I swear my cat is bulimic!

[jersharocks]

Okay so I've had Flakes for 7 years now (he was my mom's cat before I adopted him, her house was way too stressful for him) and he's always been a cat that throws up a lot. It used to just be that he'd find bits of plastic on the floor, chew and eat them, and then throw up. Over the years it has turned into him eating whatever looks good to him - dried bits of food, plastic, paper, and the newest - carpet fibers. We feed him plenty - 1.5 cans of canned food daily and he weighs a healthy 11.5 pounds. His blood work was last taken in November and the doctor said the numbers were phenomenal for his age. We also did a fecal test and that was clean as well. Well, as clean as poop can be, that is.

Sometimes it seems like he gets nauseous and he purposefully looks for things to chew on to make him puke. The only way to get him to stop is to put him in his cage for half an hour or so until his stomach settles and he doesn't obsess over throwing up. We're going through this at the moment. We came home from shopping (were gone ~3 hours) and he ate lunch, puked twice, and we caught him chewing on a carpet fiber/string again trying to throw up so we put him in his cage. Does anyone know why he would eat stuff like this and then throw it up? There doesn't seem to be a physical/health reason for this issue but it's quite frustrating. I just want my cat to feel better and stop this behavior.

 

[jersharocks]

I just remembered to add that we are currently feeding Flakes FOUR times a day. He gets 1/3 of a can for breakfast, 1/3 for lunch, 1/3 for a snack, and half a can for dinner right before bed. We were noticing his vomiting becoming more common when we fed him three meals a day. He was eating and then throwing up shortly afterwards, especially in the morning. He eats a high protein, somewhat low carb diet (Friskies meaty bits). I know that lower carb is better for cats but the lowest carb food we can afford (Friskies Pate) is too low in protein, IMO. It's possible that he's allergic to something in Friskies but we can't afford much better right now, my husband just got laid off.

 

[catapault]

You didn't mention what size cans you are feeding Flakes. If you are feeding the 5.5 ounce size cans then one and a half cans seems like a lot. If it is the 3-ounce size, that seems somewhat skimpy for an 11 pound cat. And if it is the smaller can size he may be gobbling his food because he is hungry, eats so fast he becomes nauseous, then regurgitates.

My two neutered male cats are 5 years old, weigh about 9 pounds. Each cat is fed two 3-ounce cans of Fancy Feast pate but only the Tender Beef Feast and Turkey and Giblet flavors. No corn gluten etc. Meals are breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime, serving size is 1/2 of a 3-ounce can per cat at each feeding.

If I just dump it into the dish they vacuumed the food up very quickly so I mash it down, spreading out kind of flat into their dishes so they can only eat relatively slowly.

If you want to experiment - give Flakes a spoonful of food. Wait several minutes. Repeat again and again until he's had the correct serving. See if he still regurgitates.

Hope you find a good solution. Repeated vomiting is not good for him.

 

[jersharocks]

 
You didn't mention what size cans you are feeding Flakes. If you are feeding the 5.5 ounce size cans then one and a half cans seems like a lot. If it is the 3-ounce size, that seems somewhat skimpy for an 11 pound cat. And if it is the smaller can size he may be gobbling his food because he is hungry, eats so fast he becomes nauseous, then regurgitates.

My two neutered male cats are 5 years old, weigh about 9 pounds. Each cat is fed two 3-ounce cans of Fancy Feast pate but only the Tender Beef Feast and Turkey and Giblet flavors. No corn gluten etc. Meals are breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime, serving size is 1/2 of a 3-ounce can per cat at each feeding.

If I just dump it into the dish they vacuumed the food up very quickly so I mash it down, spreading out kind of flat into their dishes so they can only eat relatively slowly.

If you want to experiment - give Flakes a spoonful of food. Wait several minutes. Repeat again and again until he's had the correct serving. See if he still regurgitates.

Hope you find a good solution. Repeated vomiting is not good for him.

It is the 5.5 ounce cans however the cans say they are 148 calories each so that's 222 for the day, actually less than what I've seen recommended on various websites. I'm looking into alternatives though. The Fancy Feast sounds like a viable option and I know it isn't too expensive.

We do smoosh down the food and we add extra water to it as well to slow him down. The odd thing is that if we feed him right before leaving the house, he won't eat and then scarfs down all the food when we get back. So perhaps he has some separation anxiety? I'm home 99% of the time (work from home) but we do go out sometimes on the weekends and this doesn't happen every time so I don't know.

 

[pushylady]

This sounds like pica to me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder)

It's not unheard of for cats to have this disorder. Flakes sounds healthy and is well fed, so I doubt it's got anything to do with his diet. And it does sounds like he's got some anxiety issues, so this pica behaviour could fit right in with that.

 

[jersharocks]

This sounds like pica to me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder)

It's not unheard of for cats to have this disorder. Flakes sounds healthy and is well fed, so I doubt it's got anything to do with his diet. And it does sounds like he's got some anxiety issues, so this pica behaviour could fit right in with that.

That definitely sounds right as he's had this issue for a long time. It comes and goes, sometimes he'll go months without a single episode and other times he'll throw up every single day. One article I read mentioned a look of euphoria on a cat's face when they chew on something and he definitely has that. We have a toy made of natural raffia and when he plays with and chews on that, he looks like he's in heaven. That toy is kept out of his reach so he cannot eat it but he does love playing with it and chewing on it.

Looks like I've got some research to do. Thanks so much for the info!

 

[betsygee]

Slippery elm bark helps some cats with vomiting.  I used it to help control vomiting in a couple of my cats that had IBD.  Here's a thread about it:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/314546/slippery-elm-for-vomiting-how-long-did-it-last

 

[jersharocks]

It's been about a month since I posted this and I wanted to post an update. We switched Flakes to a higher protein Friskies variety and he has stopped scarfing his food down and throwing up. The new varieties are the "meaty bits" flavors and they are 53-54% protein, 28-29% fat, and 17-19% carbs (according to catinfo.org). They're a little high in carbs for me but he seems to do well on them and they're within our budget.

So I definitely think Flakes needs higher protein in his diet but it seems like most of those options are fish OR very expensive. When my husband gets a new job, we'll be able to afford something better but for now, this seems to do the trick.

 

[rickr]

My black kitty, Lucy, often throws up after eating.  She has a tendency to vacuum her food out of the bowl. She's a little piglet.  I've had the best success by cutting back on the amount of food I give her at meal time.

She also suffers from a bit of a pica fetish - she will eat and chew on just about anything.  I find her vomiting, though, is mostly due to how fast she eats. 

 

[buddy keeper]

one word. FIBER. My boy Buddy, (19 yrs. on May 9) had same problem. Got some powdered human fiber additive. Benefil or generic equivalent. NOT orange flavor like Metamucil. Stops vomiting!! I mix it with some water and canned food.