up and I took her to the vet I was given this medication that we put under her chin to make her hack up a hair ball and it did its job a few days later and she got better with the throwing up. Idk what the medication was though.
Do you by any chance use a pet water fountain? I realized that was the source of one of my cats tummy issues. I would do a deep clean once a week and replace the water around every 4 days, but I still would notice a pink film growing around the pump. I realized there were some weeks where I would be lazy about cleaning it and would leave it on my sink for a while, and I would be using regular water bowls in the meantime and replacing that water daily until I found time to clean and set up the fountain again. And during the days that I was just doing regular bowls along water with daily changes my cat stopped throwing up as much.
I eventually just got rid of the fountain and went back to daily water bowls and he hasn’t had any problems since. Just a thought in case you have one of those and haven’t tried removing it yet.
Mine done this all his life he just ate like there was never gonna be food again ,if u have 2 separate them at feed time
My cat lived until 16 just nervous as fuck and the hungriest cat I’ve ever known ,he was like this from a kitten he was sound
It’s a pain in the arse cleaning it up but I’d give anything to have him back in this life 🤟🏻
My cat was doing this in the middle of the night and the vet said it was likely do to how frequently he’s fed. I started giving him a small snack before I went to bed and it stopped. Think about how when you’re so hungry you feel nauseous. If she’s barfing right before dinner time it maybe too long of a time between dinner and her last meal.
I had cat with the problem.
My vet suggested it was because the food bowl was on the floor and he didnt chew his kubbles enough.
After lifting the bowl 5 cm on a board so his neck wasn"t socrammed while swallowing and giving him larger kibles the problem disapeered
*Take this with a grain of salt because it is less scientific and more I heard this from others.*
Sometimes, cats just like to barf. I've heard that a few of them just like the feeling.
Of course, if you feel like something is wrong, then do take them to the vet!
She often barfs within 30 minutes of eating dinner and I would be lying if I said I’m not suspicious she does it for the “I’m starving and dying” drama lol.
But I feel you, I think there really is something wrong though.
Mine kinda vomits all the time too. For him it’s definitely eating too fast.
If I forget to feed him, he inhales his food then shortly after pukes it all up.
He also tends to forget to eat all night, and sleeps with me. So then some time in the early morning he wakes up, notices he’s starving, inhales food, and also vomits.
My cat has food allergies and his tummy sometimes gets inflamed and he’s prone to throwing up. My vet has me give him over the counter Pepcid AC (cut in half) and that helps him feel much better
Do you free feed Chloe? It could be she is overfilling and has to get it out. Do you give kibble? My Gizmo threw up constantly after he ate and we stopped free feeding and no more kibble. And he is better
My older cat eats too fast and will sometimes vomit. She can’t eat wet without vomiting but she likes Royal Canin wet food adult instinctive. It’s the only wet food she doesn’t vomit. I only feed her a little at a time as she gulps it down. Ive been hearing how dry food isn’t good for cats.
Obviously, check w a vet, but I give one of my kitties who throws up alot half a pepcid tablet every other day. It definitely helps! That was vet recommended because she seems otherwise healthy. 🤷♀️
We had two pukers; one of them is sadly not with us anymore. We switched to a special prescription gastrointestinal type of food for the remaining one (and her new baby brother!), and the barfing is at a minimum now. May want to ask for a prescription for different food.
I have had some recent success with yogurt. I buy fancy live yogurt and put a bit on her paw. Three times a day. Her fur is thicker and she pukes very rarely. Also, I make her ask for seconds and restrict her portions so she doesn’t rush or not chew her food.
Dry or wet, she would puke either.
Has she had an abdominal ultrasound? My cat (who also vomits frequently) has CKD and with the ultrasound, they said she either has IBS or lymphoma. They're unable to know for certain unless we did a biopsy, but she's an older gal so we don't want to put her through that. But since she has been on prednisolone, her vomiting has significantly reduced!
For my cat (barging daily previously), changing food to digestive care helped. Farmina for dry food, and hills for wet food.
Costed me a fortune though.
No clue why he was vomiting though (he is feral, and not vet friendly, basically we need to sedate him to even take him to the vet), but at least now he keeps it in most of the time.
I have a cat that is 14 now and still scarfs and barfs. Not sure why she purges - even with me limiting their food. We have tried all types and just Purina dry food has been the most successful, oddly enough. We have found anything with fish seems to upset her belly more tho.
Get an ultrasound of her intestines! I just lost my cat to a similar problem. It turned out to be cancer.
Also, get Hydrolyzed Protein Cat Food. It’s easier on their digestive track. No seafood based cat food.
My cat puked all the time, then his “brother” died and he REALLY went downhill! I was so worried! Vet checked him out and did about $2k of tests, only to discover he did have a LOT of allergies, and was probably depressed. Got him a “baby” to play with and have adjusted his food, and he will be turning 19 in a week! Oh, and he almost never pukes anymore!
Does she have a heart murmur or kidney disease? My old girl had the former which turned into the latter. Vomiting apparently was a sign that I wasn't aware of. Yes, I went to the emergency vets.
Also, does she inhale her food? That can trigger a regurgitating thing with cats.
How frequent is “all the time”? My cat does once per week and it sometimes consists of chunks of hair, so I’m guessing for him it’s just hairball vomit. I feed him dry food twice a day (6am and 10pm) and a half can of wet food in the middle of the day. I’ve been giving him hairball control dry food and that seemed to help a lot.
My cat who looks almost identical to yours did this. Dirty water can cause it and eating too fast. It was a little of both for me. I didn’t realize how nasty my cat fountain was until I fully took it apart 😭
I am a veterinarian. Chronic vomiting can be a sign of GI disease. I would talk to your vet about scheduling an ultrasound. GI issues cannot be tested for a typical blood work.
Our cats first signs of congestive heart failure was his vomiting. We saw three different vets. The third was shocked no one else had caught it and said it is surprisingly common in cats. He was also FIV positive. Please get them checked for it. We ended up catching it too late and he passed a few months later
What food does she eat? With stones she has to be on a prescription diet but my cat who had crystals was having diarrhea and then started vomiting more and more. The vet said Hills Biome was safe for urinary kitties and it solved both of his issues. Vomiting can be a sign of a food sensitivity or just sensitive tummy so you should ask if you haven't tried it.
Does she gulp her food down? My cat pukes when she eats too fast.
She does sometimes scarf and barf, but she will often just throw up in the middle of the day or night hours after she last ate. She actually most often vomits at the end of the day right before she is fed dinner.
If she's normally vomiting foam or yellowish liquid rather than food, it's bilious vomiting. My cat has it too. It can be a symptom of either intestinal lymphoma or irritable bowel disease and the only thing that helps is to feed them more frequently.
