Worried About Tango Throwing Up

Moz

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I'm worried about Tango. She will be turning 3 in June and I would normally consider her to be a healthy cat. She's at a perfect weight for her size. The thing is, I've had her since October 2016, and I can't recall ever seeing her vomit until the middle of February.

She threw up on February 18. I didn't see it happen, but apparently whatever she threw up just looked like spit. Early the next morning, she threw up again. She desperately wanted in my room, which is unusual for that time of day, then she began to walk around all over my room. She was oddly restless. Several minutes later, she began yowling and howling like she was in her carrier on the way to the vet. She began heaving and eventually threw up two puddles of what once again looked like spit, though it was a bit thicker and more of an off-white or ivory colour. It didn't smell or look like bile. There were a few loose hairs mixed in with it, but no food or blood.

About two or three weeks later, she puked again. It looked the same as it did on February 19. I found a small amount of dried up throw up spit around the same time.

Tango was acting strange this morning. She was in the bathroom while I showered and she kept meowing and meowing, like she really wanted me to pet her. Usually when she's feeling needy, she'll stop meowing once I pet her, but she didn't do that this morning. She crawled onto my shoulder before I even dried off, and she was still meowing. As soon as I left the bathroom, she left too, and began acting normally again.

But a few hours later, I noticed that she was sitting in a spot she normally doesn't sit in. I thought that was odd. Then I found out that she threw up some more of that spit, and I began to get worried. Like I said, she wasn't a puker until fairly recently, and her weird actions really bothered me.

My mom and I took Tango to the vet this afternoon. We told the vet about her puking, that Tango sometimes has a tendency to have really itchy ears and around her eyes (and when she does scratch her ears, she scratches them until they turn beet red), and that in December and once again in January, she had an eosinophilic granuloma on her neck. I told her that her food hasn't changed, that she's still eating/drinking and acting normally (I completely forgot to tell her that Tango was acting weird today).

The vet immediately said she suspected it was IBD or some type of food allergy. She felt Tango's abdomen and said everything felt fine. She said that they could do blood tests and a biopsy on her intestines, though it would be easier to have her eat Hill's prescription z/d food and see how she does. Tango was also given a prescription for liquid prednisone.

She's been home for almost 7 hours, and Tango has barely eaten any of her new food. (Of course, Indy seems very interested in the wet food.) I'm not sure if she even ate her regular food in the morning. I'm sure she'd eat if I gave her her old food, but I can't help but feel worried, especially after she puked again about two hours ago.

Part of me wonders if she's just puking because she likes people food, and my other family members like to give her small pieces of odd food choices for a cat (I'm guilty of letting her have a little bit of lactose free milk and yogurt a few times a week when I'm eating) -- like, Tango ate a small piece of coleslaw on Tuesday. What if it's just people food that's upsetting her stomach? But what if it's not? What else would make her throw up like that? It's not like she's throwing up food or hairballs; it literally just looks like off-white spit.

I'm not really sure what I'm asking here; I think I just needed to vent. :frown: It probably seems so silly that I'm worrying about 5 or 6 instances of barf, but she was never a barf-y kind of cat until this year.
 
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stephanietx

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When this started, had you changed foods or introduced any new foods or flavors? Some cats cannot tolerate any canned fish or chicken.
 
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Moz

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Oops, forgot to mention that! They have eaten the same brand and flavours of treats and food, both wet and dry, for almost two years (assuming nothing in the formulas have changed, anyway).

Also, both cats are inside only.

edit: Specifically, they eat President's Choice extra meaty pate food in these flavours: chicken, turkey and giblets, ocean whitefish and tuna, tuna and chicken, salmon, and beef if it's bought by accident. Their dry food is President's Choice Nutrition First weight and hairball control (which is supposedly soy/corn/wheat-free) and they eat Temptations treats.
 
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FeebysOwner

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Hi. I think you should at least have the blood tests done, if for no other reason than to have a baseline in case symptoms should worsen and might require another set of blood tests for comparison.

And, when changing a cat's food, it should be done gradually - this would seem to be especially beneficial to Tango since she doesn't seem to want to eat the new food. Give her the old food she is used to, just add a small amount of the new food, and she if she will eat it that way. Then, you can slowly decrease the old food and increase the new.

A little bit of human food isn't typically a bad thing, especially if it is not daily. However, any cat can develop a food allergy out of the blue, so to speak - and, it could be related to either her own cat food or human food. Cole slaw, and more untraditional human foods like that, should probably be avoided.
 
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Moz

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Yeah, I wish I had asked for her to get a blood test yesterday. I was so focused on the fact that I might have to alter her diet that I just didn't think about it.

Today she did eat some of the z/d dry food mixed in with her old kibble. I set out a mixture of the new/old wet food, but she wouldn't eat it with me there. I left and came back a while later and it was gone, though it's entirely (or completely) possible that it was Indy who ate it. Later in the day once it became clear that I hadn't seen her eat a substantial amount of any food, I gave her some Temptations and some of her old wet food, which she ate right away. She did eat some more mixed dry food around supper time.

She was acting normal this morning. Since she had her second dose of prednisone, though, she's been acting different. She's not as peppy as usual and she's hardly been vocal to me. Even Indy is acting odd; she's been with Tango all day in the living room. Indy never spends that much time out there, and I haven't seen her eat all day, too.

Our vet is only open until noon tomorrow, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to take her back in. I'm considering it. I get that Tango could still be tired from yesterday, especially after it took an hour to get her to get into her carrier. I just get so anxious about my cats' health that I'm sure I'm overthinking some of this. :frown:
 
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Moz

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Tango seems to be feeling a bit better. She ate some more food and is walking around, trilling, and rubbing her face against things. I wish she'd try to eat the mixed wet food.
 
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