How Often Does Your Cat Get Sick?

[daftcat75]

A Hairy Dilemma

Hairballs are normal. What isn't normal is hairballs with other symptoms (lethargic or refusing to eat for example). My Mom's cats gets hairballs around this time of year because he grooms both himself and my cat frequently. I give him gel to help move things along but it still happens. Yes, pay attention so you learn normal habits. But hairballs are normal.

Cornell or not, I don't agree with that assessment. A healthy cat, even a long-haired cat, should be able to pass hair from stomach into intestines and from there into the stool. I also think a properly fed cat (species-appropriate balanced and complete raw food) will shed less meaning less hair to ingest. My Krista's coat rarely shed when she was on Rad Cat. Since then she's rejected every attempt to get her on homemade and she's developed an egg intolerance or allergy (or maybe had it all along and I was dealing with bigger symptoms first?) so most commercial options are off the menu even if I find them in proteins she can have. Fortunately, since I've been avoiding her triggers including (ironically) the egg yolk powder I was giving her previously, even though she still sheds a fair amount, the only time she brings up a hairball now is if we go too long between meals. My guess is that she always has a small amount of hair in the stomach from grooming in between meals, and that regular meals help flush this through. When she goes too long between meals, rather than waiting for food to help it flush through, she gets impatient (or acid stomach or...) and brings it up instead. When I stick to her meal schedule and avoid her allergens, we can go months now between hairballs. I also found that if her diet was too high in fat (like when I added salmon oil to her food), it could make it easier for the hairballs to form impassable clumps. Adding lecithin would help with this if my cat wasn't sensitive to egg. Now that I have been giving her Assisi Loop treatments for arthritis rather than relying on salmon oil, those hairballs have gone away too.

 

[Kieka]

May I ask what kind of symptoms he shows about allergies? I’m pretty sure my cat is allergic to flea bites. Her spot on treatment is great but of course one bite outside is enough for allergic reaction. (Itching and some hair loss)

Flea allergies usually present as balding around the base of the tail. I've had two cats with flea allergies where they react to a single bite. As long as I keep up on flea treatment there isn't a problem.

 

[MissClouseau]

Flea allergies usually present as balding around the base of the tail. I've had two cats with flea allergies where they react to a single bite. As long as I keep up on flea treatment there isn't a problem.

Flea treatment only prevents infestation unfortunately. It doesn't prevent bites -- you know the spot-on treatment makes the fleas die when they bite, not to stop them landing on the cat and biting. And one bite is enough for allergic reaction :-(

 

[Kieka]

Flea treatment only prevents infestation unfortunately. It doesn't prevent bites -- you know the spot-on treatment makes the fleas die when they bite, not to stop them landing on the cat and biting. And one bite is enough for allergic reaction :-(

Yes, but at least the fleas will stop at one bite instead of continuing

 

[rubysmama]

I'm a first time fulltime cat owner so I can't really compare the experience to another. In 12 months, let's say, how often does your cat get sick? Including vomitting/diarrhea/loss of appetite that lasts only for a day or two.

Please also add age and any diagnosed condition and if they're indoor or indoor-outdoor cat.

Congrats on being a first-time full-time cat owner / cat "parent". You've probably already learned that it's fun and rewarding, with a touch of stress and worry.

Ruby's my first cat of my own, so I was a bit like you when I first adopted her, and didn't have any other cat experiences to really compare, as the family cats we had when I was growing up weren't my responsibility, so I didn't take as much notice of their health issues.

To answer your questions, Ruby is a guesstimated 7 or 8 years old. She's indoor only. And has no diagnosed conditions, though has suspected IBD.

From the first day I brought her home in Nov 2013, she had loose stools and would vomit a clear liquid every day. Since she was my first cat I thought that was normal. Eventually it escalated to me waking up with vomit in several places around the house, and a vet visit that same day.

