Considering Food For Elder Cat Who Vomits A Lot

Hello. Can anyone help suggest some alternative foods for this cat?

Background
I visited my mom recently and noticed her >10 year old cat had lost a dramatic amount of weight in the past 8 months, now weighs ~5 lbs whereas it used to be 11 lbs. However, she does not currently act frail, weak, and is still very mobile.

The weight loss seemed to coincide with chronic vomiting after eating Fancy Feast Medleys. For as long as she has been an adult cat, FF has been her preferred food. Now she reliably vomits it up within 30 minutes or else refuses to eat it at all. The same seems to happen with other canned brands. Dry food, especially, results in vomiting.

What's interesting is she never vomits unseasoned human-grade meats, like grilled chicken. I have observed this in person.

Nutritionally, I don't think she can survive on only grilled chicken, but I am interested in exploring options that will prevent her from wasting away. She seems to have good quality of life aside from vomiting issues.

Welcome to The Cat Site, SadieAdvocate, though I'm sorry to hear about your mother's cat's health problems. It's good of you to help out.

First off: has the cat had a vet visit? This much weight loss is certainly cause for a visit: it can indicate a serious health problem or even a combination of problems. (We went through this with our previous cat.) If the cat has never had blood tests, this is a good time. A senior blood panel might prove very helpful, both now and in the future.

That said, I'm not at all surprised that the cat -- might her name be Sadie? -- isn't vomiting from the human-grade meats she's being fed. Fancy Feast Medleys, and many other canned and dry foods, too, contain fillers, such as wheat gluten and even potato, that cats don't digest well. Some cats develop serious sensitivities to them; they may be diagnosed as IBD. This can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and bloody stools. (We went through this with our previous cat. She also loved Fancy Feast Medleys; I think she developed a sensitivity to the wheat gluten in them. And one of our current cats vomits if she eats potato.) I would take the Medleys and dry food out of the cat's diet and substitute canned foods with very simple recipes that don't contain grains, potatoes, peas, tapioca, or any other carby fillers. I'd introduce the new foods a little bit at a time: it sounds like it doesn't take long for a reaction.

You're right that unsupplemented plain meats aren't enough for a cat. As for possible canned foods to try, look for minimal ingredients, led by meat... Nutro Natural Choice, which is easy to find at Petco and PetSmart, might be the first brand I'd try because they make foods with similar shapes to the Fancy Feast Medleys: our cats especially love the minced chicken and sliced turkey, and the chunky chicken loaf is very popular with picky cats. Weruva's canned Cats in the Kitchen foods, which contain actual meaty shreds (not formed stuff like FF and Nutro) and are sold in independent pet food stores, are pretty simple, too, particularly if you stick with choices like Fowl Ball (chicken/turkey), Double Dip (chicken/beef), and Chicken Frick a See (just chicken but I forget the spelling!). Rawz, which you might have to order from an independent store, makes pates: they have chicken, turkey, beef, and salmon. Our cats, who generally prefer shreds, love the chicken and turkey; Rawz is very good food. There's a chance that Fancy Feast pates might work, too.

I hope something there is helpful. Just ask if you have questions. A lot of Cat Site members have cats with food sensitivities so I'm sure you'll get a lot of ideas and advice! Good luck -- I hope the cat (Sadie?) feels better soon!

A friend of mine has a cat who had the same type of symptoms. They took him to the vet and got all the work done and he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. He is now on several medicines, has been prescribed a NO FISH regime (because keeping phosphorus low is important) although he is still eating Fancy Feast, and the vet said his bowl should be raised to head level because cats with this disease get some sort of reflux which then causes vomiting. They got him a raised bowl and the vomiting has stopped. There are many food recommendations on this page Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Diet and Nutrition Overview. The bowl he uses looks like the one in the picture I am attaching.

red top rescue , yes, that's exactly why a vet visit is so important, particularly for cats of a certain age. So much can be done for cats with kidney disease if it's caught early and treated. Tanya's site for cats with kidney disease is a fantastic resource: I used it extensively when our cat was sick. (She had diagnosed moderate kidney disease and mild thyroid disease, and likely IBD and lymphoma, too, that were never fully diagnosed because she was so old and frail. She was at least 17 so much older than the cat the OP writes about.)

And you're so right about raising the bowl -- we do it, too, but I always forget to mention it!

Vet now. Like today. This cat probably has hyperthyrodism or kidney disease, he will die if he's not seen by a vet. Do not delay.

