Question:
Angel has been vomiting about once a week for the past three weeks. Otherwise she looks and acts healthy. She is an outdoor cat so I don't know if it is really more often than that. My question is, is this normal? I don't see any sign of a hairball in the vomit and it is usually right after she eats. I have heard others say that a cat can vomit if they eat too much or too fast. Just wanted to get some opinions on this. thanks!
Michelle

Answer:
Yes, if your cat is a "scarfer" it could be due to eating too fast. If that's the case there's two things you can do: put something in the food that needs to be pushed aside, which slows the cat down. Ping-pong balls, golf balls, or smooth, clean rocks of about the same size should work. The second thing is elevating the food several inches so the food travels down from the mouth to the stomach.
Vomitting once a week isn't normal, but it isn't terribly serious either. If she had a hairball, you wouldn't necessarily see any sign of it in the vomit. Maybe just to take care of a hairball, if that's what it is, you want to give her some hairball gel also. Be sure to give it on an empty stomach at least a couple hours before the next meal.
Tim
Answer:
Quote: She is an outdoor cat so I don't know if it is really more often than that.
It could very well be more.
How old is Angel?
Vomiting is really not normal and the problem is that it can be caused by many, many things, including worms and parasites.
To get to the bottom of what's going on you should do the following:
Take a stool sample to the vet to be checked for worms and parasites.
Keep her inside for at least one week and keep a strict eye on vomiting and litter box usage (peeing and pooping, quality of the poop, etc).
Check the diet, see if food allergy may be involved.
Make sure you feed several small meals a day, that she doesn't go without food for many hours and that she doesn't eat large amounts of food at one sitting.
Then, depending on how things go, you may have to take her in for an exam and some bloodwork to rule out certain problems.
Definitely check on the possibility of worms and parasites first.
Answer:
Yes, she does come in and goes at her food like she has never eaten before. So I would tend to think that is it. I'm not ruling out tapeworms yet. However, I really think that it is her eating too fast.
Thank you
Michelle

Answer:
Meowmie wrote: Quote: She is an outdoor cat so I don't know if it is really more often than that.
It could very well be more.
How old is Angel?
Vomiting is really not normal and the problem is that it can be caused by many, many things, including worms and parasites.
To get to the bottom of what's going on you should do the following:
Take a stool sample to the vet to be checked for worms and parasites.
Keep her inside for at least one week and keep a strict eye on vomiting and litter box usage (peeing and pooping, quality of the poop, etc).
Check the diet, see if food allergy may be involved.
Make sure you feed several small meals a day, that she doesn't go without food for many hours and that she doesn't eat large amounts of food at one sitting.
Then, depending on how things go, you may have to take her in for an exam and some bloodwork to rule out certain problems.
Definitely check on the possibility of worms and parasites first.
She is 4 years old.
Like I said, she seems happy and healthy otherwise so that is why I am not freaking out about it. Doesn't seem to be any weight loss, etc. As a matter of fact she has been in the best mood than she has been in for a long time. (She had some issues about 3 months ago (see other posts)). She is very playful and is sleeping in her bed at the window again. Something that she had not done in a long time.
She has dry food and water available to her at all times. Her routine is that she goes to her food dish everytime she comes in. Nibbles and then goes off to groom. When I give her wet food I can only give her 1/2 a pouch as she will not eat anymore than that at one time tops. If she walks awway from it she will not eat it anymore unitll I put out fresh wet food. (she is sooo spoiled) I have noticed that the times she vomits, it's a large amount of food.
I will look into changing her dry food. I have already started to mix in Wellness dry. She liked it at first but then would not eat it. So I am gradually adding it to her dry food. I don't think it's that cause she has vomited like this before the change. However, I will not rule it out at theis point either.
I do have a call into the vet about another issue but I will take the oppertunity to mention this as well.
Michelle

Answer:
Quote: When I give her wet food I can only give her 1/2 a pouch as she will not eat anymore than that at one time tops. If she walks awway from it she will not eat it anymore unitll I put out fresh wet food. (she is sooo spoiled) I have noticed that the times she vomits, it's a large amount of food.
Based on this it's quite possible that you have a food related issue.
If her original diet seemed to have agree with her, even if it's dry food, try to go back to that first before you do anything else.
Stop giving the wet food in the pouch and for the time being don't experiment with other dry foods either. Wait two or three weeks to see what happens if you do that before you try other things.
Weight loss, even if it's only related to food allergy, is always bad news, so it's great that you are not seeing any.
Wellness dry is a terrible food. Please do not try to force it on your kitty. California Natural is a much better choice.
But please, again, before you start experimenting with different foods, just see how well she does on her original diet without any wet food and any new dry foods. Then go from there.
Answer:
If I stop giving her wet food all heck will break loose!!! She asks for her wet food by going to the cabinet. If we ignore her she will go crazy until we get it for her.
It seems that she vomits more often after she eats the dry. I will go back to her original diet and work from there.
Thanks for the tips!
Now I'm very confused. A lot of people said that Wellness is a great food. Now you say it isn't. Please explain why you think Wellness is not good and CN is better. thanks.
Michelle

Answer:
Quote: If I stop giving her wet food all heck will break loose!!! She asks for her wet food by going to the cabinet. If we ignore her she will go crazy until we get it for her.
Makes me wonder whether she would act the same way with any wet food or she just really, really loves this particular one.
Can I ask you what the main ingredients are? (Only the food ingredients, not the vitamin/mineral supplements.)
Is she getting different flavors or just one flavor?
Unfortunately, when you try to track down food sensitivities, it's necessary to do an elimination diet, leaving things out one by one to see what kind of results you get. That's why you might need to stop the wet food for awhile.
While Wellness canned is grain-free, Wellness dry is loaded with grain. I checked the ingredient list once and counted seven different grain ingredients. Way too much for many cats.
California Natural has a very simple ingredient list and it is made with only one grain, rice. Much easier to digest.
Also, sometimes cats develop digestive problems on a mixed diet (part wet, part dry), but they do well on either a hundred percent wet, or hundred percent dry diet.
If you can find a good canned food your cat can eat day after day without any digestive problems, you can do away with the dry if you want to, just stop feeding it.
Problems may continue if you keep feeding wet and dry and figuring out what exactly is causing the problems may not be easy - or simply impossible.
Answer:
A quick PS.
This afternoon while I was in the pet supply store buying cat litter I took a look at some of the Wellness dry ingredients. In one Super 5 Mix that wasn't fish-based I saw:
ground whole barley
ground whole oats
ground brown rice
rice bran
flax seed
Less than the seven grain ingredients I counted two or three years ago, but still way too many.
Also, if you are buying a fish-based food, that can complicate matters further. (Fish is a highly allergenic food, causing lots of digestive problems.)
Answer:
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you.
I put her back on her regular food and the vomiting stopped. Now, it happened to coincide with a snow storm and she has not been outside in a long time. So I still don't know if it is the food or maybe something she is getting into outside. Time will tell and I will keep my eye on it.
I bought her more dry food but my husband threw the bag away before I could get back to you on the main ingredients. However, I found a food by Purina called "Maxxium" or something like that (again, the bag was thrown away). It had a meat as it's first ingredient. She seems to love it and has not vomited. I will keep an eye on this also and if I find that she is vomiting again I will return to her regular food.
Fish is highly alergenic? I never knew that. She loves fish flavor food. I will also keep track on that too. Sigh... I think I need a notebook! lol
Michelle