Lazlo's been vomiting... - Page 3

to everyone providing advice and support!

And yes, Robin, Lazlo is our very first indoor-only cat. Never had one as a kid. Booger was the first stray to adopt us - she was with us a year when the first batch of kittens turned up in our yard (not hers, she was spayed). She was a very independent soul, and a Maine Coon, and she was NOT happy about the growing feral colony once we got started in rescue... and she was rehomed where she could be an indoor/outdoor girl.

I think Otto was right, and I now suspect the problem turns out to be the switch to all wet, and no free feeding. Lazlo does not like an empty tummy. We had two vomit-free days, and then there was vomit with little chewed up pieces of some kind of plastic in it. I've searched around and can't figure out what it would be from... but I caught him chewing on the shoelaces on Gary's boots yesterday.

I can't let him free feed because Billy's overweight, so I'm not quite sure how to work this out. But I've been feeding him multiple little bits of kibble as a "treat" throughout the day (the prescription hairball stuff). I'm going to continue treating him with vaseline for hairballs every 3 days (for now), and at night, I'm putting a small bowl of kibble up in his cabinet, and just hope that Billy doesn't eat it all, and we'll see how THIS goes.

Meanwhile, I found another glob of hairballs this morning. I don't know that it was Lazlo though. It wasn't throw up with hair in it - it was a glob of three clearly defined small hairballs.

Robin, for your fun, here's my very first post on TCS: New to ferals - help!

(Rocki was her official name, but we called her Booger).

And here's Lazlo, now inside (first post was 28th of June, this was 6th of July) Scared cat - what do we do?

For my future reference: no throw up last night or today.

Feeding him little bits of kibble frequently - probably 1/4C total in 24 hour period, though I left it out up in "his" cabinet overnight and the 1/2C I left out was gone this morning. I suspect Billy ate most of it.

The problem is over night. I don't know how to leave out food for Lazlo to eat but that Billy can't.

I'm probably going to have to do that for Lazlo. He's been waking me at 6:00am pretty regularly anyway.

We have another night - and day (so far) of no throw up!

I REALLY appreciate everyone sharing their stories. I feel kind of silly with this thread with so many people facing such serious problems, but I do want to keep documenting this.

I was wondering if I should try to feed him wet during the night... but then it becomes a whole production where they all would need to get it. Shelly isn't a food hog, but he is VERY jealous of other kitties getting stuff he isn't. So I've decided I'm going to stick with feeding him little bits of kibble in the bathroom. (The bathroom is the only place we can isolate anyone, and they all love their "alone time" in there, getting brushed and loved on by themselves). There's a little cabinet just under the counter top in there. I cleaned it out recently and keep two bowls of kibble in there. Shelly & Tuxie are splitting approximately 2/3 of a cup of c/d dry food daily (supplement to the 4 wet meals everyone gets), and Flowerbelle and Lazlo are going to be splitting about 2/3 cup of the hairball dry food - with Lazlo eating more than Flowerbelle (as he's about 2.5 pounds bigger than she is at his about 10.5 pounds). Each of these kitties really self-regulates their calories well (though Tuxie we really encourage to eat as we want to keep his weight up - the vet is comfortable with him being about 1.5 pounds more than he should be if he didn't have his autoimmune disease).

As to the other four... Billy and Ming Loy need to lose (more) weight, Chum needs a special diet, and Spooky had already basically stopped eating kibble on her own.

So with adjusting my sleep schedule (and what's losing a little more sleep when you're already sleep deprived? ), I think we've got a handle on this....

Yeah, and Flowerbelle is totally telepathic when it comes to food. She's deaf and can tell when we're feeding ANYTHING anywhere! When we lived in the house, she'd be asleep up in the bedroom - up in the cat tree - and we could give someone treats in the kitchen (other end of the house on a different floor) - and she would always magically appear. No WAY could she smell it!

And yes, Lazlo is doing GREAT (knock wood!) No vomiting last night, and none today!

I do have to go give him hairball stuff - I was supposed to yesterday, actually.