Frequent Vomiting, older cat

amaraena

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So I'm sort of to the point where this is causing me pretty serious concern and since I have to work today, I can't take my cat to the vet. Help me internet! 

The cat in question is, I want to say, starting to push 14 - 15 years old. He seems to be fine other than the fact that he's a) groomed all the fur off of his butt / lower abdomen /  back of his hind legs ( though he's done this once before as a response to stress so that may be the case again ) and b) he's throwing up literally all the time. 

His food and water intake appear to be roughly normal but at times he eats too fast and throws up almost immediately - I've tried to remedy that by feeding him very slowly so he has a chance to chew, not just inhale the food - and that's more or less normal, so that doesn't concern me. What does is the throwing up of what looks to be partially digested food. Definitely fully chewed / made into mush by his stomach. And it's been happening multiple times a day for the past...three, maybe four days on the outside. 

We have two other cats but he's kept isolated from them with his own food, water, and litter box. 

He doesn't seem to be lethargic. He can walk, run, jump, etc just fine. Totally normal, except the overgrooming again and the throwing up. 

I am planning on taking him to the vet tomorrow since I'm off work, but any suggestions beforehand would be appreciated. 
 

stephenq

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I am planning on taking him to the vet tomorrow since I'm off work, but any suggestions beforehand would be appreciated. 
In my mind if you're taking him to the vet tomorrow, then there is not much to do today, but there are things to think about to prep for your visit.

- What is the food you're feeding him, and how often?

- When did this vomiting start?

- When it started was there any change to his eating habits or your feeding practices, foods etc?

- Is it wet food, dry food, or both that he's vomiting?

- How soon after he eats does this happen, and does it seem to be connected to his meals?

---

Things to discuss with the vet:

Note: regardless of the cause of his vomiting, repeated vomiting irritates the esophagus and can lead to more vomiting, so even for a non-medical cause of the vomiting he may now have a concurrent medical cause that would benefit from daily pepcid to help calm his stomach down, reduce acid.  Sucralfate can be used to coat and protect the esophagus.  Discuss with Vet.

---

A non-medical cause of this could be eating too fast/over eating, and if this is the case there are some ways we can get him to eat slower, or less food per meal.

---

Medical causes (common):

- Food/ingredient intolerance or allergy.  Can be diagnosed by trial and error changes to diet using limited ingredient or novel protein foods.

- Irritated esophagus/stomach due to above, or acid stomach.

- Inflammatory Bowel disease

- Kidney disease

- Pancreatitis

Some of the above and the vomiting can be made worse by stress and it sounds like your cat may have psychogenic alopecia (stress induced over grooming).

At the moment it sounds based on what you have said to possibly be as a result of over eating/eating too quickly or a food intolerance but answering the above questions will give us a lot more to go on.
 
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amaraena

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- What is the food you're feeding him, and how often?
- When did this vomiting start?
- When it started was there any change to his eating habits or your feeding practices, foods etc?
- Is it wet food, dry food, or both that he's vomiting?
- How soon after he eats does this happen, and does it seem to be connected to his meals?
- I feed him Purina Naturals dry food, twice daily ( usually before I leave for work and after I come home, roughly 8 am and 9 pm )
- This vomiting started within the last three to four days. I can't say exactly for sure on that. But definitely very recently.
- The last change to his eating habits was probably two to three months ago, we switched him off of Meow Mix and onto the Purina because of his personal preference. Which is one of the reasons why all his essentials are separated - one of our other cats refuses to eat anything but Meow Mix. This morning after I fed him I watched him eat for as long as I could right up until I had to leave - he didn't actually chew but a couple times. I am not sure how to encourage him to chew, but he had not vomited before I left.
- It's dry food only. I have been wanting to switch him to a wet / mixed food diet for a while but other individuals in the house have been resistant to that idea.
- With the exception of this morning, it's usually pretty soon after he eats. Once it happened while he was still eating, which was unpleasant for all parties involved. There is also some overnight vomiting, and since he sleeps with / on top of me ( though he's always polite enough to get off of me when vomiting so at least that's good ) I get woken up by the sound of retching. It's been only once or twice over the past few nights. So I suppose that's both a yes and a no for that question.
 