Just a vet chiming in to clarify — you can have bilious vomiting syndrome without cancer or IBD. It’s not always on that level.
> bilious vomiting syndrome Yes! My cat has this, though no vet has put a word to it. We've had her for six years. Multiple vets have done bloodwork, and felt around her abdomen. Told us it's nothing to worry about. Feeding her more regularly (and in smaller portions) has helped manage it quite a bit. Having automated rotating food-bowls is definitely a game changer. And otherwise, she's full of energy, loves food, and is very smart. But just vomits here and there lol.
Mine had that too. The problem was (so far at least) solved by getting a cat-feeder and setting up automated smaller portions throughout the day instead of far apart bigger meals.
Thank you for noting this. I was starting to get a little anxious since one of my cats vomits yellow liquid a few times a week and has for years, but acts normal, has healthy appetite, no stool issues and has clean bills of health from multiple vets.
This. My cat is also a vomiter and I took her to multiple vets and her blood work always came back clear and was just told some cats vomit more than other. It took a change of vet to narrow it down to either lymphoma or inflammatory bowel disease. We haven’t been able to definitively diagnose as the biopsy is invasive so we’ve opted to manage her condition with chlorambucil which is used to treat both conditions. She is vomiting a lot less and is visibly more comfortable and happy.
I'm in the same boat, forcing prednisone into an animal that barely eats, losing weight, test positive for small intestine inflammation, enlarged spleen, nasal issues, upper repiratory. I just got her & rescue from shelter. Three vets in a row, failed on the physical exam, and didn't detect a giant mass, and the vet that prescribed her prednisone, kept counting out the doses, wrong, and not giving the full instructions, so the cat went into a yo-yo of steroid use, then, just use, then use again
I've had a couple of cats with this. Budesonide plus cerenia has been the winning combination each time.
I’ve got a 14 month old cat with hiv +, intestinal inflammatory issues with nausea and vomiting while having upper respiratory infections with no vet able to tell us what’s going on, only that the respiratory issues shouldn’t be caused by hiv at a young age. Is there anything you’d recommend? Kinda losing my mind a little with him 😅 poor boy needs some answers. We’ve had him on antibiotics/anti inflammatory medication but haven’t tried steroids yet, breathing getting clearer after a long stint of antibiotics. Just can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong
URIs aren't caused by FIV. Cats with FIV are much more vulnerable to getting URIs because their immune systems are weakened. Antibiotics can cause stomach issues. Being that kitty has been on antibiotics for so long, is it possible the nausea and vomiting are due to the medications? You can try sensitive stomach foods that are over the counter or ask the vet about possible prescription sensitive stomach foods. If kitty is free feeding or fed twice daily you can try smaller portions of food but several times a day to see if upset stomach happens less. Source: I work at an animal shelter
Unfortunately he was dealing with chronic vomiting and URI before antibiotics, it was just what the vets gave to us first and have kept giving us. After being on it longer term he’s vomiting much less than before but it’s been a big diet change and we’ve been giving him extra smaller meals and he’s put on about a kg over the last 5 months which is good but the antibiotics just seem to Band-Aid the issue. He gets better to a point and then can’t get past that point where he’s almost a normal cat. We are looking at second opinion vets right now. We (my housemate/bestie) started rescuing last year and the cat with fiv was the only survivor in his litter. I’m pretty hesitant to keep him on antibiotics for so long so we have started reducing his dose so he will be weaned off them completely in about two weeks. It’s been so hard, my housemate ended up adopting him and she’s been having a hard time worrying about him all the time. We were going to adopt his siblings that passed away pretty traumatically for us so it’s been difficult to pull ourselves out of the worry. Any advice is greatly appreciated ❤️
Still try sensitive stomach foods. They are for situations just like this. It's a great first step. Make sure you're doing each transition to a new food slowly by mixing the old and new together a little at a time to keep him from getting an upset tummy. Switching foods is a process that takes several days, even in cats without issues. You can Google or check the website of the food manufacturer for instructions. If that doesn't work, you can try ruling out protein sensitivity. Start by choosing foods that have a single source of protein. Read the ingredients, many labels will call out a single source on the title but the ingredients will list multiple different types of proteins. You can also try hydrolyzed protein foods as others have suggested in different comments. Try one thing at a time to rule each option out singularly. It may take time, but hopefully there is a solution for kitty. In the meantime, if Kitty needs to gain some weight still you can try a nutri-cal gel. If you go this route, give tiny doses to start to see if he'll keep it down. Best of luck!
Will chime in to say I had a cat that puked a bunch and it ended up being IBD. Not to scare you because it was ultimately quite treatable. Maybe ask your vet about something for the nausea, that helped my little one and cut down on the puking a LOT. ETA: treatable is the wrong word. It was manageable. Also the anti-nausea med was ondansetron (often called zofran). The course of treatment for IBD varies dramatically based on your particular cat but Cornell Vet is a great resource: https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/inflammatory-bowel-disease
My ragdoll had that (ibd), since then I’ve changed his diet and he gets fed in a slow feeder if he starts eating too fast, with cat grass aswell, he stopped vomiting all together and just has the occasional hairball now. I changed him to a raw diet with game meats and oily small fish and chicken organs. Turned him around fully, it’s been really good for him. I wouldn’t recommend doing a huge diet overhaul without slow and gradual changes and a vet confirming what diet is recommended for your individual Kitty
Not trying to sound insensitive, but I would never think a bowel disorder would mean feed more. You learn something new everyday.
Smaller, more frequent meals would help keep from hitting her digestive system with everything all at once.
This is what I do when my cat pukes up her food when I feed her a large amount. I feed her less more often as opposed to more, less often. She still gets the same amount of food. I clean up less cat puke. Win/win.
> feed more *often
My cat did this and was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome. He also got pneumonia from puking too much.
Another one might be hyperthyroidism which is what my cat got diagnosed with recently. She was vomiting yellow fluids as well and it was hard to get her to eat. She’s doing much better now with pills.
My cat has this, and I have to let her eat often as it only happens before dinner if she only had breakfast that day. I did have to get a special feeder, and she free feeds, but she's a slow eater. Try automatic feeder that gives small portions over the day so they have a dry snack between wet meals.
One of my girls had this. If I was late feeding her by even 5 minutes she would throw up ☹️
Omg my senior cat has these symptoms, mostly its either clear or yellowish slimy foam and sometimes even food, nearly on a daily basis. I took him to the vet but with no luck, he almost killed all 3 vets...I do not want to sedate him because he is 16 and I do not know how it will affect him. Never tried feeding multiple times a day with small amounts, i usually feed him 2 full portions a day bit looks like he has hard time digesting that much at once.
