why in the holy fuck do cats vomit all the damn time. We've just moved and the cat is in the process of straight up destroying the guest bedroom with cat vomit. Its fucking disgusting. Other than getting rid of the cat, how I do stop (or at the very least minimize) the puking?

5/25/2010 9:12:10 AM

Are they hairballs or vomit?

What are you feeding the cat?

Why haven't you gone to the vet?

5/25/2010 9:13:49 AM

We have three cats. They throw up once every...4-6 months, if that.

Have you considered that the food you're feeding it isn't agreeing with it?

5/25/2010 9:15:33 AM

Quote :

"We've just moved ..."

Stress.

Also, one of mine will puke if he doesn't get fed at his normal times. Try to keep things constant for them.

5/25/2010 9:17:25 AM

ive only seen Ragged's cat throw up if he ate some feathers, or soft food

5/25/2010 9:20:31 AM

Quote :

"Are they hairballs or vomit?"

its brownish stuff and is disgusting

Quote :

"What are you feeding the cat?"

purina hairball control

Quote :

"Why haven't you gone to the vet?"

*shrug* its the fiancée's cat and she seems to think that cat vomit is normal.

Quote :

"We have three cats. They throw up once every...4-6 months, if that."

cat has vomited twice since May 15th (when we moved) and was a regular vomiter in the other place we were living at too.

Quote :

"Have you considered that the food you're feeding it isn't agreeing with it?"

not really, now just trying to find a solution to the problem.

5/25/2010 9:21:01 AM

Quote :

"Stress. Also, one of mine will puke if he doesn't get fed at his normal times. Try to keep things constant for them."

he was a constant vomiter at the other place too. We have an automatic feeder that shoots food into the bowl like 2 or 3 times a day (not sure on that one).

5/25/2010 9:22:22 AM

Maybe the cat is eating too much. You could try restricting it to two small bowls of food per day. Is it an overweight cat?

5/25/2010 9:24:43 AM

try switching the problematic one to canned food.

5/25/2010 9:26:01 AM

I would try switching it to another kind of dry food first. I think they make some for sensitive stomach cats. It could be eating too fast. My parents' cats tend to scarf down their food then arf it back up a few minutes later. But that would be obvious.

5/25/2010 9:28:57 AM

Quote :

"Maybe the cat is eating too much. You could try restricting it to two small bowls of food per day. Is it an overweight cat?"

he's not overweight and he's a pretty healthy cat. Other than the vomiting he's a pretty good cat, and I am not a cat person normally.

5/25/2010 9:29:32 AM

I too have a cat that is a puking machine. We should have them do puking matches.

Seriously though, some cats just like to puke. I swear my cat does it just to piss me off. If she wasn't so cute in her Godzilla costume I probably would have punted her off the balcony by now.

One thing I have found does help is keeping that pet grass crap around. She seems to puke less when I put it out. Or maybe she hides the puke in the grass

5/25/2010 9:29:39 AM

the only reason the cat is still around is because its my fiancée's cat and she won't let me get rid of it.

I'm just trying to minimalize the collateral damage by limiting the amount of damned cat vomit in the place.

5/25/2010 9:31:47 AM

It can vomit for a variety of reasons. If its actually vomiting its food and bile up and not hairballs you should take it to a vet.

5/25/2010 9:41:30 AM

My cat only pukes once every few months or so but she has two primary types: One is food alone and one is really watery. If it is food alone it cleans up really easily... I just let it dry out over a few hours (it doesn't smell at all) and it clumps together and I can pick it up with a napkin really easy. The watery kind usually has tons of fur in it and that's the nasty one. She watery puked on my computer keyboard once and completely messed it up.

5/25/2010 9:45:25 AM

Another thing you can try that my grandmother swears by is switching the cat over to a raw diet. Cat food is filled with fillers and other shit the cat doesn't need to be eating which can cause problems in sensitive cats.

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/cats.html

5/25/2010 9:50:14 AM

I"ll post a pic of the vomit today when I go home for lunch.

5/25/2010 9:52:18 AM

If it's a cylinder or turd looking roll of half digested food then it is probably not hairballs. The vet has told my parents before (all three of their cats puke all the time) that they eat dry food until they are full and then it absorbs water/stomach fluid/whatever and expands, the end result being overeating leading to vomit. That's why if they eat a bunch real fast, they are usually puking a few minutes later (even though they get plenty of food in separate bowls they feel compelled to eat first/faster due to the other 2 cats).

Quote :

"We have an automatic feeder that shoots food into the bowl like 2 or 3 times a day (not sure on that one)."

Is it possible to adjust the amount of food that comes out each time? If so you may need to adjust it to smaller portions. The other option is to leave dry food out all the time. With our cat he has a bowl that we fill up once every couple days after it eats it all. I think this conditions them to eat slower. Since food is always available, they don't have to scarf it down every time they get fed (nor do they get hungry and wait and wait to be fed).

