Cat vomits every night, only at night

canadian1

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My 11 neutered male vomits every night, have been to vet numerous times, tried pills which he fought so much, now on vet G/I special dry food and hairball laxative.  Trying grain-free foods, so far no difference, Any Suggestions,  Don't live near big pet food stores, just Petvalu........
 
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canadian1

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PS wonder if it is behavoural as never during the day, also had to take in my Mom's old cat in, they get along but Tashi was alone with me for 10 years and only rarely vomited.  Trying Calming treats at night but he won't eat them so have to break them up and hide them in wet food which he sometimes eats.......
 

2cats4me

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My 11 neutered male vomits every night, have been to vet numerous times, tried pills which he fought so much, now on vet G/I special dry food and hairball laxative.  Trying grain-free foods, so far no difference, Any Suggestions,  Don't live near big pet food stores, just Petvalu........
Have you tried  a wet food diet ? Sometimes that will help depending on the reason for the vomiting of course ..
 

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@canadian1, is your cat vomiting up clear or frothy liquid? Or is he regurgitating food that's still identifiable? Or even both? And is this happening soon after he eats or at some time later, during night, when you're asleep, presumably long after he's eaten? Since the problem could be food-related, it might also be helpful to know exactly what your cat has been eating, including the treats.

I ask because we've dealt with both types: one of our cats used to vomit clear, yellowish, frothy liquid toward morning. Two things seem to have resolved that problem: taking potato out of her diet (I think it bothered her stomach) and making sure she has plenty to eat at (our) bedtime so her stomach never gets too empty before she's fed in the morning. She also has a tendency to eat too fast and regurgitate: we feed her small meals that aren't mounded on her plate.

Our previous cat was a regurgitator in her senior years. (We think she lived to be about 17 though aren't sure.) She had all sorts of ailments, including IBD, which caused her all sorts of gastric distress. Feeding her a grain-free diet helped, taking fish out of that, too, seemed to help a little more in her last weeks and months. Brooksie's vets also recommended hairball remedies but they didn't help; only later did I learn that hairballs are not normal and usually indicate a bigger problem. (Here's an article that links to some other articles I've found helpful.)

Lots of Cat Site members have cats various food sensitivities so I'm sure you'll get more responses if you add more details!
 
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canadian1

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Thanks, he is on Purina Pro Plan Veterinary diets Gastroenteric, he gets it free choice  plus 1/4 can Fancy Feast mid-afternoon.  The vomit is usually digested food with a little hair in it.  He looks like he has some Oriental in him so it is very fine, short hair.  It seems like any hair makes him vomit but I don't understand how he can be okay all day and evening and vomit only at night when I am asleep.  I am going to try to switch him to grain free dry and wet and likely increase the wet he gets. 

I have off white carpeting which is covered in stains...............
 

2cats4me

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Thanks, he is on Purina Pro Plan Veterinary diets Gastroenteric, he gets it free choice  plus 1/4 can Fancy Feast mid-afternoon.  The vomit is usually digested food with a little hair in it.  He looks like he has some Oriental in him so it is very fine, short hair.  It seems like any hair makes him vomit but I don't understand how he can be okay all day and evening and vomit only at night when I am asleep.  I am going to try to switch him to grain free dry and wet and likely increase the wet he gets. 

I have off white carpeting which is covered in stains...............
Yeah , that is odd .   Maybe he eats a big portion at night and it does not sit well . Can you maybe switch him to scheduled feedings of 2 small meals of kibble during the day and the wet food at night ..
 

lisahe

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We saw a lot of this, too, also on off-white carpet. I don't know why cats seem to like off-white carpet so much!

Joking aside, though, if your cat is a Siamese mix, there's apparently a greater possibility that he has some sort of food sensitivity: our current two cats are Siamese mixes and one of the first things the vet told us when we adopted them was that they tend toward having gastric issues. She strongly recommended only grain-free wet foods, which was how we were planning to feed them anyway.

I think your strategy of moving to all grain-free foods, with more wet food, is good. That Purina dry food has lots of soy and corn in various forms; they could be causing problems. And are you feeding Fancy Feast Classics or some of the other FF foods? Most of the others are loaded with wheat gluten; Brooksie loved those but they were terrible for her! (We'd been feeding her all sorts of foods that were probably the worst thing we could get for her.)

