Possible egg intolerance?

[gabicards]

Hi all,

So something's happening here that I find a bit curious. My cat isn't a puker - he's a longhaired cat and used to throw up a hairball every 4-5 weeks. He does have presumptive IBD, which could be why that happens. A few months ago, I started giving him some malt paste daily, and that stretched our run without a hairball to 10 weeks.

Seeing as he has unusual bowel movement habits (he usually poops every 3-4 days), I started adding egg yolk powder to his food 2x day about 3 weeks ago. I was told to increase the quantity slowly, so I had been doing that, and he wasn't having any diarrhea, so I eventually worked it up to 1/4 tsp one night. I woke up to a bit of vomit, with a tiny hairball (the first after 10 weeks). I'll be honest, I had been expecting a hairball eventually, but that one was so tiny that I was wondering why he had thrown it up at all. The monthly hairballs we would get were big and dense.

I asked on Facebook and people thought it couldn't have been the egg yolk, as it emulsifies the fat in the hairballs and breaks it down, so it should be passing in his stool. Well, he was evidently fine, so I just reduced the quantity of the egg yolk powder again and moved on. Fast forward 13 days, I tried again 1/4 tsp. Once again I woke up to vomit that looked the exact same. There's a tiny hairball that's not dense at all and is probably the size of a finger tip.

I mean, on one side, I guess it kind of shows that the malt paste, and probably the egg yolk itself, does work not to let hair accumulate in his stomach, because with how much fur he has and how much he sheds, this fur he threw up was probably just what he ingested yesterday. It's less than what I get when I brush him, for sure.

But I suppose this means he can't handle 1/4 tsp of egg yolk, which is curious. No other food makes him puke, but now I'm certain this isn't a coincidence. I also don't think it's related to a progression of his IBD or anything more serious, because there have been no changes in his behavior or his appetite - they're both stellar. He also pooped yesterday and, despite not doing it as often as other cats, he doesn't strain, and it always looks normal (a moist log, as opposed to tiny pieces or something else that we normally associate with constipation).

I should add - whenever he does throw up, it *always* contains hair, and it's *always* in the morning, before breakfast. I assume stomach acid contributes somehow to bring this up.

Anyway, I'm making this post here because I had never seen this as a response to anything added to food. Usually, when something doesn't agree with my cat, he has soft stool or diarrhea instead. Has this ever happened to anyone else's cat?

I know egg yolk is high in fat. I tried googling what could be happening, and have seen some articles online saying that too much fat could cause stomach upset in cats (even pancreatitis). Could it be that maybe 1/4 tsp of egg yolk is crossing the threshold of how much fat he can handle in a meal and making him nauseous? I suppose vomiting does signal a "stomach upset" more than anything related to his intestines, otherwise I'd be seeing the consequence on his stools instead... Just brainstorming here, would love other people's opinions, as I'm trying to determine if this means I should cut off the egg completely or if I can just keep the quantity lower.

The tiny dark green pieces you see in the vomit are from the zucchini that's mixed into his food, by the way. He eats home cooked meals and, in the very rare occasion he vomits, they're present, always in a tiny quantity.

 

[lisahe]

This looks and sounds really familiar. We have a very fluffy cat who's had a lot of stomach issues over the years. She, too, has presumptive IBD. (She had an ultrasound last year that showed thickening in her intestines.)

Edwina, too, has often vomited stomach acid with small amounts of fur. Or sometimes stomach acid and bile and/or a little partially digested food; there have been many variations on the theme. Like you, we used egg yolk, which does seem to help prevent actual hairballs from accumulating (she's only had a few of those over the years) but didn't prevent her from vomiting hair occasionally. Like you, I've wondered if egg yolk bothers her digestive system; it can be a problem. I cut her "extra" egg yolk out of her diet around a month ago. It's easier, of course, not to add it to her homemade food plus it cuts calories and, though it may be my imagination, I do think it might help. We brush her very regularly anyway so I'm not sure there's much the egg could do anyway! If you brush your cat a lot, you may find the same thing. Basically, at some point, not much fur comes off!

