Chronic vomiting/ not digesting food

I have a 12-13 year old mainecoon mix who was a stray in the neighborhood whom we took in about 10 years ago. About 4-5 years ago he started vomiting his food and we always thought is was because he ate too fast so he was given several small meals a day. Recently, I've noticed that he's not been digesting his food. He gets 3/4cup of dry food at 11:30 every morning and maybe 3-5 treats well into evening a few days a week now. No people food at all. This morning, well before 11:30, I found a large pile of vomit, but almost none of it was digested, and the treats he had the night before were still whole. There was no hair in it, just wet gross kibble and the treats. It concerned me because he literally had nothing to eat in over 12 hours but there were still whole pieces of food..... Anyone know what could be causing this? And what do do about it? I gave him a little bit of wet food with cod liver oil this morning and will have his dry food later this afternoon. I'm hoping if he is constipated or has a hair all, the oils will help. Oh, he gets purina urinary health kibble, btw.

SyraSyara said:

I have a 12-13 year old mainecoon mix who was a stray in the neighborhood whom we took in about 10 years ago. About 4-5 years ago he started vomiting his food and we always thought is was because he ate too fast so he was given several small meals a day. Recently, I've noticed that he's not been digesting his food. He gets 3/4cup of dry food at 11:30 every morning and maybe 3-5 treats well into evening a few days a week now. No people food at all. This morning, well before 11:30, I found a large pile of vomit, but almost none of it was digested, and the treats he had the night before were still whole. There was no hair in it, just wet gross kibble and the treats. It concerned me because he literally had nothing to eat in over 12 hours but there were still whole pieces of food..... Anyone know what could be causing this? And what do do about it? I gave him a little bit of wet food with cod liver oil this morning and will have his dry food later this afternoon. I'm hoping if he is constipated or has a hair all, the oils will help. Oh, he gets purina urinary health kibble, btw.

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i'm confused. 

how much does your cat weigh? 

When it comes up undigested like that several hours later, it's actually regurgitation rather than vomit. 

If it continues, you should probably take him in for a check-up, as this could be caused by many different things, from a hairball blocking the way, to hypothyroidism, even exposure to toxins.

If he has been vomiting for 4-5 years, it's not likely to be due to hairballs, it sounds to me like the (more and more common everyday it seems) IBD.

Likely with thickened intestinal wall too.

This takes a vet, blood testing, utrinalysis and an ultrasound to confirm.

IBD is caused by several things, but commonly caused by an older cat's system deciding it wants to react allergic to foods he has eaten just fine for years.

I know, doesn't make much sense, and I HIGHLY suspect due to all of the ingredients that cats were just not meant to eat, and how foods are processed, etc.

What you can do until then though is a dramatic switch in his food. If this is IBD, it will dramatically help or even fix the vomiting.

Do a gradual switch too, mostly with the dry food, by adding 1/3 of the new dry to his current dry, and every couple of days increase the mix amt, by a week's time he will be completely on the new food without any trauma to his system.

New food needs to be a limited ingredient food.

If money is not an issue, then buy Nature's Variety Instinct limited ingredient turkey dry food.

If it is an issue, buy either Blue Buffalo limited ingredient turkey/potato dry, or Natural Balance limited turkey dry.

I do recommend making his diet a mix of canned and dry, if so, these dry foods listed also have canned food of the same name and variety.

2 things, you must not switch foods for a while, it takes weeks to see the change, as his system has to have time to settle down and stop reacting to the food, and his new food will do this. Mine has been on this for over 6 months now, yet the minute she gets anything else, the trouble starts again.

The other is, STOP the treats. If habit says he can't live without them, it's the ritual, then buy the expensive Blue Buffalo limited ingredient turkey treats.

These are $3.99 a bag, and are like a chunk of pure turkey meat. My picky butt cat eats them every night too, as she is a habitual treat eater too.

Treats like especially Temptations, are SO addictive to cats! They're basically crap though, so if your cat is having intestinal issues, those must be stopped as well, even one or two of the old treats is enough to keep his system reacting, and you don't want this.

