26 replies to this topic

[FutureMrsLewis]

My cat is driving me bonkers. She's a 9 year old short-haired tabby, and she vomits EVERYWHERE! We have blankets covering our couch and extra blankets on our bed because she likes to eat WAY too much food and then throw it back up. But here's the kicker: If you feed her small servings, she inhales it as if it will be her last meal. If you give her food from one of those self-filling bowls with the bottle of food attached, she eats until she can't possibly eat another bite. So what the hell do I do? I washed the blanket over our loveseat yesterday (after a barfing incident) and tonight she throws up over it AGAIN! Aggh!! I keep telling FI she needs to see a vet (we adopted her from FI's parents) and he keeps saying "Nah, there's nothing wrong with her, she's been doing that her entire life" and his mom says the SAME thing.

I love animals, especially my two cats, but the thoughts that go through my head when I'm scrubbing the remenants of her vomit from the carpet are NOT nice and I needed someone to vent to who won't respond with "That's just Shadow..." I can't even bawl at the cat because she just puts this look on her face: which makes me even MORE mad.

*sigh* Thanks for listening!

[Mystic]

OMG, I don't have any advice, but our cat does the same thing! She's been doing it for years. We have two 5 year old short haired tabby cats that actually look very similar to yours. One of them pukes ALL the time! It's so frustrating. Just yesterday, she was sitting on the window ledge and puked into a box of stuff I had on the floor under the window. My pictures, resume, college transcripts, etc were in there. Thankfully we have wood floors or we would have some nasty carpet stains. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom or gotten up for work when it's still dark out and stepped in cat puke. SO GROSS. It's usually food that comes up too, not fur. I've been thinking about taking her to the vet but she is an absolute nightmare to take anywhere. Other than that, she seems happy and healthy so I don't know what her deal is?

[kristendotcom]

I don't think there is anything your vet can do. My cats eat too fast and throw up piles of food too and I told my vet about it and he said it was normal- unfortunetly. This happens at least 1-2 times a week with my 2 cats. I just feed them smaller portions and deal with cleaning up the cat puke cause I love my cats way too much to get mad at them.

Also you might want to consider switching their food and see if that helps at all.

[-Kate-]

I don't know if this trick works for cats, but it's what we do for our dogs. If you feed her the smaller portions try putting something in the bowl on top of her food. For our dogs we use an unopened soup can - maybe something smaller for a cat bowl. This makes them slow down while eating because they have to work to move the can around to get to the food.

[SunBride]

or what about putting the food into a "food puzzle" so they have to work at it to get it out, one kibble at a time? I know they have these for dogs and they love em, don't know if cats would do it too

[KLC77]

One of my cats does this too. I've found that he vomits much less frequently if I split his meals up into 3 or 4 small feedings a day.

[Riley]

One of our cats does the same thing. Our vet told us to buy the biggest size cat food we can find so that the cat is forced to chew it instead of swallowing it whole like he was. It has helped a bit since it takes him longer to eat now.

[~Stephanie~]

I have had cats all of my life and in my experience here are some suggestions when we have encountered the same thing...

Put a ball in her food dish that will roll around in her food, this will slow down her eating, it has worked for us in the past and was recommended by the vet. Also, try switching foods, it doesn't have to be anything specific although you could try a food for sensitive stomachs. We have a cat that will puke up one kind of food but when we switched she stopped. Just remember when you switch foods to do it gradually to avoid stomach upset.

I hear ya though, as much as you love them it seriously pisses me off when they can't even do it on the floor! What is with that?! Why my couch, chair, bed, or on something important like on my piano sheet music the other day...

I think its really a way to get back at me for not paying attention to her or something!

[super19]

I used to have two cats puking everywhere! One of the cats seemed to be bulimic - over eating and throwing up everywhere!

I changed their diet to sensitive stomach formula and they have been so much better ever sense. Feel free to PM me and I'll give you the brand if you are interested.

[trance_angelx0x]

ok this makes me soooo glad I have a dog.

I agree with the suggestion of putting something in the bowl (a ball, can, water bottle). Anything that makes them work for food should slow them down.