vomiting and pooping on raw food

My cat has been eating a home made raw for about two years.  It has made a big difference in his health and he no longer has bladder issues.  However, in the last year  I find hair balls or a meal on the carpet and also he is pooping on the crapet instead of his box.        sometimes very firm sometimes liguid.    This happens about 1x a month or so.  Any suggestions what might be going on?  

If you could provide some details as far as what your kitty's homemade raw diet consists of, that would be helpful.

The recipe is:

10 lbs ground turkey meat

2 lbs ground turkey necks

2 lbs chicken hearts

1 lb chicken liver

sprinkle of nutritional yeast on each meal.

He is 12 lbs.  Flea free.  He eats about 8 oz a day.

He is an outdoor cat and prefers to go outdoors. When he is locked inside for a few days or a week he uses the litter box.   Every once in a while, especially in the morning I find this thrown up hair ball or poop that is sometimes hard, sometimes loose.  This morning however I found actual stomach contents of his food. 

More and more has been wanting to go out at night. Last night he stayed in and there was poop and vomit and hariballs all over the place.

I've heard it is normal when first starting on raw to do this but he's been doing this on and off for a while.  Otherwise he looks  looks great, acts like a kitten ( he is 10 years old) and his bladder problems are gone.    

Any ideas what could be going on. 

Has the cat been to the vet since the hairballs and loose poop started happening?

klb715 said:

 
The recipe is:

10 lbs ground turkey meat

2 lbs ground turkey necks

2 lbs chicken hearts

1 lb chicken liver

sprinkle of nutritional yeast on each meal.

He is 12 lbs.  Flea free.  He eats about 8 oz a day.

He is an outdoor cat and prefers to go outdoors. When he is locked inside for a few days or a week he uses the litter box.   Every once in a while, especially in the morning I find this thrown up hair ball or poop that is sometimes hard, sometimes loose.  This morning however I found actual stomach contents of his food. 

More and more has been wanting to go out at night. Last night he stayed in and there was poop and vomit and hariballs all over the place.

I've heard it is normal when first starting on raw to do this but he's been doing this on and off for a while.  Otherwise he looks  looks great, acts like a kitten ( he is 10 years old) and his bladder problems are gone.    

Any ideas what could be going on. 

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I'm sorry you've been going through this with kitty.  To the best of  my knowledge, I believe you need to be supplementing your recipes (and thereby adjusting what you're using) with a either a premix for homemade raw or individual supplements:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources  (See "recipes" and "nutritional supplements").

The only raw diet that does not need to be supplemented is a whole prey diet (or a commercially prepared "complete and balanced diet").

I would take kitty to the vet, especially a ten year old cat so a full CBC can be run, see how his kidneys and thyroid are doing. While it's great that he's acting like a kitten when he isn't showing the symptoms you mentioned, vomiting can be very dehydrating, moreover, cats are experts at masking discomfort and if there is a health issue going on, you would want to catch it sooner than later.

Cats eliminate outside the box for various reasons, medical, behavioral (due to a new kitty litter not of their liking or a box that may need to be cleaned out, etc.)

Do you know if he is also throwing up when he is outdoors?

Hopefully other TCS members will chime in but I would consider a vet visit.

LisaMarie12 said:

 
I'm sorry you've been going through this with kitty.  To the best of  my knowledge, I believe you need to be supplementing your recipes (and thereby adjusting what you're using) with a either a premix for homemade raw or individual supplements:
I would take kitty to the vet, especially a ten year old cat so a full CBC can be run, see how his kidneys and thyroid are doing. While it's great that he's acting like a kitten when he isn't showing the symptoms you mentioned, vomiting can be very dehydrating, moreover, cats are experts at masking discomfort and if there is a health issue going on, you would want to catch it sooner than later.
Cats eliminate outside the box for various reasons, medical, behavioral (due to a new kitty litter not of their liking or a box that may need to be cleaned out, etc.)

Do you know if he is also throwing up when he is outdoors?

Hopefully other TCS members will chime in but I would consider a vet visit.

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I'm also sorry to hear that your cat is showing these symptoms. I have to agree with LisaMarie12 about a vet visit: those symptoms can indicate a lot of disorders, particularly since he's not young.

I hope you're able to get some answers -- and good advice for solutions -- with a vet visit!