Charlie weighs 17.2 lbs. down from 18.6 in December. He has urinary problems because my grandmother fed him a lot of people food when she was alive and the neighbors would give him anythjng they had left over. He no longer goes outside nor lives in that area I've been trying to cut back on anything that isn't kibble. My other cat, buddy, gets treats because he's very active and a large mainecoon. And yes, they are temptations, but I feel awful keeping Charlie from eating but once a day so every few days I cave in and give him a couple.
This wasn't the first time he's thrown up u digested food much later either. The fish oil does seem to help tho. If I give it once a week, the throwing up happens less often.

One of the worst things you can do is only feed him once a day.

This causes his system to get overloaded and work extremely hard to try digesting the food.

Why does he only eat once a day?

I would feel bad too if I gave one cat treats and not the other one, so why not switch to a treat they can both have?

Are you willing to try my suggestions as I posted above?

Also, losing over a pound in just a few months is not good, so it's time to make some real changes.

He's fed once a day because he was my grandmothers cat and she was in and out of hospitals and nursing homes for about 8 months before she passed away and he was being fed with an auto feeder. No one was available to go to her house everyday multiple times a day to feed the cat, the least amount of food it would dispense was his daily allotment of food, if we gave him more, he will gorge himself and throw up either way. She passed away in October. I inherited the cat. We kept using the feeder because my fiancé and I work a lot and it was convenient. He's throwing up less often, but there's almost always undigested food in it.

Also, he is morbidly obese. I don't like feeding him less than he wants, but he is old and arthritic and he needed to lose weight. For a cat his size, he should weigh around 10 lbs, not close to 20. This is not my fault, I told my gram forever to not give him people food, but apparently that's how she showed him love. Charlie is so fat his belly was hitting the floor. He still can't clean his own bottom. He needed the diet. His vet has been aware of the throwing up for a long time. I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas as to why he'd do this. I do not need to be reprimanded for what someone else is responsible for nor be made to feel bad that my cat can have treats and my grandmothers cat can't. I know he is now my responsibility. I could have surrendered him, but I chose not to. He's a good boy and doesn't deserve to be thrown away AGAIN. He was thrown out of a car in my grams neighborhood before we got him. I couldn't just leave him in a cage until someone felt bad enough to adopt a special needs older cat.

Please listen to Catwoman!  Feeding a cat once per day is not good & now is not a good time to start a diet.    Another brand of food is called Basic which is for stomach/ibd problems. Also, take him to the vet; don't just guess what is wrong with him.

I also have two chronic vomiters. I was just going over different food options today, and I am considering Blue Buffalo Basics. It comes in both dry & wet formulas, and has very "basic" ingredients, no corn, meat byproducts soy or wheat. I will post back next week and let you know how it goes. 

psquared40 said:

 
I also have two chronic vomiters. I was just going over different food options today, and I am considering Blue Buffalo Basics. It comes in both dry & wet formulas, and has very "basic" ingredients, no corn, meat byproducts soy or wheat. I will post back next week and let you know how it goes. 

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This is the blue buffalo I was recommending, yes it is a very good choice and what I feed my own.

I think I left out the word basics. Thanks

Riley1 said:

 
Please listen to Catwoman!  Feeding a cat once per day is not good & now is not a good time to start a diet.    Another brand of food is called Basic which is for stomach/ibd problems. Also, take him to the vet; don't just guess what is wrong with him.

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Thanks Riley1 !

SyraSyara said:

Also, he is morbidly obese. I don't like feeding him less than he wants, but he is old and arthritic and he needed to lose weight. For a cat his size, he should weigh around 10 lbs, not close to 20. This is not my fault, I told my gram forever to not give him people food, but apparently that's how she showed him love. Charlie is so fat his belly was hitting the floor. He still can't clean his own bottom. He needed the diet. His vet has been aware of the throwing up for a long time. I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas as to why he'd do this. I do not need to be reprimanded for what someone else is responsible for nor be made to feel bad that my cat can have treats and my grandmothers cat can't. I know he is now my responsibility. I could have surrendered him, but I chose not to. He's a good boy and doesn't deserve to be thrown away AGAIN. He was thrown out of a car in my grams neighborhood before we got him. I couldn't just leave him in a cage until someone felt bad enough to adopt a special needs older cat.

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Not sure how you are interpreting my good advice to be reprimanding...........NOR did I say anything about how you should feel bad not feeding him treats, but suggesting maybe switching the kind of treats so both can have them.

