My cat is throwing up every morning

jyb73

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I have recently been to the vet and had a checkup and her health issues have been addressed and I'm out of money for more vet bills for her right now.  She is a 13 year old Siamese with a long history of vomitting.  She's been doing considerably better till the last week or so.

Now every morning after eating, she throws up.  I've fed her late for dinner, so I know she may be gorging.  I tried giving her less, but she threw up again.  She has the same food for dinner and never throws it up, so I don't think it's the food.  It seems to be the timing. She has kidney issues, so I need to keep her on wet food (I use Stella & Chewy's rehydrated freeze dried b/c it has low phosphorus counts).  She's also very perky, more social since a recent surgery, and (not surprising) extremely chatty, so I don't think she's feeling badly.

She is underweight (has always been), but has recently put back on 1.5 lbs.  This is why the sudden throwing up is surprising.  We've had none for a about two months prior to this last week.

I am going to try raising the food w/ an obstruction, but I have canine, opportunistic thieves about and it seems dangerous to try and get her to eat at the top of her cat tower (the only place I can think of giving it to her where she would be uncomfortable eating it on the same level.  I'm worried that at her age, she might lose balance and not pay close attention.  Her eye sight is diminishing.  Any other ideas?
 

tiptopper

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How long is she without food from night meal to morning? You said you feed her late for dinner but what are the times?
 
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jyb73

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I fed her around 8:30 last night and feed her around 5 - 6 am.  It's not incredibly late, but it's a smaller window than during the day (6 am to 7 or 8 pm depending on the day).
 

fodder

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Does she heave when throwing up or does it just seem to spontaneously fall out of her mouth kind of? Does she lick her lips and swallow a fair bit?
Just a thought but maybe she has GERD.
I know you said you don't have the money to take her to the vet again but it sounds like you probably should when you do. It may be some sort of complication from her kidney problems. Sounds like something the vet will need to look at though, throwing up a lot is not normal behavior for sure.
Have you ever given her a probiotic at all? Im not sure if it actually helps at all to be honest but some people say it helps with stomach problems and it's cheap so could be worth a shot.
 

tiptopper

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I would try feeding more often so her stomach is not empty. If you could give her a small amount of food as late as you can and again first thing in the morning and see if it helps. If you put food out late she may have some leftover around 2 or 3 am. Poor kitty.
 

foxxycat

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it's not uncommon for kidney kitties to experience nausea. Ask the vet about Pepcid AC. or Cerenia but the Pepcid will def help if she has GERD. I put the dishes up on a shelf about 3" from the floor made out of scrap wood with sides out of chunks of 2x4 wood. This helped her immensely. I gave the Pepcid via injection as it was less stressful on her AND I was unable to open her mouth-even with help. We also did sub fluids to help hydrate her on days she was feeling poorly. She was 17.5 when she left. You can ask about Pepcid and Cerenia to aid in comfort. If you are comfortable with needles you can ask to get it this way. a vial of Pepcid AC generic is like $15 and the dose is normally very tiny. the pill form is a 1/4 of 10 mg..try to give it an hour before feeding time. it works for 24-48 hours. my cat needed it daily.
 
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jyb73

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She is on sub-cue fluids (it started after administering her 2nd dose).  I am trying to feed her more frequently.  I have been putting the probiotics in, but she's throwing them up, so I'll try switching them to night to see if they'll stay down then.  Today I left all supplements out and gave a 1/2 dose to see if it would help.

As mentioned, she's often thrown up since her youth and, while it's been better on better foods, it's not ever been completely eliminated.  This is the most persistent in a while.  I'll ask my vet re: GERD, I just can't take her in right now b/c my rescue dog needs an expensive neutering (undescended testicle) and I just can't afford more pet care AND high quality food at this time.  He has an appointment tomorrow.  I will take her in once I get past his surgery.

I'll also try elevating her food more on her cat tower (putting at the top didn't work b/c she just would't follow it there) I did try raising it an inch and added a kong to get in the way of her scarfing it down.  Perhaps it was successful or perhaps it was just timing (she'd already vomitted breakfast #1).

Thanks for all the advice.
 
