Advice about vomiting cat

[exlibris]

Back in early July my 19 year old moggy, Bacy, lost a lot of weight. We took him to the vets and after blood tests it turned out to NOT be a kidney problem - much to my vets surprise. She reasoned that he might have gum problems, so put him on Metacam. Fantastic - Backy started eating properly again. Unfortunately he wasn't gaining weight.

For the last few days he's been vomiting up food (and been extremely flatulent). As he's been drinking a lot, the vomit has got a lot of liquid in it and so spectacularly covers anything that doesn't move quick enough. I have no pet insurance because such purveyors vanish into the ether as soon as you mention Backy's age. Consequently we can't shell out £160 to see an emergency vet on a whim. Once Backy has vomited he seems fine. He's probably not going to get dramatically worse before we see the vet on Wednesday (though I'll be ringing Monday to see if we can get him in any earlier).

Our current plan is to be careful what/how we feed him so he doesn't chuck up in the meantime. Normally we give him over the course of the day a some Whiskers jelly 7+, whiskers dry food 7+, or Gourmet pate normal adult age. Should I just give him pate and stop the other two? Or only give him a small amount of food every few hours?

If anyone knows of an advice line or website I'd be very grateful.

This is all very depressing - this could be a stomach bug easily sorted, some kind of condition that can be managed, or it could be something very serious. We just don't know, but are preparing for the worst. If Backy didn't appear so content except for the vomiting & weight loss, we could say our goodbyes. But what if he's going to be fine? I'll be very cross at our vet if this is something she just missed back in July.

[YogiBoy]

Hi,
Sorry to hear about Backy's issues. Hopefully some of our experienced posters on here might have some ideas, or had similar experiences.

As you asked about websites or advice lines, I thought I would just mention our Useful Links section, in particular the last page of our Health & Care links which have some 'Veterinary' links here: https://www.catchat.org/index.php/usefu ... h?start=20

One thought - it might be worth asking your vet to check Backy's thyroid function, as that could explain the weight loss. Until you get to the vet again, I would also try your idea of feeding him smaller portions more frequently.

Good luck, and do let us know how he gets on.

[Kay]

I would certainly go down the root of lots of small meals - my 17 year old has lost a lot of weight for no obvious reason, and has a very gurgly stomach - older cats need more food as they get older, but can't cope with fat so well, so I would stick with the Felix, as that is lower in fat than Gourmet pate

Gourmet Perle though is high protein and low fat, if you can afford it - the gravy I suspect has a bit more nutrients in it than jelly - I feed my girl half a pouch of Perle when she asks, and leave down two helpings in a double timed feeder so her stomach isn't empty for too long at night, otherwise she brings up bile - which might well be partly behind Bacy's vomiting

old cats do tend to get skinny, especailly round their rear quarters, and as long as you can keep up their nutrient levels that's no bad thing, as less weight helps reducing mobiliy and an ageing heart

[Mollycat]

My Boo aged 15 is vomiting more in phases and has lost weight, sometimes dramatically. We didn't investigate fully due to his general condition and money, he also had chronic diarrhoea. He's been put on steroids and that has stopped all his symptoms except for the odd couple of days of vomiting. He is free fed dry sensitive tums and wet and there is always some left at the next meal time. He does have kidney failure, vet suspects thyroid though his normal appetite doesn't fit the profile, and this gut issue that could be IBD or lymphoma or anything else. Either way, steroids are very cheap and controlling the symptoms in our case.

Losing muscle mass as I've discovered is usually not enough protein and most feline species lose from the back end first. This is to preserve strength in the front end to hunt and eat, I guess it makes sense for an ambush predator like a cat whereas an endurance predator like the dog family can't use the same evolutionary strategy. It doesn't necesarily go with age but it can go with not enough protein, which it's now thought cats need more of in old age rather than less. Reducing protein was thought to help delay the onset of kidney failure - but at a price.

If Backy is a little hyperthyroid this can mask kidney failure because the increased blood pressure artificially helps the kidneys. That's why hyperthyroid cats once treated often suddenly have kidney problems - as my Molly does. All systems are connected and solving one problem can develop others. Drinking a lot can be a sign of kidney issues, hyperthyroid, diabetes and a whole lot more.

Do you know what the bloods tested for, and so what can be ruled out? Or did they just check for kidney function? My vets have an in-house multi test machine that gives you a result in 20 minutes and is a broad test for most major likely issues - kidney, liver, thyroid, etc but vets have different equipment. Reasoning gum problems without seeing anything to indicate this seems a bit dismissive though great that metacam helped at least symptomatically and temporarily.