Vomiting is back...

Hi everyone! I posted a little while back about my Lizzie's finicky eating habits and tendency to vomit every couple of days. Last update she was on ear drops for an ear infection(which I've since stopped, and the inner ear scratching seems fine) Lactulose (my vet thought maybe the vomiting was due to constipation) and we'd been prescribed Royal Canin GI diet by my vet.

I searched for (and found) a new vet. My old one didn't seem to be examining her very well and just seemed to try random symptom treatments. I was also frustrated because they gave a headshy cat two prescriptions to be given in the ear and mouth twice daily, which resulted in her hiding from me whenever she saw me. Anyways, the new vet told me I could mix the Lactulose into her wet food, and suggested we switch to Purina EN Gastroenteric because Royal Canin is not great. I started doing both of those things, and Lizzie was doing great for a couple weeks. Eating all her food (plus some of the dry that I was free feeding), pooping normally, even peeing more. It was great, and I thought our problem was solved.

But then, on a dark and stormy night... Not really. But this past Friday evening, I came Home to a nice puddle of regurgitated food from her afternoon meal. She puked again Sunday morning (this one was almost a projectile vomit, it got some distance). Since friday, she's only eaten about half of what I've been leaving out, which means she's not getting all of her Lactulose.

Any ideas as to what might cause this? I've changed type of food, makeup of meals(wet, dry, mix of the two, both by separately), height of bowl, number of meals, and everything works for a week or two but then the vomiting and picking eating comes back.

Also, possibly but not definitely related, I'm thinking possible food allergy to the Purina EN. She's been scratching her neck, behind ears, chin, behind front 'shoulder' joints, shaking her head... The food has rice in it, which I found weird, but she seemed to love t for a while.

Sorry for the long winded post. This just seems to be a complicated issue that we can't find a solution to. She has her first appointment with the new vet tomorrow afternoon, and this place deals almost exclusively with cats, so I have high hopes. Any advice in the meantime would be much appreciated!!

I think you might be onto something with the food allergy, especially with the vomiting and scratching.  You might ask the vet about doing a limited ingredient food and see if that helps.

Be sure to mention the head shaking though, because that could mean the inner ear infection is NOT gone.  That's one of the signs   And those things are kind of hard to clear up when they get deep in the ear like that. 

I agree that a limited ingredient food might do the trick.  Cat's are not usually allergic to rice, oddly.  When they have bad diarrhea, chicken and RICE are the "fix".

Thank you both for your responses! I'll be sure to mention this all to the vet tomorrow.

The only thing that seems weird is that the vomiting isn't consistent. Every two or three days, and not at a consistent time of day. Would a food allergy still look like this?

A couple days later, she's doing... alright. The new vet is doing some blood work, which I take as a good sign because my old vet never even suggested it; they were more interested in just trying random treatments for symptoms instead of diagnosing the underlying problem.

I was told to finish out the Lactulose given to us by the former vet, they gave Lizzie a dose of antinausea medicine (she ate like a champ that night) and want us to keep on the Purina EN for a bit. I'm also giving Lizzie Fortiflora mixed in with her wet food (although, in a surprising twist, she seems to prefer the dry more lately, so last night I sprinkled it over that and bam! She ate almost all of it).

Waiting to hear back from the vet about the blood work. I'm really hoping it's something fixable and relatively inexpensive! I love my baby and will spend the money if it will help her, but it's already been so much in so short a time...