Cat burping, looking uncomfortable

[biscuity]

We have a neutered female British Blue Shorthair, age 3.5, indoor-only cat. No other pets - just myself & my wife.

Over the past year, we have noticed that she is regularly burping about 15mins after eating. She also burps occasionally just before her next mealtime. We can often hear her stomach "rumbling" during this period. She has specific places she sits for this - not on the ground, but on the edge of a sofa arm & sometimes the utility room counter top. She does not avoid us. We can stroke her, touch her tummy & she does not appear to be in pain, although she certainly seems to be in discomfort. She sits normally, but looks downwards during this period. The burping periods seem to last 2 or 3 minutes, she sometimes moves to another location & has another burping episode, she then jumps down & carries on her normal activities.

Her food is the best quality wet food we can find, this is Thrive Chicken: Chicken Breast (75%), Chicken Stock, Sunflower Oil, Vitamins & Minerals.
Analytical Constituents
Crude Protein 16%, Crude Oils & Fats 2%, Crude Ash 1.5%, Crude Fibres 0.1%, Moisture 80%, ME Kcal/100g 74.4
Nutritional Supplements
Per 100g: Vitamin A 2800IU, Vitamin D3 29 IU. Trace elements: Zinc 12mg, Iron 6mg, Manganese 1.4g, Copper 0.6mg, Iodine 0.2mg, Taurine 0.5g.

Mineral g/100g Dry Matter	Chicken Breast
Calcium	1.03
Phosphorus	0.95
Ca/P ratio	1:1
Potassium	0.60
Sodium	0.76

The food is very wet & we always add a little extra water to her dinner dish. She is always ready to eat & looking for her food. She would also eat our food if she could. She is not physically sick, her poop & pee seems to be normal, she has not lost weight. We are trying to record the episodes for the vet.

This has been going on for about 3 months, but we have noticed that if we make home food for her, she seems to be ok afterwards. (Such as fish or venison soup). My next attempt will be to buy fish based & beef based food to be able to check if it is chicken that is causing this.

Beef food: Beef, Pumpkin, Green Pea, Water, Sunflower Oil, Vitamins & Minerals
Fish food: Tuna (71%), Tuna stock, Salmon (4%), Sunflower oil, Vitamins & Minerals.
(Both on order, ot yet tested)

Does anyone have any suggestions please?

 

[biscuity]

Here is a short video of the burping.

PXL_20211202_101704488.mp4

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. It could be any number of things. Brief burping (or, perhaps hiccups?) might even be tied to too much water being added to the food since it seems to only occur mostly shortly after eating. Maybe she is somehow pulling extra air into her stomach when she is eating and has to burp to reduce the 'pressure' in her belly.

Since she sometimes burps before a meal, this might be tied to stomach acids, especially if she has gone a little longer than normal between meals. The stomach acids might also play a role in the burping after a meal and the fish and venison absorb the acids quicker/better than the Thrive Chicken.

Your thought about trialing other proteins is as good of an idea as any, but I can't for the life of me figure out if she is having some sort of allergy to the chicken that it wouldn't be demonstrated in other ways. I personally think this would seem to have more to do with the composition of the foods. How does the texture vary with the fish or venison soup when compared to the Thrive Chicken? If not texture, some ingredient that is only in the Thrive Chicken?

Hopefully other members will come along soon with better ideas/thoughts!

 

[biscuity]

Thank you for your interesting reply. Your idea of indigestion is interesting, I will mention this to the vet.

The texture of the pure chicken, is shredded human quality chicken in a small amount of chicken broth. The "soups" are more a high quality thick soup with pieces of chicken (or whatever main protein) & a thick soup of the protein plus some selected vegetables.

After my post, I send the video also to my vet with some written detail. She kindly called me later & we discussed the causes. She came up with a possible diagnoses plan, including a scan & eventually an endoscopy. She felt however that a reaction to the chicken should be investigated first. We've not been doing this properly. She explained that I should change her to an alternative protein source over a 1 week period & then ensure that Coojee is taking zero amount of chicken - even in treats. She was happy with either fish or beef as an alternative. I had forgotten about treats, which are chicken! She also said that we should allow 6 weeks on the new food before expecting any improvement. I've been expecting a change of 1 day or even 1 meal. The vet suggested that I take this course of action first & the reason being that apart from the burps & obvious discomfort, there are no other outward medical issues such as being sick, or urination or stool problems. The fish food has been ordered & we will start her on this as soon as possible. She has been eating this chicken since she was a kitten.

