Hydrolyzed Diet Recommendations for Kitty that Frequently Vomits

[jcnassoc]

Hi all –

Brief Background: One of my little girls (7 years old) has—from the time she adopted us as a kitten—had a habit of vomiting very frequently. I started tracking each event back in 2019 and she’s averaging about every 13 days, though:

• She can go weeks without vomiting, then vomit multiple times in a week. Very inconsistent pattern.
• My tracking only includes cases where we see her vomiting; often we find vomit but don’t know for sure if it’s hers or her sister’s (so I don’t include those in my tracking).

We’ve taken her to the vet multiple times over the years for blood work, exams, urine and stool testing, and most recently an abdominal ultrasound. Everything comes up negative, and at this point (seventh years) sort of feeling like if it was something really bad, we’d be seeing evidence other than the vomiting. (I should note the vet said the ultrasound doctor said her bile duct “bright”, but since her bloodwork and liver enzymes are normal they are not worried about it.)

I should mention she’s got a thick coat and longer hair than normal for a short-haired domestic, and she is constantly grooming herself and her sister. That said, usually her vomit has very little hair—many times just yellowish bile with no/little hair or food.


After the ultrasound our vet is suggesting a Hydrolyzed Diet to see if it’s a food allergy. Currently I feed them Hills Prescription W/D (due to Elizabeth’s vomiting) and half a can of Halo turkey stew daily. I’ve also gone back to mixing five drops of Salmon Oil into their turkey stew.


Question: As I am clueless about Hydrolyzed Diets I thought I’d ask for some help in gathering some knowledge on the subject and identifying a high-quality food for my babies. The vet’s recommendations were (in order of preference): 1.) Hills Prescription Diet ZD 2.) Royal Canin HP 3.) Purina HA. I’m definitely not a fan of Purina, and from my prior research of Hills WD v. what I used to feed them (Orijen) a little concerned about the quality.

Sorry about the length of this post, and THANK YOU in advance for your replies. I love my little girls, and love this site for helping me be a better kitty daddy!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Although it is possible, I would think she would vomit more often, perhaps even every day, if she has a food allergy - unless she eats different foods - and you could track that too to compare to when she vomits. Does she get treats and/or human food that you can track too? it could be something to do with those food items instead of her food. Or perhaps she is getting into something else around the house that isn't 'available' to her all the time. If she goes outside that could be another possible source. Does she have normal, regular stools? If so, another reason to doubt that this is a food allergy, IMO.

The other thing about her vomiting is what she is vomiting - little or no food, and mostly what appears to be bile. That almost suggests she is throwing up stomach acids, which can happen if a cat goes too many hours without eating. Is that another pattern you can track as well? I am not clear what the vet was trying to tell you about the 'bright' bile duct but that could be playing a role given she throws up bile. You might want to ask the vet to give you more details about if that could be affecting how/what she throws up.

If it were me, I'd take these steps first before trying a different diet. And follow up with the vet about this 'bright' bile duct. Maybe she is overproducing bile at various points in time?

 

[lisahe]

I should mention she’s got a thick coat and longer hair than normal for a short-haired domestic, and she is constantly grooming herself and her sister. That said, usually her vomit has very little hair—many times just yellowish bile with no/little hair or food.

I agree with what FeebysOwner says "throwing up stomach acids." A little hair in that vomit is pretty usual, judging from what we've seen from our cats.

FeebysOwner asked about patterns... Does Elizabeth usually vomit, say, during the night or in the early morning, hours after her last meal? If so, feeding more frequent meals can help a lot. Both our cats have trouble with acid vomiting (one more often than the other) so one has a microchip-activated autofeeder and the other (who eats mostly food the other doesn't like!) has analog feeders and dishes that I leave out for her at night. I call her night food setup "mediated free feeding": she gets small amounts of food that appear at various times during the night so she can snack on them. In our experience, stress can also add to this.

I also agree with FeebysOwner's thoughts on allergies (and/or sensitivities): those usually manifest themselves more often than every two weeks. We've been there done that for those, too. For Edwina, anyway, that vomiting usually came once or twice a week, two or three hours after eating so there was usually a lot of fluid and some traces of food rather than the "empty" look you get with an acid (with or without bile) barf.

My guess (that's all it is!) on the "bright" bile duct is that it might look slightly inflamed.

 

[maggie101]

To add on, food timers! It's possible,at her age,she has more trouble eating certain foods. My cat used to love orijen,now throws it up. She can eat ff and nulo. Few weeks ago she had her teeth cleaned and a crown taken out. I also give her instinct venison. That specific food she eats 5 small meals. I worry about her throwing it up because it has more meat,calories,and fat like orijen

 

[jcnassoc]

Hi. Although it is possible, I would think she would vomit more often, perhaps even every day, if she has a food allergy - unless she eats different foods - and you could track that too to compare to when she vomits. Does she get treats and/or human food that you can track too? it could be something to do with those food items instead of her food. Or perhaps she is getting into something else around the house that isn't 'available' to her all the time. If she goes outside that could be another possible source. Does she have normal, regular stools? If so, another reason to doubt that this is a food allergy, IMO.

