Cat throwing up

[christie003d]

I have a male kitty that just turned one. He was on Science Diet for a while but he was throwing up. One day he threw up 12 times in a 24 hour period. I took him to the vet where blood work was done and all turned out normal and a pancreatitis  test was done and it was normal. We also had an x-ray done where nothing was found. I have switched him to Petsmart brand Simply Nourish. The throwing up has slowed down to maybe twice a month versus every week but I would like for it to stop completely. I also don't like that sometimes the wet food is hard and sometimes it's really soft when I open the cans. It's not consistent. So, I guess my question is those of you that have had a kitties that throw up and no medical reason what have you found that helped. I also have a little female but she doesn't throw up.

 

[mingking]

Your cat might have developed an allergy to a certain protein. You might want to try to narrow down what kind of meat he might be sensitive to by picking cat food that is limited in its ingredients (so one protein only). 

What kind flavour of Simply Nourish do you feed him and what kind of wet food do you feed him? 

 

[christie003d]

The wet he gets all the flavor a that they have. He was getting rabbit and chicken dry but this time I bought fish and chicken. The food is high protein and grain free

 

[mingking]

I'm not experienced with LID foods but doing a google search is a good way to see what brands offer LID options. 

I would say experiment. Try feeding one type of protein a day and see how your kitty reacts. Right now, the combined proteins you're buying makes it hard to pinpoint the problem. Take notes. Watch his reaction.

And I forgot to say, thank you for taking your cat to the vet and being so proactive in attempting to diagnose his problem! I'm glad all those tests came out good. Now it's just seeing if he might just be sensitive to a certain protein. 

Another thing I've seen others try is to spread the food on a plate. You cat might be eating too fast. Spreading out the food forces the cat to eat slower. 

Hopefully someone chimes in soon with better advice!

 

[lisahe]

I would say experiment. Try feeding one type of protein a day and see how your kitty reacts. Right now, the combined proteins you're buying makes it hard to pinpoint the problem. Take notes. Watch his reaction.Another thing I've seen others try is to spread the food on a plate. You cat might be eating too fast. Spreading out the food forces the cat to eat slower. 

mingking's suggestions are all good, I'll just add a couple things. First off, yes, eating too fast can be a real problem: one of our cats does it and we spread out her food, add extra water, and feed small meals, five or six times a day. All those things really seem to help.

The point on keeping notes on foods and reactions is great. I've done this in the past, too, and it can be very helpful. One thing I'd add is that it could be another ingredient that's causing the cat to vomit: one of ours (the fast eater!), for example, seems to vomit if she eats potato. Lots of foods have potato these days and I've noticed that a few other people on the Cat Site have said it bothers their cats.

Good luck!

 

[bonepicker]

I have one cat who could not tolerate any dry food or grains in wet food. I had her wormed (she was a mouser) and started using revolution drops and started feeding grain free wet or freeze dried only and ALL vomiting stopped. If I give her a little dry for a treat, vomiting resumes. Try eliminating dry!

 

[christie003d]

I have kept a food journal and he threw up every kind of wet that he was on. The only thing that was common was dry food. He loves dry food over wet and the other ones prefers the wet over dry. As far as eating to fast, he's really not a fast eater. I've made sure to pay attention to it. When we first got him, he was a stray for the first 5 months of his life, he would gobble up his food so fast but he's has slowed way down. I was looking into the Nature's Variety Instinct to try him on. We tried him on the Blue Buffalo and he had diarrhea the entire time he was on it.

 

[bonepicker]

I have kept a food journal and he threw up every kind of wet that he was on. The only thing that was common was dry food. He loves dry food over wet and the other ones prefers the wet over dry. As far as eating to fast, he's really not a fast eater. I've made sure to pay attention to it. When we first got him, he was a stray for the first 5 months of his life, he would gobble up his food so fast but he's has slowed way down. I was looking into the Nature's Variety Instinct to try him on. We tried him on the Blue Buffalo and he had diarrhea the entire time he was on it.

maybe it was the dry all along and not the wet? Try just wet for a week or two!