That's perfectly fine, I gave you my best advice and what I believe will really help his vomiting. There was absolutely nothing in my posts that should have been read as offensive.

Good luck.

Ok, so he has been to the vet... See above.
Vet said its hair balls and he eats too fast.

He has been on URINARY FORMULA food for years because he is prone to crystals in his bladder. So changing foods is not really an option.

This "diet" is not new. And nothing has really changed in the last several months since I got him. He was getting pumpkin mixed into his food, per the vet, and I stopped this because it wasn't doing anything. he was still throwing up and his poops were small. This stopped in November 2014. Since around then, he has lost around a pound I'm assuming because he isn't getting the extra sugars and calories from said pumpkin.

Charlie was being fed once daily because that is what my family could do for him while my grandmother , who was his owner, was dying of lung cancer. We haven't changed the once daily feeding thing because he has been eating once daily for over a year and because he was uprooted and put into a new house with another, much larger, male cat, we decided not to change too much all at once. I knew of the throwing up because I would find piles of cat puke all over Gram's house when it was my day to feed him. To be honest, he is throwing up much less since he's been being fed once daily for the most part. Once a week he gets a small amount of wet food mixed with cod liver oil. He loves it and it does seem to help him. His poops are more normal, not the little crunchy cheeto looking deals they were(shape not color) For a 17 lb cat, I feel his poops should be larger.... And he throws up maybe once or twice a week now.

I think he has a mild blockage of hair in his bowel somewhere BECAUSE when he gets the fish oil and wet food, he doesn't throw up and his poops are better.

SO.....can anyone tell me what the difference is between vomiting and regurgitation? Which is worse and which I should be more concerned about? Also, if he is regurgitating his food, why isn't it even a little digested 12 hours later??? Like there are whole prices of kibble in there.

Also. I did t mean to snap at anyone earlier, but I really felt that I was being blamed for him being sick or whatever and that having him thrust upon me like this wasn't fair. I have a purebred mainecoon which I got as a Valentine's gift after our Luther( cat) had a grand mal seizure and we found him dead on the floor just before xmas 2 years ago. Which btw, the vet saw him seize yet said he'd be fine with out antiseizure meds and sent him home. Luther was dead a day later. This is the same guy who sees Charlie.

This vet also said that Charlie losing 1.4 lbs in 4 months is like a 400lb person losing 20 lbs in 4 months. It's perfectly healthy apparently. Because Charlie is SO over weight, it's ok to lose that much in this time period. His hips are feeling better now I thjnk because he is much more active even on his own. He plays with his toys much more now. Also, Buddy, my cat likes to play with Charlie so he gets chased around the house, which, I believe, is another reason he is losing weight. He used to just lay around all day doing nothing but eating and sleeping.

I agree that he needs to be fed more than once a day, but I'm not always home to do so. I can't leave food out for him to just eat as he wants because he will eat until he throws up and go back for more. Buddy doesn't have this problem. Charlie was abused in the past and I think that is why he eats like that. It's like he's afraid that this is all he's getting and he better eat it all now cuz there may not be any later.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

SyraSyara said:

Ok, so he has been to the vet... See above.
Vet said its hair balls and he eats too fast.

He has been on URINARY FORMULA food for years because he is prone to crystals in his bladder. So changing foods is not really an option.

This "diet" is not new. And nothing has really changed in the last several months since I got him. He was getting pumpkin mixed into his food, per the vet, and I stopped this because it wasn't doing anything. he was still throwing up and his poops were small. This stopped in November 2014. Since around then, he has lost around a pound I'm assuming because he isn't getting the extra sugars and calories from said pumpkin.

Charlie was being fed once daily because that is what my family could do for him while my grandmother , who was his owner, was dying of lung cancer. We haven't changed the once daily feeding thing because he has been eating once daily for over a year and because he was uprooted and put into a new house with another, much larger, male cat, we decided not to change too much all at once. I knew of the throwing up because I would find piles of cat puke all over Gram's house when it was my day to feed him. To be honest, he is throwing up much less since he's been being fed once daily for the most part. Once a week he gets a small amount of wet food mixed with cod liver oil. He loves it and it does seem to help him. His poops are more normal, not the little crunchy cheeto looking deals they were(shape not color) For a 17 lb cat, I feel his poops should be larger.... And he throws up maybe once or twice a week now.

