My cat cannot keep her food down.

j s machine

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Hello all, new here.

I was recommended this site by a fellow forum member on another board. I have a question that hopefully you all will be able to help me with.

I have an adult female cat that is aproximately 4 years old. I have had her since she was around 2 years old. She is a very sweet cat and a perfect comapnion too. She stays inside at my home (1500 sq ft 1 level house) and she is left to roam freely while I am away at work. She has a litter box which she uses like she is supposed to. She rarely goes outside, and if she does she runs back in first chance she gets, lol.

Up until about a month ago, I left food for her 24/7. She always had a bowl of some type of dry food and she always has water as well. For the last couple of years that I have been doing this I would consistently find places where she had regergitated her food. My home is mostly carpet, so this isn't good. I would find it in unusual places sometimes and other times it would be right in the middle of the floor. I figured she might be a little sick because she didn't like the food she was eating, but changing it didn't help. I changed cat food, and I must have used every brand I could find. None of that helped and it continued to happen. As far as leaving food for her all the time, this has worked out fine because she doesn't eat a whole lot. She is a very large and slender cat, not fat at all, and she controls her weight.

After being frustrated with her to a last straw, I finally started feeding her canned food. Some flavors of that she throws up too. The only problem with feeding her canned food is that she constantly bothers me in between meals because she is hungry. Every time I get up and move she runs toward the kitchen. If I happen to walk into the kitchen it gets really bad. She basically begs.

I am looking here for advice on how to remedy this situation. What could it be that is making her sick? Is it the food? I just don't know and I would really appreciate some advice. Thanks all.
 

goldenkitty45

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Its possible she is allergic to the food. I'd take her to the vets and see what tests need to be done to figure it out.

I think they would give a certain food for a week and watch the reactions. Like give just chicken one week, and then beef the next. Maybe someone in here who's cats are allergic to different foods may be able to help out more.
 

optionken

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Hi an welcome
I am a firm believer that canned food is much healthier the dry. as far as her wanting more, I do not kn ow how much or what brands you are feeding. I assume she needs more. Canned can be left out all day.
cats throw up, that is a part of life. it can be hairballs ( you can get a product called 'vet basis') it can be something as simple as eating too fast. You made an interesting point though that she throws up some flavors. Have you looked at the ingredients? maybe it's the primary meat? maybe it is gluten in some and not in others. there may be an allergy somewhere. trial and error to find the flavors she won't throw up. If you can afford top quality which means grain free canned food, the less likely you will be dealing with an allergy
Best of luck
 

mschauer

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Exactly how often is she throwing up?

If she is throwing because of hair balls, you should find hair in what she throws up. If that is the case, frequent brushing should help a lot. Otherwise, I would suspect a food sensitivity. You might have to do an elimination test or a modified version of one to find the problem ingredient.

Edit: As for her being hungry when fed canned food, what and how much are you feeding her? If she throws up what she has eaten it is understandable that she will be hungry afterwards.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by mschauer

Exactly how often is she throwing up?

If she is throwing because of hair balls, you should find hair in what she throws up. If that is the case, frequent brushing should help a lot. Otherwise, I would suspect a food sensitivity. You might have to do an elimination test or a modified version of one to find the problem ingredient.

Edit: As for her being hungry when fed canned food, what and how much are you feeding her? If she throws up what she has eaten it is understandable that she will be hungry afterwards.
and also are you gradually changing foods like 1-4 week time frames ?? and then trying the new food for at least 6 weeks??
 
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j s machine

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I mostly buy the cheaper stuff that you find at walmart. Here lately though I have been buying all sorts of food in an effort to find some she will keep down.

There are no hairballs in her vomit. She has a fairly short coat so there isn't really a problem with that.

I do realize that she will be hungry after she throws up.

I feed her about one can a day -the small cans that are about 1.5" tall. Most of the time I split it up, but sometimes I don't. Usually within a couple hours she is back to begging again.