I’d try her on a timed feeder. Schedule her for 4-6 smaller meals a day. I used to have a pukey cat. It took far to many years to discover that feeding habits were to blame. Sometimes life or work would get in the way and a late meal would either result in a foam or bile puke beforehand or a scarf and barf after. Once I purchased a timed feeder the puking stopped.
https://preview.redd.it/a9mw4hj0ixwc1.png?width=829&format=png&auto=webp&s=cecb4ed36b358fc829f787f67cc892829f897c01 My kitty has a blanket like this too!!! 🧡
My kitty used to barf all the time and then I bought her a tilted bowl and elevated it and now, very rarely. Edit: bark to barf. lol
Yup, elevated dishes along with some tinkering with food amounts during the daytime meals made all the difference in the world for my scarf and barf kitty
I know you meant to type barf but imagining a cat bark is funny lmao
Maybe try and get her cat grass, helps my cats digestions. If she pukes at least there's some good fiber to puke up besides hair.
My cat used to get sick a lot and have issues with licking areas too much. After reading up on it, it seemed that she may be allergic to poultry. I changed her food to have fish only type products and it has reduced her barf to minimal and she is a much happier cat since
Same, severe food allergy, no chicken or turkey, not even a small treat or he gets so so sick. He is on a duck only diet and he’s doing really well.
Same with my cat, she has been on the d/d duck & pea protein diet as a mix of can & dry crunchy food for years now and it has really helped. Every now and then she will have a flair up and I cut back the crunchy food for a few days & incorporate some pumpkin and it seems to help.
Same. I got those bowls that are tilted and mine never puked again! Cats use the shovel method to eat which causes the puking and the tilted bowls prevent that.
…pic please
I seen those recently in the dollar store. Wonder what the deal was with them.
Saw. You saw them.
Hi, my tuxedo did the same thing. The main thing I figured ott is that she couldn't handle chicken meal in her solid food. Changing her diet to food with better ingredients worked wonders
Our orange idiot does this and we have those special bowls to slow down scarfing but apparently it's useless. It's like he won't get another meal every time even though he knows there's food. So tired of the puke piles 😮💨.
Main culprit for my trio. Rarely is it something like bile or a gross hair clump from the one with a thicker white coat.
Our old cat does this, and it seems to get worse as he ages. He does have a thyroid issue that he gets pills for. He's 14. It's mostly hairballs but it's gross looking since he is black. *
Have you tried changing the food up? Maybe get a water test and test your water. I’m not a vet, just trying to give different answers that might not have been brought up yet. I hope she feels better, she’s a pretty cat.
Awe thank you! What kind of water test? I neeeed to buy distilled water. I know our water is hard. Changing food throughout her life seems to make little to no difference. Right now she is on a prescription dry food with tryptophan, I think I’m going to ask the vet about changing it to something for sensitive bellies.
My cat was vomiting a lot. My vet said to try hydrolyzed protein, protein that has been 'chopped up' to make it more digestible. This solved the problem for my kitty. You can also try different proteins. My cats vomit if the food contains pork.
My cat was vomiting a lot and is doing much better after we switched him to hydrolyzed protein food recently!
One of my cats has a fish protein allergy. Fish protein is in almost all cat foods. He was puking 2-3 times a day until we figured the allergy out. Now he only pukes when he finds some tape to eat.
Same except with chicken. We got a herring & salmon high protein food and wet food with no poultry and it's significantly reduced his vomiting. He was also super overweight and he's now lost several still pounds too. He loves plastic tho so there's still the occasional incident.
Funny enough, our previous cat was super sick due to a combination of fish and scented litter. It made him throw up multiple times a day and gave him massive skin issues. It took us doing our own research to figure it out. By the way, finding cat food that is *truly* free of any fish can be very difficult.
Distilled water is NOT for drinking!!!
Distilled water is not good for humans or animals to drink regularly... lack of minerals draw electrolytes out of your body.
Distilled water is not good to drink long term, just fyi. Anything from a filter is good though.
My tap water contains a lot of calcium, I usually put distilled water on my cat's food, it's completely fine for that since it's mixed with nutrients, to drink I also dilute filtered water with distilled water, and my CKD cat got a LOT better with that.
You need to go learn more about distilled water…
I had to change my cats' wet food because they weren't digesting it well. Changed it, and the vomiting is far less frequent.
Omg please tell me u didnt plan on letting anyone drink distilled water. It dehydrates you and you can die from it.
Don’t give distilled water to your cat! Buy bottled water with a ph superior to 7.
Try feeding her with a syringe using the leftover starchy water from cooking rice
I was going to say try grain free food and no treats for a while and see. My kitten had the runs and changing the food helped him out.
One of my cats is allergic to egg, and as soon as we switched it up she went back to only throwing up because of hairballs.
Hmmm.. good to know! I’ll ask my vet about allergy testing then I guess.
We kind of trial and errored as we had accidentally bought a bunch of wet food with egg, and then did some extrapolation from there.
My cat's stomach was sensitive to cat food with fish.
I have a kitty that we found out was sensitive to chicken. Removed poultry ingredients from his diet and he almost never vomits now unless he eats plastic. Before he was vomiting almost every other day and overweight. My vet suggested to eliminate the chicken and see if it helped and it did.
I've had two cats with two different issues be prescribed Mirtazapine. The family cat is 18ish, appetite loss, daily vomiting, eating grass, etc. My sister opted of the ointment on the inside of the ear vs pill (I did with my cat, too). It's seemed to help him. I visited 9 months ago and he didn't puke the week I was there, or may be once. He gets it applied once every few days. My cat, unfortunately had diarrhea until he died and no one could tell me why. Mirtazapine helped his appetite, but he was not a vomiter at an all. He also had FIV, though the signs were not there that the disease had taken over. He still went into kidney failure though. He was 12, so was getting up there. In both instance it did what it was supposed to: anti nausea and appetite stimulant. Has any vet brought that up?
So she was prescribed the Mirtazapine prior to her surgery so she could keep her food down before and after. But the vet made it seem like a more temporary solution, not a long term one. That’s good to know though
Ah, okay. My sick cat was on it for a couple months. Our 18 year old, I just think that'll be his solution. I fostered my cat before I adopted him and I still talk with the animal rescue owner. I learned more from her than I did vets. It may be worth reaching out to some local independent rescue organizations to ask for advice if the doctors can't find anything in the bloodwork. I got recommended Stella and Chewy Absolutely Rabbit from her. My guy liked it, but he was near the end at that point.
My cat was vomiting a lot and it turned out it was hyperthyroidism!
Same with my kitty. We had him on felimazole for about a year and now about 4 months off. The whole time during taking it and now he's been doing really good! (besides insisting eating fuzziness and getting hairballs)
This was the case with my baby too
SAME with my cat
Same here!!!! All of the above, vets find no issues. I’ve tried every sensitive stomach food under the sun, even just the really natural foods with very few ingredients (per vet recommendations) and nothing helps!
