Cat vomits every other day--should I rule out parasites??

Hi Fellow Cat Lovers, 

I've posted about Black Kitty before. She has been dealing with an elevated level of chronic vomiting. She's been to the vet often too, and we are about to consider taking it to the next level as the vet thinks it's likely IBD or Lymphoma (but things lymphoma is unlikely given her bloodwork.) I've read the threads about whether to do the endoscopy or just treat and my gut says before we take her care to the next level, to rule out things like parasites or even more targeted diet remedies. I'm considering seeing a holistic vet to try a gentler path to see if we can solve the problem before putting her through an endoscopy or long term prednisone. 

My ultimate questions are

1) Should I spend $300 do to a comprehensive stool test to rule out parasites even though the Internal Medicine vet thinks parasites are unlikely? and

2) Should I spend a little extra money and time seeing a holistic vet to see if we can work more carefully on her diet and/or herbs before putting her through the stress of either an endoscopy or long-term prednisolone?

A few things to note:

a) BK is 12 1/2 years old. Her sister recently passed away in August of nasal lymphoma (survived it for 18 mos, but we had to say goodbye this summer). Her vomiting increased after her sister passed.

b) We also recently adopted a kitten that also contributed her Black Kitty's stress...I think also might have increased her vomiting. The kitten had a bout of something gastrointestinal and was also vomiting. We gave her metronidazole which did the trick. We never gave BK a stool test or treated for parasites. also note that the kitten did have two stool tests which both came out clean, though treatment did work for her. 

c) On that note, BK has had a history of vomiting...which we attributed to eating too fast. Regurgitation. But after her sister passed and new kitty came, it increased to a more frequent level and not always attributable to eating too fast.

d) Since this summer, BK has had an ultrasound and a couple of full blood panels. All checked out fairly okay with very very early stages of kidney issues. The vet ruled out pancreatitis and thinks lymphoma is a low probability. After her physical and reviewing her bloodwork, he says her diagnosis is ."..about as good as it gets."

e) She has a history of asthma and coughing. I think her vomiting might increase when she has a coughing episode.

f) The kitten tries to play with her and I think this might stress her out (although they do cuddle and lick each other). I wonder sometimes if stress has made her vomiting worse? 

My ultimate concern is I really don't want to stress her out more or put her on long term pred if I can avoid it/found out what is triggering this. She continues to vomit every other day. Never two days in a row (which has me wondering if it's parasites.) Vet says parasites are unlikely, but it was in an email and I don't know why he thinks that.  

I apologize that this is so long. I just don't know what to do for her. But she stresses easily and I don't want to contribute to that unnecessarily. 

Many thanks for whatever advice or experience you can offer!

I too think that parasites probably isn't the issue.  Even with the new kitten that could have brought something in I think that it is very unlikely especially with the absence of diarrhea.  

Some people swear by holistic vets others don't .  I tend to fall in the latter group but some people have had very good outcomes with them, they are expensive though.  I think their tendency to charge so much more than conventional vets is one of the things that makes me skeptical.

Your kitty seems to be at the moment having fairly mild symptoms though of course they are disconcerting and there is something going on that isn't normal.  There are some things you can try on your own to see if there is improvement.

You can try running Feliway diffusers for stress.  Some kitties improve with them and other kitties don't seem to improve.  They can't do any harm so it would be worth a try.  I don't know what you have tried diet wise.  Does your kitty eat wet food well.  If so I would try a food in a protein that kitty hasn't eaten before which is what is met when you see the term 'novel protein'.  You wan't a simple food that is as close to just the meat, liver, and necessary supplements as possible.

Is it foamy vomit in the morning or after eating? Kidney problems can lead to increased stomach acidity and nausea, the vomit from that is usually foamy spit on an empty stomach. If you want to avoid stronger medications, a lot of people have good luck with slippery elm bark and that could be a good gentle first step. And also doing an elimination diet with a novel protein/carb combo for about a month will give you an idea whether it's a food intolerance.

With my cat's issues, I was told to just treat her for worms because the parasite screens don't always show everything there anyway. How were your cat's eosinophils? Mine's were elevated, which the vet said could either be from parasites or food allergy.

