Cat question

[veronica_rich]

(This is for the cat people, any vets, experts out there. If you can answer my questions, you may be helping others besides just me. At any rate, I'd like to know if anyone's having similar problems.)

I have a cat who's been throwing up every day for the past two weeks - he doesn't just throw up, he strings the food and hairball along half the length of the room (cleaning it up is a major pain, but I'm worried about him). It didn't occur to me until this morning that it could be a change in his food - I've fed him Purina One Advanced Nutrition Hairball Control for three years with no problems, and the latest bag or two I've purchased was different packaging. So, I called the company today and it turns out they did take the yogurt out of the formula, and I was told it shouldn't make a difference in how he processes the food. WELL, YEAH, OBVIOUSLY IT HAS.

Anyway, I need to try to find something else for him to eat. It's dry food; I may need to go to some wet food too (he's 11 years old). He doesn't seem in pain or dehydrated or otherwise unhealthy, but this can't be good for his trachea or stomach, can it? I tried to give him a little plain yogurt, but he didn't like it. Have you had this problem? Is there a food that would help? (My budget is limited, but within reason, I can try something new.)

Comments

[lizzie-omalley.livejournal.com]

If your cat has been getting the same food everyday for a long time a change in formula could be a problem. I change my food up regularly when I can. The jury is split on this. Some people tell me this is a good thing, some people tell me I should keep it the same all the time to avoid upsets. By people I mean vets and other cat specialists. I choose to fall into the change camp to avoid creating a finicky cat (I have one anyway in spite of that) to avoid food sensitivities, and because I feel that it is more natural for the cat to get a little change up since they would somewhat if they were hunting.

I don't feed purina of any price, or friskies et al because they are low end cat foods and the quality of the protiens are, to me, suspect. There are a lot of books out there that will describe where most of the protiens for most pet foods comes from and it isn't pretty.

I use high quality foods with human grade protiens (pet foods are often made of protiens that are from dead, diseased, dying or deformed animals, those that are considered unfit for humans) so that I get healthier protiens to the cat who is an obligate carnivore. Brands like Wellness, Newman's Own, and Natural Balance are all brands I (and the picky cat) like. Wellness is now available at petco.

It is possible that they switched something else up in the food that isn't going to show on the ingredients change that the help desk sees. My cat seems to react to foods with liver in them so I have had to avoid all the "and liver" formulas in the wet catfood. The dry doesn't seem to affect her all that much.

It could be stress, but it seems to be a little slow in coming on since the vomiting is recent and you added the second cat a few months ago. Adding foods like plain yogurt to the diet of a cat that has had the same thing forever is not that easy, most animals won't take to the addition. There are probiotic supplements that you can get from the vet that are designed specifically for cats with digetive problems. You could look into one of those if you wanted.

I would still have the vet check him out because he is an outside cat and there is no telling what he's gotten into that could be the problem.

Many years ago I had a seemingly healthy, alert cat that started throwing up every morning after breakfast. I tried all sorts of things, including change of diet, that didn't work. One vet even told me that the cat had feline leukemia and that he would be dead in a month or two. It took more than a year for me to find a vet that was able to go for the simple solution of impacted hairball. We treated for that, the cat threw up one helacious hairball within a few days and was never sick again.

Goodluck with it.