My cat is puking every few month

[Cibot]

Hello all,
so early this year (march) we got ourselves a cat. Everything was going fine for 2 month and then he started puking for multiple days straight between 2-10 times a day. We instantly went to the vet and got him checked out. He couldn't exactly give us an answer as to why that was happening, he was just guessing it might've been a foreign body object like a fly or something else. He got a few syringes injected and he gave us a medicine for the cat (some kind of antibiotica - amoxicilin) which sort of worked and told us to regularly give the cat malt paste. Unfortunately a week later he started puking again, the doc once again said the same thing. This time though he stopped puking. Now after fast forward to September, he started puking again. Without any warning, there wasn't anything he could've eaten (foreign body) or anything odd about him. Also nothing odd to be found in his litter. Anyway, we went to a new vet. We told them what the other vet had already checked. Since at this point I was pretty fed up with him puking, we did a blood test. He also got the same syringes injected which worked for a few days, then unfortunately he started puking again. We went to the vet again, got the results of the blood test, which literally didn't have anything odd in them. Well he got the same syringes injected again but this time he didn't start puking again. Until yesterday. So now we've been through 2 different vets and tried atleast 8 different brands of food (out of which he only liked one...). I'm honestly out of ideas as to what to do with him. I can't really pay 150-200 € every few month because of his sickness. Is there maybe something else I could do?

 

[Cibot]

Since I forgot to post it, he's now 1 year and 5 month old and european house cat.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Can you be more specific about what these syringe injections are? Does he throw up immediately after eating? If no, then when in comparison to the times he eats? Is it partially digested?

Also, was the main ingredient in all these foods you've been through chicken? For whatever reason, it would appear from a lot of threads I have read on this site, many cats appear to be allergic to chicken. However, I would also check (and make a chart) ALL of the ingredients in each of the foods he has eaten, and note which ones he was eating when he went for several months without throwing up. It would seem that the food he was on between the March and September events might have been working for him. Did you happen to do another food change shortly before the September series of vomiting? Another change again just before this most recent bout? If you find connections between the foods and the vomiting, you can talk to the vet about testing him for food allergies, specific to those foods.

Your biggest help with this issue is to make a detailed record of the foods he has eaten, when he throws up, and whether or not it is undigested or partially digested - and also if/when there is hair in the vomit.

If you can't find any association with the foods and the vomiting bouts, I would seriously consider having some x-rays taken of his digestive system to see if that might shed any light.

 

[Cibot]

Thanks for the reply, should've been more specific.
So when he first started throwing up, we tried lots of different foods for a few days. Unfortunately, he would almost always not eat anything other than chicken. We tried salmon, thuna, duck, beef and more which i don't have at the top of my head. Anyway, we basically fed him 6 meals over 2 days and most of the time, he wouldn't even touch the food for 2 days. So after trying out these foods 2 weeks after he stopped throwing up, we never changed it. It has always been the same and the only food he really likes and eats. It's both chicken. Morning and evening we give him his usual wet food and in the noon he gets some dried food. (as i said, both pure chicken) The vet also told us, chicken is easiest for cats to digest so we've tried many different brands with chicken. Some he liked for 1-2 days but wouldn't touch afterwards. We tried lots of 'sensitive' care food brands, which unfortunately also didn't do the trick. He would only eat those for 1-2 days and stop touching it after. I think it would be highly unlikely that he would be allergic to chicken, when it's the only thing he eats? Especially since it's been the only thing he has been eating for the last ~6 month. We had no change recently in his diet. I can't really find any association with his food in this regard unfortunately.
Since both vets have told us not to feed the cat when he's throwing up, we never give him food when he is. So it's literally just his spit coming out. No food or hair or anything else. As I said, there was nothing odd about him when he started throwing up.
Unfortunately it doesn't say on the receipt what the first vet we went to, injected our cat.
The second vet injected subkutan(?) and there wasn't anything else on it. Although i definitely remember 2 different syringes being used with different contents.
I guess I will ask the vet about X-ray or ultrasonic as the next step since that was literally the only thing we haven't done yet.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Some he liked for 1-2 days but wouldn't touch afterwards. We tried lots of 'sensitive' care food brands, which unfortunately also didn't do the trick. He would only eat those for 1-2 days and stop touching it after.

