Cat vomiting after meals, already brought her to the vet and it's still happening...

[harrylime]

My 7 year old cat is 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 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. Also, I had dealt with something similar about 18 months ago and eventually it went away when I switched her diet from homemade raw, to high quality canned. At this point I'm running out of proteins to try.

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

 

[Furballsmom]

The vet suggested I put her on "prescription" hydrolized protein meals, which sounds terrible

I believe the idea with this is to provide a food that's designed to avoid allergy triggers.

 

[harrylime]

Yes, but I'm not sure how much of this is actual allergies. She had one allergic reaction to beef, in which she actually had lesions and scabs on her skin. We're just assuming this current situation could be allergy based at this point. Also my cat is insanely picky in general, and has never been a big eater, nor begged for food. I can't even imagine what it would take to get her to eat hydrolized protein (which my vet conveniently sells for a large markup).

 

[kittenmittens84]

Does she throw up the food mostly undigested? Could be an issue with eating too quickly.

 

[harrylime]

Yes, it's minutes after she eats, generally. She DOES have an issue with a single tooth that will be removed next month, and the vet saw a bit of blood on the gums below that tooth. Maybe she's not chewing fully because of that?

 

[kittenmittens84]

Yes, it's minutes after she eats, generally. She DOES have an issue with a single tooth that will be removed next month, and the vet saw a bit of blood on the gums below that tooth. Maybe she's not chewing fully because of that?

It’s possible it’s the tooth/dental pain! The scarf n barf is also not uncommon for cats, especially if they like their food a lot or tend to eat it all in one go.
Ask the vet about the tooth if you haven’t already, and you can do some simple experiments at home in case the issue is eating too quick. Try spreading her wet food out on a plate in a thin layer, it takes them longer to eat because they can’t get big bites. Alternately you can put a golf ball or something similar in the middle of her food bowl so she has to eat around it, an obstacle will slow cats down so they can’t inhale their food and then spit it up.

 

[harrylime]

It does make sense, and I HOPE this is the cause of the vomiting, but not even "scarf n barf" cats do it after EVERY meal, do they? I'll try to spread the food out on a paper plate and see what happens.

 

[eva21513]

It does make sense, and I HOPE this is the cause of the vomiting, but not even "scarf n barf" cats do it after EVERY meal, do they? I'll try to spread the food out on a paper plate and see what happens.

I had a scarf-and-barfer who did it after every meal! After much trial and error, I actually wound up moving her from meals to free-feeding, and she gradually stopped scarfing and then the barfing stopped too. She'd still occasionally scarf a large amount of food - after I vacuumed, things like that - but it really proved that the scarfing was the problem. My vet recommended, and I tried, toys that dispense the food slowly, but my cat didn't do well with that; she couldn't seem to figure out how to dispense the food and would just meow desperately.

 

[Mr. Meow]

One of my cats will throw up wet food because it's too thick for her (multiple different types too), so I flood it in water and make a slurry. Stopped the throwing up all together AND increased water intake. Also worked soaking dry food in water and blending it up. Only down side is chewing dry food helps the teeth, so a slurry day after day could lead to more dental problems.

 

[harrylime]

I'm still a bit confused, going back and forth in my mind whether or not her vomiting could be connected to her tooth issue. It seems like with scarf-n-barf cats, they are DEVOURING their food and that's what makes them vomit. My cat never ever does that, she's always been a picky eater and probably cleans out her bowl once out of only every ten meals lately. She's been vomiting basically once per day (two meals but just one vomit) and generally it's fairly soon after she eats, but even if she eats a very small amount of her food, she'll still puke it up. She just had a few bites of her normal food, and puked up just those three bites about 15 minutes later.

