Odd white-foamy throwup daily

This has been going on for a while now it seems and I thought it would go away or was something just upsetting his stomach.. I have a 10 year old Lynx ColorPoint Shorthair male whom I love dearly but has been throwing up what appears to be a foamy white liquid. It isn't a lot, just a little bit each time. I'm planning on bringing him into the vet this week to get a better check on what this could be. I do not have insurance and know that whatever this is wouldn't be covered but I am planning on getting him on insurance for the future. 

Has anyone had experience with this or know what this may be? His diet has only been water and dry food and I have not noticed any other odd behavior from him lately. 

Thanks in advance!

-Vaughn

Small amounts of white foam is stomach acid. While it is simple to treat, you need to see the vet to figure out the underlying cause, and there is always a cause.

Just out of curiosity, what brand of food do you feed? My cat 10 year old recently started doing the exact same thing...

Is he pooping normally? Does he have a normal appetite? And is he drinking and peeing normal amounts?

If you notice that the vomit is occurring around the same time of day, specifically shortly before feeding time, one cause can be that he's hungry and is eating later than usual (e.g. from daylight savings). 

There are several things that can cause this, from benign things like hairballs to more serious issues, so I would see the vet either way, but try to take note of the poop and the vomiting times to give yourself and them a better picture of what's going on. 

mayadot said:

 
Just out of curiosity, what brand of food do you feed? My cat 10 year old recently started doing the exact same thing...

Is he pooping normally? Does he have a normal appetite? And is he drinking and peeing normal amounts?

If you notice that the vomit is occurring around the same time of day, specifically shortly before feeding time, one cause can be that he's hungry and is eating later than usual (e.g. from daylight savings). 

There are several things that can cause this, from benign things like hairballs to more serious issues, so I would see the vet either way, but try to take note of the poop and the vomiting times to give yourself and them a better picture of what's going on. 

Click to expand...

He is eating Friskies New Shrimp Flavor dry food. Not the best dry food, I know, but there are other cats in the house right now and their owner's (my sister) has only fed a diet like this to her cats for a while and having two different types of dry food available (Friskies, and Wellness) would be bad for their stomach as the ingredients are vastly different. 

He seems to be pooping fine, and regularly comes to nom on the dry food throughout the day. His vommitting usually occurs early in the morning (~8-10am) and/or in the late hours (10pm-12am).

I'll take note of the times more closely when he vomits, and I should have him seeing someone tomorrow. I also just bought insurance for him, even though they don't cover anything pre-existing for ~30 days, just in case it could develop into something more serious in the future.

cocheezie said:

 
Small amounts of white foam is stomach acid. While it is simple to treat, you need to see the vet to figure out the underlying cause, and there is always a cause.

Click to expand...

Yes I read something online that mentioned something with the stomach as well. Really hoping that it is something I can help with easily and not something major yet.

Just making sure we're not feeding the same food and it's somehow food related! (It's not).

And I see, if he free feeds then it's not hunger related. If his poop/eating/drinking/peeing and overall behavior is all normal then hopefully it's nothing serious and he just needs to take something to calm down his stomach. 

Sending good vibes and keep us updated!

Does he urinate normally? My male cat used to have this same kind of throwing up and when I took him to the vet it turned out that he had bladder crystals blockage , underwent surgery but sadly died a couple of days later. If this is the case every hour counts. Don't take too long.

That happened to my previous cat a couple of times. Both times it turned out to be a bladder infection. He had other symptoms - mainly urinating outside of his box. The vomiting started before the urinating and was the first symptom I noticed.

I hope your vet will confirm that it is something easily treatable.

UPDATE -- 

Brought my little guy, Tiger, into the vet yesterday. After talking with the vet I decided to go ahead and get him to have his blood drawn to be tested, luckily he was fully cooperative with everything. Got the results back and it appears there are unfortunately a few things going on with him right now. I do not have his papers in front of me right now as I am at work so I cannot recall the exact names of his particular levels, but there does seem to be some indication of kidney disease and/or failure, but it is a bit hard to tell because he also appears to have pancreatitis since he hasn't been eating lately (probably due to the move) his liver has been eating away at his stored fat which is overloading his liver and causing it to be inflamed, which in turn is also acting on his pancreas. He was also a bit dehydrated (still with the move hopefully). 

