February 07, 2006

• IANACO*, but: a relative's cat got into the habit of eating lizards from her garden; puke episodes ensued. It woud refrain from eating much a couple days after, though. Perhaps a change of diet? * I Am Not A Cat Owner
• I haven't kept cats in recent years, but we used to get a product from our vets (have also seen it in pet stores) that came in a tube, like toothpaste. It was brown and fish-flavored and you could squeeze out a couple of inches of it on a finger. Then you wiped this on the roof of the cat's mouth. Two of our cats would just eat it off our fingers, but one had to have her jaws opened and the stuff put inside. Was effective in reducing the hairball problem as I recall -- sorry I don't now remember its name. Frequent vomiting with a small critter like a cat can lead to dehydration, so keep a watch out for that complication. Good luck with your pet, kitfisto..
• I'm keeping an eye out for the old 'spikey fur', which is a sign of dehydration, but like I say, she seems normal, apart from the daily honks. She eats a mix of tinned food and biscuits, with the ocassional slice of sammich ham for a treat. Haven't noticed any one thing makin her blow more than others. Maybe I'll switch brands...
• I was going to say much the same thing as beeswacky. We have a tube of Hairball LickStick (link) which seems to do the trick. You can also buy hairball formula catfood (dry) made by Nutro, which seems to help our guys as well. We give them an alternating mix of that and regular dry cat food. Ask your vet (duh!) but I would have thought that food induced vomiting would have had some food in the vomit. (One of our guys is a food hoover, and used to throw up unchewed, barely digested, cat food. So we switched to dry cat food which was a bit spikier in shape, forcing the little glutton to at least crunch a little. Problem, mostly, solved.) The other thing is to brush your cat down every day. This is about the time of year when a cat starts to change coats in preparation for the new season so there will be a lot more loose fur than usual. That might be what yours is getting. Have you cleaned house, as in with household cleaners, lately? We washed our carpets a month ago, and one of ours apparently found the taste of cleaner irresistible. He would lick the carpets. That made his stomach a bit wonky as well.
• Might see if she'd eat a bit of butter -- the idea being to lubricate her innards so hair passes on through, rather than being spat up. Or give her the oil drained off a can of sardines packed in oil.
• Cleaned our house! Ho ho, that's a good un! You have obviously never been to kitfisto towers! But seriously, she likes to roll on the kitchen floor when it's been bleached, but I'm ashamed to say that's not been done since this started. I might try her with the butter tho, she likes that...
• throwing up can be a sign of another problem. is she peeing and pooing okay? constipation is a possibility. my (tom) cat had a problem with struvites (bladder stones) that resulted in him being sick a lot. he'd try to pee, but it was so uncomfortable that it'd make him sick. the struvite problem is more common in male cats; my cat's been much better since we put him on special food to control the build up. good luck lefty-nant and saffi!
• Until you get the fish goop, you can use petroleum jelly.
• Oh, poor Saffi. If there's any way you can get her to the vet sooner, please do. Chronic vomiting (or "chromiting", as I call it) is a bad sign. Our vet prescribed liquid Zantac (which is an antacid for humans, but also reduces nausea) and Felaxin, a hairball remedy/laxative to help with constipation. Do try to make sure she gets enough water, and try to give her mostly moist food. And get her to the vet asap. I'll have Lily do a voodoo chant for her, but she's been under the weather again herself. In fact, I've got to give her her Zantac in a few minutes. Good luck, chuck, and get her to the vet!
• Some cats are just pukers. The two cats we have now are both regular barfers. Nothing is wrong with them, they always get a perfect bill of health from the vet (in fact, the worst of the two is the one our vet calls "the perfect cat"). It can be a behavior thing; my own theory is that our cats (both toms) are puking in lieu of pissing for territory. It can also be a retribution thing -- I *know* that one of our cats pukes whenever he is annoyed with us about something.
• I have a chronic puker. She's a binger-eats as much as she can then pukes up these perfect little tubes of slimy cat food. She has done this as a free-feeder and as a cat that is fed on a timetable with other cats. It's just a thing. That said, always look at the outcast food for worms: rice-like things or long thin strings. De-worming must be done right away.