The other thing about her vomiting is what she is vomiting - little or no food, and mostly what appears to be bile. That almost suggests she is throwing up stomach acids, which can happen if a cat goes too many hours without eating. Is that another pattern you can track as well? I am not clear what the vet was trying to tell you about the 'bright' bile duct but that could be playing a role given she throws up bile. You might want to ask the vet to give you more details about if that could be affecting how/what she throws up.

If it were me, I'd take these steps first before trying a different diet. And follow up with the vet about this 'bright' bile duct. Maybe she is overproducing bile at various points in time?

Hello, and thanks so much for the reply. You make some really great points and indeed it seems hard to explain how a food allergy--given we don't change their diets daily--wouldn't result in even more frequent vomiting.

As to the possibility of her not eating for hours being the trigger, I don't think that really works as it is rare that I don't have dry food out for them. That said, just because I have the food out doesn't mean she's not going "too long" between feedings, so I'll have to think about this / keep an eye out. I do sometimes think there's a correlation between when she drinks water and vomits... Just not sure what to make of that.

Thanks again... really appreciate all your comments!

 

[jcnassoc]

I agree with what FeebysOwner says "throwing up stomach acids." A little hair in that vomit is pretty usual, judging from what we've seen from our cats.

FeebysOwner asked about patterns... Does Elizabeth usually vomit, say, during the night or in the early morning, hours after her last meal? If so, feeding more frequent meals can help a lot. Both our cats have trouble with acid vomiting (one more often than the other) so one has a microchip-activated autofeeder and the other (who eats mostly food the other doesn't like!) has analog feeders and dishes that I leave out for her at night. I call her night food setup "mediated free feeding": she gets small amounts of food that appear at various times during the night so she can snack on them. In our experience, stress can also add to this.

I also agree with FeebysOwner's thoughts on allergies (and/or sensitivities): those usually manifest themselves more often than every two weeks. We've been there done that for those, too. For Edwina, anyway, that vomiting usually came once or twice a week, two or three hours after eating so there was usually a lot of fluid and some traces of food rather than the "empty" look you get with an acid (with or without bile) barf.

My guess (that's all it is!) on the "bright" bile duct is that it might look slightly inflamed.

Hi there, and thank you so much for your reply. Really appreciate it!

We haven't noticed a pattern in terms of time-of-day for her... seems it can be at any time. I am re-thinking my "feeling" that there might be a correlation between when she drinks water and when she vomits (based on your and FeebysOwner's comments). Going to focus on that and see if I can prove / disprove that theory.

Thanks, and good luck with your babies as well!

 

[jcnassoc]

To add on, food timers! It's possible,at her age,she has more trouble eating certain foods. My cat used to love orijen,now throws it up. She can eat ff and nulo. Few weeks ago she had her teeth cleaned and a crown taken out. I also give her instinct venison. That specific food she eats 5 small meals. I worry about her throwing it up because it has more meat,calories,and fat like orijen

Hi Maggie101, and thank you for your comments. You do make me wonder about the timing of when I feed my girls... They always have food out, but I don't always freshen it and their water at the same time each day, and kitties do love their routines. I may start to be better about their feeding schedule and see if that helps.

Hope your kitty is recovering well from her dental treatment... that's next for me and both my girls. Will be the first time I've had to take them in for that so will definitely be a nervous kitty daddy on those days!

Thanks again.

 

[lisahe]

Well, water can do it... Drinking water is a factor for regurgitation (eating too much food and drinking too much water at once can, well, overwhelm the stomach so the cat regurgitates, we've seen it!) so I can imagine that if a cat drank too much water on an empty stomach that could have a similar effect.

It's great that you're already so familiar with tracking. I try doing that, too, and it very often helps. Here's to a quick resolution!

 

[maggie101]

Hi Maggie101, and thank you for your comments. You do make me wonder about the timing of when I feed my girls... They always have food out, but I don't always freshen it and their water at the same time each day, and kitties do love their routines. I may start to be better about their feeding schedule and see if that helps.

Hope your kitty is recovering well from her dental treatment... that's next for me and both my girls. Will be the first time I've had to take them in for that so will definitely be a nervous kitty daddy on those days!

Thanks again.

She had tooth resorption done. If I hadn't told my vet about her throwing up so much that she had lost weight he would not have discovered what was wrong. An xray confirmed it.