 

[christie003d]

maybe it was the dry all along and not the wet? Try just wet for a week or two!

that's a good idea

 

[lisahe]

maybe it was the dry all along and not the wet? Try just wet for a week or two!

that's a good idea

I think it's a good idea, too: maybe it's the carby fillers in the dry food? Some foods (especially the dry ones) have so many ingredients that it can be hard to know what individual thing is causing a problem.

(Also, a side benefit to no dry food: You didn't mention any litter box problems (other than the Blue Buffalo problem) but lots of people notice that their cats' boxes are less smelly after switching them to high-protein, low-carb diets without dry foods. Our cats eat half canned and half raw foods and their boxes barely smell.)

Most people recommend not taking a cat off dry food too fast because that can cause digestive problems in some kitties. Since your cat prefers dry food, maybe it would help to gradually reduce his servings anyway? We weaned our cats off dry food in about a month -- they loved it and waited for it every night, but they gradually got to where they seemed to forget about it.

Good luck, christie003d!

 

[christie003d]

Oh man, their letterbox is super smelly. It's in our back bathroom and when one of them poops it smells up the entire house!!!!

 

[bonepicker]

The smell and poop in minimal with grain free canned only!

 

[lisahe]

The smell and poop in minimal with grain free canned only!

Right, I forgot to mention that quantity can go down, too. When I compare how much, and with what smells, our previous cat pooped out to what our current cats poop out, I can't believe the difference. I'm sure age and overall health has a lot to do with it, too, but we didn't know how to feed that poor cat. We didn't know anything about cat food until she was in her last months -- she clearly had sensitivities to the foods we fed her, and many of them, including the canned foods, were loaded with grains that we learned, too late, were a part (if not the source) of her health problems.

Now that I know that lots of the problems our previous vets (multiple vets at a practice, not just one vet) brushed aside can be signs of food sensitivities, at least I know what to watch for with the new cats. Of course it also really helps that now there are more and better Internet resources for research and better foods available, even at the grocery store. Best of all, we switched to a cat specialist vet who cares about diet.

Sorry for the dissertation!

 

[christie003d]

What do you feed your kitties?

 

[lisahe]

What do you feed your kitties?

Somewhere between 50-75% of their food is raw, the rest is canned. These cats demand a lot of variety so there are lots of foods on the list:

Raw is: Primal freeze-dried (chicken/salmon and/or turkey) with a little freeze-dried Stella & Chewy's (chicken) added in; a snack of Rad Cat (turkey or chicken)

Canned is where they are especially picky and won't eat the same food (except Nutro) more than once a week. Here goes: Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen (chicken frick a zee, fowl ball, double dip), 3 of Tiki's "luau" foods with chicken, 5 of TIki's Gourmet Carnivore foods (pretty much everything but fish), and Nutro Natural Choice (minced chicken, sliced turkey, chunky chicken). Many of these are shreds because our pickier cat has decided she doesn't like pate.

Those all seem to work well for these two: they have sensitive stomachs, too, and threw up somewhat regularly in the several months after we adopted them. Cutting out potato and peas, feeding them right before we go to bed, and feeding lots of small meals has really helped a lot. All those foods are low-carb, too, which I think is a huge part of why these foods agree with them and don't make their poop smelly. Just ask if you have more questions!

Good luck!

 

[lisamarie12]

  
Canned is where they are especially picky and won't eat the same food (except Nutro) more than once a week. Here goes: Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen (chicken frick a zee, fowl ball, double dip), 3 of Tiki's "luau" foods with chicken, 5 of TIki's Gourmet Carnivore foods (pretty much everything but fish), and Nutro Natural Choice (minced chicken, sliced turkey, chunky chicken). Many of these are shreds because our pickier cat has decided she doesn't like pate.

Those all seem to work well for these two: they have sensitive stomachs, too, and threw up somewhat regularly in the several months after we adopted them. Cutting out potato and peas, feeding them right before we go to bed, and feeding lots of small meals has really helped a lot. All those foods are low-carb, too, which I think is a huge part of why these foods agree with them and don't make their poop smelly. Just ask if you have more questions!

Good luck!

