Lazlo's been vomiting...

I thought I was trying to address a hairball issue. It didn't seem like an emergency, as he was eating, playing, and pooping normally, and all the signs (undigested food) were hairball. So we treated him for hairballs. It seemed to help - the daily vomiting stopped. Then it started again. Sometimes undigested food - sometimes hair in it - sometimes digested food. I treated him again for hairballs. About 5 days ago, I found the largest hairball I've ever seen. It HAD to be Lazlo.

BUT.... he's still throwing up! Not every day, but he was retching on an empty stomach. I had to schedule Shel for his annual anyway, so they both went in today.

Some of you may remember we switched to an all wet diet at the beginning of November. They've both lost weight, and I was worried that Lazlo, especially, was too thin. And Shel, who I thought was thin and maybe losing too much weight on this all wet diet - she says he's a good weight, but losing a little more wouldn't hurt him! I wanted to find a dry food that would work for all of them (allergies & UTI issues between all 8 of them) so they could free feed again - but now I'm not worried about it. They're definitely NOT starving!

As to Lazlo, it turns out that he weighed 12 pounds 4 oz. in May (at his annual). He now weighs 11 pounds 7 oz. The vet says he looks GREAT, his weight perfect. He didn't mind being palpated at all (no pain or discomfort, just indignity ). She took x-rays (and blood - even though he had a senior panel done in May, 8 months in a cat is like 5 years in a person, and with what's been going on, we figured better safe than sorry). X-rays are clear - and internally he looks great too (though he does have to poop LOL).

Soooo...... hopefully it's just a cycle of gastroenteritis that got started with the hairball problem. He's on 1/4 of a 75mg zantac once daily, and we'll see how he does over a week. If this doesn't resolve the problem, the next step is an endoscopy.

Well, we started his zantac half way between feedings today (on an empty stomach and two hours before the next meal), so here's hoping it works fast LOL. Of course I'm worried about Lazlo - but I've really cleaned up enough throw up!

He's on prescription food - Hill's c/d. 6 years now. All we did is remove the dry for free feeding, and they get four wet meals of food a day.

I thought maybe he ate a rubber band or something that was stuck in his stomach. Of course certain types of plastic won't show up on the x-ray, but rubber bands usually do. His tummy LOOKED empty. But that's why if the zantac doesn't work, the next step is endoscopy.

Well, he threw up last night. It looks like basically just bile - slightly greenish and not much.

They get fed 4 times a day, at 8:30am, 1:30pm, around 6:30pm, and 11:30pm, so every five hours. I wonder if his stomach starts growling and producing digestive juices around 5:30am? He did wake me up at 6:00 meowing like he does when I'm feeding them.

I guess ideally I'd be giving him his zantac at around 1:30am on an empty tummy LOL. Well it's not like I get enough sleep anyway.... guess we'll give that a try.

Well he just threw up undigested food 20 minutes ago. His stomach should have been empty almost two hours ago.

His x-ray showed he was full of poop. I wonder if he's slightly constipated - if he hadn't pooped since yesterday, I'm wondering if that would cause a motility problem with his tummy. I called the vet. I'm waiting for her to call back. I'm wondering if I should give him some type of laxative... and if so, what we'd have around here that would work....

The only issue I've got is that when we first moved to all wet, no one was happy - but he seemed to tolerate the empty stomach just fine for the month of November into December.

As to sleep, Lazlo usually curls up between Gary's legs for part of the night, and the rest is usually spent up in the cabinet. He's not a side sleeper, he does the cat ball thing, and does sleep at night.

I forgot to update when she called.

She wants us just to stick to the zantac for one week (unless he's drastically losing weight or something changes). She doesn't think he needs a laxative - unless he starts acting constipated (which he isn't).

I'd add pumpkin to his food, but he won't eat if there's pumpkin mixed in.

Well, no vomit last night!

I did give him his zantac at 1:30am, and when he meowed at me at 6:00am (same time as yesterday), I did let him eat a little c/d kibble.

Knock wood - no vomit yesterday, none last night!

Interestingly.... I fed them 15 minutes early at their last feeding last night. And this morning what time did Lazlo meow? Not 6:00am like the last two nights, but 5:46am. That boy is right on schedule!

Of course, I'm left wondering if just getting a little food in his tummy is what's helping, or if it's the zantac... but I really don't care. The plan is to move the zantac to every other day after a week, then every third day, &etc.

With 8 cats and three boxes, it can be difficult to tell, though I usually can. Lazlo's been on a night-pooping schedule the past few weeks, and I think he did, but can't be positive. However, he has been ravenous the past two days.

Another interesting - I was vacuuming this morning and he hid, so I couldn't give him his mid-morning dose of the antacid (I've moved his dose to 10:30am and 10:30pm). He came out and promptly threw up at about noon - a little bit of digested food. So still some kind of motility problem going on, because there should have been no food in his stomach by then.

I do know cats tolerate pred much better than people do (long term).

Our vet explained that if the zantac doesn't work, we can either try the pred or go for the endoscope. If we have to proceed beyond the zantac, she explained that if we tried the pred and it helped, it indicates inflammation, but the pred treats the symptoms - and if it didn't work and he did need an endoscope, we'd have to wait six weeks after stopping the pred. When the do the endoscope, they always take biopsies - which if there aren't ulcers or something obvious, can at least be used to determine if the problem is IBD - and the only way to diagnose IBD is via biopsy.

So we've pretty much already decided that if the zantac doesn't work, we'll go with the endoscope rather than the pred. In fact, we put a huge credit at the vet because we recently got paid. If we don't need it for the endoscope, it'll be there for other emergencies (knock wood).

Well, he got his pill like normal last night, and no vomit last night. Also, if he meowed at 6:00am, I didn't wake up. But he also got his morning pill, so we'll see what happens today....

Yeah, it was the hours later that concerned me. Right after, and it's usually hairballs. Then we thought maybe he was backed up, thus undigested food that hadn't progressed - but I thought he'd pooped the night before. However, he didn't. He pooped yesterday evening (or late afternoon) - and a LOT of it. Definitely slightly constipated, as he did go in two different boxes and strained a little bit. But you can tell from the shape he got all of it out. So that may have been part of the problem.

Anyway, we'll stick with the zantac for the week and see what happens and go from there. Now that he's pooped, if he's still throwing up undigested food....

He won't eat pumpkin. But I'm going to try adding a little oatmeal to his food this evening.

I know others have a real issue with vaseline as a hairball preventative, but the vet confirmed information I received here. The molecules of vaseline are too large to be absorbed, and it helps bind the hair and coat the intestines. He can't STAND any of the other hairbaill stuff I've given him - and much of it is mostly petroleum jelly anyway (some has mineral oil too). So I am going to give it to him 2x a week.