Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About once a week, at around 3 in the morning my wife and I wake up to the sound of HER cat in those wonderful mid-vomit belly sounds. The majority of the time my wife flies out of bed in time to toss the cat onto the tile in the bathroom, but sometimes she's too late and we end up breaking out the carpet cleaner and vacuum.

This is getting really old.

The cat is 100% indoors and I would describe as being high anxiety. Typically we notice that when the cat is vomiting, his food bowl is empty and the vomit is typically just clear liquid.

My assumption is that Purvis is just anxious about not getting his food bowl refilled and he's having a freak out session.

Any thoughts? Advice? Thanx in advance

Hi There,

Just like humans, some cats have more acid in their stomachs than others. This is likely to cause empty-stomach vomiting during the night after the cat has digested his or her dinner. I think this is the likely cause of your cat's vomiting.

I would try feeding a "bedtime snack" to see if this makes any difference. This would cut down on the number of hours that the cat's stomach would remain empty.

One of my cats has done this most of her life and feeding a late-evening snack has helped tremendously. She is also on Pepcid AC, on the advice of her vet and is doing very well now.

Regards,
PHKitkat

Vomiting increased the next day, so off to the vet he went on Friday. He also had an old infection in an abcess on his chest that came back. The vet tried to tell my wife the cat was getting out of the house, which was a complete insult because he doesnt. Anyway, they gave him drugs (antibiotic and anti-vomit), and he went in for exploratory surgery Monday morning. They had to dope him up good because he's not very sociable.
So, he was out of his mind for about 8 hours yesterday and couldnt even bring himself to eat, although he was obviously starving after having been fasted for 24 hours and his behavior near his foodbowl. He just wouldnt open his mouth and eat. Anwyay, he seems to be back closer to normal this morning, but we'll see how the vomiting goes. Based on what the vets said, via my wife, I have little confidence this vet knows what she's doing.
Purvis was given anti-vomit medicine, but kept puking it back up, so she called the vets office saying "I cant get him to keep the meds down" and she was told "Yes, the anti-vomit medicine makes them puke sometimes"

Hello?

My wife didnt question that at the time. Why....I dont know.
Anyway.........on with the saga. This seems more about the bill, than the health of the cat.

Hi,

Sounds like it might be time to look for another vet. Obviously, if a cat cannot keep down anti-nausea meds, injectable meds are needed. The hospital staff should have told your wife to bring your kitty in for an injection. There are a couple of really good antiemetic drugs that can be given to cats.

If your cat is still hesitant to eat, you might want to try offering him strained meat baby food, with no onion added. This type of food would be very easy on the stomach and most cats really go for it. It also contains a lot of water which is good if a cat isn't drinking enough water.

Do you know any details about the exploratory surgery that was performed? It would be interesting to know what the vet found and if biopsies of the intestines were taken. Did the vet say anything about your kitty having inflammation bowel disease or possibly lymphoma? If he has either of these conditions he would need to be treated.

Take care and please let me know if you find out anything.

Regards,
PHKitkat

Here's a bit of history for you.
Back in the fall one day, Purvis was starting to walk around the house like he was very drunk. We took him to the vet and they found a huge lump on the left side of his chest at the base of his neck. They took a sample and it was just solid puss. Lab work revealed nothing except maybe just a little e. coli So we figured he scratched himself with his hind legs after being in the litterbox. So, after surgery to clean the wound, drains, drugs, anti-biotic and all that mess was about $1300. $1300 for a "We dont really know what was wrong, but he's better now".

Even before this, Purvis pukes about once a week or so, and continues to, mostly clear liquid, but sometimes freshly eaten food. A vet checkup a year ago told us "probably IBS". *more on that further down*

So, recently, he began puking again, but more frequently. 3 nites in a row, and I noticed the lump on his chest growing again, so I feared the worst, another $1300 vet bill with no cause again. We cant exactly keep doing this over and over again. So, a trip to the vet and a quick drain on the wound on Friday and drugs were given. Anti-biotic and anti-vomit, and reschedule for Monday for exploratory surgery.
The next day he vomited 4 times. All food as far as I know. I wasnt home, wife told me.
So, then Monday rolls around. Wife drops Purvis off in the morning and notifies them of the increased vomiting at which point she was told "Yes, the medicine will do that to some cats". She picks him up after work and his pupils are blow wide open from the drugs and surgery. By 8pm that nite when I got home, he was still in la-la land. Come to find out surgery was finished by noon. Something seems wrong here. See YouTube video at the bottom for his post-surgery behavior.
The next day he's a bit more normal but scratching at the wound, so he got an e-collar put on which helped.
2 days later, he seemed miserable and wasnt voluntarily eating or drinking, and the wound looked ok, so we took the collar off and he appears to be doing better still.
Now, ** the continuation of the IBS story. I fell asleep on the couch the other night, and woke up at 3am to find him on the kitchen counter top (which he doesnt do when we're around because he knows he's not supposed to be up there) and he was drinking water out of a pan we were soaking overnight. It was of course full of soapy water. So, maybe thats the ticket on the vomiting. I hope. Now we can fix that issue. We'll see.

Thanks again for any insight. I'm not totally in love with this cat, but my wife is, so I'm doing what I can.

Hi Again,

In the video, Purvis is still experiencing the after-effects of the anesthesia and/or pre-anesthetic drugs. I strongly suspect he had a drug known as Atropine, which causes pupils to become dilated, but also serves the purpose of "drying out" the mucous membranes. This cuts down on salivation and possible nausea, which is a plus. Atropine is used routinely in both animals and humans. My feeling is that Purvis also had at least some injectable anesthesia, which lasts longer than gas anesthesia, and causes some cats to feel woozy for quite some time. He might have also had pain medication, which can add to his strange behavior. I think he would have been better off staying in the hospital one night until all of the meds were out of his system.

With some cats, puking on a regular basis is normal. Once a week is usually nothing to worry about, but it is worrisome that Purvis starting throwing up a lot more. Often, if a vet strongly suspects IBD, an ultrasound exam is performed, followed by an exploratory laparatomy, if necessary, with biopsies. The biopsies are done to determine if IBD is truly the cause of the GI upset, or if the cat actually has lymphoma, a form of cancer. Either way, the cat is usually put on steroids to keep the inflammation down. With cancer, chemo is usually added.

I am assuming that Purvis has had bloodwork done and that it was normal. You would be surprised to know that it's not unusual for a vet to have a very hard time diagnosing what is really going on in a sick cat. Still, for all the money you have spent, there should have been some answer, even if it wasn't definite. Medicine is often a ruling-out process.

I'll be thinking of Purvis. Please let me know how he is doing.

Regards,
PHKitkat