Barfers!

[dinahsmum]

(I've put the title in US-speak as I'm not sure whether they use 'puke' across the pond and I'd like lots of opinions on this.)

So - great subject - cats who go

Tizzie has been a puker for ever - immediately after eating and it doesn't appear to bother her at all, other than she has lost her breakfast and is therefore still hungry! After years of this I've just accepted it as a fact of life, don't give her wet cat food any more (think that is distasteful enough first time round, and I think it was worse with the cans/pouches) and tend to give her the main meal of the day outside, weather permitting.
She now has up to a half a tin of tuna in springwater for breakfast and Burns dry food for tea with extra Burns at odd times during the day when she can persuade me she is hungry. She is quite lean (always has been) - I would like to get more weight on her for winter but simply can't get the calories in......they come out again! I would like to leave dry food down for her to pick at little and often, but as Mini is a pig that wouldn't work - she would scoff the lot!

She is now 17, this has been a facet of her life for as long as I can remember. Maybe once a fortnight/three times in two weeks - that sort of frequency. I have to take care that she doesn't eat too much at any one time. I don't think it's a vet problem and I wouldn't want anything intrusive to happen to her anyway, at her relatively advanced age.

So, any ideas or suggestions? Happy to consider anything, but we'll probably just continue as we are now.

Do you remember the David Baddiel routine about puking cats???? It was very well observed, commenting how you have time to go get the bucket and cloth and disinfectant and put the kettle on for a cup of tea, while the cat advertises its discomfort by 'break-dancing'

[EmmaG]

Bronwyn is a barfer if she eats her food too quickly I think this stems back from her previous owners who apparently had a lot of animals and I guess she had to eat her food as quickly as she could.

I find that it is worse if she eats dried food as she eats so much then it obviously swells up and then she is sick.

Lucy my previous cat started being sick at the age of 12 and this was a sign of her having lymphomas.

I have heard that if you elevate their bowls a bit this can help if you have a cat that is a fast eater.

[dinahsmum]

Thanks Emma. Not sure about the fast eating thing but I do wonder if she is a nervous eater, as she feels in competition with her nasty 'sister'. Perhaps separating them at mealtimes would help?
Thanks for the suggestion - 'lateral thinking' - or just coming at problems from a different angle, is great.
Sure it's nothing that needs a vet and if CP can sort it out that would be great!

[Het]

No advice as such - just to say I had a puker as well, about three or four times a week, and he lived to a ripe old age.
I have a Siamese who is also a bit of a puker although in her case it is a cause for concern as it happens on an empty stomach which causes ruptured blood vessels and bleeding in her case.I have always whisked her into the vets though and they treat her, and touch wood it has been six months since it last happened.
It sounds to me like you are doing everything you can with Tizzie and as you say it is just a fact of her life, just a bit unpleasant.

I liked the bit at the end of your post, its very true - they take forever with me trying to follow them round with a bit of newspaper or catch them to put them out, it always seems to end up on my shoes anyway The dogs are the same apart from Isla..you get no warning from her she just says 'Gak' and its there!!

[yola]

Brilliant thread!

My 3 barf regularly; being long-haireds, despite being brushed regularly they still produce alarming quantities of furballs and ALWAYS at night on my coir carpet (which just happens to be puke coloured . . . hurray!!!).

You can hear this urk . . . urk . . . urk . . . and you know you'll have to watch your step in the morning. Even Dominik recognizes the darned things; 'furbo furbo furbo'!!!

Biscuits only occasionally get regurgitated, we have had a spate of these recently and I now have a stack of paper towels and carpet cleaning spray on every floor to save hurtling down to the basement for supplies!!

[Mags]

Very good thread DM, it's nice to know (in the best possible way) that it is not just Cassie that pukes a lot. She has done this regularly since she was a kitten....I initially blamed it on her being a scavenger as she would eat anything that moved on the ground outdoors Like Emma I find it worse after she has eaten dry food, I regularly find piles of half digested biscuits on the floor after. The only tinned cat food she will eat is Whiskas but she is having a problem with that now so I have put her on steamed fish and chicken to see if that helps her. She is absolutely fine in herself otherwise I would take her straight to the vet......and I think I too will try Emma's elevated bowl suggestion..

[dinahsmum]

Originally Posted by Mags

it's nice to know (in the best possible way) that it is not just Cassie that pukes a lot.

Seeing your post this morning Mags, and reading something from Piddler (I think) last week, describing a cat as a 'barfer' I was sure it was a fairly common event. Even the comedy routine, which drew lots of knowing laughter, demonstrates that most cat-owners have 'been there'.

So, two heads are better than one etc, and there's lots of people here who just may have pearls of wisdom.

It also helps to know that 'you are not the only one...........'

[Fran]

Well, I actually had this conversation with my vet last week when I took Lucky about her falling over. Lucky has been 'barfing' a couple of times a week for a good few months now. The vet said that vomiting in cats is very common as they have a poor gag reflex and easily bring back stomach contents. As has previously been mentioned, dried food tends to cause more vomiting than meat as it swells in the tummy. She suggested raising the cat's bowl up whilst they were eating can often help and suggested I put the yellow pages under Lucky's food bowl I have raised her bowl up whilst she eats and I have to say things do seem improved.....

[Mags]

Good post Fran...I think I'll try the yellow pages idea with Cassie...

[CJK]

I am glad i read this thread, i ahve a short hair persian ( black smoke exotic) who has been barfing this morning. And i just read in here that long hiars do cos of furballs, am wondering if that is his problem?
I ran out of persian cat food yesterday, and i know this helps dispell hairballs. I gave him just iam kitten food, and his usual wet food last night. He usually has iams kitten mixed with royal canin perisan ( i cant find a kitten persian food anywhere so if anyone knows of one please do tell...)

so it really can help to read other peoples threads!