The vet suggested trying a novel protein (duck) canned hypo-allergenic food. Her stools were, literally, better the very next day. The clear liquid vomiting continued, as it was mostly due to her having a "former stray cat food obsession" where she would eat every speck of food all at once, so her tummy got empty between meals. Once she learned she'd always have food, she started to graze, which helped with the clear vomiting problem.

These days she eats mostly her canned food, with some gastro-intestional kibble as "treats".

She still has loose stools at least once every couple weeks.

And vomits at least once a week, or so. Sometimes it's the clear liquid (bile) if she's gone too long without eating. Sometimes it's undigested food.

Surprisingly, she almost never vomits a hairball, like maybe once a year, if that. I could probably check my records to see when she last had a hairball. And, yes, I have a notebook where I keep track of what she eats, and what comes out of "both" ends.

She has the odd day when she doesn't eat much, but she'll usually be back to normal the next day.

One day last summer she had a bad day of vomiting every time she ate. It was a Sunday, so her vet was closed. I called the ER vet who suggested taking up her food and water overnight and seeing how she was in the morning.

When it was still going on the next day, I took her to the vet, and they gave her an anti-nausea shot, and she was back to normal later that day. I'd been painting the day before she got sick, and I think she got stressed about being kept out of the room, and I think that's what instigated her upset tummy. Or maybe it was just a coincidence.

I know there's a lot of cats with sensitive digestive systems, and I don't think there's "one size fits all" solution. Hopefully your question wasn't prompted by your own cat's digestive issues. But if it was, I hope you find the food combination to keep things under control.

 

[daftcat75]

I know I was able to keep bugs at bay when I used to volunteer at the animal sanctuary with a B vitamin. I don’t remember which one. I think I just took a multi. Supposedly it makes the blood smell/taste bad to biting bugs. Maybe you can post a different thread asking about natural flea treatments.

 

[daftcat75]

Congrats on being a first-time full-time cat owner / cat "parent". You've probably already learned that it's fun and rewarding, with a touch of stress and worry.

Ruby's my first cat of my own, so I was a bit like you when I first adopted her, and didn't have any other cat experiences to really compare, as the family cats we had when I was growing up weren't my responsibility, so I didn't take as much notice of their health issues.

To answer your questions, Ruby is a guesstimated 7 or 8 years old. She's indoor only. And has no diagnosed conditions, though has suspected IBD.

From the first day I brought her home in Nov 2013, she had loose stools and would vomit a clear liquid every day. Since she was my first cat I thought that was normal. Eventually it escalated to me waking up with vomit in several places around the house, and a vet visit that same day.

The vet suggested trying a novel protein (duck) canned hypo-allergenic food. Her stools were, literally, better the very next day. The clear liquid vomiting continued, as it was mostly due to her having a "former stray cat food obsession" where she would eat every speck of food all at once, so her tummy got empty between meals. Once she learned she'd always have food, she started to graze, which helped with the clear vomiting problem.

These days she eats mostly her canned food, with some gastro-intestional kibble as "treats".

She still has loose stools at least once every couple weeks.

And vomits at least once a week, or so. Sometimes it's the clear liquid (bile) if she's gone too long without eating. Sometimes it's undigested food.

Surprisingly, she almost never vomits a hairball, like maybe once a year, if that. I could probably check my records to see when she last had a hairball. And, yes, I have a notebook where I keep track of what she eats, and what comes out of "both" ends.

She has the odd day when she doesn't eat much, but she'll usually be back to normal the next day.

One day last summer she had a bad day of vomiting every time she ate. It was a Sunday, so her vet was closed. I called the ER vet who suggested taking up her food and water overnight and seeing how she was in the morning.

When it was still going on the next day, I took her to the vet, and they gave her an anti-nausea shot, and she was back to normal later that day. I'd been painting the day before she got sick, and I think she got stressed about being kept out of the room, and I think that's what instigated her upset tummy. Or maybe it was just a coincidence.

I know there's a lot of cats with sensitive digestive systems, and I don't think there's "one size fits all" solution. Hopefully your question wasn't prompted by your own cat's digestive issues. But if it was, I hope you find the food combination to keep things under control.