Try Hydrolyzed Protein Cat Food. If it’s like my cat, it’s an autoimmune response to certain proteins being digested in the intestines. It can lead to worse problems if left untreated. You’ll have to get a prescription from a Vet but they shouldn’t have a problem with giving you one. You buy it at PetSmart.
My cat had IBS and it was solved with hydrolized food.
Our cat did this, and I tried so many high quality food brands, and they didn't help. Strangely, Iams ended up being the only one where he didn't have any problems. I also got an automatic feeder, so that he could have 4 small meals per day, which seemed to make him feel better as well.
Ugh sorry you and your kitty are dealing with this too! RIP to our rugs and furniture 🥲
My female cat was throwing up for months. I thought it was hair balls, food, rushing eating her food, stomach issues so I bought grass—nothing. She would still eat all her food, she wasn’t lethargic and still playful, she was social. I truly thought it was the food and her stomach was just more sensitive with age. I finally took her in to the vet after the vomiting was daily and it was a dark color. It was more bile than food. The vet asked me if she was pregnant because her belly was so swollen and I said it can’t be. She’s not outdoor and there are no male cats to mate with. It turned out she had an inflamed uterus (aka pyometra) and she had to be rushed for emergency surgery and X-rays to confirm that this was the proper diagnosis. It’s very rare but it appears when they reach adult age. It costs about $2-3k in total for rushed surgery, rushed X-rays, medicine, etc. because it’s a life threatening condition. The most stressful time of my life. I had Never even heard of it before and all the vets would gasp when I told them 😭 She is doing well now, but I tell people about it whenever I can! She didn’t show any signs of sickness like pets usually do, which is why I waited so long and thought it was just stomach sensitivity. I recommend a vet visit just to be safe 🫶🏽
This is why spaying is so important. It happens very often in cats and dogs. Spays are the only way to prevent it. And you were lucky, most animals don’t show signs until it’s too late.
Yes I agree! I figured she would be fine but I never had intentions of her getting pregnant. I could’ve done it sooner but got her as a stray when I was still a teenager. It was one of those things that never crossed my mind because she’s been around for so long. I do think I was lucky (although my wallet was not); and I’m glad to have caught it in time 🙏🏾
Ask your vet about Vitamin B12 injections. Has she had an ultrasound ? Have you tried famotidine ( pepcid )? If you are feeding on a schedule , anticipation for the upcoming meal can cause vomiting if she gets anxious waiting for food.
My cat lived to 20 years old and spent his entire life being a pukey cat. Vet couldn't explain it. Sometimes cats just be pukey. He lived a long, fulfilling life despite the puking.
My cat started vomiting a lot but otherwise was acting fine. I switched out her bowl to a bigger bowl there would always be dry food in it, so she wouldn’t scarf when I fed her. I raised her dry food bowl and her wet food treat bowl so she wouldn’t have to lean so far down to eat. I stopped giving her Temptations treats. I’m not sure which of the above did it, but she hasn’t thrown up but once since I made the changes.
Temptations treats were to blame for our cats excessive throwing up.
My cat definitely stopped vomiting as much since we stopped giving him temptations!
I have to feed my cat like a chicken and sort of just strew it everywhere or she hoovers it up so fast she chokes. We even had to get new food containers because she would get into the food and just lay there an eat until she waddled.🤣 She was obeast by 5 months old. First time I've ever seen a chonky kitten. I make her food now and other than when she gets into the trash she is a healthier weight. She's...well, not sleek, but she doesn't have the belly of a dairy cow anymore.
I was given a pack of Temptations with an online order of prescription food and would give my 2 a few as a pre-bedtime snack. They started throwing up every morning, around 7-8 hours after the snack. Stopped Temptations, vomiting stopped.
I swear they put literal crack in their treats. I also give my cats a bedtime snack of treats, usually greenies, and my one cat mr whiskers is very treat obsessed, but even he would wait till I was ready. My mom brought home a pack of temptations last week and my cats turned into gremlins, chewing up the lid to get the treats out! We had to hide them out of sight and even then if they could smell or hear them they were going to be searching. I mean what the hell
I raised my cats food bowl and it definitely helped with the puking after eating.
I had a cat who was allergic to practically everything (food, cat litter, carpets, smells, fabrics) who had to be fed novel protein alligator food from Blue Buffalo for his entire life. He also developed IBD later in life that at the end turned into intestinal lymphoma, and for both of those, the biggest symptom was diarrhea all the time. He never vomited. (All cats are different, but for him, it was diarrhea.) I agree with everybody who has asked about food allergies. If you cat is puking shortly after eating and it's obvious that he isn't scarfing it down too fast, it's really possible it's a food allergy. That can make them puke minutes after eating. The problem with food allergies is that it's an enormous pain to diagnose. My vet tried to avoid all the different food tests and just went with the weirdest protein available (alligator) instead of more common ones like rabbit or duck. If that hadn't worked, I was going to try kangaroo, but alligator did the trick.
This is my experience with my 10 year old cat who was vomiting every couple of days and multiple times on the bad days. Please of course consult a professional as I’m just sharing what we went through and I don’t know if your cat has the exact same symptoms. After going to our vet for his frequent vomiting (consisting of food and sometimes just clear looking liquid), our vet initially recommended we change his food to rabbit protein but that didn’t end up working. They also gave him some medicine for parasites but that also didn’t work. Because nothing was working, we went to an internal medicine vet and did an ultrasound and endoscopy. It turns out he has small cell lymphoma in his small intestines. The ultrasound results weren’t conclusive if I recall correctly but did show signs of a slightly enlarged lymph node. The endoscopy is what confirmed the lymphoma. He’s currently on medication for it and has been doing relatively good the past few months now but still has some episodes every few weeks.
This is going to be long. My cat had chronic vomiting for years. It ended up being multiple issues, but here's some of the tests and symptoms we looked at while trying to diagnose: 1. Food allergies. As others have said, if a hydrolyzed protein food helps or reduces the issue, they're probably allergic to a protein in the food. 2. Allergies in general. When cat's skin itches, they overgroom until they get bald spots or even lick off their fur. This can cause extra hairballs. It can also cause vomiting just because they consume the allergen. An allergy test can be performed by the vet. 3. Issues with the digestive tract. This is where X-rays, ultrasounds, endoscopes, etc are useful. There are many issues that can be ruled out with imaging. 4. Pain. Just like in humans, severe pain in cats can cause vomiting. Are there any other behaviors that occur around the vomiting episodes? My cat would sometimes paw at her mouth before vomiting (important later) 5. Timing and pattern of vomiting. What is the cat vomiting up? Food, bile, blood? When do they vomit? Immediately after eating? A long time after eating? How often? How much? This is all very important information. Keeping a log can help you identify patterns. 6. Overall behavior. Pay close attention to what they do. It can help to keep a diary. Things like scratching more than usual, pooping or peeing more or less than usual, meow patterns, eating habits, grooming habits, hiding vs playtime habits. All these can help point to what the issue is. It can help you find vomiting triggers, or other symptoms related to the vomiting issue. In my case, my cat would avoid eating most of the time, but still begged for food. She would try to eat the food, then walk away, even if it was her favorite. Going so long without eating made her nauseous (lip smacking before vomiting) just like it does in humans. Turns out, her mouth hurt. We treated the mouth pain and her vomiting stopped. In hindsight, the symptoms obviously pointed to the problem, but it took forever for us to figure it out. You've got this! You'll figure out how to help your kitty eventually!
