Cat vomiting undigested food hours after eating

[jersharocks]

Juliet last ate today around 12pm and it is currently 9pm. She just vomited and every bit of it was undigested food. I've never in my life seen a cat throw up undigested food this far after eating, any ideas what might be going on? Definitely going to call the vet in the morning.

She's currently eating Natural Balance LID Green Pea and Duck dry food. Her previous food was Science Diet Sensitive Stomach & Skin chicken & rice dry food which she enjoyed but she was itchy a lot while eating it (ironic given the name of the food). Her food before that was Sheba pate (chicken or turkey) or Friskies pate (chicken or turkey) which both caused her to have frequent soft/sticky stool and occasional diarrhea. We thought that she might be allergic to chicken which is why we tried the LID Duck.

All dry food changes were done over the course of a week or more. She's been on the current food for several weeks now.

We also tried several different duck or rabbit canned foods (because I think canned is healthier) and she turned her nose up at all of them, even the awesome but expensive Rawz. She's a picky brat but I love her anyway lol.

She is extremely picky so now I'm stressed about possibly needing to change her food yet again if this one is causing her problems. Would it be bad to go back to Sheba or Friskies since she enjoys that and just deal with possible diarrhea for a little while?

 

[maggie101]

My cat likes fancy feast classics turkey&gibbletswhich is not as dense as any other pate she's had and not to watery. I think her problem is she can't eat much. The one and only food she has never thrown up is farmina duck or quail in pumpkin. More like ground meat, expensive. Also tiki after dark. Everything is in the fridge even unopened so it's not so watery. Can you use a food timer for mid day?

 

[jersharocks]

My cat likes fancy feast classics turkey&gibbletswhich is not as dense as any other pate she's had and not to watery. I think her problem is she can't eat much. The one and only food she has never thrown up is farmina duck or quail in pumpkin. More like ground meat, expensive. Also tiki after dark. Everything is in the fridge even unopened so it's not so watery. Can you use a food timer for mid day?

Juliet is fed 3 times a day - around 6:30am, around 12-1pm, and at 9-9:30pm. Maybe there's too long between the middle and last feeding but I don't see why it would make her throw up undigested food? Also anything left over in the can is refrigerated, food doesn't last long enough in the bowl to go bad. If Juliet doesn't eat it all, her sister hoovers up the rest. I have to feed them in different rooms with a door closed between them otherwise Juliet would get very little to eat and Contessa would be round haha.

I'll have to try the Fancy Feast turkey & giblets. She liked the Friskies turkey & giblets so she *should* like that...hopefully lol.

 

[game misconduct]

is it possible she ate too much of the dry food at one time and then puked it once it expanded in her belly? its happened to graycie a few times with the dinky nulo dry foodkibbles

 

[maggie101]

Since farmina is so expensive I some times use cooked ground bison with ezcomplete. Similar to farmina. I sleep 9 hours,then she's starving and eats too fast

 

[jersharocks]

is it possible she ate too much of the dry food at one time and then puked it once it expanded in her belly? its happened to graycie a few times with the dinky nulo dry foodkibbles

Hmm, that could be it. I usually give her 1/8 cup at a time, maybe I did a heaping 1/8 cup for lunch because she was hungry, it's hard to remember since it was almost 24 hours ago. I gave her a small amount of Friskies canned last night and she didn't throw up. I gave her a regular amount of Friskies canned this morning and so far, so good.

Unfortunately, the vet's office is closed due to a winter storm so I guess I'll try to call tomorrow.

 

[maggie101]

If my cat throws up uneaten food it is right after eating in the morning. Since hasn't eaten for hours so she eats too fast or she is nauseous in the morning for the same reason so if I feed her any food,even tiny amount,she throws up. Throwing 9 hours later is from being without food. Though undigested food is strange.Glad you will discuss this with your vet. There can be other reasons

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Any update relative to the vet call? What is going on with her stool? Is she regularly pooping, or ?? To throw up undigested food that long after eating it - regardless of what food is involved - says there is something not enabling the food to pass through her system.

I hope the vet said to bring her in for a thorough checkup, which IMO, means blood work, urinalysis, x-rays, and possibly an ultrasound.

Please keep us posted.

