Cat vomiting and diarrhea are unfortunate but common aspects of pet ownership. Cats are susceptible to a large range of stomach upsets, which can often result in your cat vomiting, having diarrhea, or both.
Any time your cat experiences a bout of vomiting or diarrhea is a cause for concern, but it is necessary to figure out the underlying reason. This way, you can change or eliminate the causative factors. Since chronic vomiting and diarrhea (defined as occurring more than two or three times a week on a regular basis) can be a sign of underlying health problems or a serious illness, it is imperative to treat vomiting and diarrhea early.
What Causes Cat Vomiting and Diarrhea?
Often, cat diarrhea and vomiting are linked to a diet change, increased stress, or another environmental factor. It is when diarrhea and vomiting occur without any obvious cause that finding a treatment becomes frustrating.
Diet
All types of pets can have sensitive stomachs, but cats are especially susceptible to food sensitivities, allergies, and intolerances. These can manifest themselves in the form of vomiting and diarrhea. If your cat begins having increased episodes of vomiting or diarrhea following a diet change, it may be that she is not able to tolerate one of the ingredients in the new food. Often, switching back to the previous food will solve this problem. If it does not, it may be necessary to put your cat on a personalized or home-prepared diet to determine what ingredients she is sensitive to.
Despite their owners’ best efforts to find a food that does not cause problems, some cats do not tolerate any commercially-prepared cat foods. Such cats often develop chronic diarrhea and vomiting, which can leave them unable to absorb nutrients from their food properly, causing low energy levels and a poor coat. In addition, chronic diarrhea in cats positively correlates with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) — a condition where the lining of the intestine becomes inflamed and irritated. As well as causing continual discomfort for the cat, untreated IBD will often develop into lymphoma, a type of cancer.
What Not To Do
In the past, the solution to cat vomiting and diarrhea was medication (usually antibiotics) and fasting. However, recent studies have found that in many cases antibiotics are not only unnecessary, their overuse leads to antibiotic resistance problems. Using antibiotics unnecessarily can cause the medication to fail when it is necessary. In addition, antibiotics often damage the good bacteria in the gut. This leaves your pet susceptible to other opportunistic diseases and bacteria and can even result in a more serious case of vomiting or diarrhea, sometimes necessitating hospitalization. It’s hard to see how treating vomiting and diarrhea with a medication that causes more vomiting and diarrhea could be considered treatment!
Whereas fasting has long been the recommended treatment for intestinal upset in pets, even a short fast of 12 hours can cause a life-threatening liver problem called hepatic lipidosis in cats. For this reason, although fasting can be effective in giving the GI tract a “break” from an intestinal upset, fasting cats for intestinal upset is a potentially dangerous treatment.
What To Do
Thankfully, you can avoid the traditional methods of antibiotics and fasting by giving your cat a soil-based probiotic. This has been shown to be effective in 97 percent of cat gastro-intestinal upsets.
If your cat is experiencing chronic diarrhea and vomiting, a visit to your veterinarian is still necessary to rule out other potential causes, such as disease (feline panleukopenia), organ problems (kidney failure and hyperthyroidism), and parasites (Giardia and clostridium overgrowth).
Caution
Although it is often possible to treat vomiting and diarrhea in cats at home with our unique blend of remedies, there are times when vomiting and diarrhea can be a sign of a medical emergency. These situations require a visit to your veterinarian.
For instance, if vomiting or diarrhea occurs suddenly and repeatedly in a short period of time, a more sinister cause than stomach upset may be to blame. Acute, repeated vomiting in cats can be a sign of acute renal failure. Sudden failure of kidney function can affect almost every body system of the cat and it can be due to a kidney infection, toxin ingestion (poison or toxic chemical exposure), or kidney obstruction. Affected cats may experience sudden, acute vomiting, lethargy, weakness, and disorientation. This is a severe medical emergency.
As cats can develop serious liver problems if they refuse to eat or are fasted for any amount of time, refusal to eat accompanied by diarrhea and vomiting is also a cause for concern. Observe your cat for other symptoms of illness (lethargy, increased or decreased thirst or urination, hiding, and increased vocalization). These can all be signs of a more serious illness.
Hi Steve,
I have a persian Chinchilla kitten, his only 4 months old however his really sensitive and keeps having diarrhea and vomiting constantly. I have taken him to vets before but all I was given was Syrub medicine to stop his diarrhea and was told to feed him with dry cat food until he gets better. but he loves cheese and canned tuna and cooked salmon and cream spread cheese aswell could that be the reason why his getting poorly? please can you advise me with what to feed him please?
Hello Elly, The secret to our success is a comprehensive program along with email tech support. I am emailing you a more full discussion to your email now.
Hi Elly. Please dont give your cats too much dairy. Can have a bad affect on their digestive track :(
The shouldnt really be having cheese. Hope your kitty got better
Hi!
My cat been with diarrhea and vomits I let it few days bcuz was eating but one day want to eat plants then get worse not bcuz plants was toxic, I start giving him a day or two before a vitamins paste, and yesterday I decided give him the paste 3 times a day after he vomit, I notice for some reason he don’t vomit after give him that he don’t vomit the paste, he vomit again only one after 24 hour and only pooh one time and pooh was on the way looking me solid, I give him a raw egg yolk he vomit some part of that that was he vomit I give that egg taking time from one dose to other. I also give him some rain water yesterday. I hope finally stop the vomits and diarrhea, but if you have another thing that could help, please let me know, the vitamins paste been the best thing keeping him from vomiting but have to give it few times a day if pass long time without it will start vomit.
The good the what he vomit after 24 hours was a single vomit not like keep going and was some part of egg I think the last dosis. I hope he retain some of the egg. Have a lot of calories so even retain something could sustain him for a day.
HI Jen,
Your cat needs Super Pet Enzymes.
https://vitalityscience.com/product/super-pet-enzymes/
Let me know how it works.
3year old spayed tuxedo vomits if she eats anything other than real cooked meats. she is active, plays,very loving but cant eat dry or canned foods help
Since it can be very difficult to find a food that will work with cats with GI problems, I recommend sticking with whatever is working.
I have a female cat about 8mos old. She was fixed on the 13th and she’s had diarrhea and vomiting since the day after. I haven’t changed her food or anything at all. She eats and drinks but it don’t stay down for long. Is there something I can give her?
My kitten started vomiting her food sunday, has done it yesterday and today. She eats fast, and recently started eating more of the dry food. I’m wondering if she’s overeating or could have a sensitivity to an ingredient or allergy. Also loose stools for these days as well. She seems normal except for the recent issues. What are your suggestions on trying to figure this out? Canned food is fancy feast kitten food ocean whitefish. Dry food is purina small batch wild caught ocean whitefish and egg grain free. I have another cat and this is what I switched him to.