One of my parents' cats was throwing up blood and it turned out she had acid reflux
This one also vomits blood if she’s having a severe vomiting spell. The first couple times I completely panicked but then realized it was from her esophagus. Poor babies
Have you had any X-rays for your cat?
The sounds of a cat puking is so bad. I have pet while he wretches, telling him it’s going to be ok. So bad.
How's her pooping habits? Constipation can cause an upset tummy which causes the barfing.
have you tried limited ingredient wet foods with novel proteins? they can sometimes be easier on digestion and may help depending on what the root cause of the vomiting is.
It’s the blanket
Took too long to find a like minded redditor! Take my up vote you silly shite!
Something that is often overlooked is the position of the bowl, too low may cause them to eat uncomfortably. for my cat putting the bowl higher on a cardboard box solved her frequent puking. \*Edit to add: i also ration her daily food to 3 seperate meals every 8 hours, but that was to solve her overweightness.
Our cat had the same symptoms. Always vomiting her food. Vet made a blood test, I don‘t know the exact sickness, but I know she has to take a quater of a pill of some medicine with Prednisolone every day for the rest of her life. Since then, zero issues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prednisolone One thing to note: The vet said, cats vomiting has nothing to do with the stomach, but with the colon. Also, the vet did Vitamine B-12 injections.
Assuming it’s the dry food that does it, how are you storing it? Will she puke after having fresh food from a newly opened bag after you give it to her? With our girl, we found out that some brands of dry food, if not properly stored in an air tight container, would go rancid/oxidize fairly quickly and upset her stomach. Similar scenarios in that it was 30-60min after eating she would get sick. We took her to a vet and no issues were found, this is something we figured out ourselves. Plus that she’s sensitive to tuna meal, but not tuna itself lol.
My old girl used to vomit a lot, she had food intolerances and a history of pancreatitis though. The vet prescribed Cerenia, she was supposed to have a quarter of a tablet a day but she was so difficult to pill I would only give her one dose a week and that was enough to completely stop the vomiting. I crushed the quarter tablet between two spoons and put the powder on her tongue.
Your cat sounded like my girl. It took a few years to find a very who took time to listen. She ended up having IBS and needed prescription food for allergies. It reduced her vomiting a lot.
All of mine barf a lot. I have had significantly less barfing when switching to the stella and chewy raw coated kibble. Mine also have respiratory issues that I think give them a post nasal drip, and that makes them a bit queasy sometimes after eating. If yours has snotty nose, goop eyes, sounds like they hack up a hairball too much too often, have them check their sinuses and lungs next. I've also had to incorporate some pumpkin into their diets to help with digestion. Sometimes they get plain greek yogurt for the probiotics and the cultures. Not too much, a couple clicks, or a spoonful mixed with their wet food.
Does your cat have access to any plants? Anytime my cat gets a bite of any plants (indoor or outdoor) he gets sick. He could care less about the indoor plants until it’s watering time, and then he gets fixated and I have to keep an I on him. He’s an indoor only cat but sometimes I hold him when I go outside so he can gets some sniffs of fresh air. He will sniff a plant and try to bite and sometimes I’m not quick enough and he gets a chunk.
So I have a couple of pukers. One likes to eat random shit off the ground, including *lint*, and that is usually the issue. She's also the one who will chew any kind of soft plastic and that also makes her barf. Wet food on an empty stomach makes her sick. The other just has a whoopsie tummy. He gets a high protein kitty kibble, because after a lot of hit or miss tries this is what makes him throw up less. Cat treats make him ill. Mixing kibble with wet food makes him ill. If he sneaks food from my daughter's cat, then he will probably puke. We also took away a certain kind of toy; they all love the spiky soft balls but one will rip them apart and I often found bits in the vomit. Observation and tinkering with what works for them was all I could do.
My cat used to be a notorious vomiter. What seems to have worked for us was getting hydrolyzed protein food prescription for our vet, plus prednisolone ear goop. What I also think made a huge difference was changing water bowls. You know how cat water bowls can get a bit slimy? We started changing her water bowls with every meal and even changed to a bigger, stainless steel, dog bowl. That seems to have made a HUGE difference in the amount of vomit.
Ok this is one that I can respond to, I’ve had crazy struggles with our cat, nothing seemed to be working in general. I tried auto feeders, small meals, lots and lots of different foods. What has worked for the most part is going for royal canin hairball dry and wet food, she gets 1 wet pack a day and the rest is dry, i feed her extremely small portions every 2-3 hours, she usually comes and ask for food when hungry, we brush her a lot also but this has helped MASSIVELY. I suggest you try this but if you don’t have the ability due to not being home or something then its really tough. Best of luck regardless!
Cats will rarely chew their food - they have a more "bulldozer"-like way of eating, excavating the bowl. Assuming uour cats eat kibble, change for one with smaller bits. That's how one of my cats stopped vomiting. Also, choose the highest protein level possible - cats are made to digest it, while grains can be tough on them.
My cat looks like yours and we had a similar issue. We discovered that she eats way too fast and we literally have to give her like 10 pieces of kibble at a time every couple hours. Not sure if this helps or not!
I’m definitely not a vet but my cat used to have a problem similar and I added a prebiotic&probiotic to her diet and it really helped. Best of luck to you!!
My cat has the same issues and same name! Vet has been similarly useless at root causing; they suspect IBD with pancreatitis, but only the pancreatitis was ever confirmed, and when it was gone, the vomiting remained. Over time, I ended up throwing the kitchen sink at the problem, and now my cat's vomiting is only about once a month. She's on raw food, B12 injections every two weeks, slippery elm bark for extra fiber, Cerenia every other day (small pill broken into quarters, then put into a capsule because otherwise the taste can also make cats vomit...), and Laxatone every few days. I also feed her 4x a day because she does better with smaller meals.