 

[jersharocks]

Hi. Any update relative to the vet call? What is going on with her stool? Is she regularly pooping, or ?? To throw up undigested food that long after eating it - regardless of what food is involved - says there is something not enabling the food to pass through her system.

I hope the vet said to bring her in for a thorough checkup, which IMO, means blood work, urinalysis, x-rays, and possibly an ultrasound.

Please keep us posted.

I haven't been able to speak with the vet yet because they were also closed yesterday due to the snow. It looks like they're going to be open today so I'll give them a call. She just had a checkup in November and they did a fecal screen and bloodwork, not sure about urinalysis. I don't have a copy of the results but was told everything was within range and the fecal screen came back clear. I'm definitely going to ask for them to examine her either way because I'm concerned. Juliet was having diarrhea back in November (which is why we changed food) but she hasn't had any diarrhea lately.

It's hard to tell whether she's pooped since we have 2 cats. One of the litter boxes is in my office (where I spend at least 8 hours a day) and I haven't seen her poop yet. I am pretty sure that she has pooped though because she always covers hers and her sister never does and there was covered poop in there this morning and yesterday morning. There's a chance that Juliet covered her sister's poop so I can't be 100% sure either way, maybe I should set up a camera haha.

I've had both girls on canned only since the incident and so far, nobody has thrown anything up. Still going to get her in for an appointment as soon as possible though just in case there's something bad going on. I'm hoping it was just something like a hairball but I know I've seen some oversized poop from Juliet before so I'm concerned about a blockage or megacolon.

 

[jersharocks]

The vet recommended 1/8 tsp Miralax twice a day and watch the litter box, call back on Monday to let them know how that went and we'll go from there.

 

[jersharocks]

No confirmed poop yet from Juliet. We closed her in my office last night (she has a litter box, water fountain, cat tree, beds, and food in there) and she did not poop. She peed once and it was a good size clump.

She is now unwilling to eat the only canned food we have in the house right now (Fancy Feast pate turkey & giblets). I have a suspicion that the Miralax upset her stomach so she is refusing to eat that food again.

Going to run by the pet store and get some other canned foods to see if she'll eat. I'll grab some of the Sheba and Friskies that she has enjoyed in the past. Hopefully she will eat and poop today.

 

[jersharocks]

Still no poop but she did finally eat. We played for about 15 minutes and I got her running all around the living room playing with her favorite toys and then offered her some Friskies shreds canned food. She ate ~2 ounces of food. Will try again at bed time to see if she'll eat. She was very excited to play, didn't act any different than usual.

 

[Timmer]

I know it's upsetting when this stuff happens. 1/8 teaspoon of Miralax is not very much. Miralax also takes a lot of water in order for it to work. I use psyllium husks in my cat's food if they seem slow in the gut. I just use like half a capsule of the psyllium and mix it in with the canned food.
I also have a cat who vomits up dry food now and then. I think she eats too much, drinks water, it swells up and she urps it up. I don't like it when it happens and I'm concerned but it's only occasional. Sometimes there is hair in it, so I attribute it to hairball mixing in with the digestion of the food.
I hope your cat has pooped by now.

 

[jersharocks]

I know it's upsetting when this stuff happens. 1/8 teaspoon of Miralax is not very much. Miralax also takes a lot of water in order for it to work. I use psyllium husks in my cat's food if they seem slow in the gut. I just use like half a capsule of the psyllium and mix it in with the canned food.
I also have a cat who vomits up dry food now and then. I think she eats too much, drinks water, it swells up and she urps it up. I don't like it when it happens and I'm concerned but it's only occasional. Sometimes there is hair in it, so I attribute it to hairball mixing in with the digestion of the food.
I hope your cat has pooped by now.

She did poop today...twice actually!!! Once just before breakfast and once just before lunch. Both times they were completely normal size and shape. The vet said we can discontinue Miralax because Juliet was starting to turn her nose up at food that had Miralax mixed in. I know it's supposed to be tasteless but she made the connection that something was off with the food and she wasn't eating. She ate breakfast and lunch sans Miralax today. I think we'll just take dry food out of the picture and see how things go with canned. The vet said to let them know if anything changes but she didn't think a visit was warranted yet since she hasn't vomited again and she's pooping now.

I'll keep you all updated if anything changes. For now we're gonna just go with canned food only and pay close attention to her bathroom habits.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I know it's supposed to be tasteless but she made the connection that something was off with the food and she wasn't eating.

