Are some cats just pukers for no real reason???

My new cat Murray (adopted 18 Nov.) is an adult short-haired male about 4-6 yrs old, and is a very lively, playful, gorgeous boy, who eats well, poos and pees normally. He was wormed at the SPCA the day I got him.
I brush him, which he likes, and he grooms himself like most cats - not excessively.

About three or four times a week he pukes. On my brand new carpet. I don't find it till I get home from work, and, although I'm not a very fussy person, furniture-wise, I do get a bit upset by what's happening to the carpet!
I think he's doing it to bring up fur, but he does have access to the outdoors, and I guess I'd like him to follow Myrtle's wonderful example and chew some grass daily and throw that up a few minutes later - outside.
And on the very rare occasions that she puked up food, she'd rush outside, or into the garage via the kitchen and do it on the concrete floor there (what a good considerate girl!)
My experience of cats is limited to Myrtle and Murray, but I suspect frequent puking is not at all uncommon.
Any bright ideas to spare my carpet too many more of these deposits? Laying newspaper everywhere is not really an option as he rips up any newspaper he can get his teeth into, even while you are trying to read it!

 

Hi Allie,
the only thing I can think of is to try some VetBasis or some Laxatone. Maybe that will help Murray. Waldo will go out of his way to puke on a rug or in an "unreachable" place. Myrtle had you spoiled girl.
jeanne

 

Thanks, Jeanne!

Yes, I was spoiled by Myrtle, who was very intelligent and got the message that carpets weren't for throwing up on. Mind you, she was an incurable furniture- clawer, and ruined a lounge suite in a matter of days (while I was at work... of course!), whereas Murray never claws anything but an outdoor fence-post or two!

Can't get too angry at him - he's the cuddliest, smoochiest boy on God's earth, and you have to love him! cat_pet_icon

 

Allie,

Make sure the brush you are using is also picking up the hair. Some brushes only brush the surface and dont actually pick up the dead hair that is loosened. I like to use a flea comb because it gets the loose hair in the undercoat out.

and yes...some cats are natural pukers. Is it after eating or before eating? Try noting a pattern. Sometimes conor will puke 1 or 2 hours before feeding, and I think its empty stomach vomiting, hes so hungry he gets all wound up.

 

Does he "scarf 'n' barf"? Eat very rapidly and then shortly afterwards, vomit?

If yes, he may just be eating too fast and putting down the food in small amounts or partially frozen, could slow him down.

 

Nip (passed away in 2008) was a puker. The vets could never find anything wrong with her, she would just puke almost daily for 10 years. We learned to live with it. Our Roscoe pukes every once in a while, I think it's a hairball most of the time, which I give him meds for. He will also puke within minutes of eating ANY canned food. No one knows why, because he doesn't scarf it down and he isn't allergic to anything. So.. *shrug*

Maybe try some hairball meds from your vet?

 

Thanks for your thoughts/suggestions!

No, he doesn't scarf and barf - he eats a bit at a time throughout the day, and doesn't puke directly after eating, but quite some time later. But he doesn't puke on an empty stomach, either! So - I am leaning to it being fur rather than food.

I suspect that he didn't groom much while in the SPCA (for 2 months) - his coat didn't look all that great when I got him, whereas now it is sleek and shiny. Perhaps the increase in grooming has set him on the puke path.
I will use the flea comb idea, Lisa - I do have one, and I know what you mean about how much more fur it gets out than a brush. Even an ordinary comb removes far more hair than most brushes. And maybe the hot weather we've had for weeks now (early summer) means there is a lot of dead fur in there.
I've got some hairball stuff - well, they are little crunchies from the supermarket, so may nor be much good - and if they don't help, I'll try the vet.
Thanks again!

 

I have one here that I always thought was just a puker, until we started trying to figure out what Onyx was allergic to. When we removed beef from the diet, the puking stopped. So you might want to track what food he has just eaten before the puking and see if there is a pattern. It could be something that isn't setting well in the tummy. I know Amon Ra will puke on beef, and Max will puke everything he gets tuna cat food, he is fine with human tuna, but friskies flaked Tuna in sauce will make him puke every time.

Myrtle had you very spoiled....all 10 of mine will seach out a rug or piece of furniture to puke on. The harder it is for the human to clean the better for puking on in my cats' book...lol

Mel, Max & The Fur Gang

 

We were having a *lot* of problems with Burrito vomiting. I smear the wet food out over dinner plates so it's harder to scarf and barf. I also got one of those 5 compartment timed pet food containers and so they get smaller amounts of wet food during the day.

