Occasional throwing up

[furrykidsmother]

Hi I'm new here. I have been spending some time moving around and reading a lot and looks to be a wonderful site. I have 4 furry children all beautiful. Garfield and Gidget are Mom & Dad to Rusty and Fluffy.

All furry kids occassionally throw up fur balls or food, but Garfield seems to have done this a little more frequently recently. Twice in the past week, but usually happens once a month or so. I've been trying to cut down on their food a bit, except for Fluffy (she's a tiny one), and I think Garfield is just eating to fast, but wondered if anyone else has experienced the same thing. He is a normal weight, maybe a little pudgy, he plays well, eyes are clear, bathroom functions are normal he seems to eat dry food without a problem and is otherwise healthy. No lethargy, weight loss, etc. Any comments would be appreciated.

[jenluckenbach]

Welcome.

My cats have been increasing their hairball production latley too....the weather, I believe. Sometimes they throw up food if it goes in to the stomach on top a hairball. Eating too fast can also cause the kind of upset that leads to throwing the food back up.

My first suggestion is trying a hairball remedy.

[IRescue452]

My cat Sonny has thrown up food every few days since he was a kitten, now he is 14. Somtimes he just eats too fast, but other times it is because of his oversensitive intestines. I try to feed him little amounts at a time so it doesn't bother his intestinal walls too much. A friend of mine also has this problem with her cat. If everything else is ruled out it could just be this and then I wouldn't worry. Once I got Sonny a feline leukemia shot and it seemed to help for a while and then it wore off. We know now that it was not feline luek, but it was worth a try to find out if that was the problem. If he has always done this without any other health problems I'd just say its the intestinal walls, I don't know if anything can be done about that or not.

[wolflady]

Hello and welcome to Pet Talk!

I have 3 kitties, 2 of which throw up on occasion. Scooter tends to have a lot of hairballs, so that causes him to throw up. I have been using cat-lax to help him out now that the season is warming up and he'll start shedding more. It comes in a tube and you can have your kitty lick it from your finger like a treat.

Marius, on the other hand, is my scarf-n-barf kitty He just inhales food so fast! I'll be honest in saying that he's definitely NOT starving even though he acts like it! Ha ha ha

Anyway, I've tried a few things with him. When I was feeding food that had smaller sized pellets, I put something in the bowl (like a ball or a small toy) that he had to eat around, hence making him take more time to eat.
I've since switched to a larger sized kibble and have had better luck, but he will still scarf-n-barf on occasion. I just feed him small amounts periodically throughout the day, so he doesn't even have the option of garbling up a lot of food all at once. Does that make sense?

Good luck with your kitties!

**hugs**

[Craftlady]

Thumper is my barfer in my gang of three.When she eats to fast and it's upchuck time for the poor baby. It's usually early in the a.m. after she has been sleeping all night with Mom and Dad.
If I'm not sure who upchucked they all get hair ball medicine.
This time of year Spring, is shedding time for kitties, so I try to brush more frequently than I would in the winter.

Welcome to PT

[AbbyMom]

Welcome to Pet Talk!

Some cats are natural barfers...this last week has been a real pewkfest around our house.

It's that shedding time again...

Hopefully, Garfield enjoys fish-oil based hairball remedy.

But...If Garfield starts acting lethargic, then I'd take him to the vet.

[furrykidsmother]

Thanks everyone for the welcome and responses. I should probably get some furball stuff and have all of them take it, especially Fluffy, she is a long haired kitty, but they could all benefit from it. Still need to slow down on the eating, but maybe this will help. Thanks again!

[kittykay]

My boycat Mau is a chronic barfer. The vet says he has a sensitive stomach and has him on Science Diet Feline Z/D, a dry food for cats with food allergies. He only barfs once or twice a month now.

[IRescue452]

Sounds like the type of food Sonny could use, but not Science Diet. He's lived through 14 years of this though so I'm not worried about it I don't mind the clean up.