Vomiting in Cats | All possible reasons

Should it concern you if your cat is throwing up? A lot of cats throw up a lot and sometimes people don’t think it’s any big a issue. But if your cat is throwing up more than once or twice a month, you should definitely consider consulting a veterinarian.

Beautiful cat

 

What you should know:

Excessive vomiting can be an indication of a dangerous uninvited guest. Thus rather than perceiving it a behavioral change it’s better to seek consultation of vet.
Here are some of the basic reasons of why cats vomit so that you can monitor and you should not scold your cat for this act because it isn’t because he or she is angry or sad.

Here are some of the common reasons you should consider so that you could check them off your list before consulting with a veterinarian.

1. Diet:

If your cat is eating a poor quality rendered diet with leftover pieces from slaughterhouses i.e. bird feathers, beaks, eyes, skin, it may result to vomiting. Although that is considered protein, but those particular types of protein can be difficult for both digestion and assimilation and can consequently result in vomiting. What you should do is to provide your cat occasionally with raw or homemade protein food or good quality canned food to prevent dehydration.

2. Allergy:

Cats that look healthy and don’t act sick and still throw up often, may have a food allergy. This usually happens when we feed our cats the same food over and over again. Now you might think what if my cat is hooked onto certain type of cat food and won’t eat anything else?
What you should do is to create some nutritional variety by switching between dry food canned food and raw food.

3. Treats:

Feeding trashy treats can be another reason for vomiting in cats even when the basic cat food is good quality.
What you should do is to carefully go through the description written on the back side of the treat pack ,if it contains chemical dyes, emulsifiers or surfactants, don’t feed it to your cat because that can be the root cause of gastrointestinal inflammation and may result in vomiting.

4. Milk:

There is a common myth that cats need milk in their diet. All mammals drink milk but it is important to consider that it is from the same species, and that is the problem with cats. Cats don’t have appropriate enzymes to break down the milk sugar present in cow’s milk and that can lead to vomiting.

What you should do to avoid the potential dietary aspects of vomiting, switch your cat to human grade canned food or raw food if you observe they are allergic to milk.

5. Gobbling:

Cats are quadrupeds which means they have a horizontal esophagus. When cats eat a large amount of food quickly it may slap against their lower esophagus and lead to regurgitation of whole food several minutes after eating. It happens usually due to competition, when there is more than one cat in the house and when you give them portions of the same food.

What you should do is to split the feeding place of cats so that they consume their food in a slower fashion and eat in peace. If you have a single cat that is still a gobbler, you may need to spread meals out. Give tiny portions of food with smaller intervals.

6. Food timing:

When you have fixed timing for your cat’s meals, your cat starts anticipating food and produces HCL, bile and gastric juices. If you get delayed feeding your cat at that time, there is a good chance that he/she will throw up white foam or yellowish liquid. When no food enters the stomach, the acid produced will irritate the stomach lining and cat will throw up to avoid additional irritation.

What you should do is at least give your cat some treat to avoid irritation due to acid.

7. Hairballs:

This is one of the most common causes of vomiting in cats. Hairballs are cylindrical plug like substances that are usually accompanied by clear fluid and vomit with a hairball looks similar to cat stool. They are ingested during grooming and are most common in cats that have high maintenance hair.

What you should do is brushing their hair regularly or even shaving it down can help.

Other more serious causes could be poisoning, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic GI inflammation, metabolic issues such as hyperthyroidism, kidney or liver damage.

Cats throwing up is not normal, so if your cat is vomiting it’s important that you talk to your veterinarian to rule out the serious issues.