The cat eats it and vomits it. The cat vomits after eating undigested food. Different variants of vomiting

Vomiting in a cat is a common protective reaction of the body if a foreign body enters the esophagus. The muscles of the abdomen and diaphragm contract, and under pressure the food eaten is expelled through the esophagus. If this is an isolated incident, it's okay. But frequently repeated vomiting is a signal of a malfunction in the body.

Why does a cat vomit after eating?

If your cat is vomiting after eating, he may have a ball of his own hair stuck in his stomach.

Causes of vomiting:

1. Dietary disorder. The owner must ensure that the pet eats on time and avoid long breaks between meals. When a cat is hungry, it eats excessively and then vomits the excess food.
2. The presence of a hairball in the gastrointestinal tract. Since cats constantly lick their fur, the hairs gradually accumulate in the stomach. They are not digested, causing a lump to form that prevents food from passing through.
3. Poisoning. When the body is trying to get rid of toxins, the main thing is to avoid dehydration.
4. Stress. Some cats react in this way to moving to new owners or to another place of residence.
5. Pregnancy. Due to compression of the gastrointestinal tract by the growing uterus, the cat vomits.

Setting up a diet is not difficult. In case of pregnancy or stress, you need to wait a little. Everything is much more complicated if vomiting occurs due to intestinal pathologies or stomach ulcers.

What to do if your cat vomits after eating

If you take in a stray cat, feed it often in small portions. Let her adjust to the new diet.

Monitor the quality of food and the daily ration. In the first case, you will prevent poisoning, in the second, you will avoid overfeeding.

Cats with thick hair can be given special foods that help remove stuck hairs from the stomach. Pay more attention to combing the animal's fur, removing loose hairs

While walking with your pet, carefully monitor that the animal does not eat garbage and waste, or put foreign objects in its mouth. Don't forget about regular pest control. Green stalks of wheat and barley have a good effect on the digestive system of cats. They can be grown on the plot or planted in a tray in the apartment.

Every person who has a pet in their home has probably witnessed more than once that a cat vomits after eating, and not everyone knows what to do in this case. In most cases, this may be for the simple reason that she overate, and the animal simply got rid of the excess food. The same type of eating disorder is observed if the pet has not eaten for a long time.

But if a cat starts vomiting after eating food, this may indicate that she has a serious illness. In such a situation, it would be advisable to seek help from a veterinarian. Only he will be able to find out the causes of vomiting in a pet and give the owner recommendations on how to care for a sick animal.

In many cases, vomiting is isolated, but it also happens that it appears frequently and becomes chronic. In this case, only a specialist can help.

1. So, you should take your cat to the veterinary clinic if it does not vomit for several days;
2. Vomiting is constant;
3. The presence in the cat’s vomit of impurities not related to what she drinks or eats - bile, blood, yellowish mucus;
4. Vomiting occurs both before and after meals;
5. Vomiting occurs even if the pet has not eaten anything at all;
6. Vomiting is accompanied by the cat's restless behavior, salivation and lacrimation, and aimless walking around the house.

Why does a cat vomit after eating sometimes or every day?

There are many reasons for vomiting after eating. Some pose absolutely no danger, especially if they appeared only once. But if there is a regular repetition, then you should be wary.

A cat may vomit undigested food for the following reasons:

In some cases, you can see vomit with white foam, but it most often occurs in a cat on an empty stomach. When digested food is sent to the intestines, the walls of the stomach, in order to ensure self-defense from the remains of gastric juice, begin to secrete mucus. The white tint appears as a result of mixing gastric juice with mucus and air. If vomiting with white foam occurs regularly, we can talk about gastric diseases.

Establishing diagnosis

The owner himself is unlikely to be able to make a correct diagnosis for his pet, and it is not worth doing this, so as not to aggravate the situation. It's best to leave this to the vet.

At the appointment, the veterinarian will examine the animal and be sure to ask its owner questions that can help diagnose the disease. The owner must remember and tell in detail about the nature of the vomit and all the accompanying symptoms.

You should not give your cat any medications before visiting the veterinary clinic. And if the animal did take medications, then be sure to tell the veterinarian about it. This will help avoid misdiagnosis.