5/25/2010 10:12:24 AM

New food time. If you don't want to go with raw then pick a very low ingredient food like california natural or something grain free.

5/25/2010 10:13:07 AM

Cats are supposed to be able to limit their intake to what they need, but if they've ever been starved for a significant period of time (like many rescue cats have) they don't adapt to that very well and will often gorge themselves all the time. I tried free feeding my cat, but quickly learned it just wouldn't work for him because no matter how much is in the bowl he eats it all at once.

5/25/2010 10:17:01 AM

its just this pile smear of gross vomit stuff that's kinda brownish looking with liquid surrounding it. kinda like digested food I guess.

might do the food change.

5/25/2010 10:19:01 AM

cats suck

5/25/2010 10:25:15 AM

5/25/2010 10:38:33 AM

You're doing something wrong, or the cat is sick.. has worms, etc.
Cats don't just puke.

My cat is 5 years old, and has only puked 4 or 5 times... and most of those were when he had worms as a kitten.

[Edited on May 25, 2010 at 12:12 PM. Reason : ]

5/25/2010 12:11:47 PM

non-purina food might help

5/25/2010 12:20:59 PM

ok, so anyone have any anti-puking food recommendations?

5/25/2010 12:25:53 PM

and here are pics of the cat vomit (if they will help out in the conversation at all).

5/25/2010 12:36:22 PM

^
Is there blood in it? worms? What's it smell like?
(See a vet.)

5/25/2010 1:29:55 PM

no blood, no worms, smells gross.

paging TWW Vets

5/25/2010 1:38:06 PM

1. go to the vet, seriously. all of the "normal" cat vomit i've ever seen was yellow (bile) and comes with grass or barely digested food. brown is kind of worrisome.

2. pick a higher quality food. avoid corn. my cat eats blue buffalo

3. how old is the cat? what are its litterbox habits? is it constipated? does it eat grass/plants?

[Edited on May 25, 2010 at 2:47 PM. Reason : ]

5/25/2010 2:46:25 PM

Quote :

"1. go to the vet, seriously. all of the "normal" cat vomit i've ever seen was yellow (bile) and comes with grass or barely digested food. brown is kind of worrisome. "

ok.

Quote :

"2. pick a higher quality food. avoid corn. my cat eats blue buffalo"

avoid corn, got it.

Quote :

"3. how old is the cat? what are its litterbox habits? is it constipated? does it eat grass/plants? "

She told me the cat is about 11. It poops and pees regularly from what I can tell, no constipation and doesn't eat grass/plants (no access to either of those).

[Edited on May 25, 2010 at 3:09 PM. Reason : about, not like.]

5/25/2010 3:08:50 PM

Get the cat some grass to eat. The like it and it can help

5/25/2010 3:28:36 PM

ok thanks for the help peoples. Called a vet, and after speaking to him, gonna take the cat to the vet.

thx tww.

5/25/2010 3:45:46 PM

yeah, I would say put him on a sensitive stomach food. And a friend of mine used hairball catfood and it just made his cats puke more

Also, I would go for higher quality food... I hate buying anything that has corn or wheat in it, and try to get the highest % protein as possible in dry food.

Also, if your cat likes eating string, that could be the problem-- it can get wrapped around their intestine :/

5/25/2010 4:08:09 PM

not sure about the string stuff, haven't seen any strings.

I'll go get some better catfood.

5/25/2010 4:09:25 PM

pick a food that's specifically for mature/elderly/old cats also.

5/25/2010 4:13:07 PM

ok will do. I'm going tomorrow to the http://www.animall.org and getting some food there; dude on the phone (Dan) really seemed to know his cat food.

5/25/2010 4:19:56 PM

Good choice. The people there are really helpful, and they carry high quality food.

Also, if he's otherwise in good health I wouldn't worry about a special mature diet at 11 years old.

[Edited on May 25, 2010 at 4:23 PM. Reason : ]

5/25/2010 4:21:24 PM

Yeah let us know what the vet says. I'm curious!

5/25/2010 7:57:37 PM

the vet's current theory is that its the food we were feeding the cat. We're now trying some of that california natural food.

5/28/2010 10:33:39 AM

Quote :

"ok thanks for the help peoples. Called a vet, and after speaking to him, gonna take the cat to the vet. "

Quote :

"the vet's current theory is that its the food we were feeding the cat. We're now trying some of that california natural food."

I could have told you that would happen. "Bring your cat in and give us some money so that we can look at it for 2 minutes and give you the exact same common sense recommendation that 15 people on the internet have already told you."

I'm surprised they didn't run a bunch of useless tests so they could extract more money from you before giving you the practical advice though. Did they at least try?

[Edited on May 28, 2010 at 11:14 AM. Reason : l]

5/28/2010 11:14:00 AM

Can you blame them? Vets go to school for the same amount of time as Med school students (Many people will tell you that vet school is harder), come out $100k+ in debt, and make peanuts in comparison.

5/28/2010 3:37:31 PM