Max coughing and puking

11 years ago

We got Max from our local shelter about 3 months ago. It turned out he came with feline distemper as standard equipment. So 4 days of intensive care at the vet and $500 later I seem to have a healthy cat. He seemed to be thriving and gaining weight for about two months.

Fast forward to about 2 days ago and he starts barfing twice a day. He gets dry food and a "treat" of canned for supper which he wolfs down. He barfs about midday and at night. He also has a cough which doesn't sound like the coughing cats have which is associated with hairballs. It is just a brief strong coughing spell. He also seems to be dry retching occasionally.

The puke seems to look like his canned food (no blood, no bile), you could almost put it back in the can and resell it. There is a very small amount of hair in it. I made another appointment at the vet for today but he didn't puke last night so I cancelled it figuring he just had a bug he managed to fight off. But today sometime around noon he barfed again.

He wolfs down his wet food for supper so we going to give him just a very small portion of wet food tonight. I was thinking of cancelling his canned food supper entirely also to see if that would help.

Anybody have any other ideas, he is a beautiful cat with a nice mellow disposition but these medical problems are beginning to be a drag on my finances, another vet visit and more treatment and I am getting close to $1000 for a cat (I already have a sweet, economy model 7 year old) and then what might happen next in another couple months?? My wallet is getting to the end of its rope.

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Comments (5)

annzgw
11 years ago
It does sound as though it's food related. If he seems healthy otherwise, I'd be inclined to play with a change in diet.

My dog used to barf regularly and was eating one of the high quality dog foods. After changing brands he hasn't had an episode since. Your cat's problem could be either the dry or the wet food so you may have to do some test feedings. Does he eat mostly dry thru the day or does he hold out and wait for the wet food?
Try pureeing the canned food, since he wants to eat it so fast, or try a brand that is more of a pate.

BTW, more vets are recommending cats eat only wet food.
rswojo
Original Author
11 years ago
We let him graze during the day since he was so skinny after his bout with the distemper (he needed to get his weight up). He just seems to go nibble over the course of the day.

We also had him on some of the easily digestible wet and dry for a couple weeks after his bout with the FD. Tonight he got less canned and if he pukes tonight, tomorrow we'll feed him some of the easily digestible dry and wet to see if that helps. If things don't start to get better by Monday I guess he'll have to make another trip to the vet.

Thanks for the response.
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lzrddr
11 years ago
1) try a different brand and flavor of canned food. 2) Feed much smaller amounts over a longer period. 3) give him a quarter pepcid AC (=2.5mg) daily for a few weeks... that might help a lot.

I gather he was not doing this until recently, so it might not be as food related as you think. A few weeks of cutting down his stomach acid might help a lot. I agree that cats should be exclusively on canned food, as much of a pain that is... but there are perhaps exceptions where that simply will not work. Good luck!
lzrddr
11 years ago
As for the coughing, that may be a sign of asthma.. some cats can cough so badly they puke. Rec: radiographs of the chest. Most severe asthma cases will show up on X-rays.
rswojo
Original Author
11 years ago
We cut back on his canned food by 1/2 and the barfing stopped. The cough went away about a week later after he fought off whatever bug he must have had.