small appetite and throwing up a lot

[BadgersRetreat]

do you think it might be a furball?

Puss voms two or three times a week generally (nice) and is chucking up a bit more frequently at the mo, combined with loss of appetite.

usually she's a bit of a pig and eats all her food - but i went to feed her last night and she'd hardly touched it. Seems to be eating less than normal most days.

There has been a small furball 'present' recently - wondering if she's got a whopper in there?

generally she seems fine - still daft and playful and going out to chase bugs

she's about 7

[BadgersRetreat]

(i should say she had a bout of more frequent throwing up about a year ago and vet couldn't find anything wrong)

[Fluffycloudland77]

Well, I dont know if this is relevant to you but whenever mine throws up food it's because he's been nicking tinned food off local cats (he's not above going into total strangers houses to bully their cats and pinch food).

Tinned food has maize in and he is intolerant to maize.

[BadgersRetreat]

no she doesn't eat anything other than dry food, and even if she doesn't go out for a week due to bad weather she will still often throw up

she eats grass in summer - that's a guaranteed present soon after.

she usually gallops downstairs with DH in the morning for her breakfast - this morning she stayed upstairs with me and had a wash...

[cozietoesie]

Has she been wormed recently? Those could be symptoms of intestinal parasites.

[BadgersRetreat]

yep we worm and flea her monthly

[Fluffycloudland77]

Dry food has maize in it too.

I dont know why pet food companies insist on feeding obligate carnivores cereals, you wouldnt try to feed a cow meat would you? and we all know what happened when they did dont we.

Get some frozen chicken in iceland and feed her that for a week, see if it improves. You cant do it long term as it lacks taurine but I use it for the bengal when he has the runs.

[cozietoesie]

Well if it carries on for more than a day or two I'd have her up to the vet again. (Maybe give them a ring and check this afternoon.) That combination of symptoms is a little troubling. The worst that could happen is that you get called an over-protective owner but the vet won't mind.

Maybe she would benefit from a change of diet - some cats don't thrive on long term dry food. Have you tried her on - say - some finely chopped meat and see if she'll eat that?

[Dolallytats]

I read that cats eat grass because it helps them get rid of the things they cannot digest...ie the furballs. I know my cats, if given dry food on a regular basis, will throw it up. I no longer give it to them and feed them solely on tinned cat food and the occasional bits of leftover chicken/beef etc.

I would never feed them solely on a dry food diet as I have never been able to understand how it could be good for a meat eating animal.

[BadgersRetreat]

when i say she will only eat dry food - i mean she will ONLY eat dry food.

i've tried all sorts of things and she has no interest at all - chicken, tuna, salmon, white fish, wet food...the lot.

we adopted her when she was two and i don't think she had ever had anything else and doesn't like the texture.

i got some of that fancy stuff - the totally natural organic tuna based stuff ( you could make a good looking sandwich with it) and she licked the 'broth' up and left all the meat.

vet said the dry food was fine as long as she has lots of water

[BadgersRetreat]

oh she is partial to a bit of fluff tho - quite often see her eat that (ffs)

[cozietoesie]

Trouble is, badgersretreat, even though she'll only eat that stuff, it can have longer term consequences as a sole diet - kidney problems etc. (I appreciate that there is some scientific debate on this and that the jury is not entirely back in on it. Nonetheless, I had an old cat with kidney problems whose symptoms were very similar to your girl's.)

I'd take her to the vet if she doesn't improve in a day or two.

[BadgersRetreat]

yeah think i will

thanks all