My Cat Vomits All the Time!

Updated on March 23, 2013
S.A. asks from Chicago, IL
17 answers

My cat has a very weak stomach. She vomits all the time, at least every other day. Sometimes every day. We no longer give her wet food because it was a guaranteed upchuck almost immediately afterwards. There is only one kind of dry food that she can eat without vomiting immediately, but she doesn't like it. It sits in the dish and she follows me around and meowing incessantly, and I know she wants wet food.

We've taken her the vet, and the vet says she's healthy and some cats just throw up a lot.

She just now vomited on the top of my toy cabinet. For some reason, she gets up there when she doesn't feel well. Normally she will come down and vomit on the floor, but today she decided to stay up there and do it. I am SO repulsed. It was a ton, and I don't even want to deal with it. I'm going to have to stand on a step ladder in order to take everything off and clean it. She was sitting on a flat box containing my daughter's bead set and I suspect that's where most of it is. I think I may wait until it dries up, and then throw the whole bead set away. If I try to wipe it off of there, I will vomit.

Ahhhhhhhh! What can I do to get this cat to stop vomiting so much?

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C.W.

answers from Santa Barbara on

Take kitty to the vet again and be persistent about finding the cause.

I was a vet tech and my honey is a veterinarian. Some possible conditions causing the vomiting are: foreign body, gastritis, thyroid problems, ulcers, pancreatitis, inner ear issues, heart worm and cancer.

Good luck

2 moms found this helpful

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S.B.

answers from Kansas City on

From a veterinarian:
Its considered 'normal' for a cat to vomit some, by that I mean 1-2 times per month. Your cat is not normal. The difficulty is that there are a great many possible causes for vomiting. I don't know what your veterinarian has done so far, but tests that can be done include: bloodwork (this will catch kidney, liver disease, hyperthyroidism), X-rays to make sure there is nothing the cat ate that is stuck in GI tract, also is a cancer screen. Food trials, this is trying out some different foods in case your pet has an allergy to an ingredient. Broad spectrum deworming is important, as there are a few parasites that cause chronic vomiting and few other issues. And finally, there is an "allergic" disease called IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), which can only be diagnosed by intestinal biopsy (thru surgery or endoscopy). Because this is a bit invasive, some vets are comfortable doing trials of the treatment for IBD, meaning certain foods and medications such as metronidazole. But its ideal to get the biopsy and know for sure.
Good luck!!

3 moms found this helpful
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L.L.

answers from Topeka on

Get rid of the cat problem solved

2 moms found this helpful

A.W.

answers from Kalamazoo on

Does she have long fur? She might need to be on fur ball medicine......

2 moms found this helpful

P.W.

answers from Dallas on

I like the suggestions you got about fur balls and smaller portions of food. I would further suggest putting some plastic down on top of the toy chest if that is a favorite place to go when she doesn't feel good. Cut a garbage bag and lay it down up there. If she barfs again just gather it up and throw it away, replace with a fresh bag.

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H.W.

answers from Portland on

Did you have blood panels done? I'd do that if that hasn't happened.

Our cat was getting sick due to his chronic kidney disease and consequent dehydration. We tried a medication which completely whacked him out and then got a second opinion. The second vet told us to try giving him some Pepcid A/C (10 mg tablet, cut into quarters and then one quarter ground up with a mortar and pestle and served in his food once every 2-3 days or so). This helped immensely.

1 mom found this helpful
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D.K.

answers from Columbus on

Has she had bloodwork including thyoid done? Small meals may help, hairball meds if she has hairballs. Aome if the sensitive food for GI upset could be a good choice or even a prescription bland diet might be worth a try. If you change food do so gradually over a week or two. Sometimes it can take several changes before finding a food that they like aand works. If the current food is the best she will eat when hungry, but make sure she is eating or you could have a whole list of new problems. Is her weight affected? Of course it us always a good idea to ask your vet for more tests, xrays, etc to get to the root cause of the problem.

1 mom found this helpful

J.W.

answers from St. Louis on

Have you tried putting out less food more often?

1 mom found this helpful
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S.T.

answers from New York on

Our two cats were p uking al the time and I noticed a few things - 1) they'd eat grass when they were hungry and the grass with cat food on tope made them puke - so I made sure to feed them before letting them out. 2) one of the cats was so hungry that she'd gorge on cat food then puke it all out. 3) I read an article that said dry food is not all good for cats and may be bad for them.

We stopped the dry food and only give them canned food, we now feed them three smalled meals a day of canned food only and if they look like they're trying to wolf down the food we pick up the dish from the floor and and take if way from them. The kitty puking has reduced DRAMATICALLY. Now maybe once in a two week period - down from 5 times a week. BIG difference.

Good luck mama. We love our kitties and would never consider getting rid of them.

1 mom found this helpful

K.A.

answers from San Diego on

Try a limited ingredient dry cat food. My picky and allergic guys eat Blue Buffalo Turkey and potato. It contains no chicken and no corn which are common allergens and also very common ingredients in most cat food.
Make sure you aren't feeding any cow's milk or tuna, even though this is what people think to feed cats, it's actually very bad for them.
Do you have any plants in the house at all? If you do, it may be possible the cat is eating them and causing the vomiting.
Throwing up that much is not normal, no matter what the vet says.
Even when our long haired Maine Coon sheds her winter coat and gets a lot of hairballs even with constant brushing she doesn't throw up that much.
What testing have they done? As Salsa jen B. mentioned, there is a good list of things that are easy to test for. One note I wanted to say about testing for IBD, we were told that even if we chose to do the biopsy they may not actually get the mass because the bowels are constantly moving and they could biopsy a healthy spot. We had ultrasounds done on one cat's bowels and they found a mass but could not even tell if they found a second or if it was the first that just moved, it is that hard. He actually advised us not to spend the money(it's expensive!) on the biopsy and to just try treating our cat as if he had it to see if he responded at that point.
I would go to another vet and get another opinion.