Lots of Cat Site members whose cats have sensitive stomachs seem to find that simpler foods seem to work best for their cats. For our cats, that means lots of canned and raw foods without grains, potatoes, peas, or carrageenan. They also only rarely get fish, and all their foods are low-carb and high-protein. Your cat may be different--digestive issues are very individual--but those basics, with individual differences (chicken or beef might bother one cat but not another), seem like a good starting place.

Good luck!
 
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canadian1

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Thanks, I did remove the food at night for quite awhile but he continued to vomit at night.  In Canada, the Fancy Feast is not marked Classic, I'd read about looking for Classic on another blog .  It is just very frustrating to wake up to a mess on the carpet every morning.  And I just want him to be well.  The vet did blood work that didn't show anything other than some inflammation so he may have IBD.    She put him on cat Gravol, he was very hard to pill and it only worked for a week or so.  She said an ultrasound would likely just show thickening of the bowel, nothing else like what was causing it ie cancer.  He acts normal and happy 99% of the time and is maintaining his weight.  
 

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Yes, that's right, I forgot that Fancy Feast is labelled differently in Canada! I'm glad your cat's active and not losing weight -- I hope you can get his diet sorted so he doesn't lose weight or energy. His symptoms do sound a lot like IBD, in which case, yes, some diet changes could help a lot.
 

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You might have to go to a more "premium" food.  Following a terrifying bout with pancreatitis, I switched Hekitty to a chicken and brown rice diet.  That seems to have done the trick.  The first two days she turned her nose up at it, but we had a long discussion concerning the fact that I could have bought 5 bags of her old food for the cost of the new, and she needed to put on her big-girl britches and eat the stuff.  Either that or hunger drove her to the kibble dish, and now she sucks it down like there's no tomorrow.  Instead of regular hairballs, I now see one every 4-5 weeks, and it's small.  Apparently my girl has a delicate tummy, and the new stuff does the trick. 

Best of luck.  It's rough having a sick kitty.
 

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This happened to my 13 year old cat. He started vomiting food/bile/hairballs regularly and the vet and i both agreed he probably had IBD as all his blood work came back normal. I started him on slippery elm syrup every morning and i put him on part raw food and part ziwipeak air dried kibble. He vomits if he goes too long without food so i feed him several small meals per day and leave food out overnight as he likes to eat really early in the AM. The slippery elm has made the biggest difference. I made the mistake last week of cutting down his SE to twice per week and he had a terrible flare where he vomited several times for two days. Put him back on SE once a day and the vomiting is gone. 

http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/slippery-elm/
 
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canadian1

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I am going to get SE and try it, fingers crossed, thanks for everyone's help, I will update re SE and premium foods as they happen.
 

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Good luck! It can take a few weeks for the SE to really work and for you to see the full benefits (thats what my vet said, anyway), so give it some time. Although it started helping my cat right away. Some people just add the SE to their cats wet food. I make the syrup and use a syringe to give to my cat orally before he eats. He doesn't mind the taste at all. Here's another site with good info about using it. 

http://www.felinecrf.org/holistic_treatments.htm#SEB1
 
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canadian1

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Thanks, I got a little SE bulk to try it, made it up as a tea, simmered on the stove, he will lick it out of his bowl then eat the wet food.  Finally something he will take willingly.  I just hope it works, will try to be patient.
 
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canadian1

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Unfortunately he still vomited on the SE so have been switching his food, both wet and dry to grain free, will give it some time but so far 1 day without vomiting
 

missmimz

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Unfortunately he still vomited on the SE so have been switching his food, both wet and dry to grain free, will give it some time but so far 1 day without vomiting
That's a bummer, but I think transitioning to better quality food is a great idea. You might even consider taking the cat that vomits off dry food entirely, as dry is often harder to digest and has more ingredients thus it can aggravate sensitive cat's systems more easily. 
 

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I have one cat who inhales his food and was vomiting fairly regularly.  Now I spread it out on the plate and mix water into it.

He eats purina pro plan with a limited ingredient dry for a snack. 

My other had a terrible bout with IBD, but since switching to limited ingredient he is fine.
 

angel3115

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My girl vomits, mostly at night. The vet suspects IBD, and suggested prescription hypo-allergenic food. I don't have the money to get it, so I don't know if it'll help, but it's a thought. Steroid shots helped for a little while, along with switching her food to Purina One for sensitive systems.
 
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