Vomiting due to new dry food?

Meowmee

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Yesterday one of my guys at least vomited a lot of food up when I wasn’t there to see what happened of course.

There was a lot of undigested dry food and other food. I figured out later that I think it was Zena because he had gone into the studio to sleep and did not seem to be feeling good. Then he later came in and sat on a chair and he started vomiting again more mostly just white liquid now although there was one vomit I also did not see on a mat in the garage with color liquid.

I am worried because I don’t know if this is due to the dry food that I have started giving them. I bought some of the turkey chicken flavor fussiecat dry food which came a few days ago and I’ve just been giving them tiny amounts gradually added into their normal diet. So far it has seemed like it was OK but one kitty may have been getting a little bit of soft stool. I am not sure who that was. But that seems to have stopped.

I also noticed that there was a big dead bug on the floor- one of those bugs that looks like a spider but it’s not and they jump around a lot- I forgot the name for them. So I’m wondering if maybe he ate that bug or part of it and that is what made him vomit?

I didn’t feed anybody for about 12 hours at least after to give them a break and today I have not given them any dry food yet. They are eating their canned fussiecat and canned weruva, a high quality grain free chicken and tuna for a while with no problems.

It is time to make another batch of the home cooked but I’m not going to be able to do that today because it takes a few hours with de boning the chicken thighs etc. and I am doing training for a job which I cannot delay, it all has to be done in certain period of time and it’s a lot of work.

Last time I made their home cooked they were so hungry that I gave them little pieces of raw- they liked it and didn’t seem to have a problem. I’m wondering if I should try switching them to raw instead but I am worried it is going to cause more problems. Plus I don’t know how I’m going to store it- I would have to divide it into small portions and freeze it all- usually I just freeze the cooked food in larger dishes and leave some in the fridge for eating. I don’t have enough small dishes for three separate portions and I don’t think there would be enough room even for medium size dishes of what I make to freeze most of them. I usually make about 10- 12 pounds per batch of the food.

There was no vomiting from the raw as far as I know which was about three weeks ago maybe, however I’m wondering if that could’ve upset his tummy?

There is only one other time I have seen Zena vomit- it was last week when I woke up, he was in my bedroom - he just spat up a tiny little bit of liquid and that was it.
 
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njtom

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Easiest test is to not give the dry food and see what happens.

I've read that dry food can be problematic because it absorbs liquid in the stomach and expands. This is going to sound crazy, but a cat's stomach is around the size of a ping-pong ball.
 

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It appears to me reading your description, that the bug is your culprit. My boy can't eat grasshoppers even though he loves them, but his tummy definitely does not and he vomits every time.
 
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Meowmee

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Easiest test is to not give the dry food and see what happens.

I've read that dry food can be problematic because it absorbs liquid in the stomach and expands. This is going to sound crazy, but a cat's stomach is around the size of a ping-pong ball.
That is small. I did give them a tiny bit 2 hours ago, so far so good. I will withhold it longer if it happens again. Zena was eating mostly dry food outside for a long time and then inside until I transitioned him to home cooked and the fussie cat etc. he also ate 9 lives occasionally. He had runs for quite a while from giardia at first which resolved.
 
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Meowmee

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It appears to me reading your description, that the bug is your culprit. My boy can't eat grasshoppers even though he loves them, but his tummy definitely does not and he vomits every time.
Yes that is what I think. Quinn does that too. I caved and gave them a little bit of dry again, keeping my fingers crossed. I will have to decide what to do if we have more vomiting. I’m trying to feed them more frequent smaller meals as well. Thanks 😀

fortunately I bought the dry food on Amazon so I can get a refund if need be. Or Fred can eat it. He is still eating dry meow mix mostly. I am afraid to say this in case I jinx it but his poop is the best poop of any cat I’ve cared for, and his pee too.
 

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Hi

Yes, my cats frequent sick up dry food; I suspect it gets caught in their throat. They don't seem to come to any harm from it, but I always make sure they have lots of water on hand and only offer a small amount of dry food, alongside the wet food. As someone else said, it does swell dramatically in water, but my cats usually "chuck it" before it gets to that stage ...
 

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Hopefully he feels better now! It's so hard to tell sometimes 🤣

If it was mostly undigested, it can be regurgitation from eating too fast. But it does sound like that bug could have been the culprit since he threw up again.

No vomiting after caving re: dry food?
 

