5 Things I Did To Stop My Cat’s Chronic Vomiting
We are led to believe that frequent or even semi-frequent cat vomiting is normal, but IT’S NOT.
I adopted my second cat in 2016, shortly followed by the adoption of our third and fourth cats. The following year, I noticed multiple spots of vomit in the basement where they ate. At first I didn’t know which cat it was or when it was happening, but as the condition worsened, I realized it was Ash who was throwing up about 1 hour after eating.
My cats started on dry kibble, but after some research I thought maybe it was just poor quality food causing the chronic vomiting, so I changed the food to see if that would help. And it seemed like every 6 months to a year I was changing their food to provide better quality. The vomiting would stop for a few months, then start to appear once every few weeks, then once a week, until multiple times a week and I would change their food again. In 2019 I brought Ash to the vet to get some answers, but blood tests revealed everything was “fine”.
So I just kept focusing on providing better food for them. From average kibble, to high quality kibble, to generic wet food, mid-grade wet food, high quality wet food (I’m talking $1-2 per serving!) and I was willing to pay the price if it meant the vomiting would stop.
It got to the point in 2022 where, despite eating very high quality wet food, Ash was still throwing up almost daily. He wasn’t losing weight but there’s no way he was getting adequate nutrition this way. After my sister-in-law’s experience with her dog’s chronic inflammation causing similar problems, I took Ash to a specialist to see what they could tell me. The tests revealed inflammation of the GI system, and life-long steroids is what was prescribed as a way to manage symptoms. Instead, I followed the protocol Dawn (my sister-in-law) used to heal her dog, adapting it as needed for cats. This was a more holistic approach to healing my cat’s gut to resolve his chronic vomiting once and for all.
1) Fermented Milk Cleanse
Breaking down food into nutrients requires energy, and in a healthy body, this is no problem. However, in an unhealthy and weak body, this can be a taxing process and quite difficult. Therefore, providing the most easily digestible food (or as you may hear the buzzword, bioavailable) is a key step in helping to heal the gut.
I used the Answer’s Pet Food kiefer and raw fermented goat’s milk, as fermentation increases the bioavailability of nutrients. I fed only this to all of my cats because others had developed gut issues as well from the constant changing of foods and development of allergies, that presented as plucking out fur from itchy skin in Daisy along with weight loss in her and my other cat Maxwell.
I fed this straight for a week before adding in step 2. During this time, Ash was still vomiting because he was still dealing with chronic inflammation, and my other cat Maxwell had diarrhea from the liquid only diet.
2) The Feline Leaky Gut Protocol
After a week of the milk diet, I started implementing the Adored Beast Apothocary’s leaky gut protocol for cats. What happens with chronic inflammation in the GI tract is that cat’s essentially develop leaky gut, meaning the lining of the intestines have become permeable and allows bacteria and toxins into the bloodstream. The leaky gut protocol contains a series of digestive enzymes, liver support, and pre- and probiotics to help restore bacterial balance to the GI system and repair the gut. I continued the milk diet with the addition of the leaky gut protocol for an additional 2-3 weeks.
3) Short-term Use of Steroid
As I mentioned, Ash was still vomiting at this time and while I could tell this treatment was starting to work, I decided to give him the prednisolone the specialist prescribed as a way of jump-starting the process to reduce inflammation faster. I knew there were risks associated with long term steroid usage, and while it’s better understood in dogs, cat’s may be less likely to show symptoms but it can have negative effects on them. So I decided to do a 5 day round of steroid application on the dosage recommended and that really helped! I only had to do this one more time about a month later.
4) Raw Food Diet
After three weeks of milk, two of which included the leaky gut protocol, I started switching to the Answers Pet Food raw meals, which were extremely expensive especially with shipping. Ultimately, between the expensive costs, difficulty keeping it stocked (shipping would take multiple days to a week), and Ash still vomiting on occasion, I stopped giving this and switched to a combination of raw 80/20 ground beef or 85/15 ground turkey and tuna. I started feeding this about 2 months into this whole treatment plan, and to this day still feed it (12 months later).
This is by no means a recommended diet for your cat, as there may be gaps in the nutritional profile of this diet, and higher mercury levels in tuna can also have negative impacts to cats’ health over time. However, on this diet I saw a complete reduction in Ash’s vomiting, Daisy’s fur grew back fully, and all my cats regained the weight they had lost and now maintain a healthy weight. That said, kibble in the long run is not ideal for cats. Cats evolved eating small mammals and birds, which are made of approximately 70% water (as are we humans). Dry kibble doesn’t provide hydration and in fact requires water in the body to process, since cat’s don’t typically drink water, most cats are chronically dehydrated which leads to kidney problems later on. If making your own raw food isn’t for you, there are many different wet food or premade raw diets you can buy for your cat at most pet stores, especially farm supply stores or local pet stores.
5) Vitamin Supplements, Probiotics, and Treats
The last thing I implemented were supplements to my cats diet, mainly vitamin b complex, probiotics, and freeze dried raw chicken hearts for treats. Vitamin B helps the body break down nutrients and make them more available to the body, and while this vitamin is naturally obtained from meat and dairy sources, a supplement can be helpful for animals with impaired gut health. Probiotics can also aid in the digestion of food and supply the gut with healthy bacteria. Lastly, organs and bone are key parts of a raw diet, so freeze dried raw treats are an easy (and less messy) way to incorporate organs into your cats diet.