If you were painting, it’s entirely possible she reacted to the fumes whether she was allowed in that room or not.

I brought home a cat tree whose carpet was off-gassing. Krista took one sniff of it and barfed. Never touched that tree again. I ended up taking it back months later for store credit. Too bad because the tree looked like a lot of fun. But I’m not the cat.

The last time Krista was barfing and got herself a vet visit I had put an enzyme cleaner in my Bissell carpet cleaner. I didn’t keep her out of the room until the carpet dried. She had a yellow, poop scented vomit. She had reached really low for that one. I had already taken something for my back so I had a worrisome overnight until I could get her to vet in the morning. She’s an angry vet patient so she got herself sedated before they could take blood, urine, and give her a bag of fluids. I suspect she had an acute reaction to the enzyme cleaner since that got spread all over the room with the Bissell. This was Friday reaction, Sat vet visit. By Sunday night, she was eating again and keeping it down.

I have even stopped using fabric softener around her. I put half a cup or so of vinegar in the wash and tumble dry on low heat. Some cats are really sensitive to environmental toxins so I just don’t challenge her if I don’t have to.

 

[MissClouseau]

Yes, but at least the fleas will stop at one bite instead of continuing

Yes yes, she's on monthly Flevox :-)

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Vomiting in cats is sadly common but never normal. You shouldn’t set your bar so low. ...

Cornell or not, I don't agree with that assessment. A healthy cat, even a long-haired cat, should be able to pass hair from stomach into intestines and from there into the stool. I also think a properly fed cat (species-appropriate balanced and complete raw food) will shed less meaning less hair to ingest. ...

daftcat75 , I agree.

 

[rubysmama]

If you were painting, it’s entirely possible she reacted to the fumes whether she was allowed in that room or not.

Possibly. But I've since painted more rooms, using the same paint, and Ruby didn't have any issues.

 

[Jem]

In my current household I have three. All recently adopted (December of 2018), so not much to go by when it comes to "yearly" issues.

Lily, 2.5yo female, spayed - has suspected feline herpes, and is a timid little thing.
We have actually been dealing with a chronic bacterial URI since we adopted her, and due to her suspected feline herpes and timid personality, her immune system is not the greatest at the moment, but she has improved dramatically in our care.

Bynx, 2yo male, neutered - has Feline herpes but also has the same infection as Lily, (adopted from same shelter) his symptoms are not a sever as Lily's but the infection has lasted the same amount of time, and we are giving the same treatment of antibiotics which finally seem to be working for both of them.
He has had loss of appetite that lasted 3 days due to a hairball that was causing constipation, some hairball remedy for a few days and all is good now.

Chester, 1.5yo male, neutered - So far totally healthy, but he does regurgitate his food (scarf and barf) sometimes.

Our last three cats is a different story.

Toby (passed at 20 years old) - was perfectly healthy until his CKD diagnosis at the age of 16, after the diagnosis, there were many vet visits over the 4 years, a few dental infections and one UTI.

Chewy (passed at 18 years old) - had a URI as a kitten, then was perfectly fine until he was about 14 and had a bout of cystitis (caused by stress - bad bear season - scared the poop out of him). there were many vet visits over the 6 week period as he did get complications, but fully recovered. Two years before he passed he did get an aural hematoma, but no medical intervention was needed. And he eventually passed due to a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

Hank (passed at 10 years old) - has struvite crystals, develloped them when he was about 3/4. As long as he stayed on the prescription food, he was fine. But at ten years old he developed cardiomyopathy that lead to congestive heart failure. We tried so hard but unfortunately he passed almost three months after diagnosis after he threw a clot and there was nothing we could do. In those 3/4 months, there were many vet visits as well.

Fritz (passed at 14 years old) - was healthy but fat - at 10 or 11 years old developed seasonal allergies, so we did get eye drops for him a couple of times in the spring starting at the age of 11. He developed hyperthyroid and unfortunately it came on fast and hard, our treatments were not very effective and his heart was damaged due to the disease, he passed from cardiac arrest.