Thank you Lisa. I thoroughly resesrched all those sites and more before developing the recipe I give him. I am seeking help from any of you who may have experience feeding raw rather than the vet who knows very little about cat nutrition and only subscribes symptom relievers. When he is outside I have no idea how often he is throwing up or the state of his bowels.

If no one here with rawfood feeding experience c as n shed any light it would not hurt to take him in for an overall check up and a check for parasites.

He may be eating a plant on a regular basis. Our cat was doing that for a while. The plant was not toxic - I had checked multiple references before buying it. It upset his stomach, but he would continue to nibble on it every morning and vomit. After three days of this, we put the plant away and the vomiting stopped.

The only time he had loose stools was when he had managed to get into a bag of treats and eat a bunch of them. We would give him those treats maybe once a month, so he couldn't handle so many at once.

I would still strongly recommend a visit to the vet to rule out any serious problems.

klb715 said:

Thank you Lisa. I thoroughly resesrched all those sites and more before developing the recipe I give him. I am seeking help from any of you who may have experience feeding raw rather than the vet who knows very little about cat nutrition and only subscribes symptom relievers. When he is outside I have no idea how often he is throwing up or the state of his bowels.

If no one here with rawfood feeding experience c as n shed any light it would not hurt to take him in for an overall check up and a check for parasites.

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Obviously I'm not a vet but this sounds like an issue that really needs a vet's care because, as LisaMarie12 mentioned, kidney and thyroid are concern at his age and with his symptoms. I would also be very concerned about IBD. When our cat had similar symptoms, she had a combination of all three of those health issues, to varying degrees, plus a bad heartbeat/arrhythmia and it was incredibly helpful, for comparison purposes, to have had a baseline blood test done a few years earlier.

Even though our cat's vet knew next to nothing about feline nutrition I can't tell you enough how important it was to get her in and examined so she could get fluids and more tests. I was the one to figure out how to feed her in her final months because the vet knew absolutely nothing but at least we knew for sure what was wrong and could make her last months a little easier. I figured out how to feed (and my changes did help the cat--the vet was shocked) by lurking here and reading lots of other sites, like catinfo.org.

All of which is to say that I'm glad you're going to take your cat in. And once you have more information about what's going on, I'm sure you'll get lots of great suggestions on food!

Yes, that is how I ended up feeding him this diet.  Took him in for the symptoms he had before. 

What I was hoping to get here if anyone else has experienced those symptoms with a cat on raw. 

 Maybe not is not even food related.   It is at the point now where, I feel it is a concern.  I am wondering about parasites or something.  Because he does go outside.

Silver Persian...

Oh my I had a male silver Persian and a female white who whose pedigree was 75% silver.  She was a gorgeous brat.  He was a sweet gentleman.  Both gorgeous.

But this guy, my gray tuxedo rescue, oh my gosh, no way to know what he could be getting into outside.   He has been so healthy otherwise and it has been so good not to be running to the vet every few months like we did before but, it really sounds like it may be time to do that again.  Unless I can figure out what in the heck is going on. 

klb715, I hope your cat is doing better. My little guy is a gorgeous bratty gentleman, everywhere except for the vet's office. Ever since they neutered him, he turns into vicious Ninja-kitty over there.

Mine is very polite at the vet's and the groomers.  I have to take him to a groomer to have his nails clipped.  He is a monster when I do time and just lays there at the groomers. We use the exact same nail trimmers.  Go figure. 

I have not taken him to the vet yet.  The hairball and poop episodes happen about once a month, at night,  on my carpet!! The last episode included regurgitated fresh food, first time for that, usually it is just the hairballs.   His hairballs and this vomit left a dark stain.    His box is clean, he is the only pet in the house. He otherwise uses his box, but prefers outside.

Until this last year he was not allowed outside at night.  Lately he throws a big hissy fit to get outside.  He is 10 years old and savvy out there, usually just stays on the patio furniture.

He patrols an area that is within sight and hearing of me because he comes when called and runs to greet me whenever I come home or go to the door.

Took him to the vet today $84 later:

throwing up hairballs is normal, sometimes with the intensity poop wil come out too.  He is healthy.  They gave me some hairball ointment and for the sake of prevention because he is an outdoor cat dewormed him.  

So, the thing is, I should give him some thing to let the hairballs pass easier.   If he will eat pineapple it will dissolve it apparently.