I would love to take her to the vette to get her checked up, but I can't get off of work in time. I know that sounds like a dumb excuse but it is the truth. I work 12-13 hours a day and no businesses are open on my way or when I get off. It's really inconvenient, but there isn't much I can do about it.

I would like to try to solve the problem on my own before I take a vacation day just to take her to the vet.

Thanks Again!
 

sharky

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Truely you should get to the vet
just in case ...

Can you shop at a big box pet store?? I ask since most of Wal marts pet foods contain the main allergens in cats to food
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by J S Machine

I feed her about one can a day -the small cans that are about 1.5" tall. Most of the time I split it up, but sometimes I don't. Usually within a couple hours she is back to begging again.
If you mean a 3 oz can, one a day probably isn't enough. Mine are all average sized (~10 lbs) adults and they each eat 6 ozs a day.

How often does she throw up? It really isn't uncommon for cats to develop a sensitivity to an ingredient in a food even if it is a food they have eaten before with no problem. Have you noticed if there is any food that she doesn't seem to throw up? If so, I really would take a hard look at the ingredients of that food as compared to the ingredients of the foods she throws up.
 

darlili

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I don't think a little can is enough for your baby; she might be eating too fast because she's starving, and then throwing up because she overloaded her system, just like a human might - and, I'd definitely get her in for a vet check, along with a baseline blood panel, just to be sure all is well. Is she regurgitating (tossing her cookies soon after eating, so you can pretty much see what she ate), or is she actually vomiting? The vet will ask that, since those are two different symptoms for a cat.

Are there any vets in your area where you could drop her off either very early, on your way to work, or maybe even board her overnight, so the vet can examine her? I know it's not best case for either of you, but I know it can be hard with work schedules and some employers just aren't that 'family friendly'.

I'd also start keeping a log of what you're feeding, and when/if she's vomiting - the more info you can provide the vet when you do go in for a check-up, the better start for a diagnosis. Sometimes you can see a pattern once you've written things down for a month or so that you can't 'see' by memory alone. Good luck - feeding issues are just so frustrating!
 

althekitty

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If it is happening often I really think that a vet visit is a must, i know its not always easy to organise but this could be a health issue that may need treating. I found that my kitty threw up when he ate dry food, i have never fed him canned and i feed my kitty wet food in pouches. I hope you manage to sort it, your kitty may well have an allergy as suggested before so it is worth having this checked, a cats health can go down quite quickly if left.
 

mews2much

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I have a Allergic cat and she throws up most foods.
I would talk to a vet though because my Stormy would throw up and I thought it was Coco who is Allergic.
It turned out Stormy had kidney failure.
 

compmom42

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My rescue kitty Chade does this. Sometimes the food would only stay down a few seconds and up it would come. I took her to the vet and she got a clean bill of health. So it was on to research.

After much trial and error (and cleaning up) we found that she was allergic to wheat gluten and corn gluten. These are used in a lot of the cheaper foods. I switched both my cats over to a food with mainly meat as its ingredient both for wet and dry. Problem solved. Oh we still get the occasional throw up, but now its from grooming not the food.

So the thing to do is read the ingredient list. There are several that are available at most big box stores that are just meat and don't contain too many "extra" ingredients. Unfortunately for my particular kitty these didn't work and I had to keep searching. My final solution has been Wellness canned and dry. And there is only one flavor (Turkey/Salmon) of Wellness that my kitty can keep down.

Good Luck and keep trying. There is a solution out there somewhere.
compmom42
 

ngabriel122

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I don't know if you found anything that helped. But my now nine-year-old girl cat, for some reason is no longer keeping down her dry food. The boy cat who is seven years old has no problem with it so it's not a problem with the food. It is also not a hairball I've seen that before and this problem is now every time she has eaten the dry food for some reason . I can't explain it it's been the past five days in a row and she keeps getting sick from just the dry food. When I give her a little bits of wet food she is fine. Does anybody have a good answer for this? It is food I have given her her whole life and I've had her since she was three weeks old.
 
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