Vomiting cat

[Lah0808]

Wondering if the COTH cat people may have any ideas on this one. 12 year old, indoor, spayed female cat. Not on any meds/any issues. Is a bit of a finicky eater at times but not recently. She’s also a bit of a puker, she’ll sometimes throw up clear liquid/spit early AM if she doesn’t get fed quickly enough.

Sunday morning, wakes me up at 5:30 throwing up. Mainly bile and some just clear liquid. She proceeds to throw up 6-7 more times but seems completely fine during this, still drinking, wants breakfast, purring, happy and hanging out. Throws up for the last time at 8:30 and then is fine. I fed her slowly throughout Sunday and was fine all day Monday. This morning at 2:45, wakes me up throwing up. Throws up last night’s 11pm snack. Then proceeds to throw up about every 20-40 minutes until the vet opens at 7:30. Mostly clear liquid this time, no bile even. Rush her into the vet, they do blood work and xrays and an exam. Bloodwork is totally unremarkable, showing slightly dehydrated and that’s about it. Xrays show nothing distinguishable either. Nothing in her stomach, slight bunching in intestines but other than that, everything looks nornal. Vet wants to keep her for the day on fluids but I decline, $250 to hospitalize her for the day is not doable for me. She gets fluids and an anti nausea injectable and home we go. Get home and she’s totally fine. She has herself a bath, has some water, eats the small amount of food vet instructs to give her. She has been fine all day, eating and acting completely normal. I am nervous about what may happen overnight though. Vet says next step is ultrasound. But during the physical exam he said she doesn’t present as a cat with a a blockage, not uncomfortable at all, he can’t feel anything. She’s 12, she’s never in her life eaten a string or anything weird and I can’t even picture what she could have eaten.

Vet thinks it’s either some sort of foreign body or some sort of acute gastro issue. He doesn’t know why she’d have two episodes like that 48 hours apart though. Does anyone have any ideas of what else this could be? My gut says it isn’t an obstruction but what do I know, I’m not a vet.

[Simkie]

Wow, how scary. That does really sound like an obstruction with the amount of vomiting. Cats can also have pancreatitis with few outward symptoms. (I had one–we battled with on and off inappetence, treated assuming IBD, and discovered pancreatitis on necropsy. No IBD. Was a surprise! We’d ultrasounded her a few times, too…)

As long as she’s stable, though, it’s not terribly unreasonable to observe her at home instead of hospitalizing.

Hope it’s just a weird thing that disappears never to return!

[Lah0808]

Oh thanks Simkie for the idea of pancreatitis, I’ll look into that.

If this were my dog, yes, I’d definitely think well…she probably ate something! I just can’t imagine what the cat could have eaten and it also seems strange how downright perky and normal she is, other than the vomiting. If her blood work had been alarming or she was acting like she felt terrible, I would have left her at the vet for the day but I’m glad I said I’d rather bring her home. She has been completely fine and normal, that would have been an (even more) expensive day to leave her there.

[Joanne]

Just curious. What are you feeding her?

[Lah0808]

She is picky. She will not eat any canned food other than Friskies so she gets half a can of a pate and 1/4 cup of Iams Proactive senior dry every day.

I will say though that at her last dental in December she had 4 bad teeth pulled and she’s been a lot less picky since having that done. So she may be amenable to something else in light of that. Any suggestions of something else to try with her?

[appybeads]