How fast does he eat? Does he wolf it down so fast it's coming back up? If that's the case maybe something like a treat ball to help him eat at a slower pace, or smaller amounts at a time.
He does eat quite quickly, I gave Mom one of those bowls that make the cat work for the food, but I think she used it for her other cat, who is too tubby and eats a different food. I will need to ask her again about that. Thanks for the thought!
The only treat balls I've seen are tiny, to give him a full meal she'd have to spend all day refilling it with a few dozen pieces of food. Are there larger ones out there? Or should I just have her take a plastic water bottle and cut a little hole in it? I'm sure Dad could dremel the hole smooth.
Is it vomiting or regirgitating. There is a big difference. Regurgitation has the food looks still like food, while the vomiting is from the intestines and looks way more liqiidy and digested. You might want to get him checked for megaesophagus or other diseases that might effect the esophagus. I would reccomend a barium study. Good luck :)
A good point. It is definitely regurgitation, as it's immediate after eating. I'm unfamiliar with esophageal diseases/abnormalities in cats, but will look it up.
I agree with the first commenter. It does sound very much like your mother's cat is eating too fast. There are special food bowls for dogs and cats that have this problem. I don't know if anyone has posted this problem here, but it's not an uncommon problem.
*chuckle* I can see two problems with this. Pip's not the world's brightest cat, he might accidentally try to snarf anything foreign in his bowl. More worrying, I suspect he'd pull whatever-it-was out and bat it around the floor. My parents are older, and round stuff lying around on the floor seems hazardous. I'd be willing to try it in my house, but not theirs, I'm afraid. Thanks for the suggestion, tho!
We do have one of those food bowls - not the one you linked to, but the same idea. I flat out can't remember if Pippin wouldn't use it, or if it was immediately co-opted for the use of too-tubby Pyxie. Maybe he would use the one you linked to, though. I like the food ball idea, too.
My Ash both vomits and regurgitates, and has been diagnosed with gastritis and reflux. I have to keep her on pepcid to ease the symptoms (and it definitely helps). It may be worth discussing with your vet, but the diagnosis required an xray which was a bit costly -_-
Also, my father's cat vomitted frequently, but when he was switched to wet-only, it dropped from literally every day to a couple times a month, just as a thought.
Those are both valuable suggestions, thank you! I did not know pepcid could be used on cats - in fact, I didn't realize they could get reflux. So that's a good new fact to know.
I never knew either of those either. When I first adopted her, she had a URI, and we think the antibiotics aggravated a mild chronic gastritis. So they gave her fluids and an antiemetic to stop it immediately (she was getting bad) and we put her on the pepcid and it helped a lot. The vet said that some cats, like some people, can have chronic stomach and reflux problems. Luckily for my wallet, hers is cheap enough to treat :)
The dose of pepcid that I give is 1/4 of a 10 mg tablet (generic famotidine is okay) 1-2 x day, but obviously I'd recommend talking to your vet first.
See this handsome guy in my icon? He lived to be 15 and he regurgitated/barfed his entire life, no joke. He was completely checked out, and he was healthy. He just barfed all the time. And, oh, how he barfed! He'd throw up down the sides of bookcases, into lamps, on my bed, on his own bed, into the heating duct...pretty much wherever he happened to be at the time, he'd just lean over and start yakking.
The best theory anyone ever came up with was that he ate his food too fast and wanted to look at it again to see what it was.
But I'll tell you, it finely tuned my ear to the sound of a cat barfing. If anyone ever makes an alarm clock that makes that sound...it would wake me up!
I know what you mean about the sound of barfing. My cat, happily, doesn't do it too much, but the sound of horking will wake me out of a sound sleep to grab him and put him on the linoleum instead of the carpet!
pretty much wherever he happened to be at the time, he'd just lean over and start yakking.
Sounds like my Jade. Once she was sound asleep and then suddenly opened her eyes and her mouth opened and out it spewed. She never moved or even made a sound! It freaked me out. lol
And sometimes, I swear, I think she considers it her way of marking her territory. lol She has thrown up in all sorts of different places. And not only that, half the time she feels the need to barf where she's laying, tear through the apartment into the hallway, barf there, tear into the bedroom, barf there, tear back through to the living room, barf AGAIN, and then go sit in the kitchen. While I stand there about ready to scream "WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST GO TO THE KITCHEN IN THE FIRST PLACE??!?!?!" \
And then she wants food. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. *g*
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The only treat balls I've seen are tiny, to give him a full meal she'd have to spend all day refilling it with a few dozen pieces of food. Are there larger ones out there? Or should I just have her take a plastic water bottle and cut a little hole in it? I'm sure Dad could dremel the hole smooth.
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That one seems designed for several small meals a day.
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Also, my father's cat vomitted frequently, but when he was switched to wet-only, it dropped from literally every day to a couple times a month, just as a thought.
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The dose of pepcid that I give is 1/4 of a 10 mg tablet (generic famotidine is okay) 1-2 x day, but obviously I'd recommend talking to your vet first.
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The best theory anyone ever came up with was that he ate his food too fast and wanted to look at it again to see what it was.
But I'll tell you, it finely tuned my ear to the sound of a cat barfing. If anyone ever makes an alarm clock that makes that sound...it would wake me up!
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I know what you mean about the sound of barfing. My cat, happily, doesn't do it too much, but the sound of horking will wake me out of a sound sleep to grab him and put him on the linoleum instead of the carpet!
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Sounds like my Jade. Once she was sound asleep and then suddenly opened her eyes and her mouth opened and out it spewed. She never moved or even made a sound! It freaked me out. lol
And sometimes, I swear, I think she considers it her way of marking her territory. lol She has thrown up in all sorts of different places. And not only that, half the time she feels the need to barf where she's laying, tear through the apartment into the hallway, barf there, tear into the bedroom, barf there, tear back through to the living room, barf AGAIN, and then go sit in the kitchen. While I stand there about ready to scream "WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST GO TO THE KITCHEN IN THE FIRST PLACE??!?!?!" \
And then she wants food. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. *g*
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