What really solved the problem though was only feeding him chicken and turkey. if I try to feed him any other meat source, he'll puke. He even puked the chicken and beef mix up. Since I removed all the dry food (even the low carb, chicken dry food), and only feed them wet chicken or turkey, there's been no vomiting.

 

My Jason is a hairball puker. Once he started feeling better (on top of being diabetic, he had a systemic bacterial infection and was very underweight since he was a stray), he started grooming more and the puking started. He was puking up a hairball every day. I finally had to start him on Laxatone (since he's now a diet-controlled diabetic, I didn't want to use any of the hairball treats). I give him just a tiny amount of Laxatone every day and he's fine. If I miss even one day, he pukes the next day.

My other two cats puke on occasion. One throws up bile every once and a while - I still have no idea why. The other will throw up partially digested food or hairballs. I think part of her problem is she tries to eat just about everything. She threw up a paperclip once (she's not the brightest bulb around :lol: ).

All three of them just puke wherever they happen to be when they start throwing up - usually on my carpet or the bed. Even if one is standing on tile, they will move enough to throw on carpet or a rug.

Good luck with trying to reduce Murry's puking!

 

All good advice from the other posts. When I had my Himalayan, she had trouble with hairballs so badly. She did not like anything that you could buy like Laxatone but would lick regular Vaseline petroleum jelly (just the regular kind - nothing fancy) from my finger every day. It helped. Also, brush, brush, brush. I have seen a brush called the furimator too but have no clue if it would work or not. My cats that I have now don't have much of a problem with hairballs thank goodness. Also eating just poultry related food helped since it was a lighter shade when it was puked on the carpet. Tan chicken food was easier to clean up than brown beef food for example. I like the idea about tracking the food and pukes together to see if it is a certain type of food causing it. I think dry food was worse too so stick with canned. She died when she was 19 so I had plenty of experience cleaning carpet!

 

Well - good idea about watching if the choice of food is the cause! :roll:

Some things I have discovered - he prefers canned food over dry, absolutely. At the SPCA apparently they all graze on some Hill's dry and get one canned meal a day, so I provided both wet and dry at the beginning so as not to upset him - and he hardly touched the dry.
And, despite the BIG stock-up on FF that I made when they were on special..... he now refuses to eat FF, except the chunky chicken one! Isn't that typical.
Luckily for me, he loves the locally made product "Chef" (the ad slogan goes "Cats prefer Chef!" - I could sing it to you!). Myrtle also had heard the ad. and agreed!
It looks good meaty stuff - comes in different sized cans and flavours and types, and also in meal-sized foil pouches. A bag of four pouches, each one containing a bit more than a can of FF, costs me about NZ$2.70, whereas one can of FF at the normal price is roughly NZ$1.20.... so I don't mind if FF is not on his menu!! :smile: It seems impossible to get a list of the ingredients, however, so for diabetic Myrtle, I did try to stick to the "good" FF varieties.

Murray hasn't puked for the last couple of days on any of the Chef flavours (beef, rabbit, chicken), so my fingers are crossed... but I'll observe carefully.
The worst puke from the point of view of carpet stain was from a can of classic Beef FF, I think, but he won't eat it now, anyway.
He has also learned that if he makes that awful retching noise at 3 a.m. on top of my bed, all hell will break loose (from me). In fact, on that occasion, I frightened him so much he just forgot to throw up altogether! :mrgreen:

 

I hope your vomiting issues all go away and your kitty has a happy tummy!

As someone that has cleaned up more than her fair share of vomit piles, I've tried every single cleaning product and method....every type of spray and foam. I even have a green machine. What I've found to work the best is: put paper towels over the vomit immediately. Wait a couple days until the vomit is mostly dried. On my carpet at least, once the vomit is dry, you can peel up the dried vomit and get most of it this way. This assumes of course that you didn't rub it down into the carpet while it was wet. Then, I take one of the measuring caps from my laundry detergent and put in about a teaspoonful of the dry oxiclean powder (sometimes I buy the Sun knockoff, because it's cheaper). I then fill the cap almost to the top with tapwater. I swirl it with my finger to mix the oxiclean a bit (most of it won't dissolve, but don't worry). I then pour this capful directly all over the puke stain. Usually, it lifts the stain right out in front of your eyes (this trick also works great on red wine stains!). You then take a towel and rub, and 99% of the time the stain comes completely out.