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Hi! How are your cats today? Just found an article on the topic Cat Vomiting: Why Is My Cat Throwing Up Undigested Food? - Cat Food Point (hopefully, it will be useful for you). It offers several reasons for vomiting, and one of them is changes in diet. There is a recommendation to gradually reduce the amount of old food and replace it with a new one. In my opinion, it seems to be the cause of your problem.
 
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Meowmee

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Hopefully he feels better now! It's so hard to tell sometimes 🤣

If it was mostly undigested, it can be regurgitation from eating too fast. But it does sound like that bug could have been the culprit since he threw up again.

No vomiting after caving re: dry food?
No more vomiting but unfortunately Merlin had a tiny bit of runny poop after it started as normal poop, when he used Fred’s box 😔

This is what I was worried about because all three of my cats have gotten diarrhea when they ate anything except the fussy cat now they were weruva also only 3 flavors and the home-cooked food that I make.

I am going to carefully monitor his poop today and see what happens. After the runny diarrhea I did not give him or them anymore of the dry. I’m only giving them tiny amounts each day maybe 2 times a day with their wet food. So it is not a lot.

It’s getting too hard for me to make the home cooked because it takes hours to do with several steps and they eat it so fast. With three cats now and perhaps Fred is going to stay too and cinnamon and I think I can’t manage all of it, so I was hoping to be able to give them small amounts of a high-quality dry food as well. Fortunately Fred has very good poop and he’s just eating the meow mix which is what he was eating outside and sometimes the Kirkland dry food and sometimes nine lives. But I can’t continue feeding him that if he comes into the general population- they will all eat his food and get diarrhea.

When I give them the dry food they seem very satisfied and Merlin does not screech at me as much as to feed him all of the time. He is on a diet. He was already overweight when I took him in from outside but when he first showed up he was a normal weight- he was about six months then. He is totally food obsessed and wants to eat nonstop pretty much. Now it is at the point where he is obese and I am worried about its affects on his health.

He has not lost any weight so far according to my scale but I don’t know if I’m weighing him accurately. He does look a little thinner to me though so who knows.
 
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Meowmee

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Hi! How are your cats today? Just found an article on the topic Cat Vomiting: Why Is My Cat Throwing Up Undigested Food? - Cat Food Point (hopefully, it will be useful for you). It offers several reasons for vomiting, and one of them is changes in diet. There is a recommendation to gradually reduce the amount of old food and replace it with a new one. In my opinion, it seems to be the cause of your problem.
Thank you yes I am doing all of that and adding it in very slowly. Zena was the one that vomited and after he vomited all his food he was vomiting bile and white fluid last.

I found a half eaten dead bug so I think it was probably the bug this time- maybe it was undigested because it was soon after he had eaten I’m not sure but I certainly am monitoring the whole situation.

Unfortunately Merlin had some diarrhea which is what I was worried about since they all have had runs they eat anything but they’re home cooked in those specific brands.
 
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Meowmee

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Hi

Yes, my cats frequent sick up dry food; I suspect it gets caught in their throat. They don't seem to come to any harm from it, but I always make sure they have lots of water on hand and only offer a small amount of dry food, alongside the wet food. As someone else said, it does swell dramatically in water, but my cats usually "chuck it" before it gets to that stage ...
Sybil used to do that because she would eat too quickly but it never happened with her dry food for some reason. I am not sure if this was in his throat because it seems like he ate the bug and that is what triggered it.

It seems it was not in his “throat” because it was already swollen up a little the way the dry food tends to do in the stomach.

thanks 😀
 

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Could be normal for a few days with the new dry food.
Your vet may be able to offer some sensitive stomach dry food. Magnus was on Purina Vet diet for sensitive stomachs for a bit while we sorted his allergy out. It was expensive up front but lasted a long time at 24 large cans.
 
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Meowmee

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Could be normal for a few days with the new dry food.
Your vet may be able to offer some sensitive stomach dry food. Magnus was on Purina Vet diet for sensitive stomachs for a bit while we sorted his allergy out. It was expensive up front but lasted a long time at 24 large cans.
Thanks, I only use grain free gluten free foods, which have no or very few additives none of the dvm rx foods or general population foods except fussie cat etc. My boys all have some sort of grain sensitivity and each had issues with runs. So far though, he has not had runny stool again even at the end, so fingers crossed. I reduced the dry for a day and now it is back to 1-2x a day a tiny amount. I made their homemade food again early am too and they ate some of it raw while I prepped it. Quinn was not as interested and only ate one piece but Merlin and Zena gobbled up quite a bit.
 
