Vomiting cat

[K77 CTR]

My British shorthair is 5 years old and for the last 2 or 3 years has vomited on a regular basis. He vomits probably 2 to 3 times a week, normally about 15 mins after eating but not always.

Whenever he's in the garden he's always eating grass. He weighs about 7kg so it's not affecting him but I'm just worried about it.

The vet doesn't seem to worry as it's not affecting his weight. I've tried changing his food and even tried the sensitive prescription diet with no improvent.

Should I be demanding more investigation?

Thanks

[bexVN]

Cats do vomit and some quite regularly. Your vet is not wrong in not offering lots of tests. However if you wanted to ck for anything I'd suggest pancreatic lipase (chronic pancreatitis is thought to be ear more common than initially realised) and liver and kidneys but not much else.

Does he eat quickly. My cat will vomit sometimes if he has eaten too quickly?

[smileymikey]

We have the same problem with our cat particularly in the morning, it was suggested to us that its because of hairballs. We took the view that it was because she is very cute, but a greedy little cow and gulping her food. If your feeding her wet food, sprinkle some dry food into it so that your cat has to pick around the hard bits and this will slow her eating down. Alternatively feed her in two stages so she isn't so full. Good luck.

[smileymikey]

P.S Vets are good but are paid by the job....They will quite happily test your cat to destruction, while you're happy to pay for it!!

You can buy the most expensive cat food in the world.....they will then sit in the garden enjoying an al fresco sparrow!

[V100]

When we took our cat to the vet he claimed that eating grass is what does it. Not sure if there's any truth in this, but our cat did tend to vomit more regularly when we had grass in the garden... try to get it to stop eating grass.

[paulmurr]

Ours spews a couple of times a week, mostly furballs and occasionally if she's eaten too quickly.

[K77 CTR]

Thanks for the replies, he doesn't eat that fast in comparison to the other cat. I wouldn't be surprised if it is down to hairballs as he's a fluffy bugger.

I won't worry about it too much and will try the dry food with wet food mix. Anything that I can do to help with futballs? Reluctant to get hairballs related dry food as he's already on light diet food.

[Steve Evil]

The grass eating is just to get some veg into their diet apparently.

As for the hairballs, you can buy a gel that you squeeze out onto your finger for them to lick off, it supposedly breaks down the hairballs in their stomach. We give it to ours when he starts wheezing with one and it seems to cure it up for him over a few days. It's caramel flavour though which is odd as cats can't taste anything sweet, so it puzzles me why he likes it so much.

[smileymikey]

I always thought cats and dogs eat grass, because they do not have the enzymes in there guts to break it down. As a result it gives them a good internal de coke in there guts, as it pass's through, reducing parasites etc

Please note this is not based on any scientific fact whatsoever....its simply an old wives tale...which does on balance make a bit of sense

[bexVN]

smileymikey said:

P.S Vets are good but are paid by the job....They will quite happily test your cat to destruction, while you're happy to pay for it!!

You can buy the most expensive cat food in the world.....they will then sit in the garden enjoying an al fresco sparrow!

Did you not read, the OP said his vet WASN'T worried, it was the OP wondering about tests, surely if the vet was so keen to 'test his cat to destruction' he'd have offered to do so at the time.

Re: grass, truth is no one really knows, all of what you mentioned is plausible just not been proven.

Hairballs and eating too fast definitely most likely reasons for vomiting/ regurgitation so soon after eating.

[smileymikey]

Bex......There was a fairly obvious amount of good natured ribbing in my reply!!

[smileymikey]

Coupled with a pretty obvious disclaimer at the end.....cats puke get over it and move on !!

[bexVN]

smileymikey said:

Bex......There was a fairly obvious amount of good natured ribbing in my reply!!

Smiley face or a wink would've helped! in that case sorry for taking comment too seriously.

[smileymikey]

Sheesh

[m0ssy]

I don't think your cat should puke that much, and it certainly isn't breed related.

My BSH's only puke ocassionally. Every now and then when I am in bed at some silly time like 0330

The girl (mimi) eats grass, the boy (beefy) doesnt, both have puked, and it can range in consistency, sometimes a solidish hairball and other times pretty waterey.

There appears to be a connection with his food and the puking as he always pukes 15mins after eating which makes me think he has an allergy to something in the food.

