The hair ball in your tennis shoe.. The pile of semi-digested food on the carpet, just inches from the tile… Cats just vomit. It’s normal, right? This is a question that often isn’t even asked because the underlying assumption is that vomiting is normal for cats. But I must ask us to examine this question more closely, on behalf of my feline friends. Because I have to tell you: Vomiting is not normal and chronic vomiting may signify something other than the perceived occasional inconveniences of caring for a cat.
Unless weight loss or lethargy are present, chronic vomiting in cats is a medical problem that often goes ignored because illness is not perceived.
Let me first say that “Vomiting” is not a disease. It is a symptom. Vomiting must also be differentiated from regurgitation. Regurgitation is passive and seems to happen suddenly, no nausea, pacing or retching are observed. Vomiting on the hand, involves nausea, drooling, pacing and active retching… the hucka, hucka ringing throughout the house in the middle of the night. That’s what gives us time to find your shoes or get to the nearest rug before we hurl. Regurgitation needs to be differentiated from vomiting because there are different causes for each of these symptoms. So be prepared to answer weird questions from your vet about your cat’s “vomiting” episodes.
You may think it gives us cats satisfaction to spite our owners by vomiting in the worst possible places, but actually we don’t enjoy vomiting any more than you enjoy stepping in it.
What causes chronic vomiting? What can be done to make it stop?
There are many diseases that cause vomiting that do not directly involve the gastrointestinal tract such as hyperthyroidism, liver disease, pancreatitis and kidney disease. Weight loss is often present with these conditions and may help alert owners to these disease processes. Diagnostics such as blood tests and ultrasound are needed to identify these types of diseases and guide treatment.
Other causes for chronic vomiting include the following: (note, this is not an exhaustive list)
Diet: Food intolerance is one of the most common causes for chronic vomiting in cats and involves a reaction to a component of the cat food (ie: dye or preservative). This is different from food allergy, which involves an immune-mediated reaction to a specific protein allergen (beef, seafood, lamb, corn). Food volume and content may also cause the more gluttonous cats among us to vomit. Simply changing from dry diets to smaller, more frequent canned meals may help us with our self-control problem and limit the stomach distention and subsequent vomiting that occurs in us.
Parasites: Giardia, roundworms and other critters could be contributing to vomiting and your veterinarian may advise the use of various dewormers.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): This can cause vomiting, diarrhea and/or loss of appetite. Our gut motility may also be affected by this type of disease and may predispose us to developing hairballs.
And let’s just talk a little bit about hairballs. We’re cats. We groom. It should be no surprise that we ingest hair on a regular basis. If our gut is functioning normally, we should be able to move hair through our intestines and into the litter box rather than accumulating a large rat-like wad in our stomachs. Please note that I have not included hairballs as a specific cause for vomiting. Rather the development of hairballs may indicate underlying disease. For example, itchy skin could cause us to groom excessively and thereby makes us more prone to developing hairballs. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) was mentioned earlier in this blog and can certainly contribute to the formation of hairballs and chronic vomiting. An occasional hairball may not warrant much concern, but if your cat is vomiting hairballs on a fairly regular basis (ie: weekly to monthly) then you should discuss it with your vet. I really recommend getting us the help we need, or we may continue to bring this topic up… and this time on your favorite dry clean-only blouse. 🙂