If you need to give her Miralax down the road, try mixing it with a lickable treat or baby food meat. I am having success doing this with Feeby, after she somehow realized one of her meds (which seems tasteless to me) was in her food. Sometimes, I think it is a matter of them seeing you doing something 'different' with their food. So, any meds I put in Feeby's foods are now being 'snuck' into them.

 

[jersharocks]

If you need to give her Miralax down the road, try mixing it with a lickable treat or baby food meat. I am having success doing this with Feeby, after she somehow realized one of her meds (which seems tasteless to me) was in her food. Sometimes, I think it is a matter of them seeing you doing something 'different' with their food. So, any meds I put in Feeby's foods are now being 'snuck' into them.

Good idea! I keep those lickable treats on hand and I should get some baby food meat too. I did have some for Flakes but when he passed (before I adopted the girls), I donated it because I wasn't sure I'd ever get a cat again. Then these two floofy goofs came into my life and now I have to restock everything haha.

 

[jersharocks]

She's definitely pooping (yay!) but now we've gone the other direction and she's having soft stool, not quite full diarrhea but definitely runny poop. She had some evidence stuck to her butt this morning when I woke up. Ugh. Thankfully she cleaned it up on her own.

It's probably because I have to give her something different at every meal. She refuses to eat the same thing back to back so I'm rotating between 3 or 4 different foods (I should probably rein it in to just 2 and see if that works). I thought maybe she was refusing to eat leftovers because they were cold so I warmed leftovers up and she still takes a bite and walks away. Same thing with a freshly opened can of whatever she had for the previous meal. It has to be different at each meal. The funny thing is that before we changed she went weeks eating Sheba turkey shreds at every meal. Maybe I could try getting her back on that.

I'm also thinking about trying Proviable to see if we can get firmed up poop without constipation. Contessa is taking it already because she was having runny poop and anal gland issues.

 

[FeebysOwner]

She's definitely pooping (yay!) but now we've gone the other direction and she's having soft stool, not quite full diarrhea but definitely runny poop. She had some evidence stuck to her butt this morning when I woke up. Ugh. Thankfully she cleaned it up on her own...It's probably because I have to give her something different at every meal. She refuses to eat the same thing back to back so I'm rotating between 3 or 4 different foods (I should probably rein it in to just 2 and see if that works).

Are you giving her any Miralax - if so, maybe too much?

As far as the differing foods, Feeby has a list of different foods that practically extends into nearly a week before a food is repeated because she will reject them otherwise. It doesn't impact her stool, and a few are fairly significant in terms of different ingredients. If you can make a correlation between the food she eats and the loose stool, it might be something in that particular food that causes the consistency change. I'd compare ingredients in those you are feeding her just to see how widely varying they are.

 

[jersharocks]

Are you giving her any Miralax - if so, maybe too much?

As far as the differing foods, Feeby has a list of different foods that practically extends into nearly a week before a food is repeated because she will reject them otherwise. It doesn't impact her stool, and a few are fairly significant in terms of different ingredients. If you can make a correlation between the food she eats and the loose stool, it might be something in that particular food that causes the consistency change. I'd compare ingredients in those you are feeding her just to see how widely varying they are.

She's been off Miralax since last weekend because she wouldn't eat any food with it in there. The vet said it was fine to stop it as long as she was still pooping.

Yeah, it could be an ingredient in the food. The pet store was out of a lot of things so she's mostly eating Friskies, Fancy Feast, and Purina Pro Plan in turkey varieties right now but she's had some chicken which I think might be a trigger for her. I suspect she's sensitive to carrageenan and/or guar gum too but not 100% sure. She's eaten some Rawz rabbit if I don't feed two meals of it close together so hopefully I can get her to try the other varieties of Rawz too since it doesn't have carrageenan or guar gum in it.

I will compare the labels of the foods later today and see how much they differ.

 

[Revison]

My Lindsey vomited indigested food yesterday. Today she seems ok, but don't eat much. Found the article about it at Cat Vomiting: Why Is My Cat Throwing Up Undigested Food? - Cat Food Point. It is stated that if the bouts of vomiting repeated, there could be a real problem. I'm worried about her. How is Juliet? Is she okay? Did she chose the appropriate food for her?