Vomiting after wet food??

I'm not sure if this belongs in Nutrition or Health, so feel free to move if you feel it is necessary.

Anyway...both Walter and Thomas keep puking after wet food and I can't figure it out. I currently feed them Friskies, varied flavors but only the pate types (Nora won't eat the other types). They don't always puke on the same days, and they don't puke every day.

I used to feed them wet food as their first feeding in the morning, but I haven't been feeling well lately and I've been sleeping in, so I've had DS give them dry food when he gets up (around 7-8am) and instead I give them wet food as their last meal around 10-11pm. This has just been in the last couple days that we switched.

It used to be that they puked in the morning, but now they are puking at night, and it's always sometime after they get wet food, so I know it is associated with that somehow. Nora has not been affected at all and has never puked.

It's usually whole pieces of food in a thin clear liquid, and usually quite a lot...2-4 vomits worth. Each of them will vomit only every 2-3 days, but never more than that. Nothing else with them has changed, their behavior and everything else has remained the same.

What do you think this could be? Is only vomiting a sign of being allergic to something? Should I maybe start keeping track of what they do/don't puke after? The dry food we feed them is Kirkland's Best Adult.

If there is a lot of food, are you sure one of the kitties isn't just pulling a hungry-hungry-hippo and eating both shares quickly on occasion, and then throwing up because of that?

That's a good point. Parker used to gobble his food up really quickly and then puke it up. He's slowed down over the last 2 years in regards to eating, so it doesn't happen anymore. When he did it, I just used to feed him his meals in portions, about 3-4 till it was gone, giving him a few seconds in between to chill lol.

Walter does hoover his wet food (DH thinks we should have named him Hoover or Dyson lol), usually in 1/4-1/2 the time it takes Nora and Thomas to eat theirs. I used to give him 1/2 can while I gave the others 1/4 of a can, but once he started throwing up I backed it down to giving him 1/4 can also. He doesn't get more than his b/c I sit with them while they are eating, and as soon as Walter is done I put him in the laundry room b/c otherwise he WILL eat the others' food. Thomas usually doesn't eat anyone else's food, and he doesn't eat particularly fast...not much more than normal I don't think.

They do get fed 3-4 (usually 4) times a day, spread out, with the wet food being one of the feedings...dry the rest.

Last night after I posted this, they both threw up at the same time and I had vomit all over everything in the laundry room and our kitchen. It was gross.

Do you think it could be that they are just eating too fast?

Sort of sounds like it to me. Since it seems the vomiting is after the wet food, give them what your normally would, but try just a few bites at a time. Maybe give 1/4 of whatever you feed, wait until thats gone, give another few bites, etc, until its all gone. That way they aren't inhaling it lol.

They could also have worms... hope not!

Have you tried a different kind of food? Your cats might have some issues with the added coloring in Friskies and / or some of the other ingredients.

My brother had two girls that threw up regularly for years. Multiple vet visits to different vets couldn't identify the cause. One day, he removed all kibble from their diet and put them on Wellness grain-free canned... there hasn't been any vomiting at all since then. (Thankfully, as he was very, very worried about his furkids and about at his wits' end.)

Several brands, such as Wellness and Natural Balance, make grain-free flavors that are good-quality and easy to find at most pet stores.

Good luck!

AC

It could be any of the things mentioned above.

Also just wanted to add in case none of those pan out (although they are the most likely culprits), do you refrigerate leftover food at all, and does the vomiting occur after they're fed food from the fridge? One of my cats vomits if her food is too cold (i.e. partially frozen). I know some fridges, when set really low, can actually cause ice crystals to form on foods, so you may want to double-check and make sure if you notice a pattern there.

They have both been wormed more times than I can count. They were given Profender right after I received them, and when I got their records I noticed that they had been wormed 4 times before I got them. From what I can tell, Profender is pretty good and would get rid of whatever worms they happened to have leftover after all that. They didn't start vomiting until the past week or two.

The food is giving room temp (straight from the cupboard, never in the fridge), mixed with warm water, so it is warmed up for them.

I used to give Nora Wellness canned food, but my husband thinks that stuff is too expensive. It was easier when I could just go out on my own and buy it without asking him, but now that I can't drive and he goes with me to the store, I can't sneak it past him. Boo.

I have noticed that they tend to throw up more after I give them one of the "beef" varieties (special diet recipe, lower ph for urine health it says)...could they be sensitive to beef?

I just have NO clue what is going on. lol They are fine otherwise, no behavior changes, they are sleeping and playing like normal, they are both peeing and pooing like normal. Just vomiting after eating.

I think beef is one of the more common allergens in cats so that's definitely a possibility!

Did the vomiting start when they were switched to the Friskies/were they fine on Wellness? Going from Wellness to Friskies is like going from eating Trader Joe's meals every day to eating McDonalds every day. Friskies contains a lot of ingredients that are common allergens to cats and can cause digestive upset (soy, corn, wheat, mystery by-products).

Do you think if your husband realizes Friskies is causing them to be sick he'd be willing to let you buy Wellness for them again?