Luckily, my Burrito has stopped vomiting (for awhile, he was vomiting daily) so I haven't had to use this trick in a few weeks!

 

Hi Allie

The short answer to your question is no. Cats don't puke for no reason. Hairballs are possible in cats with abnormal (long-haired) coats, but keep in mind that cats that groom themselves will often have hair in the puke because they are grooming themselves, not because they are puking hair. Does that make sense? Hair is part of the normal stomach contents in cats and may appear in puke occasionally. I think hairballs are over-diagnosed, actually.

Your kitty may be avoiding the FF because he associates tummy discomfort with eating them, or the smell of them with having vomited it up. Does your vet know about his vomiting issues? He has had a checkup recently? You may want to try a limited-ingredient (allergy) food from the vet (venison/kangaroo/whatever); if this is not possible for some reason, you should pick a food that he'll eat that has as few ingredients as possible and feed only that, without treats or other foods, from now on and see how it goes. This is not nearly as good as using an rx food because regular foods can be contaminated at the processing plant by other foods, but it's better than nothing. I'd give it a try.

IIRC, he is a young cat. In an older cat frequent vomiting is a sign of pancreatitis and can be a sign of cancer. An increase or the onset of vomiting should be taken quite seriously in an older cat.

Hope this helps.

 

Many thanks -both about how to deal with the carpet stains, Peznin, and for your info and expertise, Jess.
I've just had Murray since 18 Nov. and he'd had his vaccinations and worm treatments, so, no he hasn't been to the vet except for a claw trim within a couple of days of my getting him.

No puke for about 3 days now, and the FF is off the menu, now, so it MAY just have been that.
He won't touch anything he doesn't like the taste or smell of, and that includes some non-FF things.
If he resumes puking, I will get him checked out.

 

Willie will go through spells where he's a bit pukier than normal. If it doesn't gross you out too much, I find that it is tremendously easier to clean up dry cat puke than wet... and the effects on the carpet are far less. Cover with a paper towel for half a day or until it is dry, then it will often come right up with a damp towel.

Good luck getting to the bottom of this!.

 

It's fantastic to get that tip about leaving the puke to dry out - who'd have thunk it?? :mrgreen:
I sure have made a mess removing wet puke - not that I've left stains, exactly, but the carpet has some lighter patches that really stand out (to me)

He seems to have stopped (anti-jinx)...... or maybe Myrtle whispered in his ear and said "NOT on the carpet, boy! :evil: Didn't your parents teach you any manners?"

 

I had to reply to this because I've had two cats that seemed to be pukers. In both cases, it was some type of food intolerance. Things to look for: brewers yeast, brewers rice, and beet pulp. These are common additives to cats foods (even good brands) that apparently caused problems for two of my cats. After I eliminated those issues, no more barfing! Laura

 

I wonder if perhaps the problem is that Murray had a very same-y sort of diet during his 2+ months at the SPCA - dry food of a particular brand and no great variety in their daily canned food meal, whereas I was offering him something different and "better" quality every day.

I did come home to a puke on the bed :-x on Friday (now Sunday), but as far as I can see, there is no particular type of meat that is a problem. Maybe there is an ingredient that's bothering him... or maybe his tummy will settle down if I stick to one or two flavours for a while.

I have quite a lot of cans of FF varieties to get rid of, unfortunately... he really won't eat any of it!!
Today I got him some raw horse meat (from a pet food shop). It is such lovely lean looking meat, I'd almost eat it myself if it wasn't horse! I tried giving it to him raw (Myrtle LOVED it) but he gave me a weird look ("what the????!!). However, I zapped it for 10 seconds in the microwave and after it had cooled down I gave it to him and he devoured it with gusto. He scarfed... but didn't barf! That might be a good choice as part of his diet - there's no funny ingredients in that meat!

 

no

Cat should not barf much at all really. Even "scarf and barf" is overrated IMHO. I thought H was a "scarf and barfer" and it turned out he had lymphoma.

If your cat is barfing more than once a month or even every couple months I would recommend getting examined for IBD:
http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/IBD
And at least changing the diet to something gulten free at minimum or hopefully grain free.

If hairballs are the issue then I recommend aggressive grooming. With appropriate aggressive once weekly grooming then most if not all hairballs can be eliminated too.