Vomiting describes the active evacuation of food from the stomach. Vomiting may be caused by disorders of the stomach but is a clinical sign that can occur with many diseases and problems. Show
"It is not a specific disease or diagnosis itself." It is not a specific disease or diagnosis itself. Cats vomit quite readily and occasional vomiting (less than once a month) in an otherwise healthy cat may not indicate anything abnormal. This is particularly true if the vomited material is mainly hair. It is considered a normal process for cats to swallow hair while they are grooming themselves, and they will vomit hairballs periodically. If your cat is vomiting hairballs more than once a month, contact your veterinarian. If it is normal, then how serious can vomiting be?It depends on the cause of vomiting. Most cases of acute vomiting, when vomiting has been present for less than two to three days, resolve quickly with simple treatment, without the underlying cause being diagnosed. Severe or chronic vomiting is more serious. It can lead to secondary problems, particularly dehydration and disturbances in the levels of electrolytes such as sodium. Vomiting can be caused by minor intestinal upset, such as from eating plants, spoiled food, or foul-tasting things such as certain insects. However, vomiting can also be a sign of a more serious illness, such as bacterial or viral infection, intestinal obstruction from foreign bodies (indigestible objects that get stuck in the intestine or stomach), urinary tract obstruction, liver disease, thyroid disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or cancer. Left untreated, these illnesses can lead to serious complications, including death. How do I recognize vomiting?Vomiting may begin with a stage of nausea, in which the cat appears restless, and possibly anxious. The cat may lick its lips, salivate, and repeatedly swallow. Vomiting itself involves forceful contractions of the abdominal muscles, leading to expulsion of fluid, froth, or food. The severe effort associated with vomiting may be distressing to the cat. It is important to differentiate this from the abdominal contractions associated with coughing. Cats may cough up some froth or foamy material that they subsequently swallow. Cats usually crouch down on all four legs when coughing with the neck stretched out. It is helpful if you can show a video to your veterinarian of your cat exhibiting the behavior so they can help you distinguish coughing versus vomiting.
"It is also important to differentiate vomiting from regurgitation." It is also important to differentiate vomiting from regurgitation, which is usually associated with problems affecting the esophagus and is a more passive process. Features that help to differentiate vomiting from regurgitation include:
What does acute vomiting mean?Acute vomiting is vomiting that has been present for no more than two to three days. Most cases will respond quickly to simple symptomatic treatment. The cause of such cases is often never established and may be due to relatively trivial factors such as eating spoiled food or plants. In a small number of cases of acute vomiting, usually because the vomiting is severe and leads to complications such as dehydration, or because a more serious underlying cause is suspected, further tests, specific treatment, and aggressive supportive care will be required. What is the symptomatic treatment for acute vomiting?Non-specific symptomatic treatment is often prescribed initially in mild cases of acute vomiting. Your veterinarian will usually advise you to feed your cat an easily digested, bland diet in small quantities given frequently. A veterinary prescription diet specifically formulated to be easy to digest is often recommended. Alternatively, a specific home-cooked diet may be recommended. It is important that the cat does not receive any other foods other than what your veterinarian advises during this period. "Water should be freely available and is important to prevent dehydration."
Water should be freely available and is important to prevent dehydration. If the cat is improving, the quantity of food offered at any one time can gradually be increased back to a normal quantity and then the cat's normal diet can be reintroduced gradually over several days. In some cases, your veterinarian may prescribe medication to control vomiting or relieve inflammation, for example maropitant citrate (brand name Cerenia®) famotidine (brand name Pepcid®) or metronidazole (brand name Flagyl®). This approach allows the body's healing mechanisms to correct the problem. If your cat does not improve with symptomatic treatment, your veterinarian may make a change in medication or perform further tests to evaluate the problem more thoroughly. How will my veterinarian decide what type of testing and treatment is necessary?Features that you may be able to identify that will help the veterinarian decide whether symptomatic treatment or further investigations are appropriate include:
What other treatment or diagnostic testing may be required?If the vomiting is severe or if your veterinarian suspects a serious underlying problem, such as kidney or liver disease, more aggressive treatment may be required. It may be necessary to hospitalize your cat for intravenous fluid therapy to combat dehydration and correct any imbalances in the levels of electrolytes. In some cases, it may be necessary to administer injections to control the vomiting. In less severe cases, you may be able to treat your cat at home. You may be asked to administer fluids and special solutions at home, and if this is the case, you will be shown how to do this. You must be patient, giving only small quantities at frequent intervals. If your cat becomes distressed by home treatment, contact your veterinarian for further instructions. "If the vomiting is severe, more aggressive treatment may be required."
