Birman cat frequent vomiting

[Horsemad]

I've recently become the proud owner of a 10yr old Birman girl who is lovely and doesn't look/act like a 10yr old cat! 🙂

However, she does seem to vom a lot! She's kept indoors and eats Royal Canin dry - the one for hairball prone cats. She eats well and is very healthy, had her vet checked last week.

Is there anything else I can give to reduce the vomiting? Vet wasn't too concerned about it, said it's a long haired cat thing, which I'm aware of as we gave another very fluffy girl.

Tia 😻

How often is a lot?

Do you groom her to get rid of as much excess fur as possible?

my first cat was a bugger for gobbling his food and then chucking it back up, much much worse on dry food/biscuits
I stopped giving him them in the end and just used wet food.

She is groomed a couple of times a week, maybe we need to step that up?

She has been sick a few times a week for the past 2 weeks. I've had her about a month now. Brought up a hairball last night and this morning was retching with a bit of bile/foam coming up.
Appetite and appearance is fine and she's well in herself.

She doesn't appear to eat fast but I am only giving her small amounts often, rather than heaping her dish - the males in this house don't seem to understand 'little and often' though, so maybe I need to be a bit more forceful telling them!

Odd as it sounds it could be something like IBS. After years of being fine with normal food, my car started vomiting a lot, after various tests he’s now on steroids and a special diet.

We feed our puke-y cat on the Hill's Science for sensitive stomach. I can't be sure if makes much difference, but the dry food is less smelly in the bowl and less vile to clean up if it's been puked. [sorry!]

If the cat is gobbling down his food you could try a puzzle dish, where they have to fish each pellet of food out with a paw, so only get one bit at a time.

When mine ate too quickly, she would bring up her completely undigested food within seconds/minutes of eating so the pace you are feeding is probably fine. Is it different food to what she has been on?

I’d try grooming daily, even just a little bit, over the next month with something like a furminator and see if that makes a difference.

She's on the same food as her previous owner fed her. Her previous owner said she is sick 'sometimes'.

I thought I'd heard of a paste that long haired cats can have that assists movement of hairballs through the digestive tract. Will have to investigate that.

Her poo is ok, although seems a lot 'smaller' than my other cat's. Who'd have thought I could count comparing cat poo as a hobby?!! 😆

I will try grooming daily and see if it helps.
Off to Google a Furminator now 😀

Thanks for all your help!

My new Persian Exotic is also a vomiter. I have got her on Royal Canin Exigent Aromatic. It's literally the only good she tolerates. Even their sensitive stuff makes her sick. Tried Applesaws, James well beloved and scrumbles. She's not vomited for two weeks. Which is a record!

Is the Furminator as good as it looks? 😊

Might see if I can get some food samples & see if she's better on any of them.

Our furminator is good and even our reluctant-to-be-groomed cat tolerates it.

It sounds like you are doing the right things and as your vet isn’t worried, it probably does mean there is nothing wrong.

Yeah, not sure there's much else I can do really except stock up on Sainsbury's carpet cleaner (good stuff!) 😆

My Birman will be sick of he sees the bottom of the bowl and then I feed him. Like he thinks he almost ran out so needs to keep eating in case there isn't more 😂 despite the fact we have had him since a kitten and he's 7 now and never ran out of room 😂 we have a moggy too and I am shocked how she's never been sick. But all my Birmans I've had have been sick at least once a week.

There's a huge difference between hairballing and actual vomiting. Often vomiting is half digested food or yellowish bile/liquid.

My cat was recently diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease. Her vomiting was very much half digested biscuits and had a distinct vom smell to it 🤢 She was always a bit 'sicky' but it really became quite bad this summer;she lost a lot of weight very quickly when she was being sick every two hours through the night and was accompanied by lethargy and a temperature and lots of yowling.

She does hairball when she's stressed, but it looks very different to actual sick. Make sure your vet knows which one it is. Lots of furball isn't unusual in long haired breeds and regular grooming can help that. If it's food, that needs investigating.

Furminators are not gear wit long hired cats. A metal come is much more effective. I also use a tangle teaser.

pisspawpatrol, sometimes it's half digested food and other times it's hair. Last night's offering was a sausage shaped hairball - lovely!

She is always well in herself though, so I'm hoping it's nothing serious.

I'd make sure the vet knows there is half digested food and get her weighed frequently. My girl was sick like that every few months and then over summer it just suddenly got worse and she was being sick all day every day. I think it was triggered by trying to change her food. She's now on hypoallergenic food and we've not had an incident since September of vomiting and no hair balls at all. The vet suspects she was cleaning her tummy a lot because she had a tummy ache and was trying to soothe it.

☹️ Sounds nasty, I'm glad she has been ok since a food change - what do you have her on now?

Royal canin hypoallergenic biscuits every day and one small tin of tuna in spring water per week. She's not allowed treats or anything else. She of course was never interested in human food until she is no longer allowed it and now she is after it all the time. I think she is bored of her biscuits but it's pretty much solved her illness so I'm not messing with it.

No sickness this week, so far 🙂