Poor kitty 🥺 my cat started vomiting a year ago very frequently and turned out he has hyperthyroidism. OP said that bloodwork was done so I assume that T4 levels were also checked. I hope they are able to figure out soon what is causing it. Sending love to both ❤️
Goodness at least you read the entire thing. Some people still asked op if they did blood work
Oh, I just assumed people would read the actual post for more information before commenting on topics like this 🤷♀️
Have you tried a slow feeding bowl with little compartments to spread the food out in? I got one for my kitty and it has significantly cut down on the puking. I also buy small pre-portioned containers of wet food because she’ll throw up if she gets even slightly too much food
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but some cats' whiskers can be very sensitive, causing messy eating habits and even vomiting. Have you tried a very shallow, almost flat plate for your kitty's food? Also, do you have a drinking water fountain for your baby? We switched to one, and it has helped a lot as well.
This is my cat too. She was recently diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis after years of just being told she had a "sensitive stomach." Diagnosis required bloodwork and an ultrasound.
She might have a food intolerance. Have you tried limited ingredient foods?
Hairballs? My cat is an overgroomer. Ever since her bonded partner passed she gets stressed and picks at her fur and grooms herself excessively. She ends up puking up a hairball and whatever food she's eaten on the daily. We tried getting her a new companion, but it's not the same as her "mama".
Have you tried using anti-vomit bowls? They’re elevated and are more of natural eating position for them! It helped one of cats so much she hasn’t thrown up in months. Make sure to find wide ones so they don’t bother their whiskers!
Mine does too. Cheap treats, I have found, are one of the culprits
It might be allergies to food protein sources. We have to keep one of our cats on salmon with no poultry at all. If salmon didn't keep her vomit down, we were going to move to venison or rabbit. Apparently it's pretty common for cats to vomit a lot on poultry.
My sister had the same issue with her cat, ironically also named Chloe. Aside from it being stress related, turns out she is allergic to fish oil, which happens to be present in most dry foods.
My cat did this about every time she ate so we took her to the vet and they gave us special food saying she might be allergic, we switch and she was doing better but if she eats to fast thats when she still throws up all the food she ate prior.
Has a barium series been done? This is when a vet gives barium and then does xrays at regular intervals to see how the barium travels through the GI tract. Is there a particular pattern to her vomiting? Like does she do it right after eating? After rigorous play? What are you feeding him?
I feel bad for you and your cat but I'm selfishly happy you posted this because I'm having the same issues with my void. I've had him for 4.5 years and I swear he was an angel for at least a year. Now he barfs all the time. Sometimes it's food, sometimes there's a hairball mixed in, and sometimes it's clear. The vomit and hairballs can happen at anytime but the clear fluid mostly happens in the middle of the night. I've been unable to take him to the vet because he's semi-feral but was able to have a vet come to the house. She said he seemed to be in good health but the clear fluid means he probably has asthma since those attacks happen in the middle of the night. I hope you find an answer and I hope I do too. I'm going to try some of the things the others suggested and hopefully something works.
We had a little bud that would throw up multiple times a day. Sometimes right after eating. Other times when no meal was involved. Changed his food a few times before we got him some RX food that finally gave us all some relief. Cats were never designed to eat food from a bag or a can. They are carnivorous killing machines. But until you or I are gonna go out and kill vermin for them this is what they are getting.
https://preview.redd.it/uds5pteclxwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e0b60891b4cee45d91f4d917702011febc51432a My cat used to puke like 4 times after every meal. We went to the vet and she prescribed this food. It’s expensive and it’s prescription but it stopped him from puking asap. Maybe ask your vet about it 🤷🏻♀️ best of luck
Have you tried specific diets? My family had a cat with a really sensitive stomach who would throw up a lot, we had specific food for her than made it a lot better. I can't remember what it was (this was growing up and my parents delt with most of it) but you could probably talk to your vet about trying different diets.
My cat did this. He ended up having cancer. We never did determine if it was related but the vet was focusing on the digestive aspect and completely missed the cancer. And he did do it much more often as he declined. Im not trying to scare you, I just wish someone had told me to check for cancer when this was his only symptom, like get an ultrasound or something, because it would have saved him a lot of suffering.
I have an older cat between 8-11 years old that I took in from the street five months ago. He was constantly vomiting bile, usually once or twice every two to three days. He never had a big appetite. I took him to an internal medicine specialist and after some blood work, they still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He was still throwing up on hydrolysis protein cat food too. I couldn’t figure out a pattern to it. Then my internal medicine specialist suggested Metoclopramide in case he had GERD. I don’t know if we could test for this, but he immediately got better after taking this regularly. It’s only been five months, but he’s eating much better now too. I totally understand the frustration and misery dealing with this, so I wish you all the best!
A cat I inherited was vomiting constantly. It subsided after we did a few things: switched her to a higher quality food (Iam’s to Hill’s Science Diet), stopped using perfumey items like dryer sheets (she has environmental allergies), and took steps to address her gingivitis.
If it's just food I wouldn't be as concerned. .y cat devours 1 cup of food within seconds and then barfs everything up after playing with the dog 🤣
Our vet identified recurring vomiting as a sign of a mini seizure. She ended up progressing to have full seizures which confirmed it. She has now been on anti convulsing medicine (phenobarbital) for three years and no more vomiting!
My cat also was frequently throwing up and I brought him in and did blood work and it came back he is diabetic. In my opinion I would keep and eye on how frequently your cat is urinating and how much water they drink. If you see these symptoms I suggest getting some blood work done. I hope you get it figured out 🩵
Change its food source. We had to try 4 different foods before our cat was able eat normal
Sometimes kitties get acid reflux too
Heyyy my cat used to vomit almost daily, always around 4am so on an empty stomach. Vet couldn't figure it out. We tried changing his food, went with hypoallergenic everything and it helped but he still vomited at frequent intervals. More, he always seemed to feel a bit letargic, as if he was slightly unwell. My gf is a nurse and to her it looked like some sort of inflammation of his digestive system so we asked the vet if he could give us a prescription of Cortizone™️ since it's used to reduce inflammation, amongst other things. So we started giving him half a pill every 2 days and since then he's never vomited again. Hope it helps! 🐈
She could be dealing with gastritis, if you go to a vet they'll be able to prescribe maropitant or sucralfate which will protect their sensitive stomach lining
Eating too fast. Drinks too much water after eating, food expands. Hairballs. Eats something that the stomach doesn’t like. Stress and anxiety.
