(no subject)

[bluesilverkdg]

The other day, General threw up in their food bowl. I wasn't sure whether to praise him for being efficient and helping me with cleanup, or fuss at him, because I had to dump the entire thing out. He used to upchuck his dinner all the time, but thankfully that has been cut down considerably. I've been feeding them Iams Digestive Health cat food for a while, and it's seemingly helped a good bit. Still, I'd kinda prefer it if maybe he threw up his food, oh...never? The girls don't. Well, hardly ever. I don't even remember the last time one of them yorked up their dinner. But General gobbles his food as if every meal is his last on this earth. I don't know why he feels the need to do this. I keep food out for them in two different bowls at all times. So it's not like he has one feeding time, and has to hoarde his food to keep the girls from getting it all. It's there constantly. They can nibble and snack whenever they want. But apparently he is just a piggy and can't seem to get this through his head. You know how men are.

I've taken him to the vet and they can't find any medical reason why he throws up so much. And I've gotta say, the frequency HAS decreased from almost every day to maybe once a week or so. Still, like I said, I'd kinda prefer that it decreased even more.

Do any of you have issues with food gobblers? And do they throw up after doing this? (I'm talking more of the feline variety, not human, because I know some of you have family members who inhale their dinner, too.) If so, what have you done for it? I'd be willing to try a different food, or any sort of natural remedy, what have you. I just want to save my flooring from the Vomit Of Doom. Plus, I can't tell you how appetizing it is to be sitting at the table eating MY dinner and hear that familiar "urk...urk...urk...bluuurrrrrp" in the background. Yum.



I've gotta say though, at least he is hitting the litterbox now, so maybe some progress has been made. I don't know that I ever want another male animal. Boys are just trouble.

Comments

[theldara.livejournal.com]

I've always found males to be much easier than my fussy females ;)

Try elevating your food bowls. Callie used to puke daily, but since we raised all their food and water 4-5 inches off the ground (we made stands and bought stands for thier food - Ross in JC is GREAT for these raised bowls and holders cheap!), she isn't puking nearly so much. Probably just once or twice a month now! We also had to elevate Emma's too. Seems that eating from the ground causes more air intake and more puke/gas issues.

Catnip also can cause puking. If you leave catnip toys out all the time, try taking them up.

Also, when Callie was worst, we got this stuff call CatLax from the vet. The over the counter version did NOT work, but the one I bought (for cheaper, hah!) from the vet did to work. We load it in a 3cc syringe and squirt it down her throat whenever she looks pukish (you can tell with her!). Max gets it sometimes too, for the same reason. Very helpful to both when they need it. It is in a red/white tube.

[theldara.livejournal.com]

Additionally, on the food. We moved all the cats from Iams/Science Diet to Nutro Complete Care. I use the indoor version now. This helped digestive issues as well, and made a noticeable difference in coats, as well as less litterbox waste.

The boy cats and Belle also get one tub of gooshy food daily. The Meow Mix packets, Fancy Feast Elegant Medlies, and Meow Mix Wholesome something or other gooshy foods are the three they prefer. I would feed it to all 5 of them, but Callie and Anna don't like gooshy. The increased water intake from the daily gooshy does seem to have benefited the boys as well. We do have to give Max smaller portions though, due to his gobble food issue. He doesn't seem to really yack out small portions, even though he still gobbles his gooshy.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

I only give mine one can of gooshy daily, too. Sabrina usually doesn't partake, but she's hit or miss. The other three love it, but I split one can between the three. I figure that's not enough to really hurt them, because I know it's very rich and high in fat/calories (plus not good for their teefs.)

Gen's issue is much more with the dry food. He will occasionally throw up the canned stuff, but 9 times out of 10, it's the dry. He's just a weirdo.

[theldara.livejournal.com]

Max and Jazz split their can, but Belle does get her own. Anna used to eat it, but anymore she just wants her Temptations treats, which have a soft center that I think she likes.

There's actually some debate on gooshy being bad. If you'll look at cat's teeth, you'll see that they're all pointy - they have no crushing/grinding teeth. They're not designed for dry foods like dogs and humans can grind down with our molars. They're designed to rip and tear meat, thus they only have teeth for those. The dry food somewhat cleans their teeth, but it is hard on the teeth too. It also does not provide the moisture levels - fresh foods cats would eat in the wild are high mositure, cat's don't have tounges designed to really get water efficently (think about the difference between a dog's tounge and a cat's - one is great at water lapping, one very poor). Gooshy is a good way to get necessary water in.

Gooshy food is lower in fat/calories than dry food, by far. The dry food is very dense in calories and very low in moisture (which contribues to dehydration, because it takes a lot of moisture from the cat's system to be able to get the dry food into a digestible form). There is continuing debate that this high carbohydrate, high calorie dry food diet that modern civilizaton has created for cats is negatively affecting their health. There are more and more overweight and diabetic cats, with more and more human illnesses coming up. There may be a corralation there. I look up the new research once a year or so, and so far I haven't seen any concrete answers.