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Well, yesterday Quinn vomited up undigested dry and the home cooked, I know it was him because it was on the table- he’s the only one who goes on the table which is where he eats.

So I now think that it was him who vomited last week in the living room. I guess Zena vomiting had nothing to do with the food but with the bug.

So I’ve decided I’m not going to give Quinn the dry food anymore at least not this one- he can just eat the home made wet and the can food and the other guys can have a little bit of dry food. They seem to be OK with it so far anyway.

It’s very frustrating, I don’t understand how I got three boys who all have such sensitive tummies- none of my cats ever had these issues in the past, they just ate whatever food I gave them and mostly.

I just gave them a moderate end food except for Syb who I gave orijens for many years which she loved I think everyone else ate that too after we switched from Kirkland dry and canned.

I tried a lot of more expensive canned foods at one point when somebody got there early kidney problems however they wouldn’t eat it, they just looked at it like OK I am never going to touch that and they never did. Weruva was the one they refuse to even touch, lol

None of my cats were over overweight in the slightest either.

And to top it all off Merlin who has been on a diet for at least three months now has not lost even one bit of weight. I don’t know what to do anymore, I’m getting very discouraged
 
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lisahe

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Vomiting can be so difficult to sort out... we've had food trials and dumb luck lead to taking several ingredients out of our cats' menu, certain that they were causing issues: potato, agar-agar, and green-lipped mussels. I've also taken out gums and tapioca, despite not being sure which (if any of them) were problems. Pretty much any ingredient in a food can cause digestive issues but thickeners (carrageenan, agar-agar, gums, potato, legumes, etc.) have been consistent problems here.

And of course different kinds of vomit can mean very different things: acid, slow emptying of the stomach, eating too fast, constipation, eating bugs (our cats do that, too!), food sensitivities, and so on. Hair can also cause problems; it doesn't always come up in the form of a hairball.

I've also recently realized that another thing that can cause vomiting is stress. Keeping a cat log of our cats' various "issues" has led me to believe that a lot of her vomiting has been caused by stress. Our cats are rescues (they came to us underfed, underweight, and not very socialized after being in a home with too many cats) and they've always been nervous, taking issue when we sneeze or cough too loudly. (!) But I suddenly realized that one's vomiting frequently coincides with noise, which visibly stresses her. She's vomited when it's been windy, when we've had trees cut in our yard (thud!), when the wood from the trees has been chainsawed, when she hears leaf blowers, when her sister bugs her too much, when her feeding schedule is disrupted... I'll stop there since you get the picture! The combination of her stress/nerves from noise and the food insecurity she's never quite outgrown can be hard to deal with. But at least I've finally realized, from the cat log and then observation, that stress (some of which, I confess rubs off from this human: 2022 year has brought far too much bad news) seems to be a huge contributing factor. Making sure she's fed on a schedule and letting her be by herself (or, if she's in the mood, which she often is, playing with her, as a nice distraction) when she gets nervous seem to help.

Anyway, good luck, I hope you're able to figure out what's causing Quinn to vomit!
 
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Meowmee

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Vomiting can be so difficult to sort out... we've had food trials and dumb luck lead to taking several ingredients out of our cats' menu, certain that they were causing issues: potato, agar-agar, and green-lipped mussels. I've also taken out gums and tapioca, despite not being sure which (if any of them) were problems. Pretty much any ingredient in a food can cause digestive issues but thickeners (carrageenan, agar-agar, gums, potato, legumes, etc.) have been consistent problems here.

And of course different kinds of vomit can mean very different things: acid, slow emptying of the stomach, eating too fast, constipation, eating bugs (our cats do that, too!), food sensitivities, and so on. Hair can also cause problems; it doesn't always come up in the form of a hairball.

I've also recently realized that another thing that can cause vomiting is stress. Keeping a cat log of our cats' various "issues" has led me to believe that a lot of her vomiting has been caused by stress. Our cats are rescues (they came to us underfed, underweight, and not very socialized after being in a home with too many cats) and they've always been nervous, taking issue when we sneeze or cough too loudly. (!) But I suddenly realized that one's vomiting frequently coincides with noise, which visibly stresses her. She's vomited when it's been windy, when we've had trees cut in our yard (thud!), when the wood from the trees has been chainsawed, when she hears leaf blowers, when her sister bugs her too much, when her feeding schedule is disrupted... I'll stop there since you get the picture! The combination of her stress/nerves from noise and the food insecurity she's never quite outgrown can be hard to deal with. But at least I've finally realized, from the cat log and then observation, that stress (some of which, I confess rubs off from this human: 2022 year has brought far too much bad news) seems to be a huge contributing factor. Making sure she's fed on a schedule and letting her be by herself (or, if she's in the mood, which she often is, playing with her, as a nice distraction) when she gets nervous seem to help.