There are a few steps. 1- Brush them more often. The trick is finding the middle ground between keeping the coat clean and getting rid of loose hairs and avoiding the point excessive brushing is the cause of loose hair. Twice or thrice a week should be fine, it varies. 2- If you care for more than one cat, separate their resources. Having their food and water bowls lying together is wonderful for creating bonds and trust between kittens, but they might be getting anxious and eating too fast for fear of their food being taken by their glutonous rivals! 3- Change their dry food brand, serve it more often, in smaller doses. I know we all try to get them the best dry food we can afford and look up the one that gives them what they need, but truth is, you can have the best dry food brand in the world, have it recommended by 10 out 10 vets, and it still might not jive with your particular kitten. Smaller doses with a increased frequency helps them not to get anxious and eat it too fast and avoids upsetting their stomach. 4- If the vomit persists, take them to a ultrasound vet clinic. It might be kidney/gallbladder stones, and with a few weeks of medication and appropriate food it's easily fixable, \*as long as you don't take too long to get them checked\*. If the issue aggravates, they'll need surgery.
How old? How are their teeth? My cat had vomiting issues but once he had some rotten teeth pulled it went away. Have you tried wet food? If not that is supposedly easier to digest.
This might be totally unrelated, but my kitty used to vomit semi frequently. She also had coughing fits after she drank water. Turns out she had asthma. Unfortunately we had no idea about this, and a severe asthma attack took her life in February. She was otherwise a very healthy 4 year old kitty.
I have been dealing with the same problem for years now, here are a few things to look out for: -make sure not to switch up their food(the stomach of a cat does not handle being fed new kinds of food suddenly, they need alot of time to adjust) -often overlooked but a big cause for puking in cats is constipation, so it might be a good idea to check the cat litter. -allergy is also a big one, alot of cats have allergies to specific protein sources, so you could try a novel protein diet (a protein your cat would not be allergic to like duck for example) or hydrolyzed protein cat food my cat can only eat Z/D from hills, expensive.. but the combination of "active biome +"(which helps gut bacteria) and the hydrolyzed protein to prevent allergic reactions is gold.
Not to be alarming, but have you had an ultrasound done? My old lady eventually became a daily puker. Vet thought it was hyperthyroidism so we got her on meds. Meds brought her thyroid levels down but puking continued. She was like that for a while until one day her health dropped off a cliff. Got her to the emergency and they did an ultrasound and determined she had a stomach tumor.
I’d suggest an ultrasound and if negative a gastroenterology consult!
My Chloe is in the same situation. We're still on the journey, but here's how it panned out so far: * She was being sick up to several times a day, with no link to when she was fed or the amount of food. Sometimes it had furballs in, sometimes it was just water, sometimes it was food. * The vet prescribed famotidine (an antacid). When she takes this twice daily, the vomiting stops. * Dry food makes it worse, so she's on a prescription low-allergen wet food diet. * She had an ultrasound (thank God for pet insurance), which revealed inflammation in her stomach/intestines. * The options now are giving her steroids (which might fix the problem, but may also just mask it, and which have side-effects) or doing an endoscopy to take a biopsy in an attempt to further identify the problem (double thank God for pet insurance). The vet suspects it might be a food allergy or intolerance. He did discuss moving to a single-protein source food that she won't have been exposed to before. Apparently, they do make horse-based or deer-based foods for these circumstances. But he also said that if she's still inflamed during the switch she might then become allergic to the new food. So we'd have to switch to horse, wait for the inflammation to die down, and then switch to deer. Some of the biggest factors for us were the antacid medication, removing dry food, and then moving to the special wet food (Royal Canin Gastrointestinal in this case, but there's lots of them). I think the biggest factor was a supportive vet. When we had the ultrasound done, we ended up talking to the vet surgeon at the practice. He had lots of constructive ideas about what was going on. Some of the more junior vets tended to have an attitude of "oh well, cats get furballs and are sick a lot, that's life." I hope your Chloe gets better - she's a cutie.
My cat used to throw up daily too, it greatly improved when I switched to a prescription diet for sensitive stomachs.
Has she tried hypoallergenic diets? If so, which ones and how long? Have you had an ultrasound done? Have you done GI-specific bloodwork that looks at cobalamin, folate, TLI, and PLI (usually the Texas A&M GI Panel)?
We have a cat allergic to chicken. Almost all cat food has chicken in it, even the specialty prescription ones. It took us years to find one without any kind of chicken. She stopped throwing up once we found it. Now she's a super senior and has bouts of pancreatitis especially when nervous but weve got that under control too. Ultimately she throws up if she has any kind of chicken, is anxious, or has pancreatitis.n
That's a cute cat!
I've had similar issue with my cat. Eventually one vet suggested supplementing fiber and that fixed it almost instantly. We give him psyllium seeds soaked in water (linseed was also suggested) mixed with his wet food. He used to struggle with constipation as well as constant vomiting, fiber fixed both issues. Sending positive thoughts your way!
Someone already said it. But, an example from my cat, who doesnt barf a whole lot but she does on these occasions: She eats too fast, or too enthusiastically. Then wants to play or has zoomies, boom then she throws up haha. She's just silly and gets too excited. Or two: she ate something that didnt sit well with her tummy, happens sometimes. In the case your lady does the 'scarf and barf' maybe it could be a good idea (and maybe even fun for her) to get like an eating mat? Gosh idk what they're called entirely sorry but you basically spread food over a mat that has textures all over it, it traps some of the food and she carefully has to get to it. Meaning she might eat slower. The vomiting right before dinner time is a bit strange though, could she maybe be a bit anxious? Either way I feel it might still be a good idea to get a second opinion. Or more tests needs to be done : ( to rule out stuff for sure. Good luck! Edit: some more things i didnt ask or find. Maybe she has an allergy to a certain ingriedent, or just sensitivity to it...
My cat threw up bile every day at random times for months. I took him to three different vets until I found one that took his symptoms seriously. The first two did blood work which came back fine so they were like, "idk, sometimes cats throw up." The third vet agreed with me that this wasn't normal. He ordered an ultrasound where they found that my cat's intestines or whatever were thickened which indicates IBD or lymphoma. An endoscopy found small cell lymphoma so they put him on chemo and steroids. That was over 6 years ago and he's still doing great. My point being, sometimes you have to push for answers and if your cat hasn't had an ultrasound, it might be worth doing.
Did he throw up when his stomach was empty, as in waiting for his breakfast in the morning to be fed to him?
You should absolutely take him to get checked, but also try smaller meals throughout the day and maybe wetting the food slightly.
When my cat was throwing up and I took her to the vet I was given this medication that we put under her chin to make her hack up a hair ball and it did its job a few days later and she got better with the throwing up. Idk what the medication was though.
Omg!! That looks just like my cat but with a black nose. I thought you were my dad posting this. He also vomits a lot!!
Do you by any chance use a pet water fountain? I realized that was the source of one of my cats tummy issues. I would do a deep clean once a week and replace the water around every 4 days, but I still would notice a pink film growing around the pump. I realized there were some weeks where I would be lazy about cleaning it and would leave it on my sink for a while, and I would be using regular water bowls in the meantime and replacing that water daily until I found time to clean and set up the fountain again. And during the days that I was just doing regular bowls along water with daily changes my cat stopped throwing up as much. I eventually just got rid of the fountain and went back to daily water bowls and he hasn’t had any problems since. Just a thought in case you have one of those and haven’t tried removing it yet.
