Vomiting 2yo Russian Blue

[Misterrobo]

Hi there!

About three months ago I took home a 2 year old Russian Blue, un-castrated male and we’ve been having issues with vomiting.


In the beginning he would vomit about once a day or every 1-3 days; he still ate and drank plenty of water and went to the toilet fine. After this went on for a while I took him to the vet who said it could potentially be one of three things: That the food I was giving him was swelling up in the stomach, causing him to vomit, so we changed the food; It could be worms, so we de-wormed him; or if could be stress from him being un-castrated and not getting any action, to help with this I have one of the feliway plug-ins.


After coming back from the vet and changing the food he didn’t vomit for two weeks (hooray, it was the food! I thought), then he vomited again. He’s now in a somewhat regular pattern of vomiting at 7-10 day intervals, usually once and then once more the day after.


It seems his appetite goes down a bit after he’s vomited, and he seems to get a bit less affectionate . In the lead up to vomiting (during the week) he seems to be more affectionate and calm/happy.


Like I say, he eats, drinks and goes to the toilet fine despite this; hence why I’ve not rushed to the vets again straight away.


Another thing I’ve noticed is he can be quite vocal; if I’m in another room, or ignore him he complains/wails. I’m assuming he does this to get attention and I’m ignoring him therefore (so he learns that wailing doesn’t get results) but I wonder if he’s complaining that something’s wrong.


Other info: I am unable to get him castrated until next year, as the breeder wants a litter from him; he’s an indoor cat and I have no other pets/children at home. He’s not eating any plants or anything strange at home as far as I can tell.


It’s a bit of a long-shot, and I’m heading to the vets again soon, but I thought I’d post on here and see if this rang a bell for anyone or if they recognized what’s going on? It feels like something is off but it doesn’t appear to be at all obvious what.


Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[CaturdayNightsAllRight]

He could have stomach sensitivity. My neighbors had to go through several types of cat food and quite a bit of vomiting before the vet prescribed a medicated cat food and a pill. Their kitty is quite healthy otherwise, and this food and medication help a lot.

One thing that they do to help with the puking is to feed her in stages with breaks in between each portion. You may want to try this for a while to see how he responds. The cyclic nature of his vomiting might indicate other issues, though.

Let us know how the vet visit goes!

 

[Misterrobo]

He’s eating pretty much the same food he had at the breeder’s so I have a feeling it’s not that.

I tried splitting up his food into smaller portions, separated in case he was eating too fast and that was causing the issue but that made no difference. Sometimes he’ll just eat one or two pieces and then puke...

From what I can tell it’s usually within a minute or so of him eating that he vomits; although in the beginning he could vomit on an empty stomach fine...

 

[CaturdayNightsAllRight]

Is he the only cat in the house?

 

[Misterrobo]

Yup. He was living with other cats before at the breeders.

 

[lutece]

I'm assuming you've already talked to the breeder about it -- What does the breeder think the problem is?

 

[CaturdayNightsAllRight]

Yup. He was living with other cats before at the breeders.

Hmm... sometimes that behavior will present itself if a new cat is introduced.

Did the breeder notice this behavior?

 

[lalagimp]

I'm not a medical professional, but I would get an xray. Whenever Tommy starts vomiting, a radiograph has shown that his bowels are too full of poop, and he'll be constipated. Constipated to the point of vomiting. That's our thing.
A xray could be able to tell you more useful information about your kitty, and is about half the cost of an ultrasound.

 

[Misterrobo]

Hey, thanks for your replies! The breeder thought it might be hairballs due to the abnormally hot summer here; so I’ve had cat grass at home, and fed him hairball paste stuff for a while, and that doesn’t seem to have helped. The breeder hadn’t noticed anything with him vomiting before, but it might be such a big change for him? Maybe he’s having difficulty adjusting to being a single cat now? I’m not sure...

He goes to the toilet fine and is passing solids ok so I don’t think he’s constipated.

 

[maggie101]

I have been going through the same thing with my cat Peaches. Sensitive tummy and food intolerance is my next guess. Dr. Elseys canned usually works. 3x a day split 3/4 Can. Less meat than Wellness core which she ate for years. I have been mixing in a little Weruva so she gets other meat and textures. She can no longer eat wellness core. Every couple days she gets 1/4 pill Pepsid ac. 10 ml. Not everyone agrees with that so talk to your vet first. Sometimes she fells too sick to eat but the Pepsid helps.
Last 2 meal is more like 1/8 Can because I mix it with other food. She is 5 yrs old. I have 2 other cats.

 

[maggie101]

Also, cats can be allergic to carageenan among other things so I always check the ingredients.

