Cat vomiting is a common health problem in house cats. The cat may vomit due to excessive eating, swallowing unwanted feed, grass, metal, woods, and disease conditions. The vomition causes the throwing up ingested food from the stomach, fluids, and vomitus may drool in the mouth. The cats become dehydrated and need immediate veterinary attention.
When should I be concerned about my cat vomiting?
Occasional vomiting in cats is a regular phenomenon. There are two significant categories of cat vomiting; acute and chronic. If your cat vomits daily once, weekly twice, and thrice at a regular interval and seems healthy, the condition is called chronic. If a cat vomits suddenly and more than three times at a go, the condition is called acute vomiting. If your cat cannot keep food in his/her stomach, showing nausea, discomfort, lethargy, and drooling of saliva, you must immediately call a vet.
What Causes the Cat to Vomit?
Cat vomiting is the first sign of many digestive or system disorders. The causes of vomiting in cats are incredibly variable. The significant causes of cat vomiting are as follows:
- Diseases: Heartworm infection, Feline Infectious Peritonitis, Feline Leukemia.
- Gastric Causes: Tumor in the stomach, inflammation in the stomach, and presence of foreign bodies.
- Drugs: Anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, and chemotherapeutic drugs.
- Toxins: Lilies, antifreeze substances.
- Dietary Causes: Sudden food change, eating cockroaches, lizards, dead animals, or intolerable food.
- Intestinal Causes: Foreign bodies in the intestine, inflammation, constipation, cancer, acute inflammatory bowel disease.
- Problems in Internal Organs: Liver diseases, pancreatic diseases, and kidney diseases.
- Neurologic Diseases: Vestibular diseases.
- Cancer: Intestinal tumor, mast cell tumor.
Clinical Signs of Vomiting in Cats
The first clinical sign of cat vomiting is throwing up undigested food particles from the stomach. The color of the vomitus may be white, red, yellow, greenish, or black. The color of the vomits indicated different materials and the status of injury or causes of vomition.
- White color vomition indicated the presence of esophageal juice and secretions.
- Red color vomitus indicated the presence of blood due to a tumor or foreign body in the stomach.
- The yellow color indicated the presence of bile with undigested food.
- The black color of vomitus may be due to the presence of clotted blood in the ingesta.
- The green color of the vomition is due to ingestion of grass, green-colored substances, or bile.
You must call your vet immediately when you see the following signs of vomition:
Diagnosis of Vomition in Cat
The easiest methods of diagnosis of cat vomition are by clinical signs and frequency of vomition. The following methods are applied to know the exact causes of vomition:
- History of cat food behavior.
- Cat’s litter history.
- Any change of food or ingestion of any unwanted food, drugs, toxins, plants, or substances.
- History of the current disease and medication.
- Abdominal X-ray to detect any tumor, hairball, or foreign materials in the digestive tract.
- Examination of blood for CPC and presence of toxins.
- Ultrasonography of the abdominal cavity to locate the tumor or foreign bodies.
- Endoscopy of upper digestive tract and stomach.
What to Give a Cat for Vomiting?
The veterinarian will decide the treatment and management of cat vomiting after diagnosis of the causes. The usual treatment and management strategies are:
- Administration of anti-vomiting injection to stop the vomiting immediately.
- Intravenous oral administration of fluid and electrolytes to reduce the weakness.
- Changing of diet that causes vomition.
- Injection of prednisolone injection.
- Antibiotics in case of infectious causes.
Final Advice on Cat Vomiting
Cats are susceptible to vomiting due to any changes in food or behavior. You must have a continuous look at your lovely pet’s feed, behavior, and exercise. Never go for a sudden change in a cat’s diet. Cat vomiting can be prevented most of the time by adequate management and care.
