Cat throwing up white foam

[User292]

A couple of days ago I woke up to a small bit of white foam in the kitchen. I knew my cat had thrown up because he’s done that once or twice before. He has been fine over the past two days but tonight he has vomited white foam twice. Is this anything to worry about? I am an over worrier. What other signs should I watch out for? How will I know if he is feeling unwell or if there’s something wrong?

We just mix the Gabapentin with some lick e licks and it normally does the trick! The other early symptoms of CKD are drinking and peeing a lot - it was really noticeable with Elton.

Woke up this morning to sick everywhere downstairs and some diharrea in the litter box. Vets opens at 9 so I’ll be taking him today

Oh my! Hope all is ok

Oh no, fingers crossed for him.

Keeping everything crossed for you, OP - hope he’s been seen and is okay.

Thank you, he has been seen. The vet said his temperature is fine, his colours are fine and his tummy feels fine. She thinks he just has an upset stomach so she’s given him an anti sickness injection and some pro bind paste and I have to keep him on the plain chicken for 3-4 days

not sure whether to start another thread or just post here but the vomiting stopped when he was on chicken. I started feeding him a pets at home food for sensitive stomachs but I was just putting a little amount in to get him used to it like a teaspoon amount. Everything was fine, he hasn’t thrown up since last friday evening. I have him more of the food today, and I’ve come home from work to find vomit all over the bed. It looks like poo but it’s actually hair! Could this be what’s making him throw up? Hair balls? If so, why would it stop while he’s on chicken? It seems that he can only eat chicken. Anything else he is throwing up. Could he have some sort of hair ball blockage? But if so wouldn’t he be unwell and still throwing up with the chicken? Ahh I don’t know

They all throw up furballs sometimes. We've one that does it regularly. Ironically she's the short hair, and the other two are long-haired!

You could try a hairball food.

Yup that's a hair ball. He will be much happier now he's got that out!

I started grooming mine daily to help with the amount of fur shedding and that's helped.

I've not tried the hair ball paste you put on a paw for them to lick to get it into their tummy as yet.

Actually, that explains the white foam - a furball that didn't quite come up!

@DeliciousApples @letthemalldoone do you think that that’s the reason why he was throwing up then, because of the hairball? I just wonder why he hasn’t thrown up for 5 days while he was on chicken but then as soon as I start introducing normal cat food again he has been sick. He also had a runny poo again as well, can hair balls cause diharrea?

I've never known of hairballs causing diarrhoea @User292. I had two cats many years ago and one or other of them puked hairballs up daily! I think some cats are just more prone to it than others.

I think it was probably coincidence that he threw the hairball up after you stopped feeding him the chicken. Maybe he needs more grooming? Re the diarrhoea, what cat food are you giving him? We got a rescue a few months ago and his poo stank to high heaven! He eats mainly dry food so I tried him on Scrumbles and it made such a difference! I think he has a sensitive stomach, I changed all his food for the better quality stuff and he's a lot better!

What age is your cat and how long have you had him? Has he thrown up furballs before?

My cat was the same. It was like the moisture in the cat wet food made it easier to throw up the lump of hair.

She would gorge on wet cat food and ask for more and I'd be ready with an old magazine to put under her nose before she threw it all up with the hairball. Only time she gorged was to spew. Yuk.

She didn't find it so easy to spew on human type meat. Prob less moist. Although some cold cooked chicken bits seems to be positively dripping. Sigh. Pumped with water to justify the price. Pathetic.

Anyways I digress, yes I think the cat will be fine now. Not sure about the diarrhoea. Watch and see what happens. Could just be due to changing food?

My cat threw up no hairballs at all for years.

Think she must have done it outside or something. It was a shock the first time I saw one!!! Two cats later I'm used to it.

I’m giving him one called AVA which is specifically for sensitive stomachs. I haven’t given him a lot, I’m introducing it slowly. I started a couple of days ago and he was fine until today. Each time he has thrown up he has also had diharrea, even before I switched his food. So last week when he started throwing up he also started with watery poo. It seems to be that when he vomits, it also comes out the other end. He is completely and utterly fine in himself, he’s perky, alert, playful, eating and drinking normally etc.

He will be 6 years old in 3 months and in all that time he’s never thrown up like this. Looking back he has thrown up hair balls a couple of times but I didn’t know what they were. Because of the shape of them I thought he had eaten a slug and thrown it back up! But that’s only happened 2 or 3 times in 6 years.

Could he have thrown them up outside? I noticed it much more obviously with my indoor cats compared to my outdoor/indoor ones. The furballs honestly are totally normal though. I find it strange that my long haired ones barf much less than my short haired ones but some cats just seem to be more prone to it than others!

I'm just not sure what's happening with the poo though because I've not had that? Did you mention that to the vet?

He's still not old and the fact that he's otherwise well is all good. It's probably just a matter of trial and error but it's strange that this is new from him. However, cats will cat!

Furballs are gross though! I might have mentioned the Benkser stuff earlier, can't remember - you get it in Tesco or Sainsburys and it's brilliant for cleaning it up after you've removed the furball!