Cat gagging - not sure what to do!

[RMarieClaire]

My cat keeps moving his neck as if he's gagging. Not making a sound (except miaowing for his dinner), just the motion. He's long-haired, so wonder if it could be a trapped hair ball. But also worried it could be something worse? He eats lots he shouldn't eat - including plastic. Earlier he ate some of a cracker, but that was a good 7 hours ago.

It's dinner time and he's obviously hungry. Should I feed him and hope it helps dislodge whatever's there? He has food in gravy so quite wet. Or should I wait until he hacks whatever it is up?

It sounds like a bone is stuck in his throat. How long has this been going on? If more than ten minutes or so he needs to see a vet.

Could be a hairball. If he's hungry that's a good sign. If he goes outside, could see if he'll eat some grass. They do that to make themselves sick if they have a hairball. Hope he's ok.

Thanks. In the end, we added a small amount of water and olive oil to his food as that's supposed to be good for hairballs too. His appetite hasn't waned and he seems to have stopped the gagging motion, but I worry he's not 100% himself.

I don't think it would be a bone as he's a terrible hunter but he does sometimes chew plastic and although we try to be careful inside, hard to say what he gets his jaws on outside 😢. Im going to take a view in the morning about the vet.

Will he let you have a look to see if there is anything obvious. Memories of chasing fatty round the house to retrieve a plastic sweet wrapper!

Oh please take him to the vet. Don’t keep putting it off.

Could be worms, especially if he's a terrible hunter. Have seen this happen with a stray I took in, and she vomited worms. Vet later confirmed this happens. My cats are wormed 2 monthly because we live rurally with plenty of creatures to hunt. The vet also explained that if you worm them one day and they eat something a couple of days later, they get worms again, the pill has no preventive effect, only cures what they have that day. If I know one has got worms, I give a second tablet 3 weeks after the first, and then go back to 2 monthly, again as advised by the vet.