Cat Vomits Frequently After A Meal

GingeryKitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 9, 2017
Messages
7
Purraise
0
Hello everyone, I'm really worried about my cat ginger who is 9 months old right now.
He vomits around once or twice a week due to eating too fast. I feed him only a thin layer of dry food on the plate.
Earlier, I used to feed him in a bowl and he used to vomit 4-5 times a week. Feeding lesser has definitely decreased the frequency of vomiting but I'm worried it may not be enough for him. If I put even a little bit more than what I usually put, he'd vomit it out. I've taken him to the vet multiple times for it he always says it's because of eating too fast without chewing the food. Which is true because his vomit is basically unchewed food that he ate too fast. The vet told me not to make any changes in his diet like the timings I feed him at etc. (I feed him 3 times a day)
please leave in your suggestions and advice I'd really appreciate it.
 

LTS3

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
19,209
Purraise
19,695
Location
USA
What brand(s) of food are you feeding? I wonder if your cat is sensitive to some ingredient(s) in the food that is causing the vomiting:think:

Have you tried slowing your cat down while eating? There are bowls designed for this purpse but most work ony with dry food.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

GingeryKitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 9, 2017
Messages
7
Purraise
0
What brand(s) of food are you feeding? I wonder if your cat is sensitive to some ingredient(s) in the food that is causing the vomiting:think:

Have you tried slowing your cat down while eating? There are bowls designed for this purpse but most work ony with dry food.
Hello thank you for replying.
I feed him royal cannin cat food in second age kitten. He was being fed a cheaper brand of cat food before I adopted him. I slowly changed his diet from that brand to royal cannin. And the person who gave him to me said that she never faced that issue before. She claims that the royal cannin can he heavy on some cats and that's the reason he's vomiting. Although the vet said there's no need to change food again. Should I be worried? Should feed him what he used to be given as a baby kitten?
 

lisahe

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
6,150
Purraise
4,969
Location
Maine
One of our cats used to eat too fast and vomit, too. The problem pretty much stopped when we started feeding five small meals a day. I know your vet said not to change the food schedule, G GingeryKitty , but what you said about not being able to feed even a tiny bit more makes me wonder if four meals a day might make the problem even less frequent. One other thing that can help is raising the cat's dish off the floor by a few inches. We built little platforms for our cats to eat from.

If your cat is a rescue cat of some sort -- a stray cat or even a cat who was underfed before you adopted him -- that might also have something to do with his fast eating. That is probably one of the biggest reasons our cat eats fast like this: she was underfed and tiny when we adopted her at 10 months. She has slowed her eating somewhat in the three years since we adopted her but there are certain foods that we can't feed to her because she always gulps them down and then throws up.

Good luck!
 

Neo_23

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 2, 2017
Messages
1,878
Purraise
1,498
Are you feeding him dry? I suggest you switch to grain free wet food. Royal canin is not a high quality brand regardless of what your vet tells you. Your vet is probably sponsored by royal canin that's why they promote it. My cat threw up on RC too- it's probably because of all of the grains in it.

I would switch to grain free wet. Or, if you choose to do grain free dry then use one of the feeding puzzle boxes or something that help cats slow down while eating.

Take a look at the ingredients in your cat's RC food- you'll see it's not high quality at all.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6

GingeryKitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 9, 2017
Messages
7
Purraise
0
One of our cats used to eat too fast and vomit, too. The problem pretty much stopped when we started feeding five small meals a day. I know your vet said not to change the food schedule, G GingeryKitty , but what you said about not being able to feed even a tiny bit more makes me wonder if four meals a day might make the problem even less frequent. One other thing that can help is raising the cat's dish off the floor by a few inches. We built little platforms for our cats to eat from.

If your cat is a rescue cat of some sort -- a stray cat or even a cat who was underfed before you adopted him -- that might also have something to do with his fast eating. That is probably one of the biggest reasons our cat eats fast like this: she was underfed and tiny when we adopted her at 10 months. She has slowed her eating somewhat in the three years since we adopted her but there are certain foods that we can't feed to her because she always gulps them down and then throws up.

Good luck!
Thank you! I'll try making meals more frequent and see how it goes. But will the cats that eat too fast have the same behavior lifelong? Or will it resolve itself over time
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

GingeryKitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 9, 2017
Messages
7
Purraise
0
Are you feeding him dry? I suggest you switch to grain free wet food. Royal canin is not a high quality brand regardless of what your vet tells you. Your vet is probably sponsored by royal canin that's why they promote it. My cat threw up on RC too- it's probably because of all of the grains in it.

I would switch to grain free wet. Or, if you choose to do grain free dry then use one of the feeding puzzle boxes or something that help cats slow down while eating.

