cat question

[kathryn]

Hey everyone,

My cat Voodoo has started vomitting up food after he eats.  However after he vomits he goes back and eats some more and that food he keeps down.  He isn't losing weight and his stools and everything else look good.  I was thinking about changing the cats' food to Natural Balance ultra cat food.  Any ideas of what else could be the problem. 

Voodoo's background:
I found Doo and his brother in a pet store when they were less than 6 weeks old.  The pet store staff were trying to feed them dry adult cat food.  Doo had an infection in both eyes and was so weak that he couldn't even cry.  I took both kittens home and gave them both antibiotics and got them on kitten food.  We didn't think that Doo would make it through the night since he was so bad off hence his name Voodoo.  He is now close to 9yo and he just started the binging and purging.

Sorry this is long but thanks for the help.

Kat

[Nicole]

Our big huge enormous orange cat (not fat, just very large) Pierre does that. I asked the vet about it and he says that its totally normal and that it is related to hairballs. Melissa's idea about the veg. oil is good.

Don't worry, though. Its fine and normal cat behavior.

[kathryn]

He doesn't usually get a lot of hairballs.  I've been giving the fish oil hairball rememdy stuff but maybe it's time for another round of it. 

It's whole food that is coming up.  Which the dogs really like because they clean up the mess and they don't get in trouble for raiding the cat food bowl.   

Thanks for the ideas.  I'll see what happens.

Kat 

[Scootergirl]

yes, if there is one thing that I've learned about cats it's this: Cat's Puke. And, they tend to puke often. The vegetable oil is a good idea. Probaby has a hair tickler that won't go down or come up all the way. No need to worry, though unless he starts losing weight or becomes lethargic.

[Kiahpyr]

My cats used to do that all the time. I switched their food to Felidae. It's made by the same people who make canidae dog food. Now the cats rarely puke. Mineral oil works too!

[macybean]

When she's mad at us, it never fails that she finds us and proceeds to hurk up a nice juicy hair ball and then non-chalantly walks away flicking her tail.

I've heard that cats flip their tales as a kind of "just watch me" thing. LOL. One of my three boys, Bevo, used to throw up fairly often. We tried various types of food, and the one that works is Nutro Natural Choice Indoor in the green and white bag. I think it's chicken flavored. Anything fish flavored seemed to do it, as did some other random foods. He's not a hairball thrower except when he grooms foster kitties, which we haven't had any of in quite a while. Thomas, my longhaired tail-flicker, has occasional hairballs, but this food has seemed to help. He also sometimes gets a cat laxative/anti-hairball treatment (a bit of brown stuff that comes out of a toothpaste-looking tube). He doesn't like it. Go figure that the other cats do. He only eats dry food and some dry treats, though. This cat doesn't like canned food or even cooked meat.

[shangrila]

I would suggest you take him to the vet just to get checked. The reason I say this is that I had a cat named Frisky who started doing the same thing and for her it was she was sick and ultimately passed away because it wasn't caught in time.

[Mom2Sadie]

Both my cats have done this at different times. I'd say if it happens that often and it makes you nervous get him checked out by your vet. If it's nothing - great, if it's not - you catch it early. With my kitties, it ended up being hairball related and there are special foods that can help with that. One of my kitties is on prescription food now for struvite crystals, but the other one gets Natural Choice Indoor as well (like someone else suggested). It seems to work pretty well. But I would take him to get checked out just to be sure. It never hurts to be a little paranoid when it comes to this stuff.

[kristi]

My Cassidy used to do this. When it became frequent, she went in for tests, & we found out she had a GI problem. Her bowel wouldn't empty completely causing it to back up. Her stomach couldn't empty into the bowel making her vomit. After a little while she had a little "room" & she could eat some & keep it down. The vet said we caught it in time. We got her on some meds & Prescription Science Diet. She was able to be with us for about a year & a half more.

I agree with Mom2Sadie & shangrila, go in for a check up - just to be safe. I think it would be worth the office visit just to have that peace of mind. Keep us posted!