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jyb73

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I meant to say she definitely heaves it up.  You can see the whole body purging it - I've always been able to.  The vets have never given me a particular reason.
 

tiptopper

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What was her recent surgery for? Is the vomit undigested food, liquid?
 

missmimz

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Is her thyroid normal? Stella and Chewy is not low in phos, it contains bone and all their varieties are high in phos, much higher than a CKD cat should be on. What are your cats phos level? If her phos is too high you should either switch her to a lower phos wet or freeze dried food (Fresh is Best as the lowest phos levels for a freeze dried food) or use a binder. That could be part of the vomiting. 

http://www.felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm
 

frajude

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One of the cats in the picture (not Siamese) has also thrown up from the time she was young but not until we got a second cat.  She eats food and in an hour or so regurgitates.  I have tried putting her on Iams for sensitive stomach and now Purina One also for sensitive stomachs.  She used to eat canned food but now does not.  I wonder if cats can have a nervous stomach.  I had numerous stomach problems when I was young which eventually led to gerds.  When we first got Goldie, within a few days she was sick.  We took her to a vet and 300.00 dollars later we found out she had a bacterial infection. I fully understand how easy it is to overextend oneself at the vet.   I buy freeze dried chicken for my cats treats to keep them limited to other types of treats.

I found this website.

http://www.diagnosemycat.com

The only symptom in my case was weight loss BUT my cat runs very fast, and is very active altho she also sleeps a lot.  How many cats do you have ?  Could she be nervous.
 
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jyb73

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I'm sorry I took so long to get back.  Things are vastly improved.  I couldn't successfully elevate her food (I won't go into the ordeal), but I did give her a little of her Stella & Chew's dry while prepring it. Then she decided she preferred it that way!!! A problem with her needing more fluids.  But now I put a little water on the bottom and put the dehydrated raw on top and she does eventually drink the water.  It's not ideal, but it's working.  I'm feeding her more light meals.  She's thrown up only a little one time in the past couple of weeks.  Thank you for all your help!
 

missmimz

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I'm sorry I took so long to get back.  Things are vastly improved.  I couldn't successfully elevate her food (I won't go into the ordeal), but I did give her a little of her Stella & Chew's dry while prepring it. Then she decided she preferred it that way!!! A problem with her needing more fluids.  But now I put a little water on the bottom and put the dehydrated raw on top and she does eventually drink the water.  It's not ideal, but it's working.  I'm feeding her more light meals.  She's thrown up only a little one time in the past couple of weeks.  Thank you for all your help!
I really would not recommend you feed Stella and Chewy dry. As i mentioned above, it contains bone so it's not low in phos and because it contains bone it needs to be rehydrated. It's not meant to be fed dry and especially for a CKD cat you do not want to be feeding something with bone that's very high in phos when not diluted. In addition, I used to give it dry to my cat and he developed some crystals and high urine pH (never had any in his life before even when he was on a kibble only diet), which went away when i stopped. 

I use the trick where I crumble up the S&C and then drizzle water on top so that the food is only a little moist but the water is on the bottom, it's similar to what you're doing. As long as she gets the water with it, you're good. If you aren't, you should look into using a binder with S&C, because the phos level is way higher than you want for a CKD cat and if you don't control the phos levels her CKD will not only progress faster, but if her phos levels raise too much that will cause major nausea and vomiting. 

These are good elevated bowls, I have like 8 of them. 

 
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jyb73

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I am giving her some water w/ it, just not as much as before.  She's not willing to eat just anything and I have been weighing the food issue for months.  It isn't as low in phosphorus as others, but it is the lowest that seems to be better sourced and not full of a lot of the additives I think contributed to the problem.  The very diets my vet wants me to put her on are the very diets (but modified for kidneys) I think made her develop these problems.  I can't go back to Science Diet and Royal Canine after all the research of the last few years.  I couldn't get her to prescribe Darwin's kidney/liver b/c it has higher phosphorus, but balances it with appropriate calcium coutns.  Anyway, it's something my husband and I have struggled over deciding for a while and it's where we've landed.  But thank you for bringing it to my attention.  

The good news is she's doing better than ever in her life.  So if it shortens it, she's at least thriving for the time being.  Now I just need to find her a muzzle b/c she's so chatty she's driving me kind of crazy (I'm kidding, but she keeps waking everybody w/ her talking)!  She actually explores and plays and tries to get out more in her senior years than in her youth.  New mischeif brewing with the new energy.
 
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