vomiting medication

My kitty is vomiting after eating AGAIN. She goes through these phases sometimes and occasionally once she starts vomiting it seems like she can't stop and continues to throw up even when she no longer has food in her stomach. The first time this happened we took her to the emergency vet, they kept her overnight, couldn't really make a diagnosis since everything else seemed fine, and charged nearly $1000. My regular vet at the time suggested giving her half a pill of some medicine people take to settle their stomachs, but I can't for the life of me remember what medicine she said it was. Anyone know what I'm talking about? I'd like to try it out before she gets to the point where she can't stop vomiting even when she hasn't been eating.

Could you call you vet to find out the specific medication he recommended? Many meds that are meant for humans are dangerous or fatal for cats. You don't want to give something that someone thinks might be the right thing.

Can you tell if there's something specific that sets it off? Does she vomit after eating certain foods, or eating to quickly? It will take some experimenting, but it's possible that you can take care of the problem by changing her diet or the times you feed her.

We moved recently so we don't have the same vet, but I can always e-mail our old vet to find out.

I don't think it's the food. We've been feeding her the same thing for the past 4 years. I have suspected that the problem is that she sometimes eats too fast. But the weird part is that sometimes she'll just throw up the food and be fine and can eat again by dinner time. And other times when this happens it just sets off this cycle of throwing up. It's only at those times that the vet has recommended that medicine to settle her stomach.

Right now Snickers seems to be okay and is just taking a little snooze. I would recognize the name of that medicine if someone said it, but I can't think of it offhand. Oh well, I'll just have to e-mail the vet if she's not better by dinner time.

Cats can become intolerant or allergic to an ingredient. The way allergies work - you're not allergic to something before exposure, only after when the immune system decides it doesn't like the allergen. Why it sometimes happens years after exposure instead of just a few times - Who knows?

You could try sensitive system/stomach formulas or start eliminating potential bad ingredients. Talk to your vet.

If you think eating too fast is part of the problem you can get treat or food dispensers that make a cat work to get a few pieces at a time. There was one recently posted in the nutrition section - it was basically a plastic bowl with a lid and holes for the cat to stick their paws through the sides to get the pieces of food out. It was either at petco or petsmart.

The medicine may have been pepcid - others on here use it for their cats with reflux problems. But don't try treating your cat yourself. Wait till your vet gets back to you with the name of the med and the proper dosage.

Pepcid! That's the one I was trying to think of. Fortunately, this morning she was able to hold down some food. I fed it to her bit by bit so she couldn't gobble it down. And she seems to be doing ok. I guess she just has these bouts sometimes.

I didn't realize there were sensitive stomach formulas of cat food. I'll have to look into that. Snickers is such a picky eater. Hopefully I'll be able to get her to try something new!

Thanks for all the info!!

Has she had a complete blood panel? Dusty was diagnosed with CRF about a year ago after I told the vet she was drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot. But about 2 yrs. before that, not too long after she came to live with us, and during the spring when she normally sheds, she began throwing up, sometimes several times a day. I thought it was hairballs from her shedding (she is a DLH). After she was diagnosed with CRF, the vet thought that was when her kidney issues began.

If your cat's throwing up seems to be chronic, I would want the vet to do a complete blood work up.

I'll have to ask the vet about the possibility of CRF at Snickers' next checkup. But I don't think she has been drinking or peeing excessively. She has an episode of throwing up after eating maybe once or twice a month. And her behavior is always completely normal after throwing up. She's not sluggish or anything like that. So hopefully it's just a sensitive stomach. But I'll definitely inquire more thoroughly with the vet.

Thanks for all of your insights!

-Camille