Kitty with chronic barfing problem....help?!!!
Hello. My name is Ripley and I can't keep my food down....can you help me?
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii85/Stormflakes/My%20Kitties/014-2.jpg
Okay, so I've spent a grand this year on Miss Ripley because she has a chronic barfing problem that may be irritable bowel syndrome. Every couple of months she starts "tossing" everything she eats, including water, and ends up at the vet for hydration and expensive tests that never indicate a problem. The vet has changed her to a limited ingredient diet and gave her a pepsid shot last week. She started to get better and now she is going downhill again. Does anyone here have any experience with chronic barfing in a cat? I'm at the end of my rope and my bank account is running dry. She's had x-rays and there is no foreign object stuck in her digestive tract and she doesn't have FeLeuk or parasites. There are no chemicals for her to get into. They think IBS is the only answer but they don't even know that for certain. Any advice would be most appreciated.
Does she eat dry or wet food? my 13 year old kitty had that problem for awhile, and the Vet told me to feed her only dry food with a "hairball" formula, she dosn't barf up alot anymore, only once in awhile, she dosn't barf up furballs, so I didn't see what difference it would be putting her on a "hairball" formula, but it has helped her alot...I buy Iams, weight and hairball formula dry, you can buy it at Publix....note, If your kitty overeats this cat food, she will barf...my 10 year old fat cat can't walk away from the food bowl, so she overeats...a little bit of this food seems to fill them up fast.
Thank you potatohead. She eats mostly dry food, but is given wet food a couple of times a week and she is also given bites of human food, mostly cheese (my daughter is an ovo-lacto veg so there is still cheese in my house). This diet the vet put her on (rabbit and pea) she absolutely hates. Their theory is that she is allergic to something in the food she was eating before (Purina One for sensitive systems) and that it causes the IBS. I will try the hairball food and see if it helps. Thank you so much for responding.
Hello.
My best suggestion would be to start at:
http://www.pets.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=01965f205cf1fe72b18185667d918b95&f=75
(I'm hoping that link will lead you to the "cat health forum"!
They have been wonderful in helping many many people with their cats from their information I found out things that my vet never mentioned and I found out there that my vet actually gave me information that could have killed my cat. I strongly recommend their advice. From there there are several links that lead to more information that might just well put an end to your problem with your poor kitty.
Peace, love and understanding.
This has nothing to do with cats, but Ripley sounds exactly like my sister. She has CVS (Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome) and is hospitalized during her bouts due to dehydration. I wonder if Ripley has the cat version of it.....?
Regardless, I hope Ripley gets better soon.
hmmm....I would say cut out the cheese from her diet and see how she does....cats are actually lactose intolerant - so maybe that could be causing/exacerbating the problem? Unless they're a holistic vet....most traditional vets don't know sh*t when it comes to diet info....they only know what the food companies tell them....(know this first hand - when my cat went into the ER this year, I started asking questions regarding the various foods I learned that could cause issues from my training as a Nutro demonstrator, and she didn't know what I was talking about....) >:(
Thanks. The first thing I did was ban her from human food. I'm not particularly impressed with either of the vets she's seen. Neither one seems to have a clue what could be causing this and they are "cherry picking" the problem which has resulted in me spending $1,000 for what? She's still sick. I will definitely check out that website, thanks twobluemoons.
My cat is perfectly healthy, but he also goes through bouts of vomiting & regurgitating. He is a gorger - is your cat? If she is, you could try putting rocks in her food dish(too large to swallow) so that she can't eat as fast. Also, elevating the food dish is supposed to help. He also gets upset if you don't feed him immediately upon arriving home & he will begin to vacuum the floor with his mouth. This of course, causes him to throw-up after dinner. Is your cat eating random crap off the floor? What is your cat's feeding schedule. Maybe you could try feeding her several small meals throughout the day - you could use an autofeeder.
She's not a gorger. My cats don't actually have a feeding schedule. I leave a bowl of crunchies out for them all the time. None of them are over-eaters. I never heard about elevating the dish. I'll give that a try. Thank you.
One more link that I highly suggest for kitties with stomach problems (like mine) is at:
http://catinfo.org//
There is a wealth of information there that I think everyone with a cat ought to read - whether they have stomach/digestive problems or not. I agree with hanashi about vets that are not trained correctly about cat nutrition and at our vet's office there was a new, younger vet who agreed with many of the things that we had found out at the other forum there and he said some of the older vets just might not have kept up on the newest and latest information that some of the younger ones are learning now. I would love to take our kitties to a holistic vet but the nearest one is over two hours away and at ttimes we just don't have the time to wait with some of the problems we've had with our kitties.
I'd be very interested in hearing how this all works out and too, how your Ripley is feeling and I sure hope he's feelilng better.
Bestest of wishes to all.
Peace, love and understanding.
Has she been tested for pancreatitis? It isn't in the "normal" blood tests that the vet runs to check for things, and it's quite costly, but that could be the source of your problems.
You could ask your vet about getting Prozyme, which is a digestive enzyme you put on the food to help it break down better in the kitty's belly and be easier to digest. Instead of a limited ingredient diet, how about an easy to digest diet like Hill's Rx Diet I/D? The limited ingredient will help if it's allergies, but if not you're spending a ton of money on food that the cat doesn't even like. Has the vet prescribed a steroid (prednisone/prednisolone) for the IBS? It has other side effects long term (increased incident of diabetes), but so does IBS (it can turn into cancer in cats, which it did with my cat Max and eventually killed him).