Why is the cat throwing up????

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Miss KT is home for the weekend, and her toy panther just yakked on the living room rug. I pointed out that, since it was her panther, she needed to clean it up. She looked at me, face full of surprise, and asked, "But why is the cat throwing up?"

Like I can interview Thor and find out why his little tummy hurt. Sheesh.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
My mom's standard answer was "because you gave him too many treats" or "because he is angry with you and that is how he shows it. go clean it up."

Of course we had a cat who barfed when she got upset. then in college I had Ralph Kitty who would throw up in my roommates shoes or clothes when she and her boyfriend had a fight (which was at elast every other day). He NEVER yakked in my stuff, only in hers, lol. He hated her and her boyfriend because they fought and threw things at each other.

Don't let her out of cleaning it up!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Cats can throw up at will. They do it get rid of things than are irritating their stomachs. When my Jake was still going out and hunting, he used to throw up the indigestible bits whenever he made a kill.

It's different than actually being sick. Squeaky throws up a hairball weekly. Jakey at least gets off the furniture and pukes on the floor. Squeaky just pukes wherever it is. Plus, she is a firm believer in hitting as many surfaces as possible with each event.

Between hairballs and"scarf and barf", she makes a mess.

The last time she upchucked from eating too fast, she hit the kitchen table, the back of a chair, the seat of the same chair...AND the floor.

Jakey was indisposed a couple of weeks ago and was vomiting against his will. He puked on the comforter in the bedroom and I thought his lungs were gonna come up.

Whatever it was. He was fine after puking other than being a bit depressed for a couple of days. I called the vet and he said, that as long as the puking had stopped and he was eating and drinking, it wasn't anything to worry about.

Jakey has arthritis and takes narcotic painkiller when he's really having a tough time. Since I puke from narcotics, I was wondering if it wasn't that with him.
 

helpangel

Active Member
Cats throw up anything that irritates their stomach, also from stress, hair balls... Misty is just a pig she eats 3 X what she can handle then launches it. In our house whoever sees the cat sick cleans it up (so usually can get a newspaper under them)
Nancy
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Nancy, my mother rapidly discovered that "Finders Cleaners" rules served only to ensure that no family member except herself would even glance at the floor. Or at least she was the only one who admitted finding it. After a few episodes of this, she offered a new family rule. It would sit there until my father got home and then he had to deal with it. If he refused, she would disassemble his computers and hide the components and arts all over the state.

Why? Bcause my father kept walking around the vomit and leaving it for her to find. At the time only one of our cats barfed much and he almost always in one specific spot in my parent room (that you had to be a ninja to get around every single time with-o looking at the floor).

One thing that can be a big factor in repeated vomiting is the cat's drinking water. Just because he has had zero problems with water from that source in the past does NOT man that he isn't having problems with the water now. It could be the bowl isn't cleaned enough (NOT saying you are a bad housekeeper or cat servant, just that sometimes it is easy to forget it or to check that others are also keeping it clean). It also could be that it isn't rinsed well eough before water is put in it. It also could be that your water source is a bit different. If you get water from the city, aka not a well on your property, you don't know the source of your water. Around here the water can change substantially at times. mostly because of the natural changes in the lake and other water sources. The water is safe to drink, but definitely is different. Cats are super sensitive to these changes an do not always handle them well.

We have chosen to keep a set of bowls just for the cat's water and food so that they can be put into the dishwasher each day. We also give him bottled water or water filtered through a Brita type filter pitcher. It has made a HUGE difference for our cats (both my cats and my parents' cats). Some cats do much better if their bowls are elevated a few inches so that their heads are not hanging down as they stand to eat/drink. You can buy fancy dishes and dish stands to do this, or put an upside down box under the dishes. You want a height that allows the cat to have her head at least parallel to the floor as she eats and drinks. A small cat needs less of a lift than a larger or taller cat will.
 

helpangel

Active Member
thanks for the tip - clean water is a key and my launcher is the only one who drinks from the toilet, you might be onto something
(explains blue spots in litterbox :rofl: just kidding)

none of us like to slide thru it barefoot so when we see a cat sick usually will shove a newspaper in front of them then put it in the trash

Nancy
 
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