Cat vomiting, vets stumped?

My cat Raiya has been vomiting for about a week now. She had laryngytis but it seemed to clear up then the vomiting started. She also refuses all food. I took her to the vet last Tues and the vet couldn't find any obvious reason for the vomiting. She was given some subcu fluids for dehydration and "kitty gravol". She improved right away. Started eating. She was almost 100% by Friday am. Then she ran out of meds. (only got 4 days worth) and she started vomiting and refusing to eat or drink again. So on Tues I took her back in to the vet. She is still there. So far they have done bloodwork and xrays with barium. They were thinking that she had injested a foreign body, but the xrays came back clean. They are stumped. Right now she still at the vet on IV fluids and more kitty gravol, to calm down her stomache and intestines. The vet says that sometimes that is all they need, to get things back on track, since there is no obvious reason for her to be vomiting. Any ideas?

What age is kitty? Any problems in the past? Food choice? Any change in diet?

She's 5. She will reguritate her wet sometimes. Maybe once a week. I had been messing around with their kibble, for my FLUTD kitty. (I know kibble's not good for FLUTD, but I'm trying to phase it out) I had been giving them a brand from Costco (been eating it for years) then I gradually changed to Wellness Core for the grain free, then had to change to Medi-cal Urinary SO. My FLUTD cat can't eat anything that's not for bladder. I was still giving them a large can of Friskies wet twice a day. Maybe to much switching around?

anyone?

Sorry to hear Rayia isn't feeling well. When my Dutch had those symptoms, it turned out to be IBD that we (mostly) control with prednisolone pills. When your vet looked at the barium study for a foreign body, did they look at the intestinal walls to see if they were at all thickened? That was how my vet figured out the IBD - the inflammation had caused thickening of the walls of her upper intestine. If Rayia is a regular barfer, maybe something happened to tip the scales on her GI tract inflammation?

Sending good anti-barf vibes your way 

Thanks, I will ask the vet about it Monday. She's still not wanting to eat.    But she isn't lethargic.Still active, scratching the furniture, getting mad t the others. So I'm wondering if she's eating during the day while I'm at work. And she is making small progress. She hasn't puked since Thur at the vet. Guess the Cernia is working. Yesterday she went and looked into the bowl of food twice, and this morning she sat on her chair for breakfast. But she didn't eat. Was reading catinfo.org about a feeding tube, will maybe ask the vet about that too. Just wish we had diagnosis....the next step was exploratory surgery.

Pancreatitis tends to show symptoms just like this.  An ultrasound would be helpful to diagnose it.

They did a pancreatitis snap test. Came back fine.

Unfortunately those have a high rate of false negatives.  The repsonse you describe also matches it. 

Today she ate and drank some tuna and tuna water. Not much maybe a teaspoon. What other tests can be done for pancreatitis? I don't think my vet has an ultrasound machine. I live in a small city. I will go ask about that today as well.

My vet in a small UK town has an ultrasound machine, so I find it hard to imagine that a vet in a small city in the US doesn't have one.

They do have an ultra sound. But they still want to open her up. She said that way they can look at everything and take. Biopsies if needed.

Just a personal opinion - but I'd ask them to try all the other methods of diagnosis and treatment before resorting to surgery. It's the same thing I'd ask of my own doctor, after all! 

My vet has mentioned exploratory surgery and biopsy for Dutch's IBD, and so far we've decided not to because we're mostly able to control things with medication. And in our case, confirming a diagnosis via surgery wouldn't really change the course of treatment. Good luck. 

Brillobee, I would truly love to help you, so here are my thoughts.

First and foremost, based on the problem you're dealing with, since X-ray showed nothing (to be expected with digestive problems unless there is a tumor somewhere that will even show up on an X-ray), for a 5 year old baby the first two steps should be an endoscopy and an abdominal ultrasound.

The endoscopy will tell whether your baby has IBD and the ultrasound will look at all the organs and show problems that would not show up on any other tests. Looking at the gall bladder, liver, pancreas, size of the lymph nodes in the area, looking for any thickening of the intestines, etc, is absolutely essential. Looking at the kidneys is also essential.

Please talk to your vet and if he/she is not open to this approach, it's vitally important for you to find another vet without delay.

Also......for a cat with digestive problems (whatever the reason) tuna (and fish in general) can be the absolute worst food. The reason for this is that fish is higher in histamine levels than most other protein sources and histamine causes/exacerbates inflammation. (I've seen fish causing terrific digestive and urinary problems so many times, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind about this.)

