I stopped giving my cat dry food for 4 days and after 4 days she started vomiting with dry food

Question

I adopted a cat a little over a month ago. She is one year old. At first, I bought a small bag of Purina Indoor dry cat food to make sure she liked it before buying a big bag. I also bought some Friskies cans of wet food. During the first month, she seemed to like the dry food and did not have any problems with it. When I ran out of the small bag, I gave her only wet food for about 4 days before I could go get a big bag of dry food since she seemed to like it. The cat has been vomiting since eating from the new bag. For the moment I just switched back to wet food while I figure this out. I read that cats have to get used to eating dry food if they spend time without it. Is 4 days enough to make a cat not being used to dry food? What could it be?

At first, she started leaving coin-sized puddles. I could not identify if they were vomit or from coughing up fur balls since the puddles were so small. I could also notice she was spending more time in the hunched up loaf position with her head down. For the next two days, I noticed she was eating almost nothing. Then, I saw her vomit a lot of bile and some undigested food. This was shortly after eating. Later that same day, she vomited a more solid chunk of semi-digested food. This was also relatively shortly after eating. Like a big log of paste with pieces of dry food. (I am just being specific since I read that different kinds of vomit mean different things with cats).

We are going to the vet just in case, but I am uneasy and wanted to know if I should be very worried.

I know it might not even be the food, but I have no idea what else might cause it. Since I stopped giving her dry food, she seems to be acting normally, and I have not seen any more vomit.

Thank you!

Answer 1

In addition to Trond's answer, she might have a sensitive stomach, like one of my cats.

My cat was lost for quite a while but returned home again. At first we gave him what was left of his usual dry food and he ate it for several weeks without noticeable problems. Then he started vomiting small amounts of his food after eating and it gradually got worse over some weeks. Our vet said he might have a sensitive stomach that was more and more upset over time. He suggested a certain type of dry cat food that is very oily. We didn't have any problems with upset stomachs ever since we changed food brands.

Answer 2

The first thing to do is to get your cat to the vet to get it dewormed and examined, and if/when your vet tells you nothing is wrong, you can take a look at how your cat is eating the food.

Many cats eat the dry food too fast and drink water only after they have eaten. This can lead to the food swelling in the belly of your cat leading to the cat throwing up.

To help your cat you can give a small portion of wet food (in gravy or gel) before you give the dry food. This does help my cat to keep the food down, and it might help your cat too.

Many cats eat grass to throw up if they have intestinal parasites. This makes cats throw up a clear/lightly colored liquid. It is not dangerous in itself, but you need to find the reason for it, to exclude other intestinal problems.

If your cat throws up less than once in a week or twice in a month it is normally not a sign of problems as long as your cat eats and drinks normally.