Unfortunately Wellness is, in my personal experience, the most affordable of the quality grain-free foods. But maybe someone else here knows of some good alternatives?

I've also found, weirdly enough, premade raw to be cheaper than grain-free canned (like Primal or Nature's Variety, the latter is the cheaper of the two). I dunno if he'll still consider that too expensive or not, as it's definitely pricier than Friskies, but it's still cheaper than Wellness (at least for the prices I get it at) and even better, nutritionally.

No, they've been on Friskies from the moment they got here, and they were fine with it at first. I've been feeding it to Nora for a while, long before they got here. I fed the Wellness to Nora. As far as I know, the boys have never had Wellness or any "good" food before they came to me (they get Kirkland dry here) b/c they were getting Science Diet at their foster home.

I didn't offer any wet food yesterday, and no vomiting. I'm going to hold off the wet food for a few days to give their bellies a break, and then try again to see if the vomiting comes back.

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Have you tried a different kind of food? Your cats might have some issues with the added coloring in Friskies and / or some of the other ingredients.

Click to expand...

Just reading the ingredients in Friskies could make you throw up. A better quality wet food is definitely worth a try.

Any suggestions for a decent priced 6ish oz can of food? Wellness cans here cost around $1.50, and while we only go through one can a day, we can't afford that. Friskies are only around $.50 per can, and while the ingredients aren't the BEST, they are better than a lot that I've seen out there. They are the best in the lower price bracket that we need to stay in...at least until we move. Once we move we may be able to go up to a pricier food, but right now we can't.

I just realized that the night that they both threw up all over the place, we we had swiss steak for dinner and when DH was preparing the beef he cut up a few pieces for each of the cats and gave it to them. Nora has had raw beef and chicken all her life and has never had a problem with it. This was the first time we gave it to the boys. They also seemed to vomit most after the beef flavored canned food, as I stated before. Could they just be allergic to beef??? Wouldn't they show other signs, though??

Hmm it is sounding like the beef is the likely culprit here! The best way to find out is feed them a beef-free wet food for a few days and see if they vomit at all from that.

And no, they may not necessarily show other symptoms. Food allergies and intolerances tend to manifest themselves in a number of different ways. Sometimes they cause hives, sometimes just itching, sometimes sneezing, sometimes just gastro-intestinal symptoms.

It may actually be something that was on the beef... gravy maybe a piece of mushroom...

Beef is a TOP allergen in dogs... fairly UNCOMMON in cats .. From all the test results I have seen it was about 6% of the cats tested

I do think a time away from beef may be a good check.. but it would be fairly uncommon... I would suspect the artificial colors and flavors, SOY , WHEAT in the friskies first...

Have you tried Authority? it is I think 65 cents a can

Originally Posted by sharky

It may actually be something that was on the beef... gravy maybe a piece of mushroom...

Beef is a TOP allergen in dogs... fairly UNCOMMON in cats

.. From all the test results I have seen it was about 6% of the cats tested

I do think a time away from beef may be a good check.. but it would be fairly uncommon... I would suspect the artificial colors and flavors, SOY , WHEAT in the friskies first...

Have you tried Authority? it is I think 65 cents a can

Click to expand...

Really? Almost every search I've done on common cat allergens lists beef.

But whether or not it's common isn't really relevant if it's possible and the cat is showing symptoms specifically in reaction to that ingredient. Cats (and people) can develop uncommon allergies sometimes too.

Although I do agree that there're enough other poor ingredients and common allergens in any flavor of Friskies to warrant avoiding it if possible, regardless of the source of the allergy.

There wasn't a gravy or anything, it was straight raw beef from the butcher, DH was cutting it up to cook it. We have always shared our straight raw meat with Nora b/c she loves it. She even knows what the word "COW" means, and she perks up and immediately runs into the kitchen. LOL! She is a cow-aholic. lmao

I haven't tried Authority, is that a good food? Maybe I'll try picking that up the next time we buy canned food (if I don't start making my own).

Thinking more about it, I really think it IS the beef that is causing the problem, b/c one other time they were vomiting was after DH gave each of them a small bite of raw ground beef when we were making our home made "Maid Rite" sandwiches. That plus after the "beef" flavored canned food... They didn't start vomiting until after the last time we shopped for canned food, and that is when we found the beef flavors. It stinks, too, b/c those are Nora's favorite, she loves them. I'm not going to get them just for her, though, since she eats less than 1/4 can each day.

I think I'll give their stomachs a couple days to relax, then try again giving them non beef flavored foods and see how they react. Hopefully they are okay with that, b/c I'd really like to keep giving them wet food.

then avoid beef for now and see... are the beef flavored foods one s with actual beef? Sounds dumb but often the "cheaper" grocery use flavorings vs the actual meat
yes authority is decent , ie on occation I feed it ( no petsmart in town)

Yes, one of the ingredients is "beef".

These are the ones I found for them. The "Beef and Liver" and "Beef and Chicken"
http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...340&lmdn=Brand

They have the ingredients listed on there for the beef and liver but not the beef and chicken. The beef and chicken has pretty much the same ingredients, though.