Additional diagnostic tests may be required in cases of chronic vomiting, or when the cat has been vomiting for more than two to three weeks, even though the vomiting may be intermittent and the cat may appear otherwise well. In these cases, the underlying cause must be determined in order to treat the problem appropriately. Some of the more commonly used tests are: Blood tests may show evidence of infections, kidney and liver problems, thyroid disease, or diabetes, and may provide other clues leading to the diagnosis. X-rays may show abnormalities of the esophagus or stomach. It may be necessary to give barium to help identify any obstructions, tumors, ulcers, foreign bodies, etc. Ultrasound is another way of viewing the stomach and intestines. Ultrasound is able to identify blockages/obstructions, tumors, as well as inflammation within the stomach or intestinal lining. Endoscopy, which is viewing the inside of the stomach directly through an endoscope (a flexible viewing tube), may provide a diagnosis in some cases or the procedure can be used to obtain biopsy samples (samples of tissue that can be examined under a microscope to identify disease). Endoscopy requires a general anesthetic. Laparotomy, or an exploratory surgery, is necessary in some cases, particularly if an obstruction or blockage is suspected or if biopsy samples are required. Laparotomy can be both a diagnostic and a treatment procedure. Your veterinarian will be able to examine all the organs in your cat’s abdomen during surgery and take biopsy samples to try to identify the source of the vomiting. See handout "Testing for Vomiting” for a more in-depth discussion of what other tests your veterinarian might perform. Once the diagnosis is known, treatment may include special diets, medications, or surgery.
Vomiting is considered to be a nonspecific symptom. It could be associated with an array of health concerns. If your cat vomits undigested food, it can be a sign of a serious illness. Some of these can include things like hairballs, internal obstructions, pancreatitis, eating too quickly, constipation, indigestion, parasitic infections, poisoning, stress, depression, or even anxiety. It's essential to know the specific reason why your feline is throwing up its food and ways you can treat it before seeking veterinary help, if serious. How to Make a Cat Throw Up Vomiting is not always vomiting; sometimes it is actually regurgitation, and knowing the difference can be helpful information for your veterinarian to help diagnose the cause. Regurgitation is often mistaken for vomiting, but unlike vomited food, regurgitated food has not yet been digested by stomach acids.
Vomiting is when the contents of the stomach, including food, water, and/or bile, are ejected. Vomiting is an active process typically accompanied by nausea, retching, and contraction of the abdominal muscles (heaving). The cat will often vocalize, drool, or begin retching prior to vomiting. Regurgitation, on the other hand, involves only the contents of the mouth or esophagus. Food and/or water or other ingested items do not make it to the stomach before they come back up, and there is no abdominal effort. Regurgitation is a passive process in which there is no vocalizing or retching: the cat just lowers its head and food, or other materials, fall out. Regurgitation often happens within 30 minutes to two hours after eating. Some cats may eat too quickly and this can cause them to regurgitate undigested food. Feeding your cat out of a food puzzle toy can help to slow them down. Food puzzles are a great source of both play and enrichment for your cat. There are more and more manufactured food puzzles available on the market that stimulate both your cat's predatory and foraging instincts. The added benefit of food puzzles for a cat that chronically vomits its food, though, is that it slows down the chow time so that a cat can't eat too quickly and then get sick from it. If your cat routinely eats out of puzzle feeders and is still vomiting up its food, talk to your veterinarian. Some cats may eat too fast, as stated above, or have a food allergy. If your cat is a habitual 'scarf and barf' cat, or if they have intestinal sensitivities, that may be causing them to vomit up partially digested or undigested food. If your vet has ruled out other medical issues and thinks that what your cat is vomiting up is actually food, they may want you to try a commercial, sensitive systems food with your cat. If your cat is still struggling with vomiting food on this special diet, they may then want to put your cat on a strict, hydrolyzed protein diet. When it comes to food allergies, most cats are actually allergic to protein versus any other