• *moves 'get a cat' down the list a bit*
• Is she old? My 16 year old cat just pukes. No particular pattern anymore. She's been on all manner of drugs: steroids, antacids, other things I don't even remember. She's had scans and scopes, and nobody can find anything wrong. About one in three meals she just hurls. But this is sudden and new for you, so you're right to get your kitty checked out. One question is, has anything changed dramatically for her recently? Cats often will start a pattern like that if they're upset. For some cats, just moving the food dish can do it. Mine will eat faster and throw up more if she feels another kitty is threatening her, and it turns out her vomiting started when she went deaf and couldn't hear the other critters sneaking up on her. Making it so she could eat facing out to the rest of the room helped some. Just some thoughts, and let us know how she is.
• Totall missed where you said she was 4/5. *Hits self with a scratching post*
• My vet told me that hairballs sometimes move into the intestine and block it. Since the food can't go down, it comes up. Hairball remedy is usually a laxative that helps get things moving again. Generally the problem fixes itself in a few days even without it.
• I have a cat that pukes two or three times a week. I have no advice here, but I will tell you that the puke looks like perfect little turds and that I am relieved to discover that it is just puke each time.
• Oh -- new band name: Perfect Little Turds
• Ad me to the list of pukey cat owners - I suppose there's strength in numbers. My kitty seems to hurl if I let his food get really low, so I try to keep a good amount in his bowl and he does better. Hairball control food helps too.
• Thanks for these. Having always had moggies, I can deal with puke at any time of the day or night now without batting an eye, so it's good to know others' barf too. It's the change to quite regular barfing that's worried me. I'm pretty sure (looking at said barf), that it's hairball related, so she's being fed butter as soon as I get in...
• The product beeswacky is referring to is called Kitty Malt, and it's really effective. One of our cats would happily eat it right from the tube, but for the other, we'd smear it on both her front paws so she'd be forced to lick it off.
• Has anyone else noticed that the gurgling of a humidifier sounds just like a cat about to throw up? /jumpy
• *barf!* Whoops, sorry. heh heh heh
• My kitty tends to yell really loudly just before puking. We call it the ole shout n' puke. That'll getcha outta bed.
• Tsk! *gets loo roll to clean up barf*
• man, at least when parrots barf for you it's a sign of affection!
• My dog has started barfing somewhat regularly lately. I was going to put up my own CG question about it, but should I just ask here? I don't wanna steal kitfisto's thunder, but I also don't want it to become pet vomit day. My dog is a Chihuahua/pug mix, and I think he's about 3-4 years old (he's a shelter dog, so I'm none too sure). He's on lamb and rice food because corn based food makes him flatulent. (Nothing worse than a little farty dog.) He's always been burpy and hiccupy, but lately he's been booting 3-5 times a week. He's eating good and he's not dehydrated, but I still worry.
• AOWOWhh!! AAOWOWhh!! huk! huk! huk! huk! HUKK! *splat*
• Yeah my Jack Russell Terrierist has a sensitive stomach. Those corn-based foods aren't so good because animals don't normally eat corn like we do (hence the antibiotics in factory farm meat, for those who wanted to know), so try for the all-meat diet (or chicken-and-rice maybe) and see if that helps. I've tried the "Sensitive stomach" formula Purina One (mmmm Salmon flavor) and that went over pretty well too.
• Maybe the cat needs a ciggie.
• I'm a-gonna make my millions marketing cat fud in a variety of upholstery- and carpet-friendly shades. *realizes that cat gagging wasn't quite such a calamity in the days when gold-coloured carpet was the dernier cri*
• I've got a barfer of the glutton variety as well: food goes in bowl, bowl goes in tummy, tummy gets huked all over the carpet. Koko, your imitation made me laugh so hard I cried a little.
• fish tick, I predict your invention will make you billions! my cat was also a lifestyle barfer and I had a very pale carpet, perfect for absorbing the stains of artificial fud dye. that said, organic microbial drain cleaner will get the stain out pretty well. good luck with the puss kit!
• Delurking to throw in my two cents on cat barf. One possibility that hasn't been raised is Inflammatory Bowel Disease. My older cat has been on prednisone for ten years for IBD. The only way to definitively diagnose IBD is by stomach biopsy, but a vet can make a differential diagnosis by ruling most other possibilities out. After having him scoped in both directions, I drew the line at the biopsy. The prednisone has reduced his barfing from once after every meal to once a week. Anecdotally, I recently switched my boys from supermarket canned crap to the expensive organic canned crap from the pet store and they both barf a lot less. I just don't think their little stomachs are meant to digest corn and grains and all the other non-meat stuff they put in most commercial cat foods.
