Hi all.

i need some advice please!! i have two cats who are rescue cats. Rosie is just over 4. I don't know what her and Jim went through before they were rescued (they are mother and son). Rosie is very territorial and very clingy with me.

A few days ago she was off her food, not eating either her wet or dry food. This is very unlike her as she is always wanting food and usually wolfs it down. She started eating again on wednesday and within half an hour, she had thrown it all up. I booked her into the vets on thursday. The vet wasn't concerned as she didn't have a temperature, her tummy felt fine and she is generally ok within herself apart from the food issue. She said it could have just been a bug or that she was stressed. our next door but one neighbour has a cat who lives outside (he also has 3 dogs so Harvey doesn't want to live there) and has been desperately trying to move in with us which Rosie will simply not allow. She's always on guard and attacks him every time he tries to get anywhere near.

Rosie found going to the vets stressful and after eating thursday night she threw up again. She was fine yesterday but after eating her dry food this morning she has thrown up three times.

is it just stress?? could she be allergic to her food all of a sudden (she has purina dry biscuits) or should i get her back to the vets??

This is the first time I've had cats ever and I don't really know whether i'm making too much of this. As i said, she is fine within herself apart from being sick!

Any advice welcome! Thank you!

 

I would say try her on different food before coming to any conclusions, may just be a case of that brand of food not agreeing with her. If cats aren't eating, that's a pretty good sign something is wrong, but your cat is eating, just not keeping it down.....her stomach just may not agree with it. Could also be, as you say, a bit of stress, perhaps due to the neighbours cat trying to rustle into her territory. It's perfectly normal for cats to defend their territory....mine will not allow any cat into or around our front / back garden. My cat also gets stressed going to the vets. He hates being put into his box, which stresses him out straight away before he's even at the vets, it's pretty normal.

Deffo try different food though. Do you just give her dry, or wet aswell?

 

Might be trying to shift a furball. One of our cats suffered with them all her life, sicked up every one day in three. 15 years of cleaning up the morning sick!

 

When the weather starts to get wetter, one of my cats regularly (she's not too bright) eats slugs then throws them up along with her last meal somewhere in the house.
Check vomit for slugs.

My other cat went off her food because she had a bad tooth. As Peedee says above, going off their food is a sure indicator something is up.

 

She's eating fine now, just throwing up her biscuits. She has wet food too but that isn't a problem.

She threw up a couple of big fur ***** a couple of weeks ago.

Just concerned that there maybe something more wrong with her.

I'll change her dry food and see what effect that has. She definitely hasn't eaten any slugs so far but I'll keep checking!

 

My cats sometimes repeatedly chunder over a period of a few days. I attend to their other signs such as eye motion, physical functionality etc. If all that seems good, if they aren't looking lethargic and under the weather, then I just let them be sick as much as they like. I change nothing. After a few days, they automatically go back to normal.

Recently my one cat was repeatedly sick just with dry food. To my observation, they will voluntarily reject food if it's causing them trouble. I reckon sometimes they just overdo it with their gluttony, or due to their own extra curricular fur ball consumption, they voluntarily become sick; in order to sort themselves out. They're their own best doctors.

 

Thanks for that Turbo. It's put my mind at rest a bit. She's ok within herself and hasn't thrown up since yesterday so fingers crossed!!

 

No problem, Ritchie. Hope Rosie stops being that sick soon. If she starts looking 'pale' and lacklustre, of course, do take her to the vet again.

Just on the remarkable resilience and self-healing of the cats, my smaller cat (older in age to the fat one; she was 8-9, then) was run over by a car between 4 to 4:30 am on Father's Day in 2013. It was definitely a case where we needed vet attention for her, so we took her in straight away. She had broken her pelvis at three places, which the vet wasn't able to detect at first instance; due to no apparent local damage. Vet actually told us that she was probably projecting blood clots due to an undiagnosed heart disease to her back side, hence the sudden paralysis in the hind part of her body. According to them, she was a perfect candidate to be put down. We refused, asked them keep her pain down, monitor her for longer and conduct extensive investigation. When we got her x-rayed, multiple fractures on her pelvis showed up. We brought her back after five days of hospitalisation, and kept her in a big dog cage to allow her sufficient movement and space. We had to empty her bladder and give her pain killers at home only for two-three days and fed her food and drink with spoon for about a week, as her jaw was hit as well. But after a week she wanted to do everything by herself. She attempted her best to get up, and despite repeated falls she was determined that she would get up and use the litter tray by herself, go to her little food tray by herself and move about a bit. It was predicted that if she survived, she would need cage rest for about 8 weeks, but madam was ready in 6 weeks to come out. She exposed herself to the in-house wandering for a day or two, and then she voluntarily started to go out. Since then, it took her about five months to climb the fence, and another five to climb trees. Now she's back to herself, and you can't say that she ever had such a fatal accident, ever.

It amazes me how resilient and strong these little creatures are. I learn a lot from them.

To be truthful, being sick is actually their in-curricular activity. They seem to do it to correct their own digestion by eating grass and then by being sick. And yes, when they clean themselves all the time by licking themselves, they end up with ample intake of their own fur, and then they again make themselves voluntarily sick to reject it.