Lazlo's been vomiting...

[bastetservant]

Laurie, I just read in his "cat page" that Lazlo was your FIRST cat! Your very first cat?

He must be so especially dear to you since he led you to the love and care of so many. Bless his soul.

I am thinking of him (vibes) every day and hoping he is on the mend.

As you know, I have a chronic vomiter (Lily), for no apparent reason, though I keep trying to figure it out. So frustrating, and worrisome.

Lily is an intense groomer. But I brush her often as she loves it and kisses and head butts me whenever I do it.

And she comes running for her share if I brush/comb anyone else. But, really, I can't say that I see hair in her upchuck very often. It's hard to understand how Lazlo keeps upchucking hair.

I keep a diary now of when Lily vomits, and what it looks like.

Hope it all sorts out. I'm reading the updates every day.

Robin

 

[ldg]

to everyone providing advice and support!

And yes, Robin, Lazlo is our very first indoor-only cat. Never had one as a kid. Booger was the first stray to adopt us - she was with us a year when the first batch of kittens turned up in our yard (not hers, she was spayed). She was a very independent soul, and a Maine Coon, and she was NOT happy about the growing feral colony once we got started in rescue... and she was rehomed where she could be an indoor/outdoor girl.

I think Otto was right, and I now suspect the problem turns out to be the switch to all wet, and no free feeding. Lazlo does not like an empty tummy. We had two vomit-free days, and then there was vomit with little chewed up pieces of some kind of plastic in it. I've searched around and can't figure out what it would be from... but I caught him chewing on the shoelaces on Gary's boots yesterday.

I can't let him free feed because Billy's overweight, so I'm not quite sure how to work this out. But I've been feeding him multiple little bits of kibble as a "treat" throughout the day (the prescription hairball stuff). I'm going to continue treating him with vaseline for hairballs every 3 days (for now), and at night, I'm putting a small bowl of kibble up in his cabinet, and just hope that Billy doesn't eat it all, and we'll see how THIS goes.

Meanwhile, I found another glob of hairballs this morning. I don't know that it was Lazlo though. It wasn't throw up with hair in it - it was a glob of three clearly defined small hairballs.

 

[ldg]

Robin, for your fun, here's my very first post on TCS: New to ferals - help!

(Rocki was her official name, but we called her Booger).

And here's Lazlo, now inside (first post was 28th of June, this was 6th of July) Scared cat - what do we do?

 

[ldg]

For my future reference: no throw up last night or today.

Feeding him little bits of kibble frequently - probably 1/4C total in 24 hour period, though I left it out up in "his" cabinet overnight and the 1/2C I left out was gone this morning. I suspect Billy ate most of it.

 

[stephanietx]

We used to have to make sure Callie ate regularly. We used to give her food every 3-4 hours. We kept a measured amount in a cup in the cupboard and when it was gone, she'd eaten her daily allowance.

 

[ldg]

The problem is over night. I don't know how to leave out food for Lazlo to eat but that Billy can't.

 

[my4llma]

Originally Posted by LDG

The problem is over night. I don't know how to leave out food for Lazlo to eat but that Billy can't.

That is a tough 1

You probably don't have a way of keeping them seperated right?

 

[bastetservant]

Thanks for the back story, Laurie. I'm really interested in all that.

More about that later.

My Lily, my chronic vomiter, has a tendency to do it if she gets over hungry - because her meowmy gets off schedule a little bit (is there an emotocon for "hang my head in shame?").

I don't know what the solution is for keeping Billy from eating the others' food. I have all my cats on diet kibble for the 2 meals they get of that. My vet thinks it is better for them all to lose some weight and even be a little under weight, than for Claude to gain any more weight. So two meals (early am and late pm) are measured amounts of low cal kibble.

The good news is that Claude has lost 7 oz. on this regime since Dec. 19. I just weighed him a couple of days ago.

For the canned meal they get at about 5 or 6 p.m., Claude gets only 1.25 oz. - and 1 oz. of that is diet cat food. He is isolated from the others at this time for about 30-60 minutes so they have time to eat their food. Before he is set loose, the remainders in the others' dishes are dumped.

During this canned meal ritual, Lily is also isolated in a room because if the others are near she has a tendency to gulp her food, and then vomit.

None of this may be helpful in any way to you and your situation. But, this is what is working for us, at this point, so I thought I'd pass it on.


Robin

 

[otto]

Originally Posted by LDG

The problem is over night. I don't know how to leave out food for Lazlo to eat but that Billy can't.

