Constant vomiting - vet clueless

Oh! Please help!

Bear with me.. it's kind of gross but I don't know what to do.

My poor baby Jake is vomiting alllll the time. It's not "normal" vomit ("chunky" food or hairballs). It is primarily mostly digested food and bile. And it's happening allll the time. I took him to the vet three weeks ago, and $273 later, the vet tells me there is nothing wrong with him and he's probably constipated. So he gave me a laxitive to give him (which is a trial to give). Not really sure if its working (since he's probably already 'empty'). He's ok for a few days, and then vomits like crazy for a couple days. It's a cycle. Otherwise, he's fine. Great coat; eyes bright; ears and tail always up and happy; eating and drinking normally; and he uses the litterbox. The vet said there was no blockage and his blood tests came out fine.

I don't know what to do. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

The first thing I thought of was - is he getting into something that's making him sick? Plants can be dangerous, even deadly. Anything on the floor can too. Remember to check the garage if he can get in there.

If he goes outside, he might be eating something rotten or something in a neighbor's garbage. Best to limit his outside adventures, if possible.

On the other hand, have you changed his food lately? Check the labels on all the food he eats. Also, have you notices if he vomits after eating a particular brand/type of food. He may be sensitive to one ormore of the ingrediants.

One of our cats developed a sensitivity to the dry food, after having eaten it for years. We changed to one that was similar but that had less grain. That really helped.

that he gets better ...

I have no way of knowing if it's the same thing as with one of my cats. I took him to three different vets and he stayed at the vet's twice on an IV because he was so dehydrated and wasn't eating. One vet gave him an enema while he was there because he was constipated. The last time he was sick I took him to a cat's only vet clinic and she did more in the way of diagnostics and said that he had IBD. I believe the other vets didn't think of it because he was constipated rather than the opposite reaction which is more common with IBD. He is now on a maintenance dose of Prednisolone. The last time he was sick he ended up with two forms of hepatitis, one of which was fatty liver, so he now gets a liver panel done on a regular basis. The last two panels came back completely normal.

Do you rotate his food? It could be that he can't tolerate one of the varieties.

Wow! Thanks for the great and very quick feedback!

There are no plants, garbage or anything on the floor for him to get into and he is soley an indoor boy. He likes to lick plastic bags and I had the vet check for some sort of blockage --- there was none (whew!).

Actually have NOT changed the food lately. I dry free feed them Purina One Sensitive Systems mixed with Friskies Indoor Delights. On occasion I'll give them some wet food. Maybe I should change up the dry? Any recommendations? Less grain? Allergies or sensitivity? I never thought of that.

They've been eating the same food for quite a while. Maybe changing it up will help. I have to do something. This is getting out of hand.

Thank you sooo very much for the great feedback!

The vet knows there's not a blockage because they did an xray? And he had a full blood work up done?
(Did the vet mention that plastic does not show up on xrays?)

How old is Jake?

I ask, because you mention his licking plastic. Some kitties are attracted to it because of the way it's processed. But if this is a recent development and a blood panel wasn't done, it's something to consider. This can be a form of pica, and can indicate anemia. Of course it could be he's developed food sensitivities. A good place to start is feeding him boiled chicken and rice for a few days. (Though of course chicken or rice could be the problem, this is just a starting point).

If he's having tummy trouble, a quick switch on dry food in and of itself can cause problems, but if he has developed a food sensitivity, sometimes it's for the best. You may want to try limited ingredient foods; see if you can narrow it down.

Of course, I'm on "high alert" to something like this, because one of our cats was having problems with vomiting on and off since December. He had xray and blood panel in January, everything looked fine. Started having problems again in May, so took him for a second opinion. This time blood work showed him to be anemic and xray showed mass in his tummy. He is now being treated for what turned out to be cancer. He's nine.

So I hope it's food sensitivities and you're able to sort it out!

Jake is 9.

The vet said he didn't feel anything wrong and the xray came up ok so he didnt see a blockage (I saw the xray too - except for feces in his colon jake was clear). The full blood work came out ok too.

But I didn't know plastic doesn't show up on an xray! Jake doesn't eat it so much as he likes to lick it.

I bought new food today so I'll see if it makes a difference. If this continues, I'll bring back to the vet for more tests. I hope this is nothing serious.... it's really gross and messy but Jake seems otherwise to be perfectly fine and happy. I guess one step at a time.

Thank you everyone for being so great and providing your help.

He could just have a sensitive stomach. My Belle has always been a vomiter. We had a crisis at Christmas time - I came home from work on a Friday night and she had thrown up several times. By Monday she had completely stopped eating and was not herself. I took her to the vet and they put her on an IV, antibiotic, and pepcid-like medicine. I took her home and she didn't get any better. Finally, it took prednisolone and Reglan to get her eating again. She has been on Hill's i/d (dry, couldn't get her to eat the wet, so she still eats Friskies/Fancy Feast) ever since and very rarely vomits or has hairballs. They were on Orijen before (grain free).

Although I strongly dislike the ingredients and cost of the Hill's, she's doing so well on it. So, I'd recommend at least trying it for any cat who has unknown vomiting issues. (Note that it was the meds, not the food that got us past the crisis...but the food helped to stop the vomiting issue that I think started the crisis!).

Something else to think about. Have you opened a new bag recently? It could be that the formula has changed and it's not agreeing with his tummy.

Kibble products, especially those containing grains, can definitely cause this kind of vomiting. Since so much has already been ruled out, I would take Jake off kibble entirely and put him on a grain-free canned diet.

The Feline Nutrition Education Society has several articles in the Health section of their website (Feline-nutrition.org) detailing many of the problems associated with kibble feeding, including chronic dehydration, IBD, obesity and more.

My brother took his two sister cats to several vets for multiple tests for upchucking. After hundreds of dollars and two plus years of semi-sick kitties, he finally changed them over to canned - and they haven't had a single episode of vomiting since then.

Good luck to you! It's rough when our kitties have a problem we can't readily fix.

AC

I took all your advice and changed the dry food to "The Goodlife Recipe - Indoor" and so far so good! They both love it and Jake seems to be improving! I don't want to jink him but he seems to really be doing much better. And they both LOVE this food!

I know I'm not out of the woods yet and I am paying very close attention to him. If he starts vomiting again I will take him back to the vet. But I also will be following more of your detailed advice.

I can not thank you all enough for taking the time to read my post and let me know your thoughts. This is a wonderful site with great people. Thanks again.

Further updates as warranted.. LOL

Our Burmese and Tonks have sensitive stomachs due to the Oriental (Siamese) heritage. Once we switched to Wellness or Blue Wilderness and added CAT probiotics, ALL vomiting went away. And yes, apparently there is a difference between human and cat probiotics according to our vet, but it's also the same vet trying to make use put them on the Hill's corn garbage. We didn't have to use probiotics continually. Sometimes cats might have a certain sensitivity/allergy, so watch their diet carefully. Our cats were so much healthier and their coats shinier off the Hills junk. Some of these quality chows have probiotics in them. Blue Wilderness definitely does and I think the Wellness does also. Great products.