Last night I gave her a completely new food, Primal Freeze Dried Nuggets in venison (which is usually her favorite protein). I crumbled it up, got it quite moist, and she ate it all, with no vomiting after. Then this morning she went back to her Instinct minced rabbit, and that's what she puked up. Gonna stick to the Primal nuggets for now and continue to monitor. I hate seeing her like this.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. What is the timing of the two meals - how far apart? If she is only throwing up after the meal that is longer of a wait for her, it could be acid build up in her stomach? Along with testing the new nuggets to see if her other food is causing the problem, maybe you could try feeding her 3 meals instead of 2 to see if that would help?

 

[harrylime]

I'd say roughly 10am and 8pm. She never finishes a meal in one go, ever. Usually if the food is sitting for more than few hours, I'll mix it up a bit and maybe add a splash of water. If I gave her a third meal, it would be a lot more food wasted.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I'd say roughly 10am and 8pm. She never finishes a meal in one go, ever. Usually if the food is sitting for more than few hours, I'll mix it up a bit and maybe add a splash of water. If I gave her a third meal, it would be a lot more food wasted.

So, is it one of those meals that she is more inclined to vomit after? Perhaps, the 10am one? She is going for 14 hours without food, which is kind of a long time. When I suggested a 3rd meal, I meant splitting her current daily allotment into 3 meals vs. 2, so there wouldn't seem to be any more waste than there is now.

 

[harrylime]

No, she's just as likely to vomit after either meals, but again this has only began a little over a week ago. She gets a good amount of treats during the day, and she can nibble at her food (and normally does) whenever she wants. She never ever finishes her meal in one go. I could split the 2 meals into three but I'm not sure how she would react to it.

 

[FeebysOwner]

No, she's just as likely to vomit after either meals, but again this has only began a little over a week ago. She gets a good amount of treats during the day, and she can nibble at her food (and normally does) whenever she wants. She never ever finishes her meal in one go. I could split the 2 meals into three but I'm not sure how she would react to it.

Just thought I would 'throw it out there'. If you don't see a pattern to the timing of her meals and when she throws up, then probably no reason to change it any.

 

[harrylime]

Ok so tonight's update so far...

She ate an acceptable amount of her Primal venison this morning. Just now I gave her a few tiny, quite soft Orijen "tundra" treats. She ate them, and puked them back up about 10 minutes later along with a hairball (but thankfully none of this morning's food). Only one of the treats out of three was chewed. Here's a photo for those feeling particularly dedicated to this drama:


EDIT: Trying to post this photo as a link only, didn't want it to be automatically displayed... WARNING: mild vomit photo below:






Not sure where this leads me at this point. Going to give her more Primal for dinner in about an hour.

 

[FeebysOwner]

This could be just 'clouding' the issue, as her vomiting might have been solely the result of the hairball. So, maybe more time to see what happens. Also, not unusual at all for food to get swallowed whole by a cat. Not all, but many cats really don't chew their food much, if at all.

Keep plugging away, like you're doing...

 

[harrylime]

Thanks. Would be coincidental though, as she's vomiting almost everyday with or without hairballs. Was trying to associate the "swallowing whole" thing with the tooth issue, but now I'm not so sure that's the culprit. Also I just gave her her Primal freeze dried, she took one sniff and then started scratching at the floor next to the bowl, which usually means "don't even think about giving this to me again".

 

[FeebysOwner]

Also I just gave her her Primal freeze dried, she took one sniff and then started scratching at the floor next to the bowl, which usually means "don't even think about giving this to me again".

Uh oh.....

 

[harrylime]

Ok, from my last post, up until today, she has been totally fine. Actually gave her different foods, most of which she ate with no problem.

But just now, she just vomited out of the blue, and she hadn't eaten since several hours ago. She MIGHT have eaten a treat that had been laying on the ground somewhere, but if so, it was just a treat from earlier today. Realllly thought we were doing better up until just now. She's already eating her dinner now, so presumably she's feeling ok at least. She's had the same food for the last 4 meals so now I am really confused. And the amount of time between when she had her breakfast, and her vomiting, is making me doubt connecting the tooth issue with the vomiting. Ugh.