Eating Habits

Hi everyone!
My two year old adopted baby has some weird eating habits. I adopted her just over 6 months ago, and we've been dealing with a vomit issue on and off since. Sometimes her food will come back up shortly after eating it, and by sometimes I mean it'll be at least twice a week.
At first I was feeding her all dry food. I started mixing it with wet and it got better for a couple weeks. Then the regurgitation started again. So I did just wet, which again helped for a little bit but not permanently. Thought it might be hairballs, so I started mixing back in some dry hair all food with the wet. Helped for a bit, then it started again. Brought her to the vet, who looked at her teeth and decided she needed an extraction, which ended up being 7 teeth.
It's now been two weeks and she's started eating somewhat normally again. I thought the problem had been solved and it had just been the pain from the teeth, but she's thrown up twice since Friday. Any ideas??? The frustration is that every time I try to change something, she'll be fine for a bit, but it always comes back! I want her to get the nutrition she needs and not have to deal with this!

Hi @loveteachart

I'm sorry you haven't had any responses yet. I think this may be a health issue rather than a problem with the food you are feeding her. Does she tend to gobble her food or is she a slow eater?

What was her history before she came to you? Was she from a shelter, was she a stray or did you she come from another home? 

Ditto to Norachan's questions.  Has your vet ruled out pancreatitis?  Does she seem to be in pain at all or lethargic?  You could keep a log of when she vomits and what she's eaten to see if any patterns emerge.  My senior cat was vomiting a lot, and I figured out that fish-based foods were triggering it.  Now she only gets chicken and turkey and has been vomiting a lot less (she's also a kidney cat, so she has other issues).

If she's vomiting immediately after eating, that's normally caused from either overeating, or eating too fast.  You could try raising her food dish, spreading her food out on a plate, feeding more frequent, smaller meals, and/or putting something in her bowl (even a clean golf ball) that she has to eat around, all of which should slow her down. 

+1 on the eating too fast. That's super common in cats.

I'd also check the ingredients in her food for a common denominator with the barfing. My cat would randomly throw up after eating certain meals, and I read all the ingredients in the foods I was feeding. I figured out the common ingredient was potato. I stopped feeding all foods with anything potato in them (sweet potato, potato, potato flour, etc) and the barfing immediately stopped. It was just too starchy for his tummy. @LisaHE  called it the "root" of all evil. 

I'd personally cut out all the dry and feed a Limited Ingredient wet food. Since there are so many ingredients and fillers in dry food, it's impossible to narrow down ingredients. A limited ingredient food should narrow down proteins and veggies so you can figure out what specific thing is causing the puking. Feed one type for a week or so, if she doesn't throw up, add another in the rotation. Continue until you have a list of "safe" foods. If something causes her to throw up, figure out what ingredient is in that can that's not in the previous cans that she's able to keep down. 

I agree with all the great suggestions that everyone else has already made. Our former vomiter does much better holding down her food now that we spread out her food and don't feed her potato. Potato really is the root of all cat food evil! I also make a point of not feeding the cats when they've been running around: Edwina does still tend to barf if she's been playing a lot before she eats.

One thing in your story gives me pause, though @loveteachart: your cat's dental extractions. So many extractions for a cat so young sounds unusual and I wonder if she has chronic gingivitis, stomatitis, or other mouth problems. I ask because our cats had the Bartonella bacterium, which can cause those problems: they had too much plaque and gingivitis before the tender age of two, so our vet tested them. They came back positive, took antibiotics for two weeks, and had negative Bartonella results in follow-up testing. Bartonella has also been implicated in stomach issues, as mentioned in this Vet Street article. (article is here) Not all vets believe that Bartonella (which is also the bacterium that causes cat scratch fever in humans!) can do these things but ours does. She's a cat specialist and has seen many cats' dental issues improve markedly after Bartonella treatment. Our cats' mouths looked so good at this year's check-up (1.5 years later, I think?) that she shook my hand; they do get daily toothbrushing, too, but I don't think that's doing the trick on its own because I can't exactly get each tooth! Their mouths are markedly better. Even I can see the difference, which is definitely saying something!