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A.C.

answers from Columbus on

I would take the cat to another vet, because if your vet is saying that vomiting every day or every day is normal, it is not. A couple times per month might be okay, but 15 to 30 times per month is not normal.

C.V.

answers from Columbia on

We changed our kibble to Royal Canin. They have one specifically for sensitive systems that is harder to yak up.

Now he only yaks occasionally. Maybe once a month.

Good luck!

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M.P.

answers from Portland on

Our cat has difficulty with fur balls that causes her to vomit. Is there a chunk of something in the vomit? That's a fur ball. What we do is give her fur ball medicine. It comes in a small tube and I squeeze an inch or so out onto the back of my thumb and she licks it off.

We feed her specialized dry food that we found at an independent pet store. The employees seem well trained and experienced. It has a higher concentration of certain nutrients that are more natural for the cat. The brand is Orijen, is 80% animal ingredients, 20% fruits, vegetables and botanics and 0% grain. She has vomited less since starting on this regime.

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N.H.

answers from Peoria on

One thing to check...when you were feeding the wet food...did you feed the cat different flavors each time?? Cats' stomachs tend to be sensitive to different foods if you don't mix them right. This is what I do & perhaps it will help...number one...try a different brand or if she likes the brand...don't mix the flavors all at once...This is what I do for mine & you can follow along how you like: I buy enough for a week, 2 per day plus some dry for her to nibble on if needed. This should work w/any brand but for me, I buy Fancy Feast...I get a variety of flavors but enough of each flavor that I'm not giving her a different one each time and I feed it to her like this (2 cans a day & switch every 2-3 days). I also stack the cans in this order too so I'll know what I gave her before & what comes next..i.e. 4 tuna, 4 tuna/chicken, 4 chicken, 4 chicken/beef, 4 beef, 4 beef/chicken, 4 chicken, 4 tuna or some other flavor of fish like whitefish or tuna/shrimp & occasionally for a change...trout, turkey, chopped grill or something else she may eat. I normally reserve the chopped grill if I give a drastic change like from tuna to beef, I'll feed the 'grill' between the two (tuna one day then grill the next day, then beef the next day) IMO, doing this eases the cat into different flavors w/o overwhelming her tummy & so far, it's worked for the past 14 years. Also, sometimes I mix it up w/gravy or no gravy like for Fancy Feast, they have 'classic' which looks like the normal canned dogfood texture, grilled w/gravy, sliced, etc. My cat doesn't have any teeth so she doesn't get sliced unless it's by mistake. There's also some brands that offer 'heavy gravy' or 'marinated'. I tried the marinated once & it made mine sick so I didn't get it anymore. Sometimes cats can't tolerate this special gravies so that's something to consider also. My cat LOVES cheese so I get the FF w/the cheese most of the time if they have it avail.

My point is...cats generally cannot eat just any flavor every time they eat...they have to have it gradually changed up. Same w/dry. If you switch brands or types of dry, you should mix it w/what they were eating already so you can ease them into the new...Try the way I suggested & see if it helps. Also, for dry, try an indoor hairball formula too. Also, someone mentioned grass..cats (and dogs) will sometimes eat grass to settle their stomach or to gain some nutrients they may feel they need. Cats can also vomit if they eat too much. They normally should only eat 2 times daily. I leave a little dry (not a whole bowl, just maybe a small tiny handfull or small quarter scoop just so they'll have kibble to nibble. Also, if you get the 'larger' cans as opposed to the 'smaller' cans, try feeding just half the can at a time, she may just be getting too much food...Hope this helps, good luck!!

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A.V.

answers from Washington DC on

I would ask the vet for another look or take her to another vet for an opinion. She may need to be on a special diet, fed more slowly (we used to keep a shot glass in our one cat's dish to slow him down), or on medication like pepcid. When one of our cats vomited a lot, he was later found to have pancreatitis, something that we did not get diagnosed until he was very very sick. Also, treat her for hairballs. Our medium haired cat had a temporary blockage that we think now might've been a hairball. But for a bit he was either not eating or vomiting his meals. This is also the same cat who cannot have any sort of fish flavor in his food. No tuna or whitefish or salmon for him unless we want yurk city.

E.N.

answers from Knoxville on

Well, if there is no fur turd as we always called it (because it looks more like that than a 'ball'), and it looks like the food came back up looking like they didn't chew it, it probably IS eating too fast. One of my cats does that occasionally.
We had another cat though that would throw up nearly every day. I love yogurt and would always let her lick the container clean after I was finished. I usually left a bit extra because she liked it. It had the added benifit of stoping the vomit! The cat who pukes rarely wont eat yogurt, but Tink loved it and apparently needed it! (She passed away when we had to move in with MIL. She wasnt allowed inside and the neighbors cattle dogs killed her)

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K.P.

answers from Seattle on

My cats used to do this all the time. It was and still is disgusting when they do it.

We have changed their food a lot, to try and find what works best for them. And we are consistent with that cat food because changing it makes them sick.

We also started limiting their food, and watching to see when they need more. This has helped a LOT!

And at night time we put away their food away so they cant get it, and just eat all night just to find throw up the next morning. This has helped a bunch too.

Good luck, only other thing is to give the cat some fur ball medicine for it and see if that helps too.

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