Take a look at the ingredients in your cat's RC food- you'll see it's not high quality at all.
I live in India, could you recommend me some brands that are healthy for cats? I'll try and look if it's available in my country!
 

lisahe

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
6,150
Purraise
4,969
Location
Maine
Thank you! I'll try making meals more frequent and see how it goes. But will the cats that eat too fast have the same behavior lifelong? Or will it resolve itself over time
Our cat has slowed down some after nearly three years of stable feeding. I would say the problem has only partially resolved itself since there are still certain foods that she eats too fast and she still has a tendency to want to keep eating after a meal.
 

Neo_23

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 2, 2017
Messages
1,878
Purraise
1,498
I live in India, could you recommend me some brands that are healthy for cats? I'll try and look if it's available in my country!
I'm not sure about availability in India, but some brands you might look up are Weruva, Tiki Cat, Wellness, Merrick, Nature's Variety, Ziwi Peak, Orijen.

These are all grain free, but I also highly encourage you to consider feeding wet food (of any brand, even if you can't find grain free). It's much better for cats because of the higher moisture content and you may find that it solves your vomiting problem.
 

kittylove14

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Oct 21, 2016
Messages
185
Purraise
52
Location
Somewhere upstate
mine was doing the same, and i know it was how he gulped the dry food bc once he puked his wet but there were dry granules meaning the dry first was what did it. he's a fat boy. I started feeding on a baking sheet (i have too many cats to just put one layer over one small bowl) and it seems to have worked. i have resolved to feed them more wet food though as he is a fat boy and the others will be happy but also lean.
 

yeva2292

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Aug 8, 2016
Messages
147
Purraise
198
Here's an idea for how you can feed him his dry food so that he eats slowly. I take a plastic easter egg, cut a small rectangle (slightly smaller than the largest kibble) on the side, then fill it with kibble. It takes a while for the cat to get the food out of egg (by batting it around) and you can refill the egg once its empty! If you feel he's eating too slowly, you can make the opening bigger. Or, more conveniently - if you have access to the Kong Wobbler Feeder in India, you can use that!
 

cheesycats

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jan 29, 2017
Messages
549
Purraise
686
Location
Indiana
I have this same issue with my female cat. It's really hard for me to find things that work because I also have a male cat that is so timid about how he eats. He is scared of any slow feeder thing I buy and he will not eat enough if I put out small amounts or dry or wet so there's no spreading out meals or picking the food up as he will get starved out. And my female will scarf anything she can get her mouth on when I take food up and put it down again in a few hours. Scheduled feeds did not for for either of them. And she tends to just scarf and barf her food. I don't think she chews at all as she pukes whole piles about 2-3 times a month. And these are big piles for a 8lbs kitty. I also feed her the best most grain freee high protein foods (canned dry raw) but it doesn't seem to make a difference what I'm feed as she's always been that way. The only thing that helped was actually free feeding her daily amount and giving her canned at night. I'm considering using the cookie sheet method as that seems like a good idea. I think my male would be ok with that and he'll still actually eat and it'll slow my female down. Good luck to you I hope you find something that works. Keep us updated.
 

bonepicker

Animal Lover Extraordinare
Top Cat
Joined
May 17, 2014
Messages
3,350
Purraise
439
Location
ON THE LAKE NORTHEAST OHIO
My cat vomited frequently if she ate dry food, I switched to all wet and vomiting stopped, that was 7 years ago, she is 9 now and if I give her a little dry snack, it starts again. I give her purebites freeze dry chicken for a crunch now.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #14

GingeryKitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 9, 2017
Messages
7
Purraise
0
My cat vomited frequently if she ate dry food, I switched to all wet and vomiting stopped, that was 7 years ago, she is 9 now and if I give her a little dry snack, it starts again. I give her purebites freeze dry chicken for a crunch now.
Unfortunately my cat turns his nose up at wet food
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #15

GingeryKitty

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Sep 9, 2017
Messages
7
Purraise
0
Hi I'm back with an update!!
So the vomiting was getting more and more frequent and I decided to try something.
I added double or triple the quantity of food on the plate than what I would usually put. And got a smaller plate. So there's this illusion that there's a lot of food on the plate. And somehow miraculously he never vomited afterwards. I've been doing this for 3 weeks and he hasn't vomited at all. He doesn't eat everything that's on the plate, only as much as he needs. I don't think that this method has slowed him down though. He still has hiccups often after eating which is a sign that he ate too fast. I've also made one of his meals just wet food (I finally found a brand that he likes). And this seems to be working really well so far. I know that this is a wasteful method but nothing else has worked for me. I hope this can help other cat owners with the same problem!
 

lisahe

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
6,150
Purraise
4,969
Location
Maine
That is very interesting, G GingeryKitty ! I wonder if your cat feels more secure about his food now because he's seeing more of it. Was he a stray? Or otherwise underfed when you took him in? (I think that's why one of our cats is such a fast eater: she feels insecure about her food after being badly underfed as a kitten.)

In any case, I'm glad you found something that worked! And that your cat is now eating wet food, that's a huge plus. (If it's possible to save the food from one meal to the next, maybe you can cut down on the waste? I do that with our slow-eating cat.)
 
Top