• KoKo - my Maine Coon yells "budn-budn-budn-budn" several times in a booming bass voice (his meows are closer to alto) and at increasing volume before before hukking and splatting. First time I heard him do that, I thought he had been possessed. The Manx surfer dude is of the "wolf it down and toss it up" persuasion, but the space-alien-in-a-cat-suit hasn't demonstrated her technique yet.
• petebest: I have him on the lamb and rice Purina One, but I will see if a switch to the salmon flavor does any better. Thanks! (I did have him on the Iams, but they're sort of evil and it made him constipated.)
• We had an IBD kitty, but his problems came out the other end.
• My vet says that Science Diet is the best.
• Monkeyfilter: My Cat Keeps Puking amazed no one else thought of that...
• No puke in the last 24 hours!!! (She turned her pretty little nose up at the butter though...)
• Hooray! But what kind of cat won't eat butter?? Is she watching her figure?
• To be honest, it was margerine. Perhaps she has standards higher than my own...
• Oh kit. *tsk* *tsk* *tsk* Margarine even! *sigh* Don't they teach you anything over there in those frog schools of yours, or whatever? Just ask Koko - hell, her country's flag is made of butter!
• She has butter on her cheese on toast! She told me so. If that's not going butter-crazy, I don't know what is...
• I'm snacking on a stick of butter right now.
• Never known a cat to steal margarine, but they will steal butter if ye leave it where they can reach it.
• See kit? See? C'mon now, make with the sweet cream magic!
• Or Vaseline - my kitties love it!
• nice one, Weezel, but I'll top you on it. MonkeyFilter: Make with the sweet cream magic!
• ahh, a challange. let's see... MonkeyFilter: Perhaps she has standards higher than my own...
• MonkeyFilter: Perfect Little Turds drops gauntlet
• 48 Hours without puke! Perhaps she was just taunting me...
• Monkeyfilter: 48 Hours Without Puke! *sticks out tongue at the other two*
• trips over gauntlet, mashes nose
• when kitty's feeling in the pink she'll run to greet me when I call but there are things from which I shrink -- in every room I find a hairball
• MonkeyFilter: Hairballs! top that, hairballs!
• Monkeyfilter: Wolf It Down and Toss It Up
• Monkeyfilter:Constipation is a Possibility
• MonkeyFilter: Just pukey.
• Monkeyfilter: Top That, Hairballs!
• How is Saffi doing today? Incidentally, Lil' Snoots is on day three of no puking!
• No puke for 72 hours! She just bought her way out of a trip to the vets, which is good cos she hates it and always does a whoopsie in the carrying box on the way, which then rolls out onto the examining table as we get her out. She shames me sometimes. I will keep her under observation, but I think it was just hairball time. Way to go lil' snoots!
• Yay, Saffi! For getting better, and for telling you exactly what she thinks of the vet!
• Ah, sweet, lovely absence of vomit...
• when I put on my Highland bonnet I pray for the absence of vile things upon it
• A cat in a box A splat on my socks She, she meows Me, me I howls
• I can top that. Mine always does a whoopsie in the carrier, then rolls himself around in it, so that I have to hose him off in the exam room sink when I get there. He's sensitive. He can't help it.
• He knows exactly what he's doing.
• If you tried to take me to the vet, that's exactly what I'd do too.
• dammit Pete, not again! **gets out hose, rubber gloves, and flea shampoo** **pokes Pete with ten foot Pole to get him into the sink** GAR'ON, GID'IN THAR! **Pole withdraws in disgust**
• little to the left there GramMa . . . :D
• *exits, kicks door shut* *peels off flippers, mask, and rubber gloves* *tosses soggy towel into corner* Pete was pretty good about his scrubdown until I went to rinse him. He kept screaming and fighting, so I had to stand on the lid and flush six times to get all the soap out. *shakes head in disgust*
• *curls up on towel* *dreams about giant cake* *farts a bit*
• *rolls a rubber ball across the quiet floor and then runs*
• I had a cat fart on me once, jumping off my lap. She left behind this huge patch of scattered shit stains, which took me more than an hour to clean off my blouse. Fortunately it didn't smell so bad. Hope that all the pukey cats are feeling (and behaving) better!
• My computer farted a bit. Then dumped core. My computer is a lot like a cat.
• once when we were sitting around very aenebriated, my dog walked into the room, farted, then ran away from "it" very scared. We laughed for about six years.