Hi,
I have three 4-year-old cats. We have always fed them good quality food with no by-products, corn, or wheat ingredients. Even on this high quality food, they still throw up. It’s not just hairballs they are throwing up it is actual chunks of partially digested food. We recently tried giving them food with no chicken in it whatsoever. They stopped throwing up with this new food, but they are not eating enough; they don’t seem to like it at all. What would you suggest I do? Has anyone had this problem?
#1 by moondoggy on July 17th, 2011
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Purina One makes a brand of dry cat food that is specially formulated for sensitive stomachs. Our cat had the same problem, but he was fine once we started him on the “sensitive systems” brand from Purina. You can get it at Wal-Mart.
#2 by naps with cats on July 17th, 2011
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It would be very odd, but they all may be allergic to the foods they are being fed, or they may all have blockages – both of wouldn’t make much sense.
I would get them all checked for Hyperthyroid on top of a regular CBC.
The treatment for Hyperthyroid is the Methimazole which can be inserted into a “Greenies ‘Pill Pocket’” (My cat with Hyperthyroid prefers the chicken flavored and not the salmon). You can even split the Pill Pocket (like I do with my girl), put the pill inside, surround it with the pill pocket and they will think it’s a treat!
If not, if they do not like it, you will need to pill them the old fashioned way, like I do with my Seizure girl.
Please feel free to write me once you have a diagnosis!
)
Throwing up often causes severe dehydration – do the pinch test, gently pick up the skin on the BACK (not neck) of each of your cats, then drop – if it takes more than 1.5 seconds to drop back down, your cats are dehydrated and need supplemental Sub-Q (subcutaneous “under-the-skin”) fluids. If the skins just stands up, they need to go to emergency now.
I’m just throwing all this out there to give different avenues . . . bu the Vet is a definite, getting the bloodwork and, my gut tells me by my own hyperthyroid cat, that there may be some hyperthyroid going on. (Cheapest place to get it is at Costco, ask your Vet for a ‘script if this happens to be the diagnosis).
p.s. Purina one, when I was at my poorest, I mixed in with the higher brand, Innova to make it last longer – 1/2 of my cats threw up and I added the Purina One very slowly, over the period of a month. That was it, I’m keeping them on the high quality food with no grain at all. They’ve now been switched to “Taste of the Wild” which has not one grain and is made with purified water and a lot of meat as the first ingredients.
They all love it! No throw-up issues at all!
#3 by concreteslab3 on July 17th, 2011
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How do you know it’s the chicken they don’t like?
I don’t know if this will help, but one of my 3 cats recently had the same problem, so we started feeding him some of the Fancy Feast cat food. It still has corn and wheat ingredients, and he’s still throwing up, but it’s not nearly as much as before.
You could also try feeding them some wet food (fancy feast). My cats never throw up after eating that. Since your cats are used to eating dry food, get them the kind that has “meaty chunks”, or “strips”, or “small meaty bits”. This will make the transition easier.
#4 by mamma26 on July 17th, 2011
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I have 2 cats and one of them does this too. Mainly when she has eaten her food too quickly an hasnt chewed it properly. Sounds disgusting I know but I can tell this from her vomit. It doesnt seem to do her any harm though. and I find if I feed her away from my other cat she doesnt rush so much. so maybe you could try feeding your cats smaller quantities in sperate rooms. hope this helps