Cat frequently sick

[StarsOnThars]

I have a British Shorthair, aged 8 years. He's always had a sensitive stomach which I generally put down to guzzling food. However, it seems to have got worse and I have no idea why. It seems to happen about once a day (but not every single day), usually after his first meal or when his stomach is empty, and happens within seconds of him leaving his bowl.

He's been to the vets and had scans and X-rays of his abdominal area but no evidence of disease. He has low B12 and is on supplements for this. I have changed his food to z/d food sensitive diet in case it was something in his food. I give him both wet and dry food so that he can snack on the dry food if he is peckish to try and avoid him getting hungry and guzzling.

What seems very strange is that he is OK in himself (he lost a lot of weight but we've managed to get his weight up since putting him on the B12 and changing his diet). I only give him a very small portion at a time to try and stop him overeating but this is not stopping the vomiting.

Also, when he stays at the cattery he is not sick at all. He stayed there last week and had no problems, put on a good bit of weight etc. I fed him when I got him home and he puked it up immediately.

Does anyone have any ideas what's going on here? Vet seems at a loss.

What was the cattery feeding him?

I'm interested as I also have a cat who needs to put on a bit of weight. Someone on another forum suggested trying kitten food.

Our cat is the same. I recently purchased a bowl that stops him guzzling his food. It's actually a dog bowl (so quite big!) and it has raised peaks at the the bottom. Since we've used it, he's only been sick a handful of times, compared to every day. Wish I'd got the bowl years ago! It was just off Amazon. Maybe give it a try?

Well we have another cat and also a dog so after a series of trials and errors (trying to find a way to stop the dog getting his food, trying anti guzzling strategies and stopping his brother eating all the very pricey z/d) he's now eating out of a bowl that only he can access (it opens when his microchip activates it).

To be honest I don't think it is guzzling. It just seems more likely to happen when his stomach is more empty as it usually happens with his breakfast.

I've never known a cat be as sick as Cheddar was. I changed her food to Iams and it stopped. Even the sensitive foods made her sick.

We have the same problem with our 15 year old ginger boy. I read that guzzling food on an empty stomach in the morning can be a factor and the advice was to make sure you leave dry food out overnight so that they can have a small early snack before the main breakfast. I've tried feeding the breakfast in two smaller "courses" as well so that he doesn't have one big bowlful all at once. We switched from "sensitive" gluten free food to food that is completely grain free. I also read that raising the bowl up slightly can help (we bought an Amazon Basics computer platform which does quite a nice job of raising the bowls by a few inches!). It seems to have helped quite a lot, but not totally (perhaps partly because he sometimes lifts the food out of the bowl and then places it on the floor to eat it from there....)
This covers some of these ideas: www.foodfurlife.com/manage-nausea---the-role-of-food.html#/

The only food my cat can eat is Sheba. 🙄

Yes it is mostly in the mornings I've noticed. He has dry food out overnight too as well.

Can you tell me what grain free food you are using please?

We've tried two brands and both seem about the same in terms of their affect on our sensitive boy and how much they are liked by both cats.
This one:
www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/sanabelle/sanabelle_special_nutrition/313863
(Sanabelle also do a "Sensitive" version that still has grains in, but non-gluten containing grains, that's a bit cheaper, I had some left from a pack I'd bought before trying the grain-free version and I tried our boy on that one again this week and he's vomiting again, so I'd say definitely go for the one in this link rather than the Sensitive)
Also we tried Arden Grange dry food which seemed good:
www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/arden_grange/adult_cat/356948
I have read that chicken can often be a cat allergen which is tricky as it's in so much cat food, especially dry. The next plan I had in mind for ours if this didn't work was to try "single ingredient" cat foods that avoid chicken. Unsurprisingly they are more expensive though. There are some wet foods that are single ingredient on Zooplus (Feringa does some) but I hadn't got as far as searching for chicken-free dry food.
Good luck.....

My old cat was sick every single day. We switched him to Harrington's dry food and it was the only thing that stopped him being sick.

My girl cat is nearly always sick if dont mush up her food with the back of a fork. Even if I leave a few larger bits it seems to cause her to throw it back up.

My 9yo BSH is regularly sick, though not daily. She’s been checked over and nothing found.

What was he fed at the cattery - presume same food as at home? Maybe because he was less active and couldn’t run around that his stomach was more settled?