Anyway, good luck, I hope you're able to figure out what's causing Quinn to vomit!

I think for now we can say it is prolly the intro of the dry food causing it. He had an episode of vomiting a few months ago where he had to go to DVM and he was not eating either..

I was worried he had a blockage but it was OK. I started giving him occasionally some laxatone which seemed to help.

Mostly with him, like my other guys, it has been a problem of getting diarrhea from any food other than the home-cooked food or fussy cat and weruva.

That started when he was a kitten after DVM put flea poison on him- he immediately started vomiting when I got him home and then he started getting diarrhea. I noticed whenever he ate any of Sybil’s food he got runs so I started doing the home-cooked and only fussie cat and that cured him. Same for Merlin who had other issues, c duff and maybe ibd, when I first took him in with diarrhea and also Zena who had giardia.

The reason I am adding the dry is because it’s getting too hard and time-consuming to make the home cooked for three cats and now possibly four because I have another I just took in, Fred who is still isolated.

They eat it up so quickly and they are constantly nagging me to feed them- really Merlin is the one who screams at me all the time to be fed, he will come right up in my face if I’m sitting and reading or watching TV insisting and telling me it’s time to feed him again.

He literally screams like baby when he is worked up. Quinn really never nags me, it’s Zena & Merlin. Zena’s learned to do it from Merlin but he doesn’t do it in the terribly annoying way Merlin does.

So I want to be able to give them some dry food to supplement their diet and also to help Merlin lose weight. It looks like it will be OK for Merlin and Zena but not for Quinn.

Fred on the other hand who is in the room by himself is eating mostly dry meow mix and he has the best poop ever and no vomiting, fingers crossed.

Thanks 😀 sorry about all your kitties and I’m glad you figured out that stress was causing that for her. I wonder if that could be a factor in Quinn vomiting sometimes too. I think hair and hair balls are a factor for him and my other cats and also maybe constipation for him. He also eats bugs sometimes too. I know my three guys have grain sensitivities which is why I’m giving them a dry food that is grain and gluten-free and free of a lot of other of those additives too.
 
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lisahe

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Thanks 😀 sorry about all your kitties and I’m glad you figured out that stress was causing that for her. I wonder if that could be a factor in Quinn vomiting sometimes too. I think hair and hair balls are a factor for him and my other cats and also maybe constipation for him. He also eats bugs sometimes too.
Thanks, Meowmee Meowmee ! I changed the cats' menu late last year (they got tired of two homemade meals a day, then I added in more canned foods, then the trouble started... I think it was the additional thickeners in the canned foods) and it's taken me a long time to get everything back to normal, both in terms of ingredients in the foods (how much egg, pumpkin, etc. to add, what to take out, making sure I don't give them too much of certain things...) and making sure I don't trigger Edwina's food anxiety, which seems to contribute to her stomach acid production, which of course contributes to her barfing. What's really frustrating is that lots of things we can't control -- neighbors' leaf blowers, loud vehicles, the wind, etc. -- seem to get her very nervous, too, though she has lots of good places (like a couple big cardboard boxes with sleeping spots) to escape to when she needs them. That seems to really help. And now that I've recognized the problem, I'm better at leaving her alone so she can destress.

For the hair/hairballs problem, we brush her a lot and I give her a little Vaseline some days. Egg yolk and pumpkin can both help with constipation and hairballs -- I've increased the egg yolk I add to the cats' food. It's good for our other cat, too, because she tends to get constipated. The best thing for Ireland, though, has been something I bought for Edwina: Vet's Best Hairball Relief Digestive Aid. Edwina doesn't like them much but Ireland (who has never gacked up a hairball) gets 1.5 tablets a day that I break up into little pieces and give to her before four meals. The tablets are her favorite treat and she's been eating and pooping better than she has in years, it's really amazing. (That was even before I increased the egg yolk.)

Our cats chase, hunt, and eat bugs, too. I think Edwina's the one who does most of the killing.

I hope you're able to find a good combination for Quinn. It can really take a lot of time. If you can keep a journal of barfing incidents and what he ate and did before he barfed (and any environmental factors like noise, a standoff with another cat, etc.) that's a good start to figuring things out.
 
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