I still feed dry. I free feed it pretty much, it's always available. Besides, Anna and Callie just won't eat gooshy even if I did have the ability to go to a raw food or canned/frozen diet for them. Regardless of the reasearch, it doesn't do anyone any good if they won't eat it! So, I'm still feeding dry, though I do give the three gooshy eaters gooshy daily now where I used to just do it a couple times a week. They haven't gained any weight from it, and so far my only overweight kitty is Anna (and just by like a pound, she just looks fatter cause she's so crazy short! Little legs on that cat, LOL).

[theldara.livejournal.com]

Meant to mention, if you don't have one, the corded Dirt Devil hand held spot cleaner is great for cleaning up cat yack off carpet. I had a Bissel Cordless Spotlifter, but we killed it. The corded Dirt Devil works better anyway.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I hadn't thought of elevating the bowls. I will give that a try. The silos in the guest room are a bit higher, but you've seen their little dishes in the kitchen. They're right on the floor.

They still have those catnip toys that you brought over, but I'd daresay the 'nip is gone from them. I do give them catnip on occasion, but I just sprinkle some in the floor, and it's more as a treat than anything. I think his main issue is just gobbling as though his life depends on it.

I'll try raising the bowls, and if that doesn't seem to help, I'll look into CatLax. Thanks for the tips!

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine that they're any messier than children. ;-) Sometimes you just have to clean up a little barf.

[aamusedinatx.livejournal.com]

I had one cat who would hoover his food until he barfed. It was a trial, there was very little I found to combat this except feed him several times, very small small amounts each time. I hope General is okay and isn't displaying symptoms for a tummy ache.

And, not to wreck your cats' dietary life but have you read about the IAMs atrocities? You can read about their cruelty here. It made me want to throw up and I stopped buying Iams immediately. My cats now get Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul, which they seem to digest very well. Parker gets Wellness brand puppy chow.

[theldara.livejournal.com]

Do be aware that the http://www.iamscruelty.com/ is paid for and run by PETA. There was a good bit of controversy over that some years back, it kept hitting the rescue lists. I'm not picking a side, as I don't feed Iams anyway and don't really trust any of the major pet food companies (especially after the wheat gluten nightmares!) but it is good to keep PETA in mind. They aren't always the most truthful and I've never known them to be unbiased.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've heard the Iams tales. :-/ Thing is, I've got several bags and that stuff is expensive, so I don't really want to not use it, y'know? But I think when they get through this, I'll try Nutro and see how that works.

I've never seen Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul. Is it sold in natural pet stores, or widely available? In fact, I've never even heard of it!

General is generally (haha) healthy as can be. He's very active, playful, kittenish and otherwise a very healthy, happy boy. He just has issues with the food. I've watched him eat. He will chew so fast that food falls out of his mouth half eaten, because he's gobbling more. And like I said, I don't know why he feels the need to do this. It's ALWAYS THERE. The cat has not been truly hungry in the ten years that I've had him. He was an alley cat though, and I literally adopted him from the streets. Well, actually he just walked into my house one day and said "hey, feed me. This is a nice place...I think I want to live here." So maybe he remembers his tomcatting days, when he had to scrounge for food, and is afraid if he doesn't eat quickly, it'll be gone. :-/ I hope that one day he'll realize he won't ever be hungry again.

[theldara.livejournal.com]

The Chicken Soup food I saw carried at the Natural Pet Foods store that's just across from Chick-Filet (or however you spell it!) on State of Franklin. They also carry some other awesome brands. I just can't afford them for 5 ;) Nutro is our happy compromise, though I'd love to be able to afford putting them all on something like Evo!

[cogenthoughts.livejournal.com]

I had two girls who used to vomit all the time. Gizzy moreso than Ariel, apparently, which we didn't find out until Ariel passed away.

With Gizzy, we would feed her the sensitive stomach food, and that really seemed to lessen her vomit sessions. And Gizzy wouldn't really wolf the food down, she was the type of cat that would daintily pick out two or three pieces of kibble at a time and eat those.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Sabrina is a very dainty eater, which is odd, because in every other aspect of her life, she's such a bully. Misty and Oreo are pretty "normal" in their eating habits, then of course, we have General the Pig.

Did you have a particular brand that you found lessened the problem more than others?

[cogenthoughts.livejournal.com]

I think we used to feed them the Purina one for sensitive stomachs.

[dmaster.livejournal.com]

yeah the cat here barfs on a regular basis.

at one point, it was because he had bad teeth they said, but he got his top fangs and some other teeth taken out and he's been semi-good. He'll still do it fairly often but it's not like it's ever day.

I figure cats just feel like barfing every once in a while and that's that really.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

How's he doing with the diabeetus?

And yeah, I think cats do just like to puke every now and then. Whenever mine eat plants (which is often), I'll usually find a little gift in the hallway. I don't know if they want to do this, or if they just haven't made the connection that plants = throwing up. Ah well. Cats.

[edenmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I have five cats; two food gobblers, both boys. What's up with that? lol Damn boys. We