Multiple vomiting cats

Hello,

I have 3 vomiting cats that started having symptoms in the past 2 weeks. They vomit everything they eat, and one of them had bloody vomit/stool. I took the first one, Aloo to the vet where they ran blood panels, xray, and found everything to be normal. They sent her home after fluid and cerenia injection. She was doing better with cerenia pills, but after she ran out, she started vomiting again. Billi started his vomiting 2 days ago, and because it had blood, I took him in the next morning. Vet checked him out, saw him to be having the same issue with Aloo, and sent him home with cerenia. He is doing ok on meds now. Last night, Jerry, my foster kitten, started throwing up dinner. This is the third cat with same symptoms, and it can't be a coincidence. The vet is baffled, and so am I! I am waiting for results form stool test, but they have been dewormed just a few weeks ago.

Not too long ago, I have lost 2 little foster kittens to what could have been Panleukopenia. They just died very quickly. I did noticed that one of them was vomiting. However, Billi and Aloo have been vaccinated. Jerry also had his 2 vaccinations, so it is very unlikely that it's Panleuk. Perhaps the kittens had something else like a GI virus? They were quarantined most of the time due to ringworm, but Jerry was in the same pen for one day with them. (I had to order a crate asap)

I am mostly very concerned that they cannot hold food. I don't want them to get fatty liver disease! I am waiting for vet to call back and perhaps give us more cerenia pills to give everyone. I've also read that Slippery Elm Bark Powder was good for calming stomach, so I have ordered it. 

I'm so worried and so baffled. Can't sleep with the vomiting sounds at night. My poor babies. Has anyone experienced anything like this?

What specific foods are they eating? If the vet checked them out, my next guess would be the food.

Hi Paiger8!

Yeah, I thought maybe it was contaminated food or something environmental, so I threw out the bag of dry and gave them baby food/wellness wet. They are still throwing up. It's unlikely that all 3 of them developed food sensitivities at the same time, so I'm wondering if it's something viral.

Or parasites, Protozoa, bacteria, or a virus. The foods probably suspect as well. Any time you have multiple cats displaying the same symptoms you have either a case of food that's gone bad or an infectious agent.

A fecals a good idea, but it's only as good as the specific gravity of the float media being used.

When in doubt, quarantine and treat for everything you can. You can't really treat for something that's viral but you can treat for the rest.

Put each cat in a different room or large dog kennels. By separating them you reduce the risk of continual reinfection and give their immune systems time to recover.

Throw out your food and get a new bag. Get disposable bowls for their food and water and throw them out at the end of the day.

Buy some new litter boxes, get heavy duty liners, and a bunch of litter. Then change out the litter box completely every day.

Talk to your vet about getting something similar to metoclopramide for vomiting and diarrhea, flagyl for Protozoa and some bacteria, and fenbendazole for parasites.

Wash their butts and around there mouth with an antibacterial shampoo daily or use vinegar.

Be consistent with dosing. Disinfectant all hard surfaces in their quarantine area, and wash all fabrics often.

Most importantly, wash your hands and don't let them rub up against your clothes.

These are the basic tenant's of infectious disease control. Hopefully they'll help you with your issue.

MingsMongols,

Thank you for your suggestions! I'm not sure if I can quarantine each of the cats, since I have a one bedroom apartment. I may separate the 2 non-symptomatic kittens from the sick ones, though the vet said they probably have already been exposed. I have been cleaning and washing everything since my little ones died, and I will try to keep cleaning and washing.

The vet called me back and said fecal sample was negative. He suggested that I try giving them Pepcid AC. Hopefully that will help with their vomiting. 

I have 10 indoor cats and a few months ago and i had a virus go through my house that got 8 of them with vomiting/diarrhea. I ruled out food, and I don't have any plants or anything like that. Food is usually the culprit in these situations, so it's good you threw out their old food. I used slippery elm bark syrup and pepcid for the cats vomiting bile. I also increased their probiotics. 2 had to go to the vet for fluids and cerenia, everyone else recovered after a few days. It's a little concerning its been going on for 2 weeks though. Slippery elm will def help, make it into a syrup and syringe to them if they wont eat it. 

