They throw up... constantly!

[zoooo]

All right... I wonder if anyone else has this kind of cat-problems?

Our two lovely young boys just can't stop vomiting. They do it all the time. It's not like they are ill. Au contraire, they are fit, healthy, playfull, their digestion is just perfect - so, everything is quite cool. Except for the vomiting part of their daily routine.

I have a few theories why they are doing it.
A) sensitivity to certain food brands
B) GREED - beyond the limits of their stomachs
C) adolescent phase of life
D) helicobacter pylori ( ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D) just a thought...

The girls throw up deliberately after stuffing themselves with fresh grass. I supply it regularly and they are all nuts about it. ;D (catnip doesn't work for either of them - all they want is grass).

I don't have the opportunity to feed them separately. If I happen to buy, let's say... light food for the girls and sensitive stomach food for the boys, you can imagine what happens. They swap! ;D
And it's so hard for me to remember after which food the boys vomited and after which they didn't. Actually, we tried all the cat foods available (even the vegan one), and I'm 95% positive that those guys threw up after each at least one time.

Our feeding routine is as follows... canned food (or pouches) in the morning. They always have dry food available (at least two different brands) during the day and night. When we come home from work - wet food again. If they ask for it, they get some in the evening. I think what happens is that the two of them don't eat dry food at all during the day as they are not so happy with it. When we give them wet food, they eat it like they never tasted food in their lives. 5 minutes max after they had eaten, I have to scrape up cat vomit (entire meal) from: carpets, furniture, bathroom floor, inside the bathtub etc... Ozren is quite predictable, and also a bit tidier so he likes to vomit in the bathroom. Orlando vomits all over the place and he doesn't have the "sound alert". Sometimes it's funny, but sometimes it's just too annoying. What upsets me the most is that they usually do it when I'm just about to leave the flat, or am in some kind of hurry.

In past two weeks they had one week period of not throwing up at all. Last 2-3 days it's happening again.

Entering the flat is like entering a minefield for us... first thing we have to do is SEARCH... LOL

I would take them to the Vet if they started losing weight. Or if they started acting strange. Actually I'm quite happy that they haven't gained weight after being spayed. (Unlike our mutant girls). Both of them look perfect.

For the time being, I intend to leave the situation as it is...

Any clues WHY this is going on - besides my own theories?! Any similar experiences?


T.

[rob]

Lots of similar experince mate although not on a regular basis like you are having. Has it been happening long?

[chrisleitz]

T,
I think they are eating their good too quickly. I take it what they throw up is not in any way digested?
Momo used to do that until he realised there was noone to steal his food (unlike in his previous home where he had food competition from dogs and another cat).

Try feeding smaller portions of the wet food. Leave at least 1 hour between additional feeds. They have dry to graze on so won't be starving anyway.

Perhaps that helps.

[firefly]

I know of this problem that Zoooo has and have seen MOUNTAINS of vomit they produce -- it looks (and I guess it is) undigested food as indeed they vomit right after the meal.

Even though I really have no idea why this is so, what comes to mind is the change in the weather. I never noticed really any change in the behaviour of my cat when the weather changes and I wonder if cats can be sensitive to that

There's also one other thing, both boys used to be feral -- would that have anything to do with it? Perhaps it could be some latent virus/bacteria, whatever that sits inside their stomachs.

[chrisleitz]

Firefly, re bacteria, it's possible but wouldn't they then loose weight?

My guess is, it's either greedyness or hypersensitivity. Only a vet can really tell.

T, what brand of dry/wet food are you feeding? You know that I don't think much of most of the supermarket available foods. Wet food normally only contains 4% meat (derivatives) and the rest is cereals and other rubbish. They could have developed an intolerance to wheat or any of the artificial stuff they put in.

Why don't you try out a more natural diet. Get some meat (not the best cuts of course) from your butcher. If you don't want to raw feed, cook it first, add some vegetables to it and feed that.
Can you get hold of James Wellbeloved ? It has no preservatives or anything artificial in it.

[sarahjamiesmartie]

I changed food brands recently, and even though I did it gradually, after feeding Smartie just the new stuff, she started throwing up. And carried on after every meal.

I realised that the only possible thing that could have been making her do this was the new food (may have been too rich for her), so I changed her back on to the brand she was on before and the chundering stopped immediately.

Luckily, with just the 2 cats, it's easy enough to manage. I'd hate to have to try to do it for more!

My two get complete dry food with only the very occasional pouch of wet, but I can see no reason why wet food shouldn't also cause vomiting if it's too rich. I'm sure it would be worth spending a couple of weeks feeding particular foods, keeping track of them, and keeping an eye on the reaction so you can see if there is one particular food that affects them.

I think there's quite a lot of sense in the "eating too fast" theory. I know it's going to be difficult to do, but can you feed them little and often for a few days to see if that helps at all?

And I also think, if you don't have any luck with the smaller meals thing and monitoring foods doesn't help, that it moght be worth getting some tests done at the vet to rule out parasites or similar - being former ferals they MAY have picked up something uncommon.

Really hope you manage to get to the bottom of it - I lnow how nasty it is keeping an eye out for piles of puke!!!

Sarah, Jamie, Smartie and Chester

[sarahjamiesmartie]

Oh, and ChrisLeitz - it was James Wellbeloved that started Smartie throwing up - I really like the idea of a no-preservative food, but she's back on Iams until I can find something better.

Sarah