Vomiting

As mentioned in “Cats’ Hygiene – Losing Hair”, cats may regurgitate hair balls after grooming. This is a normal and natural process the cats clean themselves. However, regurgitating other matters, or vomiting, can be a sign that cats are sick.

1. Food

Vomiting can mean cats are eating too much, eating too fast, or eating something that is unable for them to digest. As a result, they purge it out of their stomach, gut or mouth.

If the cats are simply eating too much in a bite, or if they are eating too fast, or swallowing a bulk without chewing it thoroughly enough to prevent choking, then we can try to cut the food into reasonably little pieces for the cats.

Alternatively, the food may be too rich in contents or nutrients for the cats (how rich it is would depends on various individual cats), and the amount or concentration of a meal should then be adjusted according to individual needs.

2. Motion sickness

Vomiting can also be a sign of motion sickness after the cats are on car travel. In this case, the cats may be unused to feeling of traveling on cars. And we can try to train the cats to be accustomed to the feeling by short journeying.

One obvious thing to note here is that, like humans, it is best to avoid feeling the cat shortly before a journey. Sometimes it is also a good idea to cover the cats basket with a towel to help keep the cats calm.

If the training does not seem to work after some time, or if there is not enough time for long training before a necessary journey, long or short, is needed with the cats, then we can seek veterinarian’s prescription of some anti-sickness tablets or a mild sedative as an expedient measure.

Sometimes, however, motion sickness is not caused by vehicle, but by swinging when we carry the cats in the basket. This is a relatively simple case and we can solve the problem by simply avoiding swinging and carrying the basket steadily and more carefully when we are walking.

If some people think it is hard for us to carry them steadily when we walk, perhaps we can consider this: we can train the cats to overcome motion sickness, how come we cannot train our arms to be steady when we walk? After all, we can carry a dish or something heavy quite steadily in our daily lives.

 3. Serious Vomiting

Apart from eating and motion sickness, cats may vomit due to serious medical reasons, and the following can be signs and the causes.

Continuous – The cats vomit continuously, for instance every few hours for eight hours or more.

Blood – There is blood in the vomit. Digested blood looks like dark coffee granules.

Accompanies – Worms or other objects appear in the vomit.

Poisons – The cats have been near or have touched potentially poisonous objects or substances.

Emotions – The cats appear depressed, lethargic or similar emotional symptoms.

Co-symptoms – Other symptoms come with vomiting, such as weight loss, diarrhoea, and constipation.

In these cases, we had better take the cats to veterinarians as soon as possible.

4. Special Attention – Dehydration Due to Vomiting

Sometimes cats vomit a lot and keep throwing out fluids non-stop. If this happens, beware that they can be at risk of dehydration. This can happen especially when they suffer from diarrhoea.

When cats suffer from dehydration, they show such signs as lethargy (unusual fatigue and unwillingness to do usual activities), dull coat, panting, thirst, and visible third eye lid. In addition, the skin behind the neck looks nipped, and the fold looks unusually long. This is the result of losing skin elasticity after losing moisture.

 5. Immediate Relief before Vet’s Treatments

Before a veterinarian is available to offer treatments to cats’ vomiting, there are some things we can do to relieve their pains.

Indoor with water – When cats vomiting two to three times in about eight hours, keep them indoors. Try to give them a little amount of water to enhance lubrication and avoid dehydration.

In case the cats vomit even the water, then reduce or even stop providing water to them. let their stomachs rest for about three to four hours.

Watch them closely for any possible sign of dehydration and try to give them water by administering a tablespoon of water around every half an hour.

If the cats’ reaction looks fine, try to give very small amount of plain food, such as mashed-up boiled rice or potatoes.

If you are not sure if the cats would respond negatively to even the plain food, you can try some specially prepared cat food for cats that are recovering from illness. It is a good idea to have some food like this ready for disposal.

If the cats respond well to the convalescing food, then you can feed them with normal diet gradually in the next day or two.

However, in case the cats vomit again, or if other symptoms of illness appear, then we should take the cats to the veterinarians for diagnosis and treatments.