 

[Sonatine]

My cat Amelia, a 2yo indoor only (besides the occasional leash walk) female, is pretty much never sick. She had a mild URI in the week or two after I first got her over a year ago but I decided against taking her to the vet for it after calling them about it (with the vet's agreement; her symptoms just seemed too mild to worry unless she seemed really uncomfortable).

She vomits maybe once every month or two, usually if she scarfs a big meal too fast. To that end I tend to break up her meals and have problems pretty rarely. We've been lucky so far!

 

[Janet2000]

Cornell or not, I don't agree with that assessment. A healthy cat, even a long-haired cat, should be able to pass hair from stomach into intestines and from there into the stool. I also think a properly fed cat (species-appropriate balanced and complete raw food) will shed less meaning less hair to ingest. My Krista's coat rarely shed when she was on Rad Cat. Since then she's rejected every attempt to get her on homemade and she's developed an egg intolerance or allergy (or maybe had it all along and I was dealing with bigger symptoms first?) so most commercial options are off the menu even if I find them in proteins she can have. Fortunately, since I've been avoiding her triggers including (ironically) the egg yolk powder I was giving her previously, even though she still sheds a fair amount, the only time she brings up a hairball now is if we go too long between meals. My guess is that she always has a small amount of hair in the stomach from grooming in between meals, and that regular meals help flush this through. When she goes too long between meals, rather than waiting for food to help it flush through, she gets impatient (or acid stomach or...) and brings it up instead. When I stick to her meal schedule and avoid her allergens, we can go months now between hairballs. I also found that if her diet was too high in fat (like when I added salmon oil to her food), it could make it easier for the hairballs to form impassable clumps. Adding lecithin would help with this if my cat wasn't sensitive to egg. Now that I have been giving her Assisi Loop treatments for arthritis rather than relying on salmon oil, those hairballs have gone away too.

I completely agree. Barfing is definitely a sign of a motility disorder and may signal the onset of IBD. Next step is GI lymphoma with nasty bouts of pancreatitis.

I have had 3 cats with IBD. 2 died of lymphoma. The third started developing symptoms at 3 months, and was started on Budesonide, Murtazipine and Ondansetron, s. Boulardii and dietary changes. He seems to be allergic to grains and poultry. So I feed exclusively fish.

He also gets SQ B12 shots.

 

[daftcat75]

I completely agree. Barfing is definitely a sign of a motility disorder and may signal the onset of IBD. Next step is GI lymphoma with nasty bouts of pancreatitis.

I have had 3 cats with IBD. 2 died of lymphoma. The third started developing symptoms at 3 months, and was started on Budesonide, Murtazipine and Ondansetron, s. Boulardii and dietary changes. He seems to be allergic to grains and poultry. So I feed exclusively fish.

He also gets SQ B12 shots.

Recently he has been eating very little despite treatment and I am quite worried. Any ideas?

Fish can also be allergenic and/or inflammatory. Krista just needed a significant surgery called a ventral bulla osteotomy where they went up through her jaw to drain her middle ear of infectious material. My theory is that the fish flakes I was using to wrap her pred pill was causing an inflammatory/infectious reaction. Her poop troubles that she was still having with steroids and chemo are resolving since I removed the fish flakes from her pred routine. I now give her transdermal pred. Last year, when she had her remaining teeth removed (resorptive lesions were causing her grief for a couple of years), I was treating it like tonsilitis and allowing her to eat as much fish-based food as she wanted. That worked for a little while but then her eating went way down. It’s possible that the budenoside is masking how inflammatory the fish might be. Have you tried rabbit? Krista eats rabbit exclusively. I buy Rawz rabbit pate and Rawz rabbit and pumpkin pate for her because it’s the only rabbit-based cat food that is exclusively rabbit and doesn’t also contain some other protein.

Have you had his teeth checked? Not just a visual exam but a dental exam under anesthesia with mouth X-rays. Some dental problems begin below the gum line and are not apparent without X-rays.