My cat is gulping and I can’t figure out why

[Georgina887]

Hi everyone,

I last posted about my cat back in January when I took her to the vet for a teeth cleaning (No teeth removed). She returned home very distressed to my other cat hissing and growling at her and she acted as if her mouth was in pain. She stopped eating on her own for two days and I had to hand feed her during this time. It was very distressing for me and her.

Anyway since then I would say she has never truely been the same. Prior to the teeth cleaning I had no issues with her health whatsoever.

Since January she has been vomiting fairly regularly and seems to have a much more sensitive stomach. A couple of months ago, I reduced her meal sizes and gave them to her more regularly and also incorporated egg yolk lecithin into her meals which has also helped a lot. I would largely say the vomiting improved by about 75% but it was still concerning me a little.

She however still had some strange symptoms which are ongoing. About 6 weeks ago she started having a cough which frightened me to death so I immediately took her to the vet. The vet examined her and said that it could be many things and said most likely acid reflux but couldn’t be sure and wanted to start her on acid reducing medication. I immediately said no because my husband has acid reflux and I know that acid blockers do more harm than good and that it is best to get to the root of the problem and stomachs need acid not less acid. The vet said that if I wanted then to book her in for X-rays and ultrasounds.

My cat is an extremely sensitive cat. She finds vet visits VERY traumatic, getting her in a carrier is also very traumatic for her and for me as she wrestles and scratches just to get her in there and even at the sound of the carrier she runs and hides. Also the aggression from my other cat when she comes home is extreme and lasts many days even with a quick 20 min visit. Taking my other cat is also extremely hard. All in all vet visits are not easy.

For these reasons, I am trying to investigate these issues myself and do everything I can before I resort to more investigations at the vet. If it is acid reflux then I would like to treat it naturally as we have done with my husband than resort to medication.

So I made an appointment with a holistic vet in my area who could give me more advice. She was willing to consult without physically seeing my cat. I gave her the whole history since the teeth cleaning and she came up with the theory that her body is still suffering trauma from the teeth cleaning incident even though the physical trauma may have gone away, the emotional hasn’t. She also said acid reflux could be the cause and it is very common to happen after cats have been under anaesthetic and having a tube down their throat.

This made sense to me because she is an extremely sensitive cat. She is scared of new people, strange noises, anything unusual and I believe it has become worse since her vet visit. The holistic vet recommended some special probiotics with a clay to remove toxins from the body that have built up and she also gave me a natural remedy (I think flower essences) to try and ease the stress on her body and heal it.

I have finished the probiotics and am still using the remedy and so far I would say she has improved. Vomiting is pretty much gone and I haven’t heard a cough since. She however has one last remaining issue which I just can’t seem to understand. She makes like a gulping, exaggerated swallowing action after eating. Usually within an hour after eating. She kind of sticks her neck out and swallows repeatedly for about 30 seconds but quickly recovers and goes back to her normal self. She kind of looks uncomfortable at the time. There is no sound when she does this.

I have asked the holistic vet about this and she says it could be acid and to try some slippery elm but to also just keep going with the remedy and we will review it again in a few weeks.

All in all she’s a happy cat and seems normal apart from these weird gulping episodes. Her appetite is great.

Does anyone have any ideas what the gulping could be and how to stop it? We don’t know for sure that it is acid reflux so open to other suggestions.

Apologies for the long post and thanks to anyone who made it this far.

 

[neely]

Just out of curiosity, does she eat quickly? This could be causing the gulping problem. It's also possible she would do better with an elevated food bowl. Here is an Article with some feeding tips and note the paragraph about dealing with gulpers:
18 Awesome Cat Feeding Tips By Thecatsite Staff Members – TheCatSite Articles

 

[Georgina887]

Just out of curiosity, does she eat quickly? This could be causing the gulping problem. It's also possible she would do better with an elevated food bowl. Here is an Article with some feeding tips and note the paragraph about dealing with gulpers:
18 Awesome Cat Feeding Tips By Thecatsite Staff Members – TheCatSite Articles

thanks for your reply. Her food bowl is raised to head height and she does eat quickly but I mash her food into a paste and spread out across the whole bowl.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

If the Vet thinks it might still be antacid, could you try feeding her more frequent, smaller meals? That usually helps.

Did you try the Slippery Elm Bark yet? Did that help?