My cat Shadow was not frail and was very mobile. She loved going from place to place to change her napping spot. The couch and the arm of my husband's chair, where she had to jump up, were her favorites. When my daughter's boyfriend visited she went upstairs to the safety of our room, which she hated doing because she had arthritis. She also had lost a great deal of weight.

We had no clue how very, very ill she was. She hid it incredibly well.

You need a vet ASAP. Your mother's cat is still young enough to have a chance to pull through.

Thanks to all who replied here.

The cat had a vet trip, received a steroid shot, and appeared to experience immediate relief from symptoms. IBS seemed to be an accurate diagnosis.

She has gained back some weight, about 1.0-2.0 lbs, which was much needed.

She will not switch to other foods without a lot of practice, and getting weight back up to normal range needs to take priority for now, but will attempt in the coming months.

Vomiting continues about twice weekly, however, usually as a result of a large meal or furball getting lodged/blocked.

it seems like you have the issue mostly in hand, but you may want to look into cooked catfood options such as "U-Stew."

Basically, you take human grade food like organic ground chicken, cook it in a certain amount of water (like browning meat for spaghetti and meat sauce), add the vitamin powder (u-stew and "food fur life" make a product intended for this purpose), portion it out and freeze it.

We just had a similar discussion here
Hunger Strike For Wet Food

You might find this comment I made helpful as it dealt with an older cat with a similar problem.

Years ago (many actually) when my daughter moved back home for a while she brought her 2 cats with her, which was fine. Everything went well for a number of years but then the older cat started having trouble keeping his food down. He was barfing everything up and it usually came back up looking much the same as it went down, unchewed chunks. In an effort to get a food that he could keep down I started experimenting with a food processor. The formula that actually worked was to put a bunch (as much as he would eat in a day) of dried food in the processor and blend it until it was well chopped. Then add some water, a touch of tuna juice for flavor, and a teaspoon (or half a teaspoon) of virgin olive oil and mix it until it turns into a coarse paste. I don't know why but the olive oil made the difference and he ate it all and kept it down. Vegetable oil didn't work, but olive oil did and it help his fur too. So if you really want to give them wet food you can make their own from dry food and add whatever extras you think needs to be in there. It's cheaper than the canned food and you don't have all those little cans around."

Cats who vomit or have diarrhea can greatly benefit from digestive enzymes. I recommend Dr Goodpets feline digestive enzymes from Chewy.com for about $13. you can read some really awesome reviews from Amazon.com where this product has changed the life of many cats including some who were vomiting and underweight. Of course he should be seen by a vet, but digestive enzymes are a safe product that can be good for any cats with no harmful side effects.

Raised dishes are a good idea. We’ve used them for our cats ever since we had one with vomiting issues. I think we got them at Petco.

Going off of the vet's diagnosis of IBS, we proceeded to change up food and watch for any differences. The cat started to lose more weight, however, and began developing many peculiar symptoms, bit by bit, but I think I was the only one who noticed.


Another vet visit happened, and the vet continued to treat for IBS, and discovered she had a tooth infection, which he gave us antibiotics for. He also mentioned that hyperthyroidism might be a possibility. He did not draw blood to test for hyperthyroidism. He did not advise any OTC treatments of any kind. He administered another steroid shot and said to come back if there was no improvement, but that he would sedate the cat if she returned because she was quite a little hell-raiser in the office and bit everyone at least once.

I took the opportunity to research feline hyperthyroidism quite a bit after that, and it was a perfect fit. All but one symptom matched, she was in the age range most affected. It seemed strange not to just draw blood when he had the cat in the office. I decided to see if the treatment worked.

The cat seemed to improve, but after two weeks had evidently lost even more weight, likely in the 4 lbs range. The vet took off on holiday.

Very suddenly, the cat stopped eating more than a couple of licks at a time, had problems walking, and began hiding herself in secluded spaces. I knew this was the end. I sat with her for many, many hours on Thanksgiving Day. She became unable to lift her body to drink, so I fed her through a medicine dropper. She became unable to walk more than a few steps. I laid next to her as she died on the floor.

Be it a lesson, I suppose, not to trust your vet more than your gut. I lost a good friend because of this. I hope you won't.

I am so sorry.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Utterly awful that no vet did a T4 on a elderly cat, even without symptoms it should be standard to run a T4 on all cats over 10 years old at least once a year. Hyper-t is incredibly common in cats over 10, and it's unfortunately just growing.

So very sorry to read this update. We'll close the thread now out of respect for your loss. We invite you to post a tribute to your kitty in our Crossing the Bridge forum.