I think he has a mild blockage of hair in his bowel somewhere BECAUSE when he gets the fish oil and wet food, he doesn't throw up and his poops are better.

SO.....can anyone tell me what the difference is between vomiting and regurgitation? Which is worse and which I should be more concerned about? Also, if he is regurgitating his food, why isn't it even a little digested 12 hours later??? Like there are whole prices of kibble in there.

Also. I did t mean to snap at anyone earlier, but I really felt that I was being blamed for him being sick or whatever and that having him thrust upon me like this wasn't fair. I have a purebred mainecoon which I got as a Valentine's gift after our Luther( cat) had a grand mal seizure and we found him dead on the floor just before xmas 2 years ago. Which btw, the vet saw him seize yet said he'd be fine with out antiseizure meds and sent him home. Luther was dead a day later. This is the same guy who sees Charlie.

This vet also said that Charlie losing 1.4 lbs in 4 months is like a 400lb person losing 20 lbs in 4 months. It's perfectly healthy apparently. Because Charlie is SO over weight, it's ok to lose that much in this time period. His hips are feeling better now I thjnk because he is much more active even on his own. He plays with his toys much more now. Also, Buddy, my cat likes to play with Charlie so he gets chased around the house, which, I believe, is another reason he is losing weight. He used to just lay around all day doing nothing but eating and sleeping.

I agree that he needs to be fed more than once a day, but I'm not always home to do so. I can't leave food out for him to just eat as he wants because he will eat until he throws up and go back for more. Buddy doesn't have this problem. Charlie was abused in the past and I think that is why he eats like that. It's like he's afraid that this is all he's getting and he better eat it all now cuz there may not be any later.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

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are you saying you are away from home 24 hours at a time? is twice a day feeding possible? 

One meal a day is not good. Stomach acid build up between meals will make a cat vomit.

I gave my Maine Coon daily Temptation treats too (2 treats at one time a day), but she started to vomit the next day along with any recent meal. This after two yrs on the treats!
I stopped the treats and she stopped vomiting.

Adding:

A cat that can eat 3/4 of a cup at one sitting will vomit. Especially with the acid build up and any water intake. My 16 lb. can only eat 4 heaping tsp of dry food with water at one sitting or she will vomit. I serve 4 meals a day. Three dry w/water and one 1/2 can (3 oz.) with water. Big cat, small stomach.

You have all my problematic cats rolled into one. My chronic vomiters, Angel & Leo, eat the urinary track prescription food because my Maine Coon, Reo, has to eat that, and he is VERY resorceful when it comes to finding and eating foods NOT on his diet. (What brand of kibble are you using? I use Royal Canine because it is better suited for the whole crew, but I feel I had less of an issue with Angel when we were using Hills Science Diet. Perhaps switching brands could resolve your issue). I give Reo kibble with water added every morning to make sure he gets extra water.(Don't know if thay would be of any help in your case), I leave food down all day. My chronic vomiters usually only eat twince a day. One of those feedings for my vomiting crew is with wet food. (And I hope a different Basic canned food will be helpful for them, but I realize that's not an option for you). Can you give cod liver oil more often? Or will the ash content throw off his PH balance and cause a blockage?

It's my experience (and I have several rescue animals who have come from heart breaking conditions) that once they see food down all the time, they will start to self regulate, and only eat what they need, and not feel the need to eat too fast. (But again, that's in my limited experience). Also have you considered adding live wheat grass & catnip to their living space. My understanding from the products that are out there for "sensitive" systems is they need more fiber. (But I am NOT a fan of the extra ingredients in those products) Catnip is supposed to help with digestion. My vomit crew do better in the summer months because they get supervised outdoor time and are able to eat grass/greens. 

Cats with stomach problems love grass.  They can not digest it; so it come out one way or another.  This does keep them occupied.  Unlike my last cat, who ate only what he needed, my new ones eats everything in site so I have to be there to feed her.  I have just ordered an auto feeder so I can give her 4 meals per day.  She is young so no vomiting.  Between the two of you someone should be able to feed the cat more than once per day. I can't go on one meal per day so I would not expect my cat to do sol.

Crunchy cheeto looking poop means he is lacking hydration, likely due to a dry only diet.

His once a day feeding, can he be given canned at the same time as his dry so he will eat the canned and eat dry later?