My cat has a mystery illness

[TJAnonymous]

I have a 9 yr old cat whom I rescued from an animal shelter when she was just 4 weeks old. She is my baby and sleeps by my side every night. She is a long haired cat and has ALWAYS suffered from hair balls. Yuck...but it's inevitable so I put up with it. However, over the past 4 days she has start puking multiple times an HOUR. This is NOT normal. I took her to the vet 2 days ago. They did blood work on her and probed her stomach. Everything was normal and healthy. They do not know why she is puking and my wallet is $250 lighter. They gave her a shot to stop her from puking for 24 hours. Almost on the nose, she began puking again the next day. In the past 15 minutes alone, she has puked 3 times. I really don't know what to do.... I don't want to stop her from puking if it is her body's way of getting a toxin out but I also am beyond my wit's end with cleaning up constant puking. I'm sure she doesn't enjoy it either....

The puke looks tan. Sometimes it has matter in it such as undigested food and hair) and sometimes it's just a tan liquid. I don't see anything in it that shouldn't be there. My cat also is NOT the type to eat things she shouldn't such as rubber bands or hair ties, not that I have anything like that lying around anyway. She WILL eat my plants but I'm not seeing any plant matter in her puke. Plus, I've had plants for years and her little nibbles on them have never caused this.... The only "new" plant I have is a flower bouquet that my husband sent me last week from a florist.

I have not switched her food in the past week. She's been on the same dry cat food (Blue Buffalo) for months. Her weight looks good at 9 1/2 lbs. She isn't losing weight. No discharge from eyes or nose. Breathing seems fine (not labored). Other than the non-stop puking, she seems completely normal.

At this point, I'm really tempted to shoot some oil down her throat or something although that would be traumatic for both of us and I'm not sure that would help anything to begin with....

I don't know what to do.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I would check if there have been any recalls on that food. Blue Buffalo had a recall on dog food around the time my dogs were eating it and I had to switch because they were vomiting.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I would check if there have been any recalls on that food. Blue Buffalo had a recall on dog food around the time my dogs were eating it and I had to switch because they were vomiting.

I don't think it's the food because we have 3 cats and the other 2 are not puking at all.

 

[Peaches Lee]

When you say "probed" her stomach do mean palpation, ultrasound, xray?

How are her BMs?

 

[TJAnonymous]

When you say "probed" her stomach mean palpation, ultrasound, xray?

How are her BMs?

Palpitations, no ultrasound or xray. The vet was hesitant to xray because soft tissue doesn't show up well.

She is still puking more than normal but it has slowed down a little.

Not sure on her BMs. We have 3 cats so I'd have to catch her using the litter box and I haven't been able to do that yet.


The timing has been simply awful. My FIL has been in the hospital with a heart attack. Our daughter had a school play, auditions for a professional play, and prom this weekend. I've simply had ZERO time to follow up on my kitty like I need to.

 

[LaFleche]

Whatever it is that makes her vomit, take precautions to not let her dehydrate. I hope she gets better soon.

 

[VWojo]

You can give the cat a half tablet of pepcid ac. It will cut the acid and settle her stomach.

 

[Peaches Lee]

Palpitations, no ultrasound or xray. The vet was hesitant to xray because soft tissue doesn't show up well.

She is still puking more than normal but it has slowed down a little.

Not sure on her BMs. We have 3 cats so I'd have to catch her using the litter box and I haven't been able to do that yet.


The timing has been simply awful. My FIL has been in the hospital with a heart attack. Our daughter had a school play, auditions for a professional play, and prom this weekend. I've simply had ZERO time to follow up on my kitty like I need to.

Did the Vet check under her tongue for string?

Was she painful on palpation?

Keeping a lookout for her BMs is very important, seeing if anything is moving that way--maybe she's constipated.

May want to try a urine sample, something crazy like an UTI can cause kitties to vomit.

If she's not better by Monday, I would want further diagnostics such as xrays--to rule out foreign body.

Sorry you're going through all of this at once--when it rains is certainly pours! Wishing your FIL a speedy recovery!

 

[TJAnonymous]

Did the Vet check under her tongue for string?

Was she painful on palpation?

Keeping a lookout for her BMs is very important, seeing if anything is moving that way--maybe she's constipated.

May want to try a urine sample, something crazy like an UTI can cause kitties to vomit.

If she's not better by Monday, I would want further diagnostics such as xrays--to rule out foreign body.

Sorry you're going through all of this at once--when it rains is certainly pours! Wishing your FIL a speedy recovery!

She wasn't pained by the palpitations. The vet did want to get a urine sample but her bladder was empty. She has had UTIs before. I looked over her vomit carefully to see if there was anything in it like plant matter or something else. I haven't checked her BM yet but I will if I can catch her in the litter box.

 

[Dinogrrl]

A cat vomiting that much is NOT normal. Definitely second getting x-rays and/or ultrasound. There's lots of things that can cause cats to vomit, but that level of vomiting is very concerning. Hopefully it was just a temporary thing but if not, it's better to get it taken care of sooner rather than let it progress.