Foamy throw up/hairball?

[GHsaltie]

I've sent an email to my vet for when they open but thought I'd get some opinions in the meantime. Earlier this morning my approximately 14y male cat threw up 2 large and 9 small puddles of bile. Some of it had hair in it and there were also tiny brown flecks which look like his joint supplement. I'm just not sure why the supplement would be vomited and not his breakfast with it. This is my first time owning a long hair so I'm not sure if this is an issue of ingesting his fur or unrelated. I've only had him 4 weeks so I don't know past medical history. He can only eat wet food due to severe dental issues which will hopefully be improved in two weeks.

 

[Kieka]

That usually means a hairball is coming at my house. Since your cat is long hair, do you brush regularly and give a hairball preventative? Although checking with your vet is a great idea to be safe.

Edit to add, I see he is new to you. If you don't already, giving some hairball preventative medication/treatment regularly will help prevent or reduce hairballs.

 

[Mac and Cats]

Sometimes cats do throw up hairballs, but it's not really "normal" for them to throw up on a regular basis. The 11 total times no matter how small they are is concerning to me. That is a lot of times. Long hair cats don't really throw up any more hairballs than short hair, in my experience, but I could for sure be wrong. I have had 5 long haired cats. Do you maybe have anything around the house that he could have gotten into? Maybe a plant or something that he could have chewed on and got an upset tummy? How is he acting other than the vomiting? When did he last vomit? Is he eating and drinking normally? Using the potty box normally?

 

[GHsaltie]

Kieka I've been brushing once a week but I can start doing it more often. I need to try different brush options as I don't think I have a very good one right now. I have not started anything for hairballs, that was on my to-do list. There are so many options its hard to determine what is best.

Mac and Cats it is concerning. He is otherwise acting normal, ate dinner, took a nap on my lap, has pottied and pooped. I don't have any plants and I can't think of anything else he could have gotten into. This is the first time he has vomited since I got him. I know it wasn't there last night. It was either early this morning before breakfast or late morning/noonish. After that he was hanging out with me in my office so I know it wasn't later.

 

[Mac and Cats]

Kieka I've been brushing once a week but I can start doing it more often. I need to try different brush options as I don't think I have a very good one right now. I have not started anything for hairballs, that was on my to-do list. There are so many options its hard to determine what is best.

Mac and Cats it is concerning. He is otherwise acting normal, ate dinner, took a nap on my lap, has pottied and pooped. I don't have any plants and I can't think of anything else he could have gotten into. This is the first time he has vomited since I got him. I know it wasn't there last night. It was either early this morning before breakfast or late morning/noonish. After that he was hanging out with me in my office so I know it wasn't later.

If your vet can get you in soon, that is great! If they can't, I would just keep an eye out for more vomiting and if he does do any more or has any other off changes (not eating, not peeing/pooping, just not acting like himself), I would probably try to get him in anywhere that can see him. It is possible for him to get dehydrated after vomiting, which can also cause him to feel poorly. If you can, you may want to add in a bit of water into his food and mix it up just to get some fluids into him. It is possible that his vomiting was just due to the hairball and he was trying to get it out, so I don't mean to alarm you. I've just had enough cats with health issues in the past (and currently) and we lost 3 cats in an 18 month span during this pandemic. So, it is extremely possible that I'm probably overly sensitive to any little thing at this point.

For brushes, I will link you to a couple that I have. Sometimes cats have a preference on the type of brush they like/will allow. Here is one that one of my cats LOVES (she mostly loves her face brushed with it, but likes a body brush with it too), but the other hates with a passion. This is the one my other cat tolerates. He doesn't like to be brushed in general. If he has any sort of tangle/knot and I try to brush it out, he throws a fit. So, I usually just snip them out with some tiny sewing scissors. Hopefully your boy is not such a drama king about it as mine. You may want to get a couple options. For the hairball meds, I usually get this one or one similar. All the cats I have had and have seem to like this one. I think they have a "malted" flavor too, but my cats have never liked that flavor, so I usually just stick with the tuna. I hope he doesn't have anymore vomiting episodes and that you're in the clear!