For what it's worth, I'll also add some backstory. Edwina's problems are based in inflammation, which I used to forget is the "I" in "IBD." She was vomiting badly last year and her ultrasound showed patches of inflammation in her stomach. We opted for exploratory surgery/ she ended up having patches of her stomach taken out. She did very well for some months -- no vomiting, appetite normal rather than her alternating between ravenous and not hungry -- but then started to vomit a little again. I'd used slippery elm bark on her before so went back to that since it's helped but I'd never used a probiotic, though I'd meant to. I ended up buying Adored Beast's Feline Gut Soothe for her and it's done wonders for her. She's been on the full dose for about 6-7 weeks now and is doing pretty well. Things aren't perfect: she still regurgitates occasionally and we still have to be really careful and use Cerenia if the weather gets too hot or noisy (the weather seems to stress her very badly!) but she's very, very obviously more comfortable with the FGS. I think the combination of anti-inflammatory herbs and probiotics is just what she needed. I'm not saying it's necessarily what your cat needs but I do think it might be worth speaking with your vet about anti-inflammatory supplements. A bonus: Adored Beast does say that FGS can help with hairballs so it's possible that's why she's doing fine with egg yolk. And why we can even slack off a little on brushing now. For a sort of "lite" version of FGS, you might try Vet's Best anti-hairball tablets, which contain a couple of the same ingredients, plus fiber. The hard thing about these inflammation-based problems is that they are tough to crack. I hope you're able to figure things out for your cat!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I would say it's entirely possible that 1/4 is too much, so if you want to use up the powdered egg yolk you have just continue using a little less, or switch over to the Adored Beast, or something else altogether.

 

[gabicards]

This looks and sounds really familiar. We have a very fluffy cat who's had a lot of stomach issues over the years. She, too, has presumptive IBD. (She had an ultrasound last year that showed thickening in her intestines.)

Edwina, too, has often vomited stomach acid with small amounts of fur. Or sometimes stomach acid and bile and/or a little partially digested food; there have been many variations on the theme. Like you, we used egg yolk, which does seem to help prevent actual hairballs from accumulating (she's only had a few of those over the years) but didn't prevent her from vomiting hair occasionally. Like you, I've wondered if egg yolk bothers her digestive system; it can be a problem. I cut her "extra" egg yolk out of her diet around a month ago. It's easier, of course, not to add it to her homemade food plus it cuts calories and, though it may be my imagination, I do think it might help. We brush her very regularly anyway so I'm not sure there's much the egg could do anyway! If you brush your cat a lot, you may find the same thing. Basically, at some point, not much fur comes off!

For what it's worth, I'll also add some backstory. Edwina's problems are based in inflammation, which I used to forget is the "I" in "IBD." She was vomiting badly last year and her ultrasound showed patches of inflammation in her stomach. We opted for exploratory surgery/ she ended up having patches of her stomach taken out. She did very well for some months -- no vomiting, appetite normal rather than her alternating between ravenous and not hungry -- but then started to vomit a little again. I'd used slippery elm bark on her before so went back to that since it's helped but I'd never used a probiotic, though I'd meant to. I ended up buying Adored Beast's Feline Gut Soothe for her and it's done wonders for her. She's been on the full dose for about 6-7 weeks now and is doing pretty well. Things aren't perfect: she still regurgitates occasionally and we still have to be really careful and use Cerenia if the weather gets too hot or noisy (the weather seems to stress her very badly!) but she's very, very obviously more comfortable with the FGS. I think the combination of anti-inflammatory herbs and probiotics is just what she needed. I'm not saying it's necessarily what your cat needs but I do think it might be worth speaking with your vet about anti-inflammatory supplements. A bonus: Adored Beast does say that FGS can help with hairballs so it's possible that's why she's doing fine with egg yolk. And why we can even slack off a little on brushing now. For a sort of "lite" version of FGS, you might try Vet's Best anti-hairball tablets, which contain a couple of the same ingredients, plus fiber. The hard thing about these inflammation-based problems is that they are tough to crack. I hope you're able to figure things out for your cat!