Something like baby food or plain poached chicken or freeze dried chicken is good too. 

missmimz said:

 
I have 10 indoor cats and a few months ago and i had a virus go through my house that got 8 of them with vomiting/diarrhea. I ruled out food, and I don't have any plants or anything like that. Food is usually the culprit in these situations, so it's good you threw out their old food. I used slippery elm bark syrup and pepcid for the cats vomiting bile. I also increased their probiotics. 2 had to go to the vet for fluids and cerenia, everyone else recovered after a few days. It's a little concerning its been going on for 2 weeks though. Slippery elm will def help, make it into a syrup and syringe to them if they wont eat it. 

Something like baby food or plain poached chicken or freeze dried chicken is good too. 

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Oh my goodness! I'm having my hands full with 3, and you had 8 sick! The 4th one became sick early this morning. She's a 12 week old kitten, so I'm trying to be extra cautious with her. She's so little. I gave them pepcid at dinner yesterday and then this morning, but I think their stomach acid builds up during the night...they puked it out. I'm thinking of maybe doing the Pepcid before bed and doing the slipper elm during the day for breakfast/dinner? I'm also mixing in the probiotic in their food. I'm doing everything to get them to eat something. Homed cooked chicken/beef bland meals, canned wet food, and baby food. I also started leaving dry food out, since they seem to be having problems when their stomach is empty (stomach acid). It is so hard to medicate those beasts! I'm gonna try and crush the pepcid into powder, so I can mix it with food.

NYCats said:

 
Oh my goodness! I'm having my hands full with 3, and you had 8 sick! The 4th one became sick early this morning. She's a 12 week old kitten, so I'm trying to be extra cautious with her. She's so little. I gave them pepcid at dinner yesterday and then this morning, but I think their stomach acid builds up during the night...they puked it out. I'm thinking of maybe doing the Pepcid before bed and doing the slipper elm during the day for breakfast/dinner? I'm also mixing in the probiotic in their food. I'm doing everything to get them to eat something. Homed cooked chicken/beef bland meals, canned wet food, and baby food. I also started leaving dry food out, since they seem to be having problems when their stomach is empty (stomach acid). It is so hard to medicate those beasts! I'm gonna try and crush the pepcid into powder, so I can mix it with food.

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The slippery elm syrup should be given 15-20 mins before a meal. It should settle their stomachs and help them want to eat. Make a batch and just keep it in the fridge. 

Do you have any freeze dried, 100% plain meat treats? Like Pure Bites, Sojos, etc. Or Bonito flakes. Maybe crush some of those up on top of food to entice them to eat. Boiled chicken, chicken/turkey baby food, etc are all great too. My cats love 

Be VERY careful with the kittens and unbalanced food (like the non cat food, plain chicken & turkey) though. Kittens are growing like crazy and they need all the added vitamins and minerals in the regular, balanced food.

NYCats said:

 
Oh my goodness! I'm having my hands full with 3, and you had 8 sick! The 4th one became sick early this morning. She's a 12 week old kitten, so I'm trying to be extra cautious with her. She's so little. I gave them pepcid at dinner yesterday and then this morning, but I think their stomach acid builds up during the night...they puked it out. I'm thinking of maybe doing the Pepcid before bed and doing the slipper elm during the day for breakfast/dinner? I'm also mixing in the probiotic in their food. I'm doing everything to get them to eat something. Homed cooked chicken/beef bland meals, canned wet food, and baby food. I also started leaving dry food out, since they seem to be having problems when their stomach is empty (stomach acid). It is so hard to medicate those beasts! I'm gonna try and crush the pepcid into powder, so I can mix it with food.

Click to expand...