 

[GHsaltie]

Mac and Cats I am so sorry for your losses. And thank you very much for the links, it's incredibly helpful. I did hear from my vet, he's not sure what to think of it without digging deeper. So right now he just wants me to watch for any further issues and bring him in if so. Otherwise he's got a dental cleaning on the 8th so we will revisit possibilities then.

 

[Mac and Cats]

Mac and Cats I am so sorry for your losses. And thank you very much for the links, it's incredibly helpful. I did hear from my vet, he's not sure what to think of it without digging deeper. So right now he just wants me to watch for any further issues and bring him in if so. Otherwise he's got a dental cleaning on the 8th so we will revisit possibilities then.

Thank you for the condolences. That is great. I'm glad you heard from your vet. I think waiting until the 8th is fine as long as he doesn't have any more episodes. I do require a cat tax for my advice though. Can you please post a picture of your baby?

 

[GHsaltie]

Mac and Cats of course! How silly of me to forget the tax.

 

[Mac and Cats]

Mac and Cats of course! How silly of me to forget the tax.

Oh! I love him! What is his name and how old is he?

 

[aryia]

Cats can throw up if they go too long without food when bile gets produced on their empty stomachs. I mistakenly thought that it was normal for a cat to puke every once in a while so it's good you're having him checked out! My girl was just diagnosed with small cell lymphoma of the digestive tract, her only indicator was a low B12 level (X-Ray, Bloodwork all came back perfectly healthy).

 

[tabbytom]

Earlier this morning my approximately 14y male cat threw up 2 large and 9 small puddles of bile. Some of it had hair in it and there were also tiny brown flecks which look like his joint supplement. I'm just not sure why the supplement would be vomited and not his breakfast with it. This is my first time owning a long hair so I'm not sure if this is an issue of ingesting his fur or unrelated. I've only had him 4 weeks so I don't know past medical history.

Brushing your cat once a week is not enough. My boy is a DSH and I brush him 4 - 5 times a day. Once in awhile, he still throw up hairball and bile and as much as 4 - 5 times at one go.

Cats groom themselves and their tongue hooks up hair as they groom. Cats lay anywhere and therefore cat hair, hooman hair, fur, dust lints form clothing and carpets and bedsheets and dust from the floor will get stuck to their body and as they groom themselves, they lick up all these stuffs into their system and sometimes you get to see hooman hair in their poop.

In other words, they ingest lots of stuffs be it good or bad. Sometimes it is also due to some intestinal problems or other causes and therefore they puke to clear their system.

Brush your cat's fur more often and also vacuum up the place and you may get a lint roller to pick up lint and hair from beds and lounge chairs.

Here's an article for you to read :- Your Cat Throwing Up? - TheCatSite Articles

 

[lisahe]

Cats can throw up if they go too long without food when bile gets produced on their empty stomachs. I mistakenly thought that it was normal for a cat to puke every once in a while so it's good you're having him checked out! My girl was just diagnosed with small cell lymphoma of the digestive tract, her only indicator was a low B12 level (X-Ray, Bloodwork all came back perfectly healthy).

Brushing your cat once a week is not enough. My boy is a DSH and I brush him 4 - 5 times a day. Once in awhile, he still throw up hairball and bile and as much as 4 - 5 times at one go.

To me, these photos look like stomach acid (empty stomach) combined with a small amount of fur that happened to be in your cat's stomach at the time, waiting to be passed. We've seen a fair bit of this with one of our cats over the years. Fur is usually passed into the intestine, of course, but sometimes there's a little in the stomach when a cat happens to vomit acid from an otherwise empty stomach. Feeding small meals more frequently might help prevent the vomiting and lots of vigorous brushing might help prevent more hair from accumulating into a full-fledged hairball. Senior cats do tend to lose motility (our vet started warning us about this when our cats were only a few years old!) but there are ways to speed it up a little if need be. If the vomit came a few hours after the last meal, there's also the possibility of a sensitivity to something in your cat's food. We've seen all these things with our cats and it can take some time and effort to sort them out. All that said, what Mac and Cats wrote about the number of puddles is what would concern me the most, too, particularly since the cat is new to your household. What, by the way, is his name?

I'm glad your cat already has an appointment set for another week or so from now to help you out!