Cat Chat Feline Forum

My cat is about 7 months old. I got him when he was about a month old from my husband's cousin. I believe he was an outdoor cat, maybe feral; I am not sure.

Anyway I know that I should have gotten his shots, but I have not taken him to a vet yet due to a bit of a financial situation.

He has had a healthy appetite, eating both canned and dry food. He always has fresh water. He has been strictly indoors since I got him.

About a week and a half ago he started throwing up after he ate. He would throw up his food and then just liquid.
I thought it was just a one time thing, but then it happened each time he ate. I took his food away for a bit, just giving him water and he would throw that up.

He also was constipated for a few days so I thought maybe he had a hairball or an obstruction ( I also thought that was why he was throwing up - possible obstruction) , or from him not being able to keep food down -(obviously in order to have a bowel movement you need to eat).

I got him some hairball medicine and started mixing it with his wet food. He finally seems like he's almost back to normal, no longer constipated and is able to eat canned food without throwing up.

But the remaining issue is that every time I feed him dry food, he throws it up within about 5 minutes, so I've only been giving him wet food. I do notice that he eats the dry food fast so maybe that is why. I just wonder if it's possible that he could still have an obstruction and the wet food is able to pass somehow and the dry food isn't. But I don't think he'd be able to poop if he had one, though I could be wrong.

I will be taking him to a vet clinic to get his shots this weekend and possibly to see if they can find out what is wrong.
He seems okay, still wants to run around and play. He seems normal other than the dry food issue.

Just wanted to see if I could get an opinion.

Thank you so much

If your hunch is right and he does have some kind of partial blockage, I would avoid giving him dry until he has seen the vet. Dry food tends to be harder to digest (like dry crackers) because the moisture in food helps it go down.

Hairballs are a tricky issue with cats, nobody like clearing them up and a cat does look a bit distressed bringing them up. But the cat is a masterpiece of evolution and they happen for a reason. The hair they inevitably swallow isn't digestible, so it must come out one end or the other. if it goes on down the digestive tract with food and comes out in small amounts, all good, but it doesn't, it collects and forms balls. These are likely to cause blockages and in nature they can easily kill a cat. So the cat has evolved a better system, let them collect in the pit of the stomach and when it's ready, come back out the way it went in.

Have you ever noticed a cat can bring up just food many times with no hair, and then a furball with nothing else? They can bring up food while a hairball is forming but leave the developing hairball in place. A hairball isn't a flaw of the cat, it's a cleverly evolved survival tool. I believe, as do some of the vet community, that hairball prevention is a bad thing.

does your kitten have access to grass? The essential oils in grass help smooth the transit down the intestinal tract. If he is an indoor cat, please give him grass - my two indoors always have a pot of grass and if for some reason they don't for a while I pick a small handful for them and they love it. Sometimes they bring it up, sometimes with something else, but it's a myth that they eat it to make themselves sick.