 

[jcnassoc]

Well, water can do it... Drinking water is a factor for regurgitation (eating too much food and drinking too much water at once can, well, overwhelm the stomach so the cat regurgitates, we've seen it!) so I can imagine that if a cat drank too much water on an empty stomach that could have a similar effect.

It's great that you're already so familiar with tracking. I try doing that, too, and it very often helps. Here's to a quick resolution!

Hi Lisahe,

Thanks for that comment, which led to my wife and I considering the timing of the water fountain we got for our girls a while back. Timing was such that I just decommissioned the fountain and will see if that makes a difference.

Thanks again!

 

[jcnassoc]

She had tooth resorption done. If I hadn't told my vet about her throwing up so much that she had lost weight he would not have discovered what was wrong. An xray confirmed it.

Hello Maggie101,

Interesting. Funny how that works sometimes where (even for us humans) we go in with a symptom and that leads to finding something we didn't realize was happening. Glad it was caught earlier rather than later for your baby.

 

[lisahe]

Hi Lisahe,

Thanks for that comment, which led to my wife and I considering the timing of the water fountain we got for our girls a while back. Timing was such that I just decommissioned the fountain and will see if that makes a difference.

Thanks again!

They do need their water... but sometimes they get a bit too fascinated by it. (We have one who loves to drink water, out of a very mundane bowl, after she eats dry food. That's a good thing, of course, though the time she ate a lot of food and then drank some water was very dramatic because it was human bedtime and there was a sudden splashing sound...)

Anyway, good luck!

 

[jcnassoc]

They do need their water... but sometimes they get a bit too fascinated by it. (We have one who loves to drink water, out of a very mundane bowl, after she eats dry food. That's a good thing, of course, though the time she ate a lot of food and then drank some water was very dramatic because it was human bedtime and there was a sudden splashing sound...)

Anyway, good luck!

Thanks. I'm glad she's not showing any other signs and seems to be a 100% happy little furball. Still, would be great if we found the cause.

 

[lisahe]

Thanks. I'm glad she's not showing any other signs and seems to be a 100% happy little furball. Still, would be great if we found the cause.

I know, it's so hard when you can't know the exact cause so you can treat it precisely! We have a lot of that going around, too.

 

[jcnassoc]

I know, it's so hard when you can't know the exact cause so you can treat it precisely! We have a lot of that going around, too.

Indeed. I talk with my girls all the time, and we do communicate even if we don't use the same language--somehow we mostly understand what we're trying to tell each other. But clearly I can't ask my baby exactly why she's throwing up and what she was doing just before it happened. Makes it so hard to be a good pawrent!

 

[jcnassoc]

I've spent some time looking for unbiased reviews and ratings on Hydrolyzed diets, figuring in addition to changing their water access (in posts above) I would also try--or at least get ready for--a diet change. I'll probably wait to see if the water fountain was the issue, but if she continues to vomit I want to know what food I need to order so I can get it quickly.

I found The Best 5 Hydrolyzed Protein Cat Food: Benefits, Reviews, and Ingredient Analysis and Hydrolyzed Protein Cat Food and in both cases came away thinking Blue Buffalo Natural is the better choice (mostly as it is grain-free). I wish Blue Buffalo was made with chicken or turkey, as those are the proteins I feed my girls; it's Salmon. That doesn't rule it out, but I feel it's yet another change that can disrupt things.

Question: Does anyone here know of other unbiased reviews that may be helpful? Also, if you are feeding your baby(ies) Hydrolyzed food and love what you are giving please elaborate.

Thanks all!

 

[maggie101]

I've spent some time looking for unbiased reviews and ratings on Hydrolyzed diets, figuring in addition to changing their water access (in posts above) I would also try--or at least get ready for--a diet change. I'll probably wait to see if the water fountain was the issue, but if she continues to vomit I want to know what food I need to order so I can get it quickly.

I found The Best 5 Hydrolyzed Protein Cat Food: Benefits, Reviews, and Ingredient Analysis and Hydrolyzed Protein Cat Food and in both cases came away thinking Blue Buffalo Natural is the better choice (mostly as it is grain-free). I wish Blue Buffalo was made with chicken or turkey, as those are the proteins I feed my girls; it's Salmon. That doesn't rule it out, but I feel it's yet another change that can disrupt things.

Question: Does anyone here know of other unbiased reviews that may be helpful? Also, if you are feeding your baby(ies) Hydrolyzed food and love what you are giving please elaborate.

Thanks all!

I read the description of what hydrolyzed cat food is. As I understand,it's minced meat,the only food my cat doesn't throw up and she's intolerant to chicken. She eats canned nulo minced turkey duck. I might have to start cooking ground meat and adding EZ Complete. One day I might have trouble getting her food. Not many minced without chicken or tuna. Also doesn't vommit fancy feast classics turkey&giblets. I am guessing because the pate is more gritty. Smooth pate she vommits