stephenq

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- I feed him Purina Naturals dry food, twice daily ( usually before I leave for work and after I come home, roughly 8 am and 9 pm )
- This vomiting started within the last three to four days. I can't say exactly for sure on that. But definitely very recently.
- The last change to his eating habits was probably two to three months ago, we switched him off of Meow Mix and onto the Purina because of his personal preference. Which is one of the reasons why all his essentials are separated - one of our other cats refuses to eat anything but Meow Mix. This morning after I fed him I watched him eat for as long as I could right up until I had to leave - he didn't actually chew but a couple times. I am not sure how to encourage him to chew, but he had not vomited before I left.
- It's dry food only. I have been wanting to switch him to a wet / mixed food diet for a while but other individuals in the house have been resistant to that idea.
- With the exception of this morning, it's usually pretty soon after he eats. Once it happened while he was still eating, which was unpleasant for all parties involved. There is also some overnight vomiting, and since he sleeps with / on top of me ( though he's always polite enough to get off of me when vomiting so at least that's good ) I get woken up by the sound of retching. It's been only once or twice over the past few nights. So I suppose that's both a yes and a no for that question.
Ok thanks for all the info.  It's not clear cut given how long ago you changed foods, but since he is vomiting after eating it could be a new food intolerance or its also possible he has an obstruction in his bowel, which if that was the case it would be quite urgent to get vet care.  What makes me worry about a blockage (like he ate something he shouldn't have or there is something else in his stomach) is how recently this developed and how consistently he is vomiting even sometimes during the meal, so i would emphasize that a vet visit asap is indicated.

On the other hand, one question I forgot to ask was how fast is he eating?  If he is wolfing down his food then that could be the cause, but again we would expect that he's been wolfing his food for some time, but the vomiting just started, which brings us back to a medical cause.

If its not a food intolerance, but some medical cause, your vet can do an exam and run tests. But something is most definitely not right with your cat, and your vet appointment is going to be important.

I know you have a vet visit tomorrow, please let us know how the visits goes ok.
 

ataraxiamb

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My vet suggested a quarter to a half of a Pepcid with each meal for my frequent vomitter.
 
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amaraena

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Small update, since I am home from work and not trying to find a signal and type on my phone! 

He seemed to be as happy to see me as ever. His appetite is still absolutely unaffected - I was definitely getting the "but mom I'm hungry" meows. Jumped around the room when I got home, as is his usual. So definitely not lethargic. 

Eating went a little differently for him tonight - in an effort to keep him from snarfing down the food like someone who hasn't eaten in a week ( which is what he's been doing ), I portioned out what I was going to feed him and then only put enough in the bowl that it covered the very bottom of it until he ate that, then added another "layer". Although he gave me the stink eye at first, eventually he got all his food. So far he's not started retching, he's just washing his face. 

I did not find any piles of vomit around the room that he was in today, so that's good. But I'm still taking him to get checked out. 

His appointment is for 2:30pm tomorrow, will post an update then! 

And ataraxiamb, my cousin ( who is a vet, though she specializes in large animals ) suggested trying that depending on what our vet says tomorrow. 
 

stephenq

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That was one of my big questions, was he scarfing his food, and if he does then that is a good explanation for the vomiting. You can still take the vet appointment but you can also delay a few days if you keep managing his portions and the puking doesn't come back, and if it doesn't then you've basically figured it out.
 
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amaraena

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I'm still going to go today, if only to discuss possible options to treat the over-grooming. I can't imagine what he'd be stressed over, he doesn't have to contend with the much younger cats for food, water, litter box, or even attention. If I'm home he has me to himself for the most part. 

He's always kinda scarfed his food down, after thinking about it for a while. I wonder why it just now became an issue? 

As far as I can tell - being of limited veterinary knowledge - bowel obstruction was ruled out by my uh, litter box find this morning.  

I'm also gonna talk to the vet about switching him to a mixed or wet food diet. Even with the slowed down portions, he was still trying to wolf it down. It just didn't work out that well. 

Plus today is my only option for a day off until Sunday, so it's today or then. 
 

lisahe

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The overgrooming could also be caused by some sort of itching, including from food sensitivities. Our previous cat licked all the hair off the lower part of her belly: the vet told us it was stress grooming but, looking back, I suspect it was caused by food sensitivities she was already developing.

Good luck with the vet appointment! (And I'm glad the litter box find rules out an obstruction.)
 
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amaraena

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Okay so, good news! He's not facing imminent death. At least not according to the vet. 

She said, if the vomiting is not solely because of crazy food scarfing, she has three thoughts due to his age, from most to least likely - 

Hyperthyroidism ( we got blood drawn on him to check for this at the visit ) 

Diabetes

Cancer in his GI tract

She prescribed Royal Canin High Energy wet food for him, and she wants me to switch him to a wet food diet. I didn't ask if mixing dry food is okay, but I will at the follow up visit which will be next Tuesday at 3:00pm. 
 

mphscat

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If the Royal Canine food contains any carrageenan or guargum, I would look for another food source. Nature Variety makes some great foods and toucan save money by buying through Chewy.com. Usually i'llbuy a can from a local pet store and if he likes it, order it through Chewy
 
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