What foods do you feed him? what different brands have you tried?

Poor little bugger, i know how hungry the BSH is (all the time) and breakfast and dinner time should be his favourite part of the day... well apart from nap time

[K77 CTR]

Mossy, you have summed up my cat purrfectly in that last paragraph!!

It isn't always associated with food, can be 15 mins after or even the middle of the night but whenever he vomits it is only food he brings up (normally undigested). I've tried him on Felix, whiskers, prescription sensitive wet food and JWB, science plan, pets at home dry food.

[m0ssy]

K77 CTR said:

Mossy, you have summed up my cat purrfectly in that last paragraph!!

It isn't always associated with food, can be 15 mins after or even the middle of the night but whenever he vomits it is only food he brings up (normally undigested). I've tried him on Felix, whiskers, prescription sensitive wet food and JWB, science plan, pets at home dry food.

Indeed, the boys are a bit lazy when they get to their prime age of 4/5/6 and above, all beefy does these days is lol around all day waiting for dinner time. Mimi is a bit more active. Pretty weird though as when he can be bothered to go out he always catches a bird, he's had magpies, thrushes, blackbirds the lot, but thankfully neither of them are quick enough to get the pair of robins

Anyway back to the topic:

Mimi can't eat wet food, she tries but ends up salivating everywhere then gives up, Beefy isn't that keen on it, plus it stinks and goes off fairly quickly in the bowl if a hot day. IMO wet food is pretty ste. I used to feed mine science plan but found they got on better with Royal Canin - British Shorthair food.

Reasons:

They eat all of it every time without fail.
Never get bored of it.
Their coats are much glossier, even more so that Science plan
Stools in the cat box are much much more solid, seems to agree with their digestive system. (although Beefy seems to like the wood chippings in my back garden more than the box these days )

I am by no means connected to Royal Canin, but as you are a fellow BSH owner (The BEST cat by a country mile) PM me your address and I will post you a couple of portions to try him out as it is quite expensive trying a different food every week.

Trouble is you have tried a variety of dry foods by the look of it, so maybe the poor little sod has another issue, but surely worth trying different dry foods until perhaps you get one that agrees with him more?

[K77 CTR]

Thanks for all that m0ssy, I don't think my cat even knows how to catch a bird. Give him a wasp, fly or spider any day!

My cats love their wet food and it's gone before I leave the kitchen (they only get half a sachet). I'll give the shorthair food a go, happy to buy it as my other cat can eat the rest of the old one.

Montie will eat anything and has a love for any bits of plastic packaging or selotape that he can steal so I'm just a little worried that he could have an obstruction somewhere.

[m0ssy]

K77 CTR said:

Thanks for all that m0ssy, I don't think my cat even knows how to catch a bird. Give him a wasp, fly or spider any day!

My cats love their wet food and it's gone before I leave the kitchen (they only get half a sachet). I'll give the shorthair food a go, happy to buy it as my other cat can eat the rest of the old one.

Montie will eat anything and has a love for any bits of plastic packaging or selotape that he can steal so I'm just a little worried that he could have an obstruction somewhere.

Yes they will eat just about anything but hopefully an obstruction wouldn't be the problem but at the end of the day if you want to know once and for all pay for the vet to X-Ray, scan thorough examination or whatever they suggest, will cost a couple of quid but would put you mind at rest.


ETA: i did a google search and came up with this that proves interesting reading http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=201...

Edited by m0ssy on Thursday 19th May 13:40

[swiftwill]

smileymikey said:

P.S Vets are good but are paid by the job....They will quite happily test your cat to destruction, while you're happy to pay for it!!

You can buy the most expensive cat food in the world.....they will then sit in the garden enjoying an al fresco sparrow!

Vet student here.

I have plenty of experience with lots of different vets and can happily say that this is completely wrong. A vet will never run any test that isnt necessary for your animal as it is putting undue stress on the animal for the first part and will not give the vet any clue as to what the problem is. Vets only use tests to prove or disprove their theories and will not continue running tests once they have their answer just for the privilege of charging you a bit more.

The eating grass idea is probably the mains reason that your cat vomits as eating grass is known to lead a cat to do this. However cats tend to eat grass because they know it will make them sick and want to vomit so this can point to an upset stomach or pancreatitis as bex outlined so her idea may be the one to go for if nothing else fits.

Best of luck.