Help!! Cat is unwell - advice please

[Catkitkat]

Our cat keeps vomiting/ regurgitating after each meal. The entire meal comes up undigested after a few hours. Earlier today she brought up a 10cm piece of string with her breakfast so I thought perhaps that’s what’s been bothering her, and I was hopeful that things would improve so I fed her lunch a few hours later. No luck, it all came up again after about two hours.

The vet is now closed so I can’t get any advice before tomorrow, so if anyone can advise I’d be so grateful:

• she is still hungry, and is asking for food, but do I feed her? I’m thinking no?
• I understand cats can get dehydrated fast. What red flags should I look out for? She seems happy and content but I don’t want to ignore anything which would require emergency care.

Things it has been when we’ve had this:

• Wet cat food bad batch (sometimes we have entire boxes where every pouch makes them vom ☹️)
• Dry cat food has been left in sun and gone off
• Essential oils in atmosphere, especially lavender
• they chewed a nasty plant
• they haven’t been groomed enough and are trying to throw up a massive hairball
• they’ve swallowed something eg bit of tinsel
• they’ve eaten a toxic plant in garden, or chewed grass that someone sprayed with weedkiller
• thyroid problem (unlikely if can young)

In your situation I’d get different catfood and try that, and phone vet tmrw.

Ok so :
when did the vomiting start?
how many episodes of vomit?
how is her poop?
how is she in herself? Happy? Quiter?
is she known for eating string?

there are 24 hour vet services open, so dont worry you can talk to someone.
google your local hospital

my cat eats random plastic all the time. They are usually sick a few times until they bring it all up eventually
but,
string can get stuck to the "sides" and also twisted inside too
DONT pull at anything at either side.

Do you have anything bland you could give her like chicken or turkey? I have a hurling cat (doesn’t get on with cat food) but he does ok on fresh meat. Not ham or pork as that’s not so good for them.

Thank you @Neverreturntoathread we will get some different food for her to try.
I suspect it’s that piece of string… when your cat swallowed tinsel, how did that play out?

All our vets in the area have an evening session each day but close to do operations / farm visits in the afternoon. Are you sure yours doesn’t reopen? Is there another one in the area you could call? Id seek help sooner rather than later.

if swallowed by accident, it can damage the base of the tongue, the stomach, and the intestine. String forms a linear foreign body which can cause obstruction and death of the gut and lead to severe, life-threatening consequences

She may have more string in her tummy or something causing an obstruction, I would call out of hours emergency vet, can she tolerate water ok without being sick.

Yes we have some chicken, we will try that. Thank you

Yes water stays down.

Did you recognise the string, as in, was it from anything in particular at home? Just wondering if it was just a small piece of much more of it she's eaten.

I would get her seen by a vet tomorrow morning at the latest, they might need to do a scan to see if there is an obstruction.

She seems herself, she is happy to be held and handled and is minding her business as usual.

vomiting started yesterday, so far it’s been after each meal.

she is known for chewing on random bits of plastic and string if she can get hold of it…

It was a piece of plastic ribbon, for wrapping gifts and tying balloons. It was a 10cm piece, the ends had been cut on both sides so she hadn’t chewed it off from something longer if that makes sense. She could obviously have found more things to chew so there might still be more in her stomach.

as I type this she is in fact biting a plastic carrier bag, she loves plastic sadly…

When DCat is ill I make scramble an egg with water and he tends to eat it up and keep it down.

All vets are obliged to provide out of hours care. It might be another practice nearby, they should have the phone number on their website and answerphone.

Just a little update: our cat is fine, she had a small breakfast and a small lunch and kept both meals down, so it was probably the piece of string which was causing her trouble. Thank you everyone

Glad to hear shes feeling better

Glad she is feeling better! 😺

So glad to hear this! Our DCat chewed off some balloon tape/string which curled in half and got stuck in her throat, after a couple of days vomiting she got it out. Except, she'd then got dehydrated and was constipated, which meant she and wasn't her usual sunny self.

Keep an eye on the bowel movements and if no better ask the vet to do a scan and if necessary prescribe some industrial strength laxative. This is worst case scenario of course and I'm sure all will be fine!

Yes @Khalas will definitely keep an eye on the litter box to make sure her little system is up and running!

Vet answer machine should have emergency vet number