I don't remember how much the initial Bartonella blood test was but can check my cat file if you're interested. It's definitely worth looking into, even if it only helps one of your cat's two problems! What is your cat's name, by the way?

In response to all questions (I think, but may have missed some because there are lots of responses in one day! Thank you all):
- I've tried raising her food bowl and bought one of those slow eater bowls meant for dogs. Both seemed to help for a bit but the vomiting came back. Unfortunately separating the meals into more, smaller chunks is hard for me, as I'm a teacher and regularly work 10 hour days(minimum).
- In the last couple days she has started eating more, and slower. I now feed her 1/4 can wet and 1 tbsp dry 4x daily, and each time it takes her about 5 minutes to eat it. I'm going to monitor that.
-I'll check her food for potatoes! She definitely can't eat beef, when I fed her that she threw up every time, but I hadn't thought of starch (and lol to the 'root' of all evil comment, love a good pun).
lisahe her name is Lizzie! I'm a Jane Austen fan and Pride and Prejudice is my favorite. It fits because she's loving and curious but also independent and loves to play. I looked up the bartonella bacteria and remembered that the shelter I adopted her from actually told me she tested positive for that when they took her in! We have a follow-up with the vet on Monday just to see how she's doing, so I'll definitely make a note to ask about that. I've never been able to brush her teeth, she would never let me in her mouth and now I know why. I have had several people comment on how unusual it is for her teeth to have been so bad when she's so young(she's my first pet so I don't know what's usual or not). The vet hasn't tested for any underlying causes of the teeth issue, and she was so traumatized after the extractions I don't want to put her through any more than is necessary. When I brought her in last week to check on the swelling and healing she was shaking like a leaf and her heart was pounding, poor baby.

Thank you everyone for your responses! I'll talk to the vet on Monday about the bartonella possibility, and hopefully we can help her be more comfortable. She's rid of the painful teeth, which has made a huge difference, but obviously she and I have work to do. I don't want her to be in pain or discomfort anymore!! Looking at this face, who could disagree with me?!?!

loveteachart, that's great that Lizzie has already been tested for Bartonella. (That's a very with-it shelter!) Our cats had two-week courses of azithromycin liquid and it worked the first time. The see-if-it-worked blood tests were the most expensive part of the whole process... but considerably cheaper than dental cleanings.

Potatoes are ridiculously ubiquitous in cat food. We also avoid peas in all forms and, really, all other carby stuff other than a very occasional pouch of Weruva chicken with pumpkin that has tapioca thickener... most of which gets drained to avoid the carbs! Both our cats have digestive issues that seem to stay under control if they only eat very basic, low-carb foods. (Apparently digestive problems are common for Siamese mixes.)

Lizzie is very sweet -- I love her expression! I hope you're able to figure out what's ailing her. I'm glad the tooth extraction has helped make her more comfortable.

And oof, I now feel especially guilty for having never read Pride and Prejudice, though it's been on my shelf forever!

Lizzie is absolutely ADORABLE . 

Thanks mrsgreenjeens I think so too, but I could be called biased [emoji]9786[/emoji]️

So update! (Especially at you, lisahe , since you pointed me towards the Bartonella possibility)

We just got back from the vet with a nice bag of goodies. Lizzie also has an ear infection, in addition to the vomit issue. Poor baby. She's healing really well in the teeth department, and there are no signs of stomatitis causing the vomiting.

Apparently my vet is one of the ones that doesn't believe in Bartonella definitively causing tooth problems and stomach upset. She was willing to test for it, especially since she's tested positive in the past, but doesn't really see it as being strongly linked with her issues. So, we're holding off on that for now.

After talking with the vet, she was wondering if it might be a gastrointestinal problem, or maybe even some constipation. So I have a laxative(Lactulose, her poop's been small and hard but I just assumed it was because she wasn't eating a lot) and the vet has her on a Royal Canin GI food(canned and dry). Both the vet and I feel bad that we've been there so many times lately, she's now hiding in her carrier the entire time and her heart races until we get home. Hopefully this will do the trick!