Bile pukes, virus? hairball?

[missmimz]

Is there some kind of "kitty flu" or something like that other than a URI that might cause 3 cats to have some bile pukes and lack of appetite? 

I have 10 cats, and 3 have been having on and off bile pukes with a poor appetite for a couple of days. 2 are 9 month old kittens and 1 is around 7 years old. No diarrhea. I do not think this is food related because these 3 cats don't eat the same foods, and I have several other cats that are just fine. I haven't brought any to the vet because it doesn't seem serious enough and of course it's a holiday weekend. They're still eating and drinking (a bit less than normal). They're energetic and playing as normal. The pukes are all bile, with some hair in them. I thought maybe this was just hairball related, but it seems odd it started happening to all 3 within a few days. It did just get very hot here, though. 

I can't figure out anything that would cause this other than maybe some kind of virus they all caught. There's nothing they would have all eaten that's not food that would have caused this I don't have any plants or anything like that around. I haven't had anyone over to my house nor have any of the cats been outside. 

 

[catlover73]

I went through something similar with my oldest cat a couple of years ago. I took her to the vet and they gave medicine for nausea via injection. The vomiting and the lack of appetite were gone in less than 24 hours.  My cat  was not exposed to anything in my home either and we had no company.  I have 4 cats and this issue only affected one of my cats though.  It may not hurt to call your vet and see if they will treat for nausea at least.  If you can get the vomiting to stop and the nausea to go away it will go a long way towards getting the cats appetites back.

 

[missmimz]

 
I went through something similar with my oldest cat a couple of years ago. I took her to the vet and they gave medicine for nausea via injection. The vomiting and the lack of appetite were gone in less than 24 hours.  My cat  was not exposed to anything in my home either and we had no company.  I have 4 cats and this issue only affected one of my cats though.  It may not hurt to call your vet and see if they will treat for nausea at least.  If you can get the vomiting to stop and the nausea to go away it will go a long way towards getting the cats appetites back.

Yeah, unfortunately my vet isn't open and ultimately i'm trying to avoid an ER visit unless absolutely necessary. The weird thing is that with each cat they only have bile pukes a couple of times in a 24 hour period and then its gone, but their appetite is still low which is a sign they're nauseated. 

 

[catlover73]

Starbuck was puking up bile every time she would try to eat.  This issue happened close to when our vets office was open fortunately.  It sounds like your cats are eating something at least.  My cat quit eating completely due to the nausea.  The issue started at night after our vets office was closed so hubby took the following day off work to take her into the vet. You could always call and ask the ER vet if this is an issue that can wait until your regular vet is open or not.  The main thing is that you do not want them to stop eating completely due to the nausea.

 

[missmimz]

 
Starbuck was puking up bile every time she would try to eat.  This issue happened close to when our vets office was open fortunately.  It sounds like your cats are eating something at least.  My cat quit eating completely due to the nausea.  The issue started at night after our vets office was closed so hubby took the following day off work to take her into the vet. You could always call and ask the ER vet if this is an issue that can wait until your regular vet is open or not.  The main thing is that you do not want them to stop eating completely due to the nausea.

I feel pretty confident it's nothing serious. I'm sort of leaning towards this is hairball related, even though it seems coincidental 3 started doing it within a short period of time, but it just got extremely hot here so shedding is in full force and I haven't been super diligent about brushing them. The older cat that vomited last night threw up a small hairball, so it seems to be at least partially connected to that. I'm using slippery elm for the ones I can syringe, vet's best hairball pills for the ones that will eat it, and I'm going to try and get them to eat some egg yolk or find some egg yolk powder. 

 

[missmimz]

As an update - A 4th cat, and my oldest, started vomiting and having bloody diarrhea so we went to the ER vet. All his vitals were normal including his temperature, so they gave him an injection of cerenia and some fluids. The vet couldn't tell me what might be causing it other than this is normally caused by food (i know). I also know it's not caused by food considering 4 of my 10 cats have very similar symptoms and they're eating different foods. 

I really have no idea what is causing this but I'm convinced whatever it is is contagious and not related to food since I can't find a food connection. I'm washing all their bedding and scrubbing out their litter boxes. The good news is my kittens seem to have bounced back on their own.