 

[maggie101]

If I remember right, the Russian Blue is hypoallergenic. Not sure if that means the fur or shedding

 

[Misterrobo]

I have been going through the same thing with my cat Peaches. Sensitive tummy and food intolerance is my next guess. Dr. Elseys canned usually works. 3x a day split 3/4 Can. Less meat than Wellness core which she ate for years. I have been mixing in a little Weruva so she gets other meat and textures. She can no longer eat wellness core. Every couple days she gets 1/4 pill Pepsid ac. 10 ml. Not everyone agrees with that so talk to your vet first. Sometimes she fells too sick to eat but the Pepsid helps.
Last 2 meal is more like 1/8 Can because I mix it with other food. She is 5 yrs old. I have 2 other cats.

Hey! Thanks for the tips! We don’t have those foods over here unfortunately. I’ve tested a few wet foods with him but he just licks off the gravy and leaves the rest, haha. The food I’m using is the same brand of dry food as the breeder used, although a slightly different type; one that’s good for digestive problems apparently and recommended by the vet. I’m going to pick up some of the exact same kind as the breeder and see if that helps, but my gut feeling is it won’t.

 

[maggie101]

Dr Elseys is only online on the chewy websight. I would worry about all the fillers in dry food. I think her problem started soon after she was 2

 

[maggie101]

So far, mixing 1/8 pate and Weruva double dip or weruva chicken with pumpkin soup seems to work.weruva has lots of broth

 

[Wile]

Hey there - I'm really sorry to hear your boy is having trouble with vomiting. I was looking through some of your comments about food sensitivity and am not too sure that I understand what you have done to figure out the issue, or some of the advice that others have given you about what to feed your cat. I've struggled a bit with food intolerance recently in one of my cats, so my comments will be geared towards that.

The breeder thought it might be hairballs due to the abnormally hot summer here

Personally I do not think it is likely that your cat is vomiting due to hairballs. For a short-haired breed to get a hairball every 3 days seems extreme. It could be that ingested hair is further irritating an already inflamed stomach, but I think it is unlikely to be the underlying cause of your cat's vomiting.

He’s eating pretty much the same food he had at the breeder’s so I have a feeling it’s not that.

What food were you and the breeder initially feeding your cat? And what food are you feeding him now?

To figure out problems with a food intolerance you need to run a proper trial elimination diet the same way you would for food allergies. This means feed something like Hills Z/D or a novel protein-based limited ingredient diet for 8-12 weeks. I personally would not feed something like weruva, wellness, or any other non-LID diet during a trial because they tend to mix multiple protein types together, which makes it really hard to figure out what ingredient is triggering the vomiting.

I hope your current vet-recommended food works out for you! If not there are lots of LID diets out there that you can try.

 

[Misterrobo]

Hey and thanks for the replies!

We were at the veta two weeks ago. They did blood tests which show that there’s nothing major wrong with him thankfully.

We have had him take medication that helps with stomach acid over these two weeks; in case it was related to an inflammation or similar that was causing him to vomit.

After two weeks of medication he’s eating more food than he used to, around the amount he actually should for his weight. Unfortunately though, he’s still vomiting. Under the two weeks I kept a diary to keep track of how much food he was eating and how often he was vomiting. The pattern was exact, vomit two days in a row, and then fine for three days. Pretty crazy.

I’ve mailed the vets to find out what they recommend next.

I think the next part of the plan was to try him on serotonin to help calm him down if it is stress that’s causing the problem.

As for the food he eats, he’s on Hills i/d Digestive Care. Previously, at the breeder he was on Hills Young Adult for uncastrated cats.

Will update when I hear back from the vet!

 

[maggie101]

Hey and thanks for the replies!

We were at the veta two weeks ago. They did blood tests which show that there’s nothing major wrong with him thankfully.

We have had him take medication that helps with stomach acid over these two weeks; in case it was related to an inflammation or similar that was causing him to vomit.

After two weeks of medication he’s eating more food than he used to, around the amount he actually should for his weight. Unfortunately though, he’s still vomiting. Under the two weeks I kept a diary to keep track of how much food he was eating and how often he was vomiting. The pattern was exact, vomit two days in a row, and then fine for three days. Pretty crazy.

I’ve mailed the vets to find out what they recommend next.

I think the next part of the plan was to try him on serotonin to help calm him down if it is stress that’s causing the problem.

As for the food he eats, he’s on Hills i/d Digestive Care. Previously, at the breeder he was on Hills Young Adult for uncastrated cats.

Will update when I hear back from the vet!

That is great news! When she was on Pepsid her throwing up stopped for a few months and did not fill sick in the morning. Then the Pepsid started not working for her. That's when I switched to Dr elseys. Still vommited some,not as months. For 2 months her vomiting has totally stopped since I started mixing it with the double dip. No longer feels sick In the morning. I am very excited! You will eventually find the solution through lots of trial and error