Cat meows really weird, then vomits.

[thomthoms3]

So last night my roommate called me and told me my cat had vomited while I was out. He said he started meowing very strange, and then vomited. I came home and cleaned it up and assumed he was eating the plant, so I took the plant away, and he seemd fine the rest of the night. He slept throughout the night in my room just fine, and when I came downstairs with him this morning I let him run around and eat and such. He starts mewoing weird, making a very almost alerting repetitve meow, then proceeds to vomit again. I looked at it, and it looked like it was jsut food that he threw up, and I triple checked the house and couldn't find anything that he was getting in to. I had taken the plant outside, so it couldn't have been that. What I do think though is that whatever is making him sick, he must have gotten into it this morning, because he was fine all night. Maybe it is just his food? I haven't changed his food in awhile, and he has been eating it just fine since I got him 3 and a half weeks ago. I am refraining from feeding him right now until I get a better idea of what is causing him to get sick. Any ideas?

Edit: the only variable about his living habits that have changed in the past couple of days is I got him new food and water bowls and started putting plastic liners in his litter box. I have also noticed that he has been scratching up/messing with the liner is his litter box.

 

[red top rescue]

The strange weird meow is what we commonly refer to as the "pre-puke howl" and most cats do make that sound before vomiting.  Even though you haven't changed his food, technically every time you open a new bag (if you are using dry food) or a can from a different batch (production date and time), this is "new" food.  The first thing I would do in this case is put him on something bland, like chicken and rice, for a few days and see if the vomiting stops.  If so, it may be the food.  If not, then he may have some kind of obstruction -- maybe he is swallowing the plastic from the litter liners (I personally do not use liners and prefer to use natural litters that do not get wet at the bottom of the box, i.e. corn cob litters, sWheat Scoop or Fresh Results (corn cob clumping but smells like pine.)  If he continues to vomit after changing the food, do take him to a vet!  If not, you might try searching the internet for "problems with __________" (the name of the food) because that's how recalls happen -- a bad batch gets out, animals get sick, and people file complaints.  Eventually the company responds and recalls the batch.  There will always be some complaints about any food, but when there are a lot of complaints about a specific food, it is good to avoid that food!  I know if you buy at PetSmart or Petco, they will refund your money if you return food for ANY reason.  Do make note of the production info / lot number / production date etc. so you will know it if others complain about the same food or if there is a recall.

 

[thomthoms3]

He's been eating the same food from the same bag since I got him almost a month ago and it has not caused any issues. Maybe he is eating the plastic liners? They are all torn up, but I did not look at his vomit for any plastic. Could eating plastic make them sick like this? I just don't see how it would be his food. Nothing about his diet has changed since I have gotten him. I have been feeding him from the same bag.

 

[2bcat]

It's been a few years since I dealt with dry food, but I can remember getting to the point where my hunch was the long-opened bag of food was the problem itself (when faced with sudden repeated puking after eating).  A month doesn't really seem like long enough, but maybe.  The food in that bag is exposed to air basically continuously once opened (although mitigated a little by closing tightly after each use).  If it's in a slightly more humid environment, it's possible it could encourage enough microbe growth to make a cat puke.  

May not in fact be the right track at all, but if there's nothing else you can locate that appears to be connected, it wouldn't hurt to try a new bag of food just to see if that fixes it.  Once is a fluke, twice is a pattern.

The plastic litter liner would surprise me.  I doubt he's eating it; more likely he is just scratching it.  The new bowls could be something though, depending upon what was done to them or not before you started using them.  Another possibility with dry food:  how often are you fully dumping that out and then washing the bowl? Every time he eats he's getting saliva on it which means that leftover pieces are sitting there moistened which encourages the growth of the bacteria that is still on there.  Mostly this is not going to harm a cat, BUT one of the ways a cat's system deals with such harmful things is sending them back out the way they came in. I would keep it to no more than a daily portion and wash the bowl.  Having two or more food bowls and rotating them makes this easier (one can be in wash or left to air dry while the other is put back into use).

An odd moaning sort of vocal before vomiting is not uncommon; an earlier cat of mine did that at times as well.  Have not heard it from my current cats, though.  Indeed the other day I came out from another room to voluminous upchuck on the floor in two spots (I think they reacted poorly to an older bag of freeze dried food I had opened a few days before) and I never heard a thing!

 

[cinqchats]

Is he doing the old scarf-and-barf routine? (Eating too quickly and then throwing it up right away again) If he is, try getting him a food puzzle. It slows them down and also is great mental stimulation. There are all sorts of models out there. 

It may also be that the plant he was chewing on has irritated his digestive tract. Some plants, like Dieffenbachia, have oxalate crystals in them that are very irritating and can cause mild swelling and numbing. It wears off quickly and is rarely serious. I would say if he keeps vomiting or his symptoms get worse, call the vet. 

Everyone is right, the pre-puking meows have a distinctive noise. We call it the "sick kitty" meow. 

 

[jessiemcmickle]

My cat was doing that and I thought it was his food, but then he vomited up a roundworm. Make sure he doesn't have worms.