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I have a serious problem with my cat, she throws up every day, sometimes twice a day. It seems to happen at random, no set time after meals.

She is 3 now, she has been doing this since she was around 1. I have taken her to the vets, blood tests are fine, and was given special food, but it didn't help. I asked the vets and they said "just keep feeding her the food", but after 3 months nothing changed so switched back to normal food.

I have tried

  • Changing foods, wet food, dry food, different brands
  • Giving small portions 4 times a day
  • Alternative between wet and dry throughout the day
  • Trying to get her to drink more by using a fountain, but she was scared of it

But nothing works! She is very timid, only comes out to see my or my partner, if anyone visits she hides in another room.

She is very light, but not skinny, you can't see her ribs or anything like that.

Otherwise she is a normal cat, runs around and jumps on my face at 5am. Knocks glasses on the floor etc.

We have another cat (her sister, got them at the same time) who is fine and has no trouble. She weighs about 1 kg more.

Does anyone have any advice?

She is the right one:

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  • For how long did you try the diet your vet recommended? Was it a strict diet trial, meaning she ate nothing else except the prescribed food during that period? If it is a food allergy/intolerance, it may take several weeks on the new diet before you see a big improvement. – Harry V.♦ Mar 15 '17 at 15:45
  • @HarryV. She ate it for just over 2 months, it was strict and we actually kept her indoors for the time to make sure she wan't being fed elsewhere, this was over a year ago now through, not sure if it's worth trying again. The ver however said that the food had almost no nutrition value so once she stopped throwing up, would have to move back onto normal food. – Adam Mar 15 '17 at 15:52
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Depending on what veterinary diet she was on before, it may be worth repeating the elimination diet, trying a different novel protein/carbohydrate or hydrolysed diet. It sounds like you have tried many protein sources so it may be a challenge to find one that she has not been exposed to before. It could just be that there was an ingredient used in the last diet trial to which she was intolerant. An elimination diet trial is really the only way to determine if she is allergic to something (which is still quite likely given her age, the chronicity, and absence of other signs). As you are aware, it is vital during a diet trial to have no access to other food, treats, medications, etc. during the trial period, and it can take 6-8 weeks before you see marked improvement.

Soaking the dry food in water can sometimes slow down the speed of eating, although it does not sound like this is particularly an issue in your cat's case if she is vomiting several hours after eating.

I am guessing you have already discussed and ruled out this with your vet, but consider empirically deworming her, and/or doing a faecal analysis. Parasites are a possible cause of chronic vomiting in young cats, and given she is an indoor/outdoor cat it is especially important to regularly deworm and keep up to date on flea and tick prevention.

Diagnostically, there are still options you could pursue which may be worth bringing up at your vet, ranging to non-invasive (abdominal ultrasound) to very invasive (surgical biopsies of the GI tract). I am certainly not saying the latter is warranted in your cat's case. These may be beyond the capabilities of your general practitioner and may require referral to a specialist. The frustrating thing about chronic vomiting cats is that there is a decent chance you do every test under the sun and still don't come up with an answer – in which case, you're back at: it's most likely a food allergy.

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  • @Adam this is the best answer on here - I would really push for further diagnostics. – Rebecca RVT May 6 '17 at 23:46
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Every cat is of course different, but I had the same problem with one of my felines and it seemed to stop around the time that I started putting ice cubes in his water. No guarantees, but it costs nothing and can't hurt to try.

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  • Not heard of that one before! Worth a try I suppose, thanks – Adam Mar 15 '17 at 15:52
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I have nine and they were all doing the same...I stopped wet food everyday to once or twice a week in winter only and then just as treat. Tsp., and I changed food to one color food..cats are allergic to the green and yellow, red dyes in the food. Sister did same...problem solved.

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  • Which food do you use? The one I'm feeding them is just brown at the moment: James Wellbeloved Turkey and Rice – Adam Mar 15 '17 at 15:53

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