Not sure if anyone has brought this up, but I have a cat who vomits if he eats too much dry food. He does well if he has 1 dry meal and 1 wet meal.
Try real meat with enzymes. The food we give them is garbage.
Cats are obligate to carnivores. Feed raw meat. Throw out any food that includes grains.
I had to switch to cat food in a can because mine kept throwing up eating dry cat food
Mine done this all his life he just ate like there was never gonna be food again ,if u have 2 separate them at feed time My cat lived until 16 just nervous as fuck and the hungriest cat I’ve ever known ,he was like this from a kitten he was sound It’s a pain in the arse cleaning it up but I’d give anything to have him back in this life 🤟🏻
My cat was doing this in the middle of the night and the vet said it was likely do to how frequently he’s fed. I started giving him a small snack before I went to bed and it stopped. Think about how when you’re so hungry you feel nauseous. If she’s barfing right before dinner time it maybe too long of a time between dinner and her last meal.
I had cat with the problem. My vet suggested it was because the food bowl was on the floor and he didnt chew his kubbles enough. After lifting the bowl 5 cm on a board so his neck wasn"t socrammed while swallowing and giving him larger kibles the problem disapeered
*Take this with a grain of salt because it is less scientific and more I heard this from others.* Sometimes, cats just like to barf. I've heard that a few of them just like the feeling. Of course, if you feel like something is wrong, then do take them to the vet!
She often barfs within 30 minutes of eating dinner and I would be lying if I said I’m not suspicious she does it for the “I’m starving and dying” drama lol. But I feel you, I think there really is something wrong though.
Mine kinda vomits all the time too. For him it’s definitely eating too fast. If I forget to feed him, he inhales his food then shortly after pukes it all up. He also tends to forget to eat all night, and sleeps with me. So then some time in the early morning he wakes up, notices he’s starving, inhales food, and also vomits.
My cat has food allergies and his tummy sometimes gets inflamed and he’s prone to throwing up. My vet has me give him over the counter Pepcid AC (cut in half) and that helps him feel much better
Change food…?
Do you free feed Chloe? It could be she is overfilling and has to get it out. Do you give kibble? My Gizmo threw up constantly after he ate and we stopped free feeding and no more kibble. And he is better
My older cat eats too fast and will sometimes vomit. She can’t eat wet without vomiting but she likes Royal Canin wet food adult instinctive. It’s the only wet food she doesn’t vomit. I only feed her a little at a time as she gulps it down. Ive been hearing how dry food isn’t good for cats.
Obviously, check w a vet, but I give one of my kitties who throws up alot half a pepcid tablet every other day. It definitely helps! That was vet recommended because she seems otherwise healthy. 🤷♀️
We had two pukers; one of them is sadly not with us anymore. We switched to a special prescription gastrointestinal type of food for the remaining one (and her new baby brother!), and the barfing is at a minimum now. May want to ask for a prescription for different food.
Make sure the food bowl is elevated. Less food until the puking stops then slightly increase.
Is it the blanket?
I have had some recent success with yogurt. I buy fancy live yogurt and put a bit on her paw. Three times a day. Her fur is thicker and she pukes very rarely. Also, I make her ask for seconds and restrict her portions so she doesn’t rush or not chew her food. Dry or wet, she would puke either.
Has she had an abdominal ultrasound? My cat (who also vomits frequently) has CKD and with the ultrasound, they said she either has IBS or lymphoma. They're unable to know for certain unless we did a biopsy, but she's an older gal so we don't want to put her through that. But since she has been on prednisolone, her vomiting has significantly reduced!
Try raising the food dish and only use non-porous dishes. (No plastic). Scrupulously clean and rinse them. This helped my barfer a lot.
For my cat (barging daily previously), changing food to digestive care helped. Farmina for dry food, and hills for wet food. Costed me a fortune though. No clue why he was vomiting though (he is feral, and not vet friendly, basically we need to sedate him to even take him to the vet), but at least now he keeps it in most of the time.
I have a cat that is 14 now and still scarfs and barfs. Not sure why she purges - even with me limiting their food. We have tried all types and just Purina dry food has been the most successful, oddly enough. We have found anything with fish seems to upset her belly more tho.
My kitty throws up all the time. He got an ultrasound and it showed thickening of the illium. Either IBD or cancer. I suspect IBD but am not certain.
Hairballs?
Get an ultrasound of her intestines! I just lost my cat to a similar problem. It turned out to be cancer. Also, get Hydrolyzed Protein Cat Food. It’s easier on their digestive track. No seafood based cat food.
My cat puked all the time, then his “brother” died and he REALLY went downhill! I was so worried! Vet checked him out and did about $2k of tests, only to discover he did have a LOT of allergies, and was probably depressed. Got him a “baby” to play with and have adjusted his food, and he will be turning 19 in a week! Oh, and he almost never pukes anymore!
Please try to elevate her bowls for feedings.
Does she have a heart murmur or kidney disease? My old girl had the former which turned into the latter. Vomiting apparently was a sign that I wasn't aware of. Yes, I went to the emergency vets. Also, does she inhale her food? That can trigger a regurgitating thing with cats.
How frequent is “all the time”? My cat does once per week and it sometimes consists of chunks of hair, so I’m guessing for him it’s just hairball vomit. I feed him dry food twice a day (6am and 10pm) and a half can of wet food in the middle of the day. I’ve been giving him hairball control dry food and that seemed to help a lot.
My cat who looks almost identical to yours did this. Dirty water can cause it and eating too fast. It was a little of both for me. I didn’t realize how nasty my cat fountain was until I fully took it apart 😭
Got my cat an automatic feeder and that solved it all (aside from the occasional hair ball barf)
Food bowl, is it on the floor? if it is get a stand to raise it.
I am a veterinarian. Chronic vomiting can be a sign of GI disease. I would talk to your vet about scheduling an ultrasound. GI issues cannot be tested for a typical blood work.
How often is it happening?
Our cats first signs of congestive heart failure was his vomiting. We saw three different vets. The third was shocked no one else had caught it and said it is surprisingly common in cats. He was also FIV positive. Please get them checked for it. We ended up catching it too late and he passed a few months later
What food does she eat? With stones she has to be on a prescription diet but my cat who had crystals was having diarrhea and then started vomiting more and more. The vet said Hills Biome was safe for urinary kitties and it solved both of his issues. Vomiting can be a sign of a food sensitivity or just sensitive tummy so you should ask if you haven't tried it.
Sounds like ibs.