Thanks for the reply!

Aww I'm sorry that your kitty has had stomach issues to the point of needing surgery I feel like I don't hear about that often - I'm probably just more involved in communities in which intestinal issues are more common. I have heard so many glorious things about Feline Gut Soothe and I really, really want to get it for Topaz, but it's only available in the US (I live in France). I will be traveling there in December, though, and that's already on the list of things I will be bringing back with me. I have Sivomixx here, which I had stopped giving him temporarily, but as of today am doing it again - in the hopes it will help soothe any discomfort that the extra fat might have caused, assuming that was indeed the culprit.

I'll be honest though, in my experience, vets here aren't great with supplements. Their go-to is prescription food, novel protein or medication - in my cat's case, the vet in Brazil immediately medicated him, while the vets in France saw the exams and thought that was too harsh and just a diet change should suffice. Not once has slippery elm bark, egg yolk powder, marshmallow root or any other natural treatments ever come up during a visit... to be fair, though, my cat is in good health, generally, the only weird thing is this rare pooping schedule. I haven't brought up any different foods with the vets since March - back then, he had a full abdominal ultrasound and everything was grand, except his colon, which had some thickening of the walls.

I wouldn't say he's sick now after vomiting either, nothing has changed. He's alert, with great appetite and playful. For now, I'll maintain my idea to see a vet next month to make sure all vaccines and flea treatments are up to date, while we get our well earned vet rest. Topaz was at the vet at least once a month every single month from December 2022 to July 2023, due to the presumptive IBD and hip surgery, so I'm stretching this for as long as I can!

I would say it's entirely possible that 1/4 is too much, so if you want to use up the powdered egg yolk you have just continue using a little less, or switch over to the Adored Beast, or something else altogether.

Right? And I feel like it's somehow worse at night? He's never just randomly puked bile at night, which I know some cats with very sensitive stomachs do since they tend to go the longest without food at that time, but whenever there is *anything* - bad reaction to medication, a hairball, now this... the vomit comes early in the morning.

I will take a break from it for the next month to see if he stops vomiting, just to make sure, and then reintroduce it and keep it at a lower dosage instead of trying to get it up. I want to see if we can beat the 10 weeks without hairball record

 

[lisahe]

I'm glad to hear that Feline Gut Soothe is on your list, gabicards , it really has been wondrous stuff for Edwina. I took a quick look on Zooplus to see if there was anything even slightly comparable, with herbs and probiotics, and didn't find anything. Grau's Sanofor sounds interesting with its peat ingredient but that's a bit mysterious! And they're sold out of elm. Side note on slippery elm: I drank a cup of SEB tea yesterday because I had a stomach ache (I ate too many tomatoes from our garden!). It really did help. Not sure if the placebo effect came into effect, too, but it did settle my stomach. I'm glad Edwina seems to like the taste more than I do!

Anyway! I'm glad you're going to try cutting out the egg yolk. That's my usual strategy -- cutting -- and though I'm usually more drastic on cuts than I should be, cutting more at once than I need to, meaning I'm not sure what, exactly, caused the problem, better that than going too slowly and never resolving anything!