The cat's blood, feces, and even vomit will be collected for examination. The sooner the animal is prescribed treatment, the better. Otherwise, everything may end in the death of the pet, since there are diseases from which a cat can “burn out” in a couple of days or even earlier.

Treatment of vomiting in a cat

Treatment will depend on the cause of the vomiting. If a serious disease is discovered, the veterinarian will prescribe a course of treatment, and the owner will only be required to follow all recommendations.

Vomiting in a cat caused by overeating will require dietary changes. You will have to feed her in small portions and more often. A temporary diet will be prescribed, consisting only of lean chicken meat, boiled rice, soft-boiled eggs and cottage cheese. Accessible by the cat There should always be a bowl of clean water, because at this time she needs to drink as much as possible.

There is one good traditional medicine that helps in the fight against vomiting - a decoction of flax seeds and chamomile (chamomile tincture is also acceptable). Give your cat a spoonful of this decoction a day.

If vomiting is severe and frequent, you cannot do without intramuscular injections of Cerucal and No-shpa. The dosage of the drug is calculated based on the weight of the animal - 0.1 ml of medicine per 1 kg. The sorbents Entorosgel and Atoxil would be useful for a cat in such a situation.

But again, you should not experiment and self-medicate, and do not take any measures without a veterinarian.

What to do if your cat is vomiting

The first thing to do if your cat is vomiting is to stop feeding her for 5, or even better, 8 hours. Leave only a bowl of water. But if your pet does not drink, there is no need to force him to do so.

You can rule out any disease by measuring the animal’s temperature, as well as examining the oral cavity and making sure that there are no foreign objects or wounds there.

Prevention of vomiting

For cats, vomiting can be prevented by timely vaccination and examinations by a veterinarian.

During seasonal molting, the cat will need the help of its owner. Its fur must be combed out especially carefully, and in order to remove the fur from the stomach, the cat must sometimes be fed with special food.

Your cat should not overeat, so it is extremely important to monitor its diet and ensure that it drinks enough water.

Cat toys should not contain small parts that break off easily and can end up in the pet's stomach, causing him to vomit.

If the owner of a cat treats her with full responsibility, monitors her behavior and what she eats, she will be able to notice and prevent signs of vomiting.

Pet furballs are susceptible to a variety of diseases and problems. The owner can only monitor the behavior all the time in order to see deviations in time and begin treatment. But it is simply impossible not to notice some diseases, and these include vomiting of undigested food in a cat. Some owners ignore the symptom, believing that the pet is simply going through hard times, and soon everything will go away on its own - and in vain! The cat needs to be shown to specialists, because the reasons can be very serious and lead to death.

Why does a cat vomit after eating? Causes

There can be many of them, some of them should not cause concern, especially if they appear once. When a symptom recurs regularly, the problem turns out to be deeper and a diagnosis is needed.

This is interesting! Vomiting may be caused by a change in diet. Even high-quality food after natural products must be introduced gradually. Don't put your cat on a vegetarian diet - she needs a lot of protein.

Diagnosis of the disease

So, you don’t know why your cat vomits after eating food, in which case, consult a doctor. The veterinarian will examine the pet; it is very important to talk about all the symptoms and the nature of the vomit, because this will allow you to better see the clinical picture. It would be a mistake to take antipyretic and other medications before visiting the clinic. In this case, the doctor may mistakenly diagnose the cause, so it is worth reporting the medications you took.

The animal will have to undergo tests: blood and feces. It is often possible to obtain the vomit itself, which is examined for the presence of mucus and blood. It is important to start diagnosis on time, since every day counts: some diseases accompanied by vomiting can lead to death in a couple of days, others even earlier.

Cat treatment

There is no need to give your pet any medications, because vomiting is not a disease itself, but only a symptom of a dozen problems. It is impossible to determine the cause at home; if you prescribe the wrong drug yourself, your health condition can only worsen. You cannot ignore vomiting, thinking that the poisoning will go away on its own: this will be a mistake, because poor-quality food is not always the cause; stomach problems can be more alarming.