The vet then proceeded to give him a fluid treatment so his body can absorb some water over a couple hours, and she also gave him a shot of what is essentially Pepcid to help with his nausea since he is not eating and all that is going on probably makes him not have an appetite. She also prescribed some small tablets that I can give him every three days to try and increase his appetite. 

When I got him home he did end up eating a little, and used the litter. I also got the pill down, took a few tries as he didn't enjoy the taste (even though I tried to coat it in some butter). So i'll be trying again tonight with food. Going to try to get some store tuna and other things to entice him to eat.

I have a follow-up blood-work appointment on the 15th of December to let some time pass and see how he gets over the next few days. The doctor also informed me that she can prescribe me some special cat food that is high in calories for him, and/or some sort of flavored gel.

Thanks everyone for your interest and advice! I hope this might help out others. Will keep this updated! 

Cheers ~

-Vaughn

All the best to you and your little guy! I hope he recovers fully and quickly.

From what I read in Dr. Hodgkins book, high carb dry food is hard on cat's kidney and pancreas. She said often it improves rather quickly by feeding just low carb no grain canned or raw food only. 

Just wondering...do you give your cats treats?  Some, including myself, have had a problem possibly linked to Temptation cat treats...

@LuckyBabyCat  - No treats.

@ankitty  - Interesting.. Yeah I had decided to do a dry food only diet since I heard it's better for their teeth and their weight.. But maybe I should've done moist food at least a few times a week. There are just so many different opinions on the matter. 

Update --

He's eating now, seems to be interested in food again which is awesome. He hasn't needed the second hunger pill yet which is good. Still worred about that potential kidney disease. Just hoping for the best for my guy! Attached some picts of his cute self too:




(bottle was empty and washed out, just looked cute)

Vaughn B said:

@ankitty  - Interesting.. Yeah I had decided to do a dry food only diet since I heard it's better for their teeth and their weight.. But maybe I should've done moist food at least a few times a week. There are just so many different opinions on the matter. 

Click to expand...

I highly recommend switching to all wet food with low carb. My cats' coat got really shiny and soft after a few weeks when I stopped feeding dry, and they are more energetic and alert. Dry food did nothing to control their weight. When I think about us humans, if we eat only breakfast cereals or granola bars all day everyday without adding any milk, I don't think it'd help my teeth or kidney. Dry cat foods usually have very high carb content and cats can't digest those foods without putting a lot of stress on their pancreas and livers. Also, if dry foods that are supposed to be "complete and balanced diet" are really the best food for cats, why are we seeing so many kidney problems, diabetes, obesity, cancer and other epidemics in cats? 

I hope your little guy is doing better.  I agree that you might try some canned food.  The switch in his food might also have caused him to not eat as much, especially from Wellness to Friskies.  Any chance he sleeps in your room where you could provide his old food or half a can of wet before bed?  I was thinking that the Friskies might be more dehydrating and have been stressing his kidneys.  I actually don't know that I think it is bad for him to mix some Wellness with the Friskies.  I would think offering him something he is used to would be good.  There are cats on here who eat a rotation of wet foods that include high quality to Fancy Feast or Friskies wet, so I would think you could slowly add back some of what he is used to eating to maybe lower his stress level about the move.  Even if you have to offer Fancy Feast Classics chicken or turkey (since most cats won't turn it down), the moisture might be a blessing to him, but you could certainly try other brands.  It was just a thought.  He is a cute kitty! 

Yes, there are lots of different opinions on the dry food/wet food thing.  I can say that my cats were eating about 50/50 wet and dry (only started eating any wet because we inherited my mother-in-law's cat when she died, and she ate half canned and half dry), and as I slowly increased the canned food, they slimmed down.  The goal with the canned was not to reduce calories at all, but they did get more muscle.

Please pop back on and let us know how he is doing.