The gums in Weruva and Nutro don't bother your kitties' tummies I'm guessing. I've never considered the Nutro flavor you mentioned, I saw the ingredients online and see that no veggies are added.  I guess my concern would be the "natural flavor" which I've heard is akin to MSG. Anyway, glad it's working out for you! I picked up a can of TC's chicken & duck. My cats seem to be allergic to chicken but just one little can, they did okay with it. That flavor though is only 5% duck. I personally like the shredded meats better than the cats eating pate. Still going to try to increase more of their FD raw and minimize canned but it's good to have a few cans around, just in case.

 

[lisamarie12]

What do you feed your kitties?

I do mostly freeze dried raw and some frozen raw with my two four year old cats. One has (or had) IBD and FHV. He is cured of his IBD, no more stinky loose stools, throwing up, etc. which I credit to the raw and his FHV chronic symptoms have diminished quite a bit as well.  I do Primal FD turkey and now their new FD pork, along with Primal Pronto rabbit; 25% of their diet is Nature's Variety rabbit canned. Good luck to you.

 

[lisamarie12]

Duplicate thread, sorry!

 

[lisamarie12]

Right, I forgot to mention that quantity can go down, too. When I compare how much, and with what smells, our previous cat pooped out to what our current cats poop out, I can't believe the difference. I'm sure age and overall health has a lot to do with it, too, but we didn't know how to feed that poor cat. We didn't know anything about cat food until she was in her last months -- she clearly had sensitivities to the foods we fed her, and many of them, including the canned foods, were loaded with grains that we learned, too late, were a part (if not the source) of her health problems.

 

Did you ever see this video about kitty poop?

 

[lisahe]

 
The gums in Weruva and Nutro don't bother your kitties' tummies I'm guessing. I've never considered the Nutro flavor you mentioned, I saw the ingredients online and see that no veggies are added.  I guess my concern would be the "natural flavor" which I've heard is akin to MSG. Anyway, glad it's working out for you! I picked up a can of TC's chicken & duck. My cats seem to be allergic to chicken but just one little can, they did okay with it. That flavor though is only 5% duck. I personally like the shredded meats better than the cats eating pate. Still going to try to increase more of their FD raw and minimize canned but it's good to have a few cans around, just in case.

I have to admit that I'm not thrilled about natural flavor and gums in Nutro Natural Choice, either, but the cats love it and it's the surest way to get them to eat at night, particularly the cat who barfs during the night if she's hungry! The gums don't seem to bother the cats, though I'd love to find some other canned foods that don't have them: the problem is that no-potato, no-carrageenan, low-carb, no-pea food is already asking so much of the pet food industry that the options are severely limited! I've thought about increasing their rations of raw food but am not sure that's a good idea, either, because I'm afraid they'll get bored, due to limited selections. (And I'm just not ready for homemade!) Beyond that, what they're getting is working.

At least until last night when somebody (most likely Ireland, the lynx mix) did something that brings us back to the OP's @christie003d's question! Barf. A cat barfed during the night, raising what seems to have become our biggest vomit issue: disposal diving! There was something in the vomitus; I'm pretty sure the offending item was an asparagus tip. Ireland loves walking around on the counters and digging in the disposal and screen over the sink drain... which we sometimes forget to clean out before retiring for the night. Oopsie!

Back to Tiki's Gourmet Carnivore, do you feed beef? The cats especially love Tiki's beef liver and chicken, and beef and liver; those foods have some large pieces of meat, which is great for slowing them down to actually chew. I also prefer feeding chunks and shreds that are direct from the meat, not re-formed with gums and the like. They like the (shredded) chicken/duck and chicken/turkey, too, but the beef is tops.

 
Did you ever see this video about kitty poop?

You really do think I'm obsessed, don't you!? Thanks for sharing!

I hadn't seen that but of course I watched -- what a great graphic example of the differences! Our previous cat was the like the dry/canned-fed cat in the video and Ireland and Edwina, even with about 35-40% (a guess) canned in their diet, are definitely like the video's raw-fed cat. Their canned foods are such pure meat--no vegetable or grain fillers at all--that they're excellent poopers.