My cat was vomiting every day. I was taking her to vet and vet could not find nothing wrong. I was experimenting with food for sometime and got that she has allergy on gluten. Now I give her just organic food without additives and she is good.

I agree with the others about diet: it does sound like a food sensitivity is, at the very least, a top suspect for what's making Black Kitty vomit. Frequent vomiting was a sign that our previous cat had IBD: she was significantly older than Black Kitty and had lots of health issues, in various degrees of seriousness, but her digestive symptoms eased quite a bit in her last months when we took all the grains out of her diet. (As in @Mikiandnino's experience, we found that glutens, corn and/or wheat, seemed to be a problem.)

I understand about stress levels. What does Black Kitty like to eat? Would it be easy (or at least not too stressful?) to try a new diet, with a novel protein, like @Denice mentioned?

Thank you, Everyone! I went offline over the holidays and am relieved to see great suggestions for Black Kitty. I never thought to try Feliway diffusers for stress. There definitely is an increase in vomiting when guests stay or we go out of town. Overall, her vomiting increased when her sister passed and a new kitten came along. 

Black Kitty is very particular about her food. I can only get her to supplement with wet food and graze on dry food to keep her eating. I've tried feeding her novel  proteins without success (she won't eat them) in the past. But, I wasn't very methodical, as I was very distracted with caring for her ill sister. I will try again and be more committed about it this time around. I always have the battle of choosing having her eat SOMETHING rather than lose weight (which so far her weight is stable.) 

I'll look in her food ingredients when I get home from the holidays and see if there is wheat and gluten in them. I'll also check her eosinophils in her latest bloodwork and potentially look into Slippery Elm. She did have a very slight increase in her kidney numbers (forget which two, and I'm not home to see her bloodwork) so that could be causing her elevated acidity. The vet said to keep her on 1/4 tab of pepcid per day, but I hate doing that without trying to resolve the problem itself if I can.

@samus, when she's not regurgitating, her vomit is foamy maybe 1/5 of the time. Sometimes it's slimy with whole pellets of dry food and a little foam. But most often is just lots of food.

I'm encouraged by what I'm reading--thank you for sharing your experience. Happy Holidays!

I had a kitty who had a similar pattern of vomiting.  By process of elimination, we figured out it was the canned fish flavored food we were feeding her in rotation.  We stopped that food, and she never vomited again.

stephanietx said:

 
I had a kitty who had a similar pattern of vomiting.  By process of elimination, we figured out it was the canned fish flavored food we were feeding her in rotation.  We stopped that food, and she never vomited again.

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Wow, that's amazing! Thanks for sharing your encouraging experience. Now that I'm in a place where I can focus better on my kitty's diet, I truly hope that we are able to find a culprit that we can eliminate and heal her system. 

samus said:

 
Is it foamy vomit in the morning or after eating? Kidney problems can lead to increased stomach acidity and nausea, the vomit from that is usually foamy spit on an empty stomach. If you want to avoid stronger medications, a lot of people have good luck with slippery elm bark and that could be a good gentle first step. And also doing an elimination diet with a novel protein/carb combo for about a month will give you an idea whether it's a food intolerance.

With my cat's issues, I was told to just treat her for worms because the parasite screens don't always show everything there anyway. How were your cat's eosinophils? Mine's were elevated, which the vet said could either be from parasites or food allergy.

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I just checked and Black Kitty's most recent eosinophils were low--a 3 in a (normal range is 2-12.) So maybe it's not parasites. But I don't understand what they are....I wonder if this would also mean likely not a food allergy too...

Mikiandnino said:

 
My cat was vomiting every day. I was taking her to vet and vet could not find nothing wrong. I was experimenting with food for sometime and got that she has allergy on gluten. Now I give her just organic food without additives and she is good.

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Thank you--what food are you feeding her? Which additives are you avoiding? I've been giving BK high quality food, but it is canned and does have locust bean, xanthan and guar gum in it. I'm probably going to try cooking food for her to see if that works. Sigh. 

nekolove said:

 
Thank you--what food are you feeding her? Which additives are you avoiding? I've been giving BK high quality food, but it is canned and does have locust bean, xanthan and guar gum in it. I'm probably going to try cooking food for her to see if that works. Sigh. 

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I am giving to my cat just organic food without conservation and additives.There is just a little bit taurin inside and vitamins.