It's odd, but not necessarily impossible, for a cat to eat a food for a couple of days and then reject it. Usually, they tend to reject a new food they don't like right off the bat. I am only guessing, but maybe the food upset his stomach and after a couple of days he correlated that food with his stomach not feeling right. It isn't as crazy as it might sound - I have heard of cats who were sick (nothing to do with their food) that refused to continue to eat that same food because they connected it with not feeling well.

The second vet injected subkutan(?) and there wasn't anything else on it. Although i definitely remember 2 different syringes being used with different contents.

That sounds like they gave him simple sub-cutaneous (under the skin) fluids to replenish what he was losing through vomiting. A lot of cats, especially ones that vomit as much as you have described, tend to become dehydrated, which just makes them feel even worse.

Not sure how that correlates with the vomiting in the first place, but it might be a question you pose to the vet - as in, could he not be hydrated enough to cause vomiting? Does he drink water well? Is the food that he eats canned or dry?

 

[Cibot]

No he's a hydrated boy. He likes to play with water a lot aswell and we usually have to refill his bowl of water every day. Since we give him canned food twice a day, he also gets quite a bit of hydration through that. Everytime they did checked on his hydration (pulling his skin up and seeing how fast it retracts) it was absolutely fine.
Well obviously our cat is dehydrated when puking this much. (multiple days 1-2 days, 4-6 times a day) So yes I remember them saying that he got fluids injected.
Anyway as I said, I don't think the food correlates to him throwing up. Whenever we changed foods he never threw up. It always started randomly when we weren't changing his food. Even now even though he's throwing up every few hours, he's still almost as lively as he was a week ago. Playing with his toys, talking to us and running around the appartment.
Anyway thanks for your help, I think we'll call our vet and see if we can make an appointed for an x-ray.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Maybe more members will come along with some other ideas - and, hopefully soon!! But, either way, please keep us posted, if you don't mind!!

 

[cataholic07]

There are some reasons for throwing up:

-Eating too fast, basically if the food is thrown up quickly after eating that's called regurgitation. Feeding more meals frequently will help with that and slow feeder dish.

-Food sensitivities. Cats sometimes do get sensitive to certain proteins, even get allergies. Chicken, fish, beef are common allergies but usually they will have some hair loss or scratching if it's allergies. Carrageenan and gums can cause stomach inflammation so I recommend no wet food with that and stay away from the cheap dry food as well. Tons of fillers also cause tummy issues.

-Some cats do require slow transitions to any new brands so can't just get something new right off the bat. While some you dont as long as its a food that's easy on the tummy like Koha, Rawz, Weruva, Instinct, Hounds and gatos. My cats get bored of the same thing over and over again lol. And if they throw up on it, you can expect to not be able to feed them that again for at least a week if not more.

-I do not agree with the vets about not feeding if throwing up. I'd just feed something easy on the tummy like Weruva's paw licking chicken, chicken soup ones like that. A cat will throw up if their tummy is empty for too long and can risk fatty liver disease.

-I would look into an ultrasound to see if it could be IBD or GI lymphoma. If it's just IBS I would recommend sticking with carrageenan/gum free wet food and no dry or balanced raw only. And potentially adding a 4th meal, so morning, lunch, supper, and before bed

 

[LTS3]

The vet also told us, chicken is easiest for cats to digest so we've tried many different brands with chicken.

Actually chicken is one of the most common causes of food sensitivties in cats. Symptoms can include vomiting. Prescription food made with hydrolyzed chicken may be somewhat easier for cats to digest but such foods are pretty poor quality in general and expensive to buy. Try a limited ingredient diet type food. ZooPlus should have some listed there and I think they ship to most parts of Europe.

A full work up by the vet seems best An ultrasound or biopsy along with new blood work would be best. Try another vet. Get copies of all your cat's medical records from the current vet and the previous one for the new vet to review.

 

[JamesCalifornia]

~ Sounds like your kitty is just acting normal. Cats ingest hair and dust all the time and frequently spit up now and then. I give my cats an eyedropper of olive oil when they do this. Helps them pass things out of their intestine.