My 8.5 week old kitten randomly vomits but seems ok otherwise

I took in a 6 week old baby boy close to 3 weeks ago, from a private owner. I was not very impressed with the home and conditions he was kept in so I had him examined by the vet right away. Everything checked out ok, no mites, no fleas, weight, eyes, teeth, body - all was in good order. Being the paranoid mama that I am, I did a fecal test, which also came out negative. Naturally I was really happy. The munchkin is playful, eats and drinks well, poops fine and solid with no strain, pees clear .. Very energetic and playful in general, so I was happy. Only as the days went by I started noticing a pattern of random vomits, every 4-5 days. He gets up in the middle of the night (way past his last meal) and barfs up a small puddle which often has small pieces if semi digested food. These episodes do t seem to phase him in any way though - his appetite is still fine, he immediately begins to play and cuddle.. So no other weird signs of illness that would require an immediate trip to the vet. I figured I'd watch him closely and try to pinpoint the reason for potential food sensitivity. I eliminated all non chicken flavors of his wet food (he didn't eat dry when I brought him home), as in my view they seemed to be the cause of the random pukes, but he puked since as well, which ruined my theory. God knows I've read the whole internet about parasites and possible reasons and I'm beginning to suspect that the fecal test was a false negative and that he might still need deworming. I am taking him to the vet on Monday regardless, but I am curious to have others share their thoughts and experiences on what this can possibly be. I have ruled out ingestion of foreign objects thinking if something would get lodged, it would affect his appetite and general well being. I am inclined to think he us too young for serious liver, kidney and pancreas diseases (although who knows, vet will confirm) and I'm left with something parasitic [emoji]128533[/emoji] Has anyone else had the same experience with their little ones?

infinite said:

I took in a 6 week old baby boy close to 3 weeks ago, from a private owner. I was not very impressed with the home and conditions he was kept in so I had him examined by the vet right away. Everything checked out ok, no mites, no fleas, weight, eyes, teeth, body - all was in good order. Being the paranoid mama that I am, I did a fecal test, which also came out negative. Naturally I was really happy. The munchkin is playful, eats and drinks well, poops fine and solid with no strain, pees clear .. Very energetic and playful in general, so I was happy. Only as the days went by I started noticing a pattern of random vomits, every 4-5 days. He gets up in the middle of the night (way past his last meal) and barfs up a small puddle which often has small pieces if semi digested food. These episodes do t seem to phase him in any way though - his appetite is still fine, he immediately begins to play and cuddle.. So no other weird signs of illness that would require an immediate trip to the vet. I figured I'd watch him closely and try to pinpoint the reason for potential food sensitivity. I eliminated all non chicken flavors of his wet food (he didn't eat dry when I brought him home), as in my view they seemed to be the cause of the random pukes, but he puked since as well, which ruined my theory. God knows I've read the whole internet about parasites and possible reasons and I'm beginning to suspect that the fecal test was a false negative and that he might still need deworming. I am taking him to the vet on Monday regardless, but I am curious to have others share their thoughts and experiences on what this can possibly be. I have ruled out ingestion of foreign objects thinking if something would get lodged, it would affect his appetite and general well being. I am inclined to think he us too young for serious liver, kidney and pancreas diseases (although who knows, vet will confirm) and I'm left with something parasitic [emoji]128533[/emoji] Has anyone else had the same experience with their little ones?

Click to expand...

Most likely its a parasite.  All kittens are born with worms and all of them need to be dewormed, usually 3 times over several weeks.

Marianne Faithfull (an adult of a year and a half) vomited during the night for the first several days we had her. Her stools were normal, appetite good, eyes bright, coat shiny, etc...The day before we were to worm her, she was sick again, and up came the biggest tapeworm I`d ever seen, along with a whole extended family of roundworms. Now, we knew Sister Morphine there had roundworms, a given for a feral cat, but the tape was a shocker! Plans changed, she got milbemax instead of strongid. The day after she was wormed, the vomiting stopped. She just had her second worming last night and she looks great!

My first thought is worms or parasites due to the life cycle of parasites.  My second thought is food intolerance, especially if you rotate foods.

Exactly.

If she has not been dewormed, she surely needs to be asap. Then repeated.

Worms/parasites and food sensitivities are the 2 biggest reasons for a young kitten vomiting.

Update on little Petey, who's been through a bit if a wringer these past few days. I took him in to see the vet who suggested not to deworm yet, until the day after when Pete puked twice in the day and started loosing appetite. Another trip to the vet and he finally got dewormed wit Strongid. Don't know why but the vet also gave him a doze of metronidazole for diarrhea, she gave it all together and so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to react. And off we go home with more dozes of flagyl (metronidazole) to take, which I refused to give him after reading up on it, it's many bad side effects, not approved by FDA and potential for toxicity... Just went with my gut feeling.. And boy did I luck out.. The doze of the drug, or combination of both drugs he received, was ever so potent. Pete completely refused to eat, was losing his energy and started losing weight. This was all over a period of two-three days which seemed like forever to me. On the upside he pooped out two long roundworms that have been pestering him afterall, one was the length if a palm-width!! With some force feeding, syringe water feeding, and offering him everything possible on the menu, he ended up under the care of the vet for a day today. With a small doze if b12, and an appetite booster.. and more force feeding, Pete started showing interest in food! I picked him up after work today and was he ever happy to be home, his energy levels were noticeably up, he was playful, alert and looked hungry but didn't want anything I offered him. I recalled he enjoyed a can of my parents cat's food, beef flavour, so I got him some performatrin beef and beef and liver pates. Success! Pete was eating both on his own. He's gone to pee and poop ever since, poop a bit on the runny side for now but is likely to all the food switching and stress at the vet. There is obviously room for improvement and the need to monitor until he is 100%, don't want to get too excited too early but I think/hope the worst is behind us.. and that's the story of Pete to date!

Sigh I feel my relief was premature... Petey is less energetic today again and is back to not really eating.. Moreover his poop is marbled colour, brown spots with lots of grey interlaced.. I worry it's liver issue but his blood tests checked out fine, all ALT, ALP, AST, bilirubin levels are within normal and vet said he doesn't seem to have liver, kidney or pancreas issues. I'm so frustrated that I don't know what's happening with my baby

[emoji]128591[/emoji] [emoji]128158[/emoji]