Cat Suddenly Vomiting After Years On Raw Food?

[harrylime]

My cat currently eats a diet of raw venison + alnutrin with calcium. The venison comes ground from Hare Today. The current batch I'm using (I make about 25lbs and store it in 16oz freezable mason jars) was made at the end of March.

Two nights this week, my cat vomited in the middle of the night. Each time, I changed her next meal to commercial canned food instead of my raw. I tossed out the 16oz jar that she got sick off of, and now I'm onto a new jar. She was ok for two days, but I just came home to more vomit on the floor. I'm not sure what is causing this. Her behavior is still fun and playful, she isn't acting any different at all. Still happy to eat her (single ingredient) treats. I'm sure if I contact my vet, she's just going to tell me to get her off raw food. She's 5 years old and has been eating raw food since she was a kitten. She may or may not have a poultry allergy, but I keep her off poultry just in case.

Any ideas here?

 

[kittyluv387]

Are you feeding her venison all the time? Have you tried raw poultry?

 

[harrylime]

Currently she only gets venison. She was eating chicken and turkey before, but her skin started breaking out, so I took her off of it. Before Rad Cat closed down I was using their venison, now I am using my own.

 

[kittyluv387]

You could try reintroducing it back to her and see how she reacts. Also, have you tried the rabbit? Ideally you should be feeding cats a few different proteins to reduce any chance of allergies.

 

[Tobermory]

Did you just start the new batch or are you part way into it?

 

[daftcat75]

Vomiting in cats is sadly common but never normal. I know the vet will give you hard time about her diet. But I still suggest you take her in to rule out things you can’t rule out at home. Do blood and urine and maybe get her a bag of fluids if she vomited within 24-48 hours of the vet visit to fix any dehydration.

How often do you feed her and is she still hungry after she vomits? When my Krista had IBD barfs, that would frequently set her off eating for a meal or two. And then I’d offer quarter or half portions for a meal or three to see how her stomach would handle it. But I don’t really even want to guess at your kitty until she’s had a recent vet visit and you’re ruled out the big stuff.

 

[harrylime]

You could try reintroducing it back to her and see how she reacts.

Yes, I could do this... however it was such a struggle to get her skin back to normal last time, it makes me nervous to think about. However I'm going to run out of proteins soon if I have to stop using venison to...

Also, have you tried the rabbit? Ideally you should be feeding cats a few different proteins to reduce any chance of allergies.

Yes, she's had rabbit before but she doesn't love it. One of her single ingredient treats that she gets is rabbit, and she does like that.

 

[harrylime]

Did you just start the new batch or are you part way into it?

She started the new jar (not a new batch, same batch as in late March) today, and she vomited (hours later) from her first meal from the new jar.

 

[harrylime]

Vomiting in cats is sadly common but never normal. I know the vet will give you hard time about her diet. But I still suggest you take her in to rule out things you can’t rule out at home. Do blood and urine and maybe get her a bag of fluids if she vomited within 24-48 hours of the vet visit to fix any dehydration.

How often do you feed her and is she still hungry after she vomits? When my Krista had IBD barfs, that would frequently set her off eating for a meal or two. And then I’d offer quarter or half portions for a meal or three to see how her stomach would handle it. But I don’t really even want to guess at your kitty until she’s had a recent vet visit and you’re ruled out the big stuff.

Yes, I probably should get her to the vet, but was thinking to maybe go all high-quality canned for a week and see what happens. She doesn't typically beg for food ever, but I feed her twice a day. Vomiting has not put her off her next meal so far. She's not a big eater and never has been. She's only 7lbs.

 

[daftcat75]

Chicken allergies do not necessarily mean turkey allergies. But many turkey foods contain chicken ingredients so you have to watch for that. My Krista positively thrives on turkey. Put a little chicken liver or egg yolk in the recipe and her ear fills up with fluid and she’s scratching and shaking her head for several days. And probably also throwing up at least once.

What I did with Krista when I was trying to find her stable proteins, once I found one, that was every meal. That’s where you’re at now. So take a midnight meal, a second breakfast, or a lunch and make it a smaller guest star protein meal. Start with a quarter portion. Add a quarter portion every couple of days when you’re certain it’s treating her right and her poops are still good. If it isn’t working for her, that’s not one of her primary meals anyway. You can stop it or make it a smaller canned meal until you’re ready to try again.

 

[darg]

I'm sorry if this was posted and I missed it but is it possible that you got an off batch of venison from HT? I'm not exactly sure how cats react to spoiled meat since I can't recall ever encountering it, but it seems like it's maybe a possibility worth exploring before assuming a new allergy to the venison. Just a thought. I could be off base.

 

[daftcat75]

I had a learning curve introducing Krista to raw last summer. We had a week of barfing while I figured out how old is too old for a thaw. If Krista is any guide here, an off-batch will result in nearly immediate vomiting.

Two things I would try (besides the guest star protein introduction):

1. Feed canned for a week or two and see if that settles her gut.
2. Add an extra meal in case she's vomiting because she's going too long between meals.

 

[harrylime]

Checking back in on this old thread. So since the original post, she has been on high quality canned food. Rabbit and venison usually. For treats she gets freeze dried single ingredient goat, and rabbit treats that are simply rabbit meat and organs. She's been eating the goat treats for basically her whole life.

So she started puking again basically twice a day. The first two days it was just clear liquid. Then day three she vomited up all of her food. I brought her to the vet, did a full blood panel and everything came back ok. He gave her a shot of Cerenia to prevent vomiting, and also subcutaneous fluids. The vet suggested I put her on "prescription" hydrolized protein meals, which sounds terrible. She's picky enough about her food as it is and she's never had dry food in her life.

So just now, after like 36 hours of no vomiting, she just puked up everything she had just eaten.

One more thing to note is that within the last two weeks, I DID give her some new protein that she had never had before. Tuna (in cat food form) and then chicken (which she barely touched), which is something she used to eat a lot but then I pulled her off of after she potentially developed an allergy. These were both at least several days before the puking began.

Any other suggestions? Obviously will call the vet tomorrow but I really don't want to bring her back there so soon. Thank you!

EDIT: Just realized this is the Raw Food forum, so I will cross post to the Cat Health forum.