The whole process should be accompanied by the intake of healthy food, products that restore water-salt balance, and vitamins. It would also be useful to have a gentle daily routine, excluding contact with other animals and exposure to the cold.

Note! The best food is mice, as their fur contains sulfur, which is necessary for fluffy fur. You should not give your cat dog food; it is not able to meet its protein needs.

Some owners ignore the symptom, believing that the pet is simply going through hard times, and soon everything will go away on its own - and in vain.

Every cat owner has noticed from time to time an eating disorder in their pet, which manifests itself in the form of belching, nausea or vomiting. All these reflexes are natural and have a protective function. Therefore, if a cat vomits after eating undigested food, this may be a banal sign of overeating. In this case, the pet tries to get rid of excess food by vomiting. The cat also vomits undigested leftovers after eating if it has not eaten for a long time.

But in some cases, if a cat vomits after eating food, then the cause of vomiting may be the presence of serious chronic diseases. Veterinary clinic specialists will be able to determine the true causes of vomiting and prescribe a complex of treatment for your pet. The veterinarian will determine what is causing the vomiting—a foreign body, overeating, poisoning, the presence of systemic disorders in the body’s functioning—and will tell the cat’s owner about the specifics of caring for a sick animal.

Sometimes a cat's vomiting after eating is not caused by a sudden gastrointestinal upset as a result of overeating or a change in diet, but by the presence of a chronic illness. In such cases, vomiting is just one of the warning signs that the owner should take as a signal to visit the veterinarian.

In addition to eating disorders, a pet may have other symptoms that the owner should be wary of, such as:

• weakness;
• dehydration;
• poor appetite;
• apathy.

But if the pet loses its vitality before our eyes and the owner has no idea why the cat is vomiting, then it is necessary to immediately contact a veterinary clinic.

Poor diet is one of the causes of vomiting

If an animal owner is trying to find an answer to the question: why does a cat vomit after eating, then he should pay attention to the animal’s diet. A cat has a special structure of enzymatic pathways, so its nutrition should be based on complete, high-quality protein. But if a cat eats food of poor quality, this means that the nutrients from it are not absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, and the pet tries to get rid of the food by vomiting.

To avoid such phenomena, you need to feed your cat good natural food or choose commercial or super-premium food. If you add advertised cheap cat food to your diet, which contains only 2-3 percent meat, and the rest of the protein deficiency is made up by offal (feathers, beaks, sinews, skin, animal heads), then this food may not be absorbed in the cat’s body and cause bouts of vomiting.

It is important to understand that the mechanism of vomiting can be natural and safe; in such cases, the cat is not prescribed treatment, and its body copes with the disease on its own.

Every time buying food in a store, the animal owner should pay attention to the label. It contains information about additives used as preservatives and coloring agents. If the food contains propylene glycol, ethoxyquin, chemical dyes or emulsifiers, then this is a real poison for cats that the owner introduces into the diet with his own hands. All these additives, preservatives and just useless fillers can cause inflammation and cause vomiting.

It is important to know what can poison a cat and not to use cheap food and low-quality products to feed your furry pets.

If, despite the owner’s efforts, the cat is poisoned, the veterinarian will tell you what to do at home. He will determine what caused the cat’s poisoning, symptoms and treatment of which may differ for different animals and prescribe treatment with veterinary drugs.

But even on a high-quality natural diet, a cat can vomit undigested food. In this case, an analysis of the foods included in the diet will help you find out why your cat often vomits. If a cat's food, in addition to healthy fermented milk products, contains whole fat milk, it can provoke secondary symptoms of gastrointestinal dysfunction, including vomiting.

Cats do not have the enzymes necessary to digest lactose and as a result, after each intake of cow's milk, the pet may experience discomfort, upset stomach, vomiting and nausea. To enable cats that have problems with digestion and absorption of food to lead a normal life, it is worth including in their diet a food such as Gastro Intestinal for cats from Royal Canin. It is developed for animals as a dietary food for problems with the gastrointestinal tract. Read more about the Royal Canin veterinary diet.

Feed intolerance

If a cat has food intolerance, then certain components of the food become the causes of allergic reactions. In this case, vomiting in cats, the cause and treatment of which is discussed with the veterinarian, is not accompanied by other symptoms. The cat has a healthy appearance, normal body weight and is active and playful. Vomiting as a result of food allergies occurs only when the pet eats a certain food.

