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.
My indoor/ outdooe cat was howling last Tuesday night to go out and dry heaving when I opened yhe door. He went out and I noticed a vomited rodent or bird on the carpet and a small, dark area of what looked like dark mushroom soup with large chunks. None of this had an odor. Our cat came inside as usual the following day and slept as usual. He ate and drank andwent about his usual routine. He went out that evening and we haven’t seen him for a week. We have tried so many things and we are very worried.
My cat was adopted 1 year ago. He is 5 years old. About 2 week after we got him, he vomited violently and had diarrhea, both containing blood. He was fine after that. We changed his food and 2 weeks later, the same thing happened. We took him to the vet. Xrays were taken and nothing found. The vet said to bring him back for blood work, sonar gram, possible surgery. We took him home and tried different food. In between these episodes, he is fine. Eats, plays, sleeps. He weighs 17 lbs and doesn’t lose any weight. He is not really fat, just a big cat. It has been a year now and these episodes still continue, but more frequently. Any suggestions as far as a special diet?
Hello, See our dietary suggestions below.
Guidance On Food
We recommend what not to feed. Especially avoid corn, wheat and soy and for some cats carragenan and guar gum. Next, for many cats but not all, no grains and no chicken.
Next, unless dry is all the cat will eat, no dry. Dry food dries them out. (Who’d would have guessed!) Canned is not so great either. Imagine yourself living out of cans! Canned and dry food are devoid of enzymes and the proteins are denatured. These deficiencies can be remedied with supplements.
The best is raw but some cats cannot handle raw. We feed our cat Nature’s Variety frozen raw carried by most large pet stores. Nature’s Variety also sells a very good canned and dry. That said not all cats will eat Nature’s Variety.
Of all the proteins, rabbit, lamb and venison are the best. Avoid all birds (chicken, turkey, duck) since many cats are allergic to them, especially the chicken.
All food changes should be done incrementally. A 10% change per day is recommended. If at any time the GI problems get worse, then that food is not recommended.
Avoid too many variables by using only “single protein, limited ingredient” foods.
Instinct Pet Food is a limited ingredient single protein food, which has been successful for many but which may or may not be the right food for your cat:
If your cat has a thyroid condition, avoid lamb, venison, and chicken as they are too energetically hot. For hyperthyroid cats, duck, rabbit and pork are beneficial. Also, for hyperthyroid cats avoid seafood and supplemental iodine. For FIP cats no pea protein.
Super Carnivore Bone Broth Supplement
Bone broth can be bought frozen, shelf stable, and refrigerated. But the best bone broth is home made.
(1) Breville Slow Cooker is recommended. A very slow slow cooker is necessary so that the bones can cook for days.
(2) Ingredients: 5 lbs bones, 5 table spoons Apple Cider Vinegar, clean water
(3) Cook on low setting for at least 48 hours. Stop when bones are brittle.
(4) Although bone broth could be a staple food. It is time consuming to make so the dosages should be adjusted for weight. At least a few teaspoons for a 10 lb animal and a few ounces or more for a 100 pound animal
Fermented Fish Stock
You can buy frozen, pre-made fermented fish stock from Answers Pet Food, which has helped quite a few very very difficult cases.
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My little kitten has having vomit and diarrhea time to time 10-15 min. what should i have to do , what i have to do to stop kittens vomit and diarrhea??
Hi, I am sorry to hear about your cat but i am glad you found us. I recommend the Gastro Prime Combo https://vitalityscience.com/product/gastro-prime-combo-cats/ It will help stabilize upset GI functions and help your kitty transition to food. Most kittens will have GI problems when they are young and it is very beneficial to start them on our protocol early. Also keep in mind a diet of no corn, wheat, soy or chicken. Let us know how else we can help
Hi, my cat get injured after fight with other male cat and get serious injury on the top of his back foot.My vet gave him antibiotics medicine named Ogmentin.his wound is healing rapidly but after 3 day medicine my cat start vomiting even vomit water since morning and cat just ate grass and after laps of 7 hours i am really worried about his fast.What to do?
Perhaps it is temporary. The antibiotics can cause stomach upset. Wait a few days and let us see.