With Ootay

I simply got up twice every night to feed her. 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. for the last two years of her life. After she left us, I continued to wake at 3a.m. and 6 a.m. for almost a year. (I usually get up around 7:30)

ContinuedLazlo

 

[ldg]

I'm probably going to have to do that for Lazlo.

He's been waking me at 6:00am pretty regularly anyway.

We have another night - and day (so far) of no throw up!

 

[lovewhiskers]

Kisses to baby Lazlo!

 

[feralvr]

Originally Posted by LDG

Robin, for your fun, here's my very first post on TCS: New to ferals - help!

(Rocki was her official name, but we called her Booger).

And here's Lazlo, now inside (first post was 28th of June, this was 6th of July) Scared cat - what do we do?

Gosh Laurie!! I just read this whole thread! I am sorry I didn't connect the dots with Lazlo's name!! And there are so many threads going it is hard to keep up. It is so fun to open up older threads and read them. I went to that link about your very first post ever

wow that is so cool to read your first post tens years ago. And that's how this all started for you.

I could spend HOURS reading your stories.

Anyway back to vomiting. I can't give much help on this matter but many years ago my family had one cat that threw up all the time immediately after he ate and lost so much weight so quickly. And he started this when he was fourteen years old. The vet found out he had stomach cancer and a big tumor. This is not Lazlo's problem and far from it. I am sorry he has been dealing with this and for you too. Cleaning up vomit is not fun either.

It is so hard to figure out how to separate the cats when they have to eat different diets. The small meals throughout the day are the best way to get food in them before their tummies get sick from being empty. I guess getting up in the middle of the night to feed might help?? Not too good for you but might be worth a try since you can't leave food down for Lazlo. Tricky situation for sure. You are doing a super job caring for your kitties

 

[ldg]

I REALLY appreciate everyone sharing their stories.

I feel kind of silly with this thread with so many people facing such serious problems, but I do want to keep documenting this.

I was wondering if I should try to feed him wet during the night... but then it becomes a whole production where they all would need to get it.

Shelly isn't a food hog, but he is VERY jealous of other kitties getting stuff he isn't. So I've decided I'm going to stick with feeding him little bits of kibble in the bathroom.

(The bathroom is the only place we can isolate anyone, and they all love their "alone time" in there, getting brushed and loved on by themselves). There's a little cabinet just under the counter top in there. I cleaned it out recently and keep two bowls of kibble in there. Shelly & Tuxie are splitting approximately 2/3 of a cup of c/d dry food daily (supplement to the 4 wet meals everyone gets), and Flowerbelle and Lazlo are going to be splitting about 2/3 cup of the hairball dry food - with Lazlo eating more than Flowerbelle (as he's about 2.5 pounds bigger than she is at his about 10.5 pounds). Each of these kitties really self-regulates their calories well (though Tuxie we really encourage to eat as we want to keep his weight up - the vet is comfortable with him being about 1.5 pounds more than he should be if he didn't have his autoimmune disease).

As to the other four... Billy and Ming Loy need to lose (more) weight, Chum needs a special diet, and Spooky had already basically stopped eating kibble on her own.

So with adjusting my sleep schedule (and what's losing a little more sleep when you're already sleep deprived?

), I think we've got a handle on this....

 

[otto]

Originally Posted by LDG

I'm probably going to have to do that for Lazlo.

He's been waking me at 6:00am pretty regularly anyway.

We have another night - and day (so far) of no throw up!

Hurray!Lazlo

 

[feralvr]

I know how you feel about the wet food and trying to sneak it to one of the kids. Magilla needs to gain weight. So everytime, when everyone else is napping, I sneak and open up a can (in the pantry closet) and somehow one or more still hear it!!!!!!!

. Then I feel bad and everyone gets a teaspoon of wet on a special plate. Then I go feed Magilla in her room and close the door so she can eat in peace. Could you sneak in the bathroom and try to open the can quietly?? YEAH RIGHT

. They will all know anyway and just smell it under the door. Sounds like you have a good plan for feeding the kids. Hope Lazlo is doing good today.

 

[ldg]

Yeah, and Flowerbelle is totally telepathic when it comes to food. She's deaf and can tell when we're feeding ANYTHING anywhere! When we lived in the house, she'd be asleep up in the bedroom - up in the cat tree - and we could give someone treats in the kitchen (other end of the house on a different floor) - and she would always magically appear. No WAY could she smell it!

And yes, Lazlo is doing GREAT (knock wood!) No vomiting last night, and none today!

I do have to go give him hairball stuff - I was supposed to yesterday, actually.

 

[otto]

So glad to see he is still doing well. Hang in there Lazlo!