As preventive methods, you can use special veterinary foods designed for pets with food allergies. They contain carefully selected ingredients, and the recipe involves a complete rejection of allergens and controversial components. It is important to identify which product or nutrient causes the cat to vomit in order to subsequently refuse to use it in the diet.

Overeating and rapid absorption of food

Quite often, a cat may vomit after eating due to overeating or eating food too quickly. In a kitten, the esophagus is horizontal, and when large portions are ingested, the body can close the sphincter located in the lower esophagus and cause regurgitation of undigested food. This vomiting occurs a few minutes after the pet has eaten.

This behavior is often observed in cats living in the same territory with other animals. The pet is trying to survive the competition and because of this, it tries to eat as much food as possible at one time. If a cat owner is faced with such a situation, then he should change the feeding rules.

It is recommended to give the cat a standardized portion at a time, in which the components are not cut very finely, but not very coarsely. If several cats live in the same house, they should be fed in separate rooms so as not to provoke competition between pets. If your cat feels safe while eating and does not feel threatened by other pets, she will be able to eat slowly and naturally, rather than greedily gulping down the entire portion in a few minutes.

Disruption of internal organs

If a cat is vomiting, then the cause may be the presence of diseases. For example, if the necessary treatment for pancreatitis in cats is not carried out, then the animal’s body does not produce enough enzymes necessary for digestion. Deficiencies of lipase, protease and amylase can cause eating disorders, the secondary manifestation of which is vomiting. If the owner cannot understand why the cat drinks a lot of water and has no appetite, then she may be worried about acute pancreatitis.

To help a sick animal, the veterinarian prescribes a special diet and recommends adding the necessary enzymes to the diet. Vomiting can also be caused by gastritis in a cat, the symptoms of which should be checked with a veterinarian for treatment.

A cat may vomit frequently due to a number of other diseases, including:

1. intestinal inflammation;
2. irritable bowel syndrome;
3. enteritis;
4. colitis;
5. hyperthyroidism.

The causes of vomiting can vary, so the cat owner should consult a veterinarian before taking any action. A veterinary medicine specialist will conduct the necessary diagnostics and prescribe a series of laboratory tests, on the basis of which he will draw a conclusion about the causes of digestive disorders in the animal. After this, the sick animal will be prescribed a diet and a set of veterinary medications that will not just eliminate vomiting, but will fight the causes of its occurrence.

From time to time, for various reasons, mustachioed and striped pets reject what they have eaten back, which leads to a panicky question among their owners: what to do when a cat vomits after eating, what can cause this and whether the pet has any health problems.

In fact, this is not always something to be afraid of. Regurgitation is not necessarily a symptom of illness, often the cause of food rejection is the special feline physiology. But if this is repeated systematically, worrying about the cat’s health may be completely justified.

What causes cats to burp?

There may be several reasons for regurgitation:

1. Cat after lambing. When the time comes to introduce the little cubs to the main food, the mother cat regurgitates the digested food and feeds it to the kittens. In this way, the stomachs of babies, which are not yet adapted to rough food, get used to digesting meat. Rejection is not a cause for concern here.
2. Pregnancy. At the beginning of pregnancy, a cat regurgitates food, and the reason for this is banal toxicosis. Food rejection is also possible in the first few days after lambing.
3. Overeating at speed. If a cat greedily fills its stomach out of hunger, regurgitation is often observed after eating to relieve heaviness in the stomach. This happens in homes where there are several pets, and everyone strives to have time to grab their portion. It happens that a cat, having swallowed food hastily, secretly regurgitates the food somewhere in a secluded corner and re-absorbs it calmly.
4. After sterilization(castration). Pushing out food occurs if the animal has eaten before it has fully recovered from anesthesia.
5. Shaking in transport. If your pet has eaten shortly before traveling, he may vomit this food along the way.
6. High carbohydrate content in food. Food that is heavy in this sense may not be absorbed into the cat’s gastrointestinal tract and will be rejected.
7. Poor quality or expired food. The cat’s body cannot digest it and pushes such food out.
8. Hairballs. When licking a fur coat, a cat swallows a lot of fur, which settles in their stomach and forms into dense clumps. Periodically, the animal makes attempts to regurgitate them back in order to cleanse the stomach and intestines. If this happens 1-4 times a month, this is normal.
9. Foreign object. If something foreign is stuck in the pet’s throat (especially something long, like a thread, New Year’s rain, etc.), the cat tries to push out the foreign body, which, once caught, is not swallowed or spit out, but causes a gag reflex.