nutrient source. A hydrolyzed diet is a food that has gone through a process where the protein is broken down into its individual amino acid components. This prevents your cat's immune system from identifying the food as containing an allergen and prevents your cat from having symptoms of an allergy flare-up. Cats are naturally meticulously clean animals and groom themselves for a large part of their day. As your cat grooms themselves, tiny hook-like structures on their tongue catch loose and dead hair, which is then swallowed. The majority of the hair passes all the way through the digestive tract with no problems, but sometimes the hair stays in the stomach and forms a hairball. Hairballs can contribute to or cause a cat to vomit up undigested food. Although a cat vomiting a hairball occasionally can be normal and not a concern, it is important to note that hairballs should not be frequent, painful, or difficult for your cat to pass. To help prevent hairballs in your cat, there are over-the-counter dietary supplements, in either chew or gel forms. Adopting a regular brushing schedule and getting your cat comfortable with brushing can also help get rid of any loose fur in your cat's coat that they may otherwise ingest when grooming themselves. When there is a change in your cat's feeding schedule, if your cat misses a meal, or eats later than normal, your cat may regurgitate undigested food. In addition, you may have switched your cat’s food too quickly. When changing your cat to a new diet, it is recommended to do it gradually over a one to two-week period gradually decreasing the amount of current cat food while increasing the amount of new cat food. Your cat may eat too quickly, and this can cause regurgitation of undigested food. A cat vomiting due to eating too much is less likely but feeding your cat smaller and more frequent meals may help. You should also talk to your veterinarian about how much you feed to verify your cat is not being fed too much and is getting the nutrition they need. If your cat is one to get into things they shouldn't, it is possible that they have irritated their stomach with something that they have eaten. When this happens, you may see vomiting undigested food in addition to vomiting blood and/or bile. Your cat may also be exhibiting a decrease in appetite, a depressed attitude, lethargy, or dehydration. Your vet will know just what to do if your cat is vomiting because of gastritis. Some other causes can include:
Some cat owners may describe their cat as 'puke-y', but it should be noted that frequent vomiting is never normal for a cat. Vomiting more than once a week is definitely a sign of a problem. If your cat is vomiting up undigested food, begin to feed with puzzle toys and/or feed them smaller amounts more frequently. If you continue to notice your cat is vomiting undigested several times and/or in conjunction with other symptoms such as lack of appetite, weight loss, lethargy, or diarrhea, you should make an appointment with your vet right away. Your vet will want to start with a physical exam, checking your cat's vital signs, and palpating your cat's abdomen. After a thorough examination, your vet may also want to run some tests, including blood work and X-rays. Blood work will check your cat's organ function, making sure that there are no signs of liver disease or kidney disease, as well as your cat's red blood cell and platelet levels. An X-ray study will check for any fluid in the abdomen that could potentially be blood and it may also show intestinal gas patterns that could be indicative of a blockage. Depending on what your doctor finds, your cat may require hospitalization for fluid therapy and supportive care, or they may just need outpatient treatments and oral medications to go home on. If your vet suspects your cat has an intestinal blockage your cat may require surgery to remove whatever the blockage is. Depending on why your cat is vomiting, there are a few things you can do to prevent it. If your cat is eating too quickly, feeding them smaller meals more often may help. You should also talk to your veterinarian about verifying your cat is not being fed too much and is getting the nutrition they need. If the vomiting is due to a hairball, try over-the-counter dietary supplements, in either chew or gel forms and a regular brushing schedule. If you suspect food allergies, talk with your vet about a special diet. If you suspect your pet is sick, call your vet immediately. For health-related questions, always consult your veterinarian, as they have examined your pet, know the pet's health history, and can make the best recommendations for your pet. |
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