Sensitivity to other protein sources and other food ingredients in general is also a strong possibility, so you may have to work hard for quite some time until you see relief.

Is she vomiting partially digested food/stomach contents, or is she regurgitating obviously undigested food? I recently had quite a run around with my kitty who still had an appetite, but was regurgitating moments after eating anything at all. Ultrasound showed ever so slight abnormalities in the pancreas and intestine (suggestive of pancreatitis or IBD), but an endoscopy showed an esophageal stricture (narrowing of the esophagus) and this is why she was vomiting. Food didn't have the chance to reach the stomach. But that's just my story - I thought my kitty had a blockage, but X-rays and ultrasounds showed nothing.

When does your kitty vomit? Immediately after eating? A little while after eating? For no reason?  An endoscopy could tell you more regarding blockages and maybe inflammation of sorts, and perhaps the vet could do for your kitty what mine did for my kitty and place a feeding tube while Raiya is knocked out. This will at least keep her nourished until whatever is wrong is either cured or it goes away on its own (don't know which it would be). You could do the surgery if you and your vet feel Raiya is in good enough health to handle being opened up, and any vet worth his salt will tell you if he or she feels surgery would carry more risks than benefits. My vet wanted to open up my kitty for biopsy reasons (for a lung mass) and I refused for a few reasons - my cat's age (going on 15 in March), her overall state of health (she'd not kept food down in 2 weeks), and the lung mass wasn't causing symptoms to begin with. If you can afford it, I would definitely suggest less invasive options first and surgery as a last resort. Basically, see if maybe your kitty's issues can be helped with medication or diet changes first so you don't have to put her through possible unnecessary stress from surgery.

She is vomiting bile. She had started by vomiting up partially digested food and hair. She will vomit right after eating and anytime. I was cleaning up vomit everyday. I thought is was all the cats. Turns out it was just her. Since she's been on the mess or at the vet I've hadn't had to clean up any vomit. The vet wanted to try and save me some money. I've decided to go with the ultrasound first. I really don't want to put her through surgery for no obvious reason. Anything that is worth seeing will show up on ultrasound correct? Sorry about the tuna, I just wanted her to eat something. I haven't seen her eat in a week. Funny thing is she still is behaving normally. Maybe a little me sleepy and grumpy, but if I went without food for as long a she has I be weak. She's not. She still fights me everyday when I give her the meds. She's back a the vet right now on IV fluids, and to be revaluated.

We decided to bring her home, to decide what to do. She is stressed out at the vet, not good for a sick kitty.She is much happier at home. The vet was even questioning why she was there. She is pretty much back to normal (energy/behaviour wise) She leaps into chair for wet food, but once she smells it she runs away. It's like it repulses her. Haven't seen her eat yet. But she must be eating. A cat that hasn't eating in two weeks wouldn't be so energetic, right? She hasn't had her Cernia for a few days. Tonight she vomited 3 times, just bile. I think she is trying to expell something from her digestive tract. She is a medium hair cat. Just before she vomited you could tell her stomach was upset, because she did the lick, lick, lick swallow thing a few times then, puke. I read about another cat getting Zantac for an upset stomach, maybe could try this? I think that whatever is wrong is something simple. She can't be seriously ill, because after 2.5 weeks, she's be alot worse, right? I think that exploratory surgery is a little drastic. My vet doesn't have a ultrasound, but others near me do. Should I still get an ultrasound?

Absolutely. But you also have to have an endoscopy done. This article explains what you need to know.

http://vetconfidential.typepad.com/vetconfidential/2009/10/inflammatory-bowel-disease-in-cats-ibd-1.html

I realize I should add that, depending on what's going on, an ultrasound may not show anything helpful while an endoscopy will show everything a vet is looking for. So, with the symptoms you're dealing with, both tests are essential. Skipping either one would be a terrible mistake. 

Also, some conditions the ultrasound will be looking for can be linked to IBD, which is another reason why an endoscopy is so very important.

This morning she ate wet food on her own! It was only a few bites, but it's better than nothing. Baby steps.

That's wonderful. Yes, baby steps. I do hope, however, that, because of everything that's happened, you will go ahead with the tests anyway.

Also, please make sure you don't feed any canned food that has carrageenan in it. It's an ingredient that can cause digestive problems for a lot of cats.

You'll find some helpful information in this old thread

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/213136/carrageenan-allergy

Also, the book I mentioned in my post that has detailed info about carrageenan, is still available (it's a little book) on amazon.com. Look for this title:

Fact/Book on Food Additives and Your Health by Beatrice Trum Hunter