These are the reasons that cause one-time rejection, but if this happens often, and even more so if there is a general deterioration in the condition, pushing out food resembles vomiting - it’s time to urgently contact a veterinarian.

Differences between vomiting and regurgitation

If immediately after regurgitation the cat behaves calmly and naturally, there is nothing to worry about, this is not vomiting as such. You can distinguish vomiting from regurgitation of hair or food by the following signs:

• the process is painless, not painful;
• general condition does not worsen, there are no signs of disease;
• The cat sometimes provokes regurgitation itself as needed.

Unlike regurgitation, vomiting is accompanied by more alarming manifestations both in the state of the animal’s health and in the way this rejected mass looks:

• Thick, dark brown vomit can be caused by a tumor, ulcer, foreign object, kidney failure, or gastrointestinal disease.
• Bright scarlet inclusions indicate bleeding in the esophagus or mouth.
• White foam. It is not dangerous if done once (means that the cat ate on an empty stomach, and as a result, gastric juice, air and mucus were released). It's a bad symptom if it happens often.
• Yellow vomit indicates bile entering the stomach and irritating its mucous membrane, problems with the liver, intestines, or the cat has eaten too many eggs.
• Frequent vomiting of undigested food – problems with the intestines, gall bladder, and liver. Intestinal obstruction or infection is possible.
• Yellow-gray mass - it’s time to change industrial food.
• Green vomit is possible with severe infections or bile or intestinal contents entering the stomach. Not to be confused with regurgitation, when the green color is caused by the cat eating grass.
• Mucus impurities indicate gastritis, helminthic infestations (if there is mucus in the stool), and viral intestinal diseases.
• Vomits like a fountain when the gastrointestinal tract is completely blocked (foreign body, ICP, encephalitis, blood clots, narrowing of the canal, large accumulations of hairballs inside that were not removed in time), when under internal pressure the vomit is pushed out unexpectedly and over a long distance.

These are already very serious signs in which an emergency visit to the veterinarian can be truly vital for the pet.

What to do when spitting up

Although regurgitation is not as dangerous as vomiting, and such nausea after eating is rarely a serious symptom, to reduce the occurrence of such situations, the pet may need help from its owners.

To do this, it is important to provide the animal with proper feeding: food should be fresh, at room temperature. It is necessary to observe the amount of food offered to the cat, as well as ensure the pet’s access to water.

If you are planning a trip, you should not feed your pet several hours before departure. During the journey, the cat regurgitates because the food is literally churned in the stomach and eventually vomited back out.

The body clearly does not accept any food - replace it.

You can try to remove the foreign object yourself, but if it is stuck deep, you should urgently take the cat to the doctor.

If a cat's regurgitation is caused by attempts to push fur out of the stomach, these manifestations can be reduced by regularly brushing the pet's coat and thus removing loose hairs (especially important for long-haired cats and during the molting period). Thanks to this procedure, “fur plugs” accumulate longer, and the animal, regurgitating hairballs, will be less likely to frighten its owners.

Your pet should be examined by a veterinarian at least once a year.

What not to do

When a cat regurgitates all the food one time after eating or simply rejects hairballs from time to time, nothing needs to be done. But even if your pet is vomiting, you should not:

• give human drugs (it’s hardly worth explaining why);
• drink water if it provokes additional attacks;
• give food for a day;
• give water if for some reason the animal has ingested a chemical substance;
• delay contacting a doctor if your cat vomits for more than a day.

Only competent and balanced actions of the owners will eliminate the possibility of complications of existing diseases or the transformation of ordinary food or fur rejection into a more serious problem.