Young cat vomiting

My boyfriend and I have two 5-month old male Himalayan kittens (brothers, from the same litter). Up until a couple days ago they have both been happy and healthy.

A couple days ago (I'd say two or three), my boyfriend noticed one of our kitties dry heaving, but he didn't vomit anything up. Later that day, I saw the same cat vomit up some white foam, and we saw a couple other patches throughout the house that day and the next. We weren't overly worried and thought he might have had a hairball, or ran and played too soon after eating (our kitties can be pretty rambunctious!).

But then, yesterday we noticed one spot of vomit on the floor, this one appearing to have some bits of food in it. This morning, we woke up to find 3 more piles of vomit (yellowish to whiteish liquid, didn't seem to have any food in it). We didn't witness it happen, so had no way of knowing if both cats were sick or just the one that I'd seen vomit before. Both cats ran around this morning as usual, neither seemed to be acting sick.

Later this morning, I witnessed the same cat throwing up twice - again yellowish foam. I ran a quick errand and when I came back, there was another pile of the same vomit on the floor. The kitty is now laying down and doesn't seem as active/social as he usually is. His brother continues to seem fine, behave normally, and hasn't shown any signs of vomiting himself.

Their environment: they are indoor-only apartment cats, and the only animals in the house. My boyfriend and I are the only people. We feed them Science Diet kitten food (dry) and occasional cat treats (the vomiting doesn't seem to correlate with whether we have given treats). We have never fed them any human food, and don't leave any out for them to potentially get into. I've gone up and down trying to think of anything that he might have gotten into, but can't figure it out. Both cats are up to date on their shots and have gotten clean bills of health from the vet at their kitten checkups. The only abnormality is that the cat who is vomiting has a testicle that hasn't dropped, but the vet didn't seem too concerned - said that he just might have to make a second cut when we get him neutered.

I'm starting to get worried, especially since this problem seems to be affecting only one of our cats. Has anybody had a similar experience with a very young and up-till-then healthy kitty? Is this enough to take him to an emergency vet on the weekend or can it wait until Monday?

Just an update: I ended up calling the emergency vet on Saturday (a little after I posted) and they advised me to bring him in. They took x-rays and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but were concerned because when my boyfriend arrived, he mentioned that he had seen our cat playing with some ribbon and had to take it away from him. Our kitty got fluids under his skin and we had to fast him for 4-5 hours, then feed him small amounts of food and observe - make sure he eats, uses litter box, and no more vomiting, otherwise bring him back. He did fine, and has been back to his normal self since then .... however, when I went to scoop the litter box on Monday, I saw some red in a stool - I freaked out a little bit because my first thought was that it was blood, but when I looked, it turned out it was a piece of ribbon! I called our regular vet and got instructions to continue observing him, that if his symptoms don't return then he probably passed it all. So far he seems fine... but I am still shaken up at how close we came to his intestines getting bunched up or the ribbon acting as a saw inside him Sometimes I forget with how big our kitties are getting (the one who had this issue is 6 pounds and the other is 7!) that they still ARE actually kittens and I need to keep everything kitty-proofed!

Make sure your boyfriend knows how vital keeping things out of kitten reach is, too! My DH got new uniform pants from work a while back that were dropping out long threads - I had to get onto him 3 times before he started making sure his pants weren't dropping them everywhere. I have a cat that has tried to eat strings, but has never managed to with me around. I also have one that eats my hair (off my head).

I hope that was all of the ribbon or that the rest of it all passes. Hopefully since nothing showed on x-rays that means it was a smaller piece.

I had a scare with attempted string eating kitty a couple years ago. I was on one of my obsessive cleaning sprees and took a short break at 7am to use the restroom. I heard vomiting through the door and rushed out. I ended up taking the cat to the vet an hour later because I was worried he had somehow gotten something I had dropped while cleaning. He had a fever, too, but thankfully his issue was determined to be bacteria related. Scared me into being more paranoid, though.


A scary lesson to learn, but a good one to share. Don't just kitten proof - cat proof! No matter the ages cats can get into the craziest things. Always inspect all cat toys for flaws and any parts that could be chewed off and eaten.

One of our kitties likes to lick/chew our hair, too! He'll lick my boyfriend's head, then move onto my longer hair and start chewing! (This isn't the one who ate the ribbon, but the other one with the stool issues from the grooming forum. My goodness, have we had a week with our cats!)

I definitely have already confiscated a cat toy since this incident - a little shiny ball thingy they would play with that had tinsel-type pieces that I noticed had started to fall off. It's a wonder that companies would make cat toys like that that could be potentially so harmful.

Originally Posted by bb_scallop

I definitely have already confiscated a cat toy since this incident - a little shiny ball thingy they would play with that had tinsel-type pieces that I noticed had started to fall off. It's a wonder that companies would make cat toys like that that could be potentially so harmful.

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Whatever sells.

Look in the care and grooming section for a thread I made called "fleece ball". You can use the search or look back a few pages for it. The homemade fleece ball I made a guide for is simple to make and completely cat (and kitten) safe. There are also members on here who make cat toys, such as the Auntie Em stuff Momofmany makes.

Other store bought toys may be ok, but eyes, buttons, any exposed bells or odd plastic bits, and ribbon need to be removed. Unless they're very large hard feathers, those are safe too - but generally try to get toys made from undyed feathers.