Based on what we've seen with Edwina, I'd strongly (but very humbly since every cat is different!) suggest continuing to consider these relatively minor barfs a warning. Her problem was on-and-off then escalated fast. We're not sure why since biopsies gave no clues. Our regular vet at the time thought parasites were likely to blame but I tend to think that Edwina's hungry kittenhood, which has led to lifelong nervous food insecurity, is probably at the root of what went wrong. That along with, most likely, bad gut flora that didn't allow her to have good digestion from the start. She came to us at nine months with a sensitivity to potato (which doesn't belong in cat food to begin with!) and her sensitivities have continued to pile up, despite a relatively clean diet. All of this makes me specially grateful for SEB and FGS and homemade food and Rescue Remedy drops, which I recommend highly if your cat has stress issues that might be contributing to the vomiting. Stress really hits Edwina when the weather's particularly hot or inclement, as today, when it's windy, with a tropical storm passing by. Since stress and vomiting are connected for her, I made sure to give her some Cerenia last night and some RR drops this morning! I mention all that because stress factors seem to be at least as important as diet in terms of controlling her vomiting. The stress-inflammation link is pretty strong so (to return this ramble back to its start!) I'm glad FGS has been helping her! It took us a long time to get there, with lots of barf, surgery, dietary changes, and patient observation, but I feel like we're finally at a place where we can at least partially predict and prevent her troubles. Thank goodness our new vet looks at this fairly holistically, too, and was already a fan of FGS before she saw Edwina for the first time!

Sorry to ramble but maybe something there will trigger some ideas for your cat. That helped a lot in figuring out how to handle Edwina's vomiting.

 

[gabicards]

I'm glad to hear that Feline Gut Soothe is on your list, gabicards , it really has been wondrous stuff for Edwina. I took a quick look on Zooplus to see if there was anything even slightly comparable, with herbs and probiotics, and didn't find anything. Grau's Sanofor sounds interesting with its peat ingredient but that's a bit mysterious! And they're sold out of elm. Side note on slippery elm: I drank a cup of SEB tea yesterday because I had a stomach ache (I ate too many tomatoes from our garden!). It really did help. Not sure if the placebo effect came into effect, too, but it did settle my stomach. I'm glad Edwina seems to like the taste more than I do!

Anyway! I'm glad you're going to try cutting out the egg yolk. That's my usual strategy -- cutting -- and though I'm usually more drastic on cuts than I should be, cutting more at once than I need to, meaning I'm not sure what, exactly, caused the problem, better that than going too slowly and never resolving anything!

Based on what we've seen with Edwina, I'd strongly (but very humbly since every cat is different!) suggest continuing to consider these relatively minor barfs a warning. Her problem was on-and-off then escalated fast. We're not sure why since biopsies gave no clues. Our regular vet at the time thought parasites were likely to blame but I tend to think that Edwina's hungry kittenhood, which has led to lifelong nervous food insecurity, is probably at the root of what went wrong. That along with, most likely, bad gut flora that didn't allow her to have good digestion from the start. She came to us at nine months with a sensitivity to potato (which doesn't belong in cat food to begin with!) and her sensitivities have continued to pile up, despite a relatively clean diet. All of this makes me specially grateful for SEB and FGS and homemade food and Rescue Remedy drops, which I recommend highly if your cat has stress issues that might be contributing to the vomiting. Stress really hits Edwina when the weather's particularly hot or inclement, as today, when it's windy, with a tropical storm passing by. Since stress and vomiting are connected for her, I made sure to give her some Cerenia last night and some RR drops this morning! I mention all that because stress factors seem to be at least as important as diet in terms of controlling her vomiting. The stress-inflammation link is pretty strong so (to return this ramble back to its start!) I'm glad FGS has been helping her! It took us a long time to get there, with lots of barf, surgery, dietary changes, and patient observation, but I feel like we're finally at a place where we can at least partially predict and prevent her troubles. Thank goodness our new vet looks at this fairly holistically, too, and was already a fan of FGS before she saw Edwina for the first time!

Sorry to ramble but maybe something there will trigger some ideas for your cat. That helped a lot in figuring out how to handle Edwina's vomiting.

Good news! I found a canadian site that ships FGS internationally, so I've ordered it and it should arrive by the 29th. Paid twice the usual price, of course, but I'm hoping it does Topaz well. If I like it then I can bring more from the US when I go.

 

[lisahe]

Good news! I found a canadian site that ships FGS internationally, so I've ordered it and it should arrive by the 29th. Paid twice the usual price, of course, but I'm hoping it does Topaz well. If I like it then I can bring more from the US when I go.

That's very good news! Now, fingers crossed that FGS helps Topaz. Start very slowly!