It does help morning acid vomits to give the pepcid at night. Pepcid has a bitter taste you might have trouble mixing it in food, it's best to pill. If you buy the generic pepcid they're easy to cut and pill. You can give slippery elm before a meal or you can mix in their meals too. My vet told me that since my cats didn't become ill all at once (it was a rolling like, like yours) that it was likely a virus and not food related, because if it was food they'd all have become sick at the same time. If your kitten has both vomiting and diarrhea you may need to get her to the vet for fluids and anti-nausea infection since they can get dehydrated very easily. I hope everyone gets better soon! 

Paiger8 said:

 
The slippery elm syrup should be given 15-20 mins before a meal. It should settle their stomachs and help them want to eat. Make a batch and just keep it in the fridge. 

Do you have any freeze dried, 100% plain meat treats? Like Pure Bites, Sojos, etc. Or Bonito flakes. Maybe crush some of those up on top of food to entice them to eat. Boiled chicken, chicken/turkey baby food, etc are all great too. My cats love 

Be VERY careful with the kittens and unbalanced food (like the non cat food, plain chicken & turkey) though. Kittens are growing like crazy and they need all the added vitamins and minerals in the regular, balanced food.

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The slippery elm seems to be helping. I can syringe the kittens with no problem at all, and they are eating and drinking without puking too much. They are now eating my home cooked meals as well as Hills Sensitive Stomach dry food. They dry food seems to be helping them not go too long without eating (to allow stomach acid to build up). I am mixing probiotics in their soft food. I have a feeling they can go back to eating regular wet food very soon. I'm so happy with their recovery.

Aloo on the other hand (my 4 yo female) just could not hold anything in her system, and she had gotten sick 2 weeks ago. She was doing better on Cerenia, but after she stopped taking the pill, she went back to puking. I had to take her to the vet this morning because she was getting dehydrated. They are keeping her hospitalized for a few days till she is able to hold food on her own. I am hoping her liver is OK. My poor baby.

Bill (4 yo male) is fighting all our efforts to pill him, syringe him or subQ fluid him. However, he ate half a can of Fancy Feast tonight, which is a big improvement. We will keep trying to medicate him, and we will go back to the vet if we can't do the fluid on our own. They said they could show us how to do it with him. Fingers crossed! Btw, bonito flakes are his favorite toppings.

missmimz said:

 
It does help morning acid vomits to give the pepcid at night. Pepcid has a bitter taste you might have trouble mixing it in food, it's best to pill. If you buy the generic pepcid they're easy to cut and pill. You can give slippery elm before a meal or you can mix in their meals too. My vet told me that since my cats didn't become ill all at once (it was a rolling like, like yours) that it was likely a virus and not food related, because if it was food they'd all have become sick at the same time. If your kitten has both vomiting and diarrhea you may need to get her to the vet for fluids and anti-nausea infection since they can get dehydrated very easily. I hope everyone gets better soon! 

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Our guess is some kind of a virus as well, since they went sick one by one. I was scared for the kittens as well, but for some reason, they are doing much better than the adults. They seem to be already on their way to recovery. I am definitely closely monitoring their intake and behavior. I got bags of SubQ fluid from the vet, so we can keep them hydrated if they start puking a lot. I have been syringing the kittens slippery elm before meals. They are so much easier to medicate than my adult. He's my next concern after my Aloo, who is now in hospital

nycats said:

Our guess is some kind of a virus as well, since they went sick one by one. I was scared for the kittens as well, but for some reason, they are doing much better than the adults. They seem to be already on their way to recovery. I am definitely closely monitoring their intake and behavior. I got bags of SubQ fluid from the vet, so we can keep them hydrated if they start puking a lot. I have been syringing the kittens slippery elm before meals. They are so much easier to medicate than my adult. He's my next concern after my Aloo, who is now in hospital

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Hi, I am having similar problems with my indoor cats. All have been vaccinated. Did you ever find out what caused the vomiting? Did all of the cats recover?

There have been a few threads on here with vomiting, diarrhea pandemics.

Please Help! All 6 Cats Suddenly Sick
S.o.s. All Three Cats Sick

It can take a while for recovery when there are multiple cats in the house. I had the vomiting problem and it was very violent. (s-o-s-all-three...)