 

[FeebysOwner]

This has been going on for about 3 months, but we have noticed that if we make home food for her, she seems to be ok afterwards...(The vet) She felt however that a reaction to the chicken should be investigated first. ...She also said that we should allow 6 weeks on the new food before expecting any improvement. I've been expecting a change of 1 day or even 1 meal.

Did you explain to the vet that you ARE seeing differences from one food/meal to the next? If I understood you correctly, with the chicken food, she burps, with the other foods, she does not. Seems pretty immediate in terms of a reaction to me. I suppose you could test the vet's theory by giving her a different form/brand of chicken food and see if the burping occurs then too.

And I noticed that you said she gets chicken treats - do they cause her to burp as well? If there is any given day that she eats the beef/venison or fish only for her meals, but still gets chicken treats, does she burp then too?

I hope your vet is right but, to me, something just doesn't 'add up'.

 

[tarasgirl06]

We have a neutered female British Blue Shorthair, age 3.5, indoor-only cat. No other pets - just myself & my wife.

Over the past year, we have noticed that she is regularly burping about 15mins after eating. She also burps occasionally just before her next mealtime. We can often hear her stomach "rumbling" during this period. She has specific places she sits for this - not on the ground, but on the edge of a sofa arm & sometimes the utility room counter top. She does not avoid us. We can stroke her, touch her tummy & she does not appear to be in pain, although she certainly seems to be in discomfort. She sits normally, but looks downwards during this period. The burping periods seem to last 2 or 3 minutes, she sometimes moves to another location & has another burping episode, she then jumps down & carries on her normal activities.

Her food is the best quality wet food we can find, this is Thrive Chicken: Chicken Breast (75%), Chicken Stock, Sunflower Oil, Vitamins & Minerals.
Analytical Constituents
Crude Protein 16%, Crude Oils & Fats 2%, Crude Ash 1.5%, Crude Fibres 0.1%, Moisture 80%, ME Kcal/100g 74.4
Nutritional Supplements
Per 100g: Vitamin A 2800IU, Vitamin D3 29 IU. Trace elements: Zinc 12mg, Iron 6mg, Manganese 1.4g, Copper 0.6mg, Iodine 0.2mg, Taurine 0.5g.

Mineral g/100g Dry Matter	Chicken Breast
Calcium	1.03
Phosphorus	0.95
Ca/P ratio	1:1
Potassium	0.60
Sodium	0.76

The food is very wet & we always add a little extra water to her dinner dish. She is always ready to eat & looking for her food. She would also eat our food if she could. She is not physically sick, her poop & pee seems to be normal, she has not lost weight. We are trying to record the episodes for the vet.

This has been going on for about 3 months, but we have noticed that if we make home food for her, she seems to be ok afterwards. (Such as fish or venison soup). My next attempt will be to buy fish based & beef based food to be able to check if it is chicken that is causing this.

Beef food: Beef, Pumpkin, Green Pea, Water, Sunflower Oil, Vitamins & Minerals
Fish food: Tuna (71%), Tuna stock, Salmon (4%), Sunflower oil, Vitamins & Minerals.
(Both on order, ot yet tested)

Does anyone have any suggestions please?

Although chicken is among the most digestible and palatable of proteins, there are cats with allergy to chicken. Your Coojee may be one. The problems are not the same, but you might ask TCS member daftcat75, whose sweet cat did not have a good time with chicken and who enjoyed other protein sources. He is very helpful and may have some good suggestions for Coojee.

 

[biscuity]

Did you explain to the vet that you ARE seeing differences from one food/meal to the next? If I understood you correctly, with the chicken food, she burps, with the other foods, she does not. Seems pretty immediate in terms of a reaction to me. I suppose you could test the vet's theory by giving her a different form/brand of chicken food and see if the burping occurs then too.

And I noticed that you said she gets chicken treats - do they cause her to burp as well? If there is any given day that she eats the beef/venison or fish only for her meals, but still gets chicken treats, does she burp then too?

I hope your vet is right but, to me, something just doesn't 'add up'.

Thank you, yes I did explain that to the vet, but my original description here may have not been complete. After not having chicken, she seems to burp less, she doesn't not burp at all, but the symptoms seem to ease slightly. Chicken treats - yes she still burps.

 

[biscuity]

Although chicken is among the most digestible and palatable of proteins, there are cats with allergy to chicken. Your Coojee may be one. The problems are not the same, but you might ask TCS member daftcat75, whose sweet cat did not have a good time with chicken and who enjoyed other protein sources. He is very helpful and may have some good suggestions for Coojee.

Thank you.