older cat with stomach problems

Hello,

I wanted to see what everyone thinks about this. I have 13 to 14 year old female indoor cat. She has always been the kind that throws up a lot, but it got worse over time. Last time I took her to the vet she was fine, other than getting older of course. My main theory about the vomiting, is that it is a food issue. She started having problems with cat treats. It got to the point where she would frequently vomit after having them. I think she knew they disagreed with her because she liked treats less and less. She vomited less when I stopped giving her treats.

It seems like the vomiting had been increasing in frequency, although not giving her treats slowed that down. Later I switched her from the Science Diet senior to the sensitive stomach. This improved the situation, but she still throws up rather excessively. Usually she just throws up and it doesn't seem to bother her much, but occasionally she makes this yowelling sound like she is nauseous.

Additional info: She is a short hair. She does have hairballs sometimes, which I don't count as vomiting. I feed her Fancy Feast wet food once a day. She doesn't seem to vomit after wet hardly at all. She does with tuna though, so I don't give her that anymore. It is also the only non cat food she was ever given.

So I am kind of thinking she might need some sort of special food. Like maybe that stuff you get from the vet. I'm not sure though. The fact that treats make it worse, and switching to sensitive stomach food makes it better, are the main pieces of evidence I am going off of. I'm almost thinking maybe giving her extra wet food might be a good idea as well.

I'm not entirely sure though. So I thought maybe the experiences other have had might give me a better idea of what I should do.

She could in fact have inflammatory bowel disease or food intolerance. In my opinion those foods, including Science Diet, are not good for them as they contain gluten and grains. Grains are not good for cats are they are obligate carnivores. I deal with a lot of kitties that have this issue and once switched to a good wet, grain free food, they improve greatly. Think about something like Nature's Variety, Natural Balance, Merrick, Wellness. I would switch very slowly as that can upset their stomachs if you switch too fast. As far as treats go, try all natural freeze dried treats only. You can get Purebites at Petco and they are just freeze dried meat. My kitties LOVE them and that's all they get. 

You know, I've always wondered what the deal was with those ingredients being in cat food considering their anatomy. That's a good point.
 

Those ingredients are used because they are cheap fillers and they don't care what they stick in pet food these days. I think it's worth a try, just remember to do it slowly. Adding the new food to the old food a teaspoon at a time until the old food is gone. Probably take a few days to a week to completely switch but it'll be better this way. 

Do you feed the classic varieties of FF? Does she throw it up? If not I'd give those plus the foods finnlacey mentioned.

The Classic Fancy Feast are okay too, as those don't have grains in them.

Yea, it's the classic. It's nothing but meat, flavoring, vitamins, minerals, etc. So it's like 99% meat.
 

Yeah, if she'll keep classic down then feed her those!

finnlacey said:

She could in fact have inflammatory bowel disease or food intolerance. In my opinion those foods, including Science Diet, are not good for them as they contain gluten and grains. Grains are not good for cats are they are obligate carnivores. I deal with a lot of kitties that have this issue and once switched to a good wet, grain free food, they improve greatly. Think about something like Nature's Variety, Natural Balance, Merrick, Wellness. I would switch very slowly as that can upset their stomachs if you switch too fast. As far as treats go, try all natural freeze dried treats only. You can get Purebites at Petco and they are just freeze dried meat. My kitties LOVE them and that's all they get. 

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I have to agree. When looking for grain free, try to avoid also those containing potato or peas. Natural Balance my cats love, but they only get the ones without the peas, and I prefer a little rice over potato. Switching wet diets is actually easier on the stomach then when switching dry. The Purebite treats are wonderful. 100% freeze dried meat. Mine prefer the chicken. It also crumbles easy and can be used as a topper to introduce new foods. This is how I'm getting mine to try new flavors and brands. Fancy Feast classics are just fine and I feed mine those also in their meal rotations. Many members here have kitties with sensitive tummy's and can add what they have done that helps. Hopefully some one else will post here soon to add their tips. Good luck and welcome to TCS.

I wanted to share what is going on so far. I thought a new thread would be better than posting to the old one. Old thread is here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/257753/older-cat-with-stomach-problems

I started feeding the cats the wet food twice a day about a week and a half ago. They all three love that of course. The older one with the stomach problems has not thrown up the entire time. I also got a bag of Nature's Variety Instinct chicken meal dry food. It just arrived a couple days ago. So I got a little out so they could try it, and they went absolutely insane! I've never seen cats so excited about dry food in my life. I gave a couple pieces to one and the others were trying to steal it before I could give them some, and when I did they were each trying to get some of each others food while hoarding their own.

The older one hadn't been eating dry food after we started doing wet twice a day. So I think this is the first time in at least several days since she has eaten any dry. We had gone down to one dish of dry since we started the wet twice a day, and when there was some of the new food in there two of the cats at a time would have their heads pressed together eating out of the bowel. I've never seen them do that before. They apparently found it to be quite tasty.

The older one is doing better now. She had seemed lethargic, worn out, and just looked unwell, but she looks much more healthy now. She looks like she put a little weight on too. Hopefully that will continue.

So far so good with the dietary changes. Nobody has any diarrhea or anything like that.

So a big thank you to those that advised me on this.

We have a 15 year old and a 13 year old and for a long time were not sure who had the problem.

Now we know  it is the older one, so with all the help here I will follow the advice  We will be changing their

food.  Thanks to every one for your help.

This may work for a while, but there could be kidney issues. The cat this thread was about soon got worse again, we discovered kidney problems and put her on special food for that. So definitely take the cat in to check kidney function.

We have a 15 year old and a 13 year oldand for a olng time were not sure who had the problem.

Now it is the older one, so with all the help here I will follow the advice.

Things have not been good.  After the blood work came back we found the Tinker had kidney disease.

With her age of 15 yrs and her weight loss of another 2lbs Dr advised us to make a decision. It has been a difficult week but we put Tinker down yesterday and we have all been a mess including Button our 10 yr old cat, but I know we will all get through it.  If and when we have problems with Button I will be back, you all have been so helpful.  Thank you so very much.

Sorry to hear that. I'm surprised it was so bad so quickly. My cat was able to live a couple more years on the special food. The kidney disease finally got too bad about 6 weeks ago. She was almost 16.

Thank you for your reply.  With the two cats it was hard to tell who was upchucking, unless we happen to see them.

As it happens to be it was the older cat and she had been doing it for a couple of years. So in our travels we just missed it, I feel

so bad now but she seemed happy, till she started to go down hill.  We have had no problems with the other cat. She is adjusting

I think with a lot of attention and she is returning to her normal activities.