Just so you don't think you're alone, there are several threads about cats gulping, although none have definitive answers. But in case you want to read some, here they are: Search Results for Query: gulping Oddly enough, another also occurred after a dental in January!

 

[Georgina887]

If the Vet thinks it might still be antacid, could you try feeding her more frequent, smaller meals? That usually helps.

Did you try the Slippery Elm Bark yet? Did that help?

Just so you don't think you're alone, there are several threads about cats gulping, although none have definitive answers. But in case you want to read some, here they are: Search Results for Query: gulping Oddly enough, another also occurred after a dental in January!

I don’t want to speak too soon as she has only been taking the slippery elm for 24 hours but it seems to be helping so far.

I would love to know the reason behind this weird swallowing though. just to understand how the slippery elm would be helping. But I’m saying that I will take any solution. I’ve been so stressed trying to get to the root of this problem for the last 6 months.

 

[solomonar]

First, I would check for feline asthma - there is a specific maneuver to investigate this. The maneuver cant be performed at home.

Then, an abdominal echo may help to see whether there is a stomach or bile problem.

Frequent smaller meals as mrsgreenjeens mentions - this strategy works for my cat (gastritis).

 

[Georgina887]

I thought I would update this thread in case anyone else goes through something similar.



I thought that things were improving on the slippery elm. They were for about a day or two and then she started deteriorating as the week went on. She started vomiting again and being lethargic and her lip smacking was constant. She looked so unwell. On Friday, I woke up to vomit everywhere and when I came home from work she was hunched over with her head hanging low and she looked awful. I noticed that her kept trying to lay on her side but I think her belly hurt so she kept having to get up. I tried to pet her and she moved away from me. I fed her and she started grinding her teeth, coughed and then vomited. I could tell she was really unwell. It was just getting worse not better. Every time I thought I had a remedy, some aspects would improve and then she would go downhill again.



I had a meltdown - I didn’t know what else to do. I called my naturopathic vet and she told me to just feed her plain chicken and broth for a few days. So that’s what I did. Thankfully throughout this her appetite has never wavered so she ate this with no trouble. Honestly, I feel like the change was almost instant. She perked up. And by the end of that evening there was already a massive improvement. 3 and half days on and I can say that she is 98% better - almost NO lip smacking, no vomiting, no teeth grinding and she has put on 100g already. I wouldn’t say she was underweight before but she definitely wasn’t in her best shape.



Now I know it was her food. The food I have been giving her for 6 months is Hills I/d Digestive Care Chicken Stew.



I am somewhat annoyed I didn’t trust my gut with this. My other cat spent time in the vet last year and she was given the I/d and didn’t do well on it. But my other cat loved the taste so I used the cans with her and so I stuck with it since.



When I last saw my local vet a few months ago I asked about the food but she said there’s no way it would be any issues with it because it’s designed for digestive issues. My naturopathic vet did tell me about a month ago to try her on plain chicken but I didn’t because I was scared to change her food.



Looking back over the last 6 months, I can clearly see her slow deterioration on this food. It started with regular hairballs, then random vomiting, slowly getting worse but intermittently and constant nausea. Although some remedies I tried alleviated some of the vomiting she never seemed well. It turns out the whole time I had just been treating the symptoms not the root of the problem.



She constantly smacked her lips, wasn’t playing, didn’t want to be social with me. She would only snuggle with her sister and she just wasn’t acting like herself. She wouldn’t come and jump under the covers when I changed my bed sheets (one of her favourite things to do).



I truly believe that if I had continued with this food she would have ended up being seriously ill and possibly dying.



She is SO much better and we have snuggled together all weekend - she even did the thing where a cat sniffs you, rubs themselves on you and then does the flippy thing and rolls on their back with her belly in the air purring. This is a sign she’s happy and it was only after she did it that I realised I haven’t seen her do it in many many months.



I’m slowing introducing her to a mix of raw and Ziwi Chicken Feast for a permanent diet change. I hope that whatever damage has been done heals over the coming weeks. I feel terrible for doing this to my poor baby and wish that I had figured this out sooner. I don’t know what was in that food that reacted so badly with her but when I spoke to a lady in the pet shop she mentioned that she has heard awful things about Hills food making cats sick. I would never recommend that food to anyone now.



This has been a really long and exhausting six months.