Hi everyone,
I’ve posted before about my cat Jem’s penchant for throwing up after eating. Jem is a ~7 year old neutered male cat who is very high energy and full of life- he loves to play, to learn tricks, and to cuddle. We adopted him in August 2018 from the SPCA, and ever since he throws up within 10-15 minutes of eating, at intervals between once every two weeks and twice a week. This behaviour has remained consistent, and the notes from the shelter even mention him throwing up there. We have a whole lot of methods to slow his eating: he eats dry food out of a little maze bowl and his wet food is smushed into a mat meant for dog enrichment. Even with that, I give him several “breaks” during breakfast to try to prevent his vomiting, to varying degrees of success.
At his first vet clinic, his vomiting was never really commented on, but this past spring we switched to a different clinic.The new vet seemed much more concerned with Jem’s vomiting, especially because we do have so many measures to slow him down. She recommended laxatone in case vomiting was from too much hair ingestion (he is a meticulous groomer and also bathes another of our cats regularly). That made no difference to his vomiting frequency. The latest intervention was a switch to a sensitive stomach food - Royal Canin’s hypoallergenic dry and Royal Canin’s VR selected protein for wet. Admittedly, he was still getting one freeze dried chicken treat sprinkled on his breakfast (he has me well trained), but during the last 5 weeks on these foods he has stayed exactly the same as far as vomiting frequency.
I called the vet today to get their okay with taking him off the prescription food, expecting them to agree it doesn’t seem to be an issue. Instead, the vet wants Jem to come in to take another look at him. Since our previous vets were never this concerned about Jem’s vomiting, this has me worried - I don’t want to ignore a sign of something bigger that’s wrong, but I also don’t want to shell out hundreds/thousands of dollars for stressful tests just to end up at “yeah some cats are just like that.”
I would greatly appreciate any advice you all have, or questions I should ask the vet when I bring him in - his appointment is January 4.
I’ve posted before about my cat Jem’s penchant for throwing up after eating. Jem is a ~7 year old neutered male cat who is very high energy and full of life- he loves to play, to learn tricks, and to cuddle. We adopted him in August 2018 from the SPCA, and ever since he throws up within 10-15 minutes of eating, at intervals between once every two weeks and twice a week. This behaviour has remained consistent, and the notes from the shelter even mention him throwing up there. We have a whole lot of methods to slow his eating: he eats dry food out of a little maze bowl and his wet food is smushed into a mat meant for dog enrichment. Even with that, I give him several “breaks” during breakfast to try to prevent his vomiting, to varying degrees of success.
At his first vet clinic, his vomiting was never really commented on, but this past spring we switched to a different clinic.The new vet seemed much more concerned with Jem’s vomiting, especially because we do have so many measures to slow him down. She recommended laxatone in case vomiting was from too much hair ingestion (he is a meticulous groomer and also bathes another of our cats regularly). That made no difference to his vomiting frequency. The latest intervention was a switch to a sensitive stomach food - Royal Canin’s hypoallergenic dry and Royal Canin’s VR selected protein for wet. Admittedly, he was still getting one freeze dried chicken treat sprinkled on his breakfast (he has me well trained), but during the last 5 weeks on these foods he has stayed exactly the same as far as vomiting frequency.
I called the vet today to get their okay with taking him off the prescription food, expecting them to agree it doesn’t seem to be an issue. Instead, the vet wants Jem to come in to take another look at him. Since our previous vets were never this concerned about Jem’s vomiting, this has me worried - I don’t want to ignore a sign of something bigger that’s wrong, but I also don’t want to shell out hundreds/thousands of dollars for stressful tests just to end up at “yeah some cats are just like that.”
I would greatly appreciate any advice you all have, or questions I should ask the vet when I bring him in - his appointment is January 4.
They were both outside stray cats, and my vet said their woofing down food without even biting it could be a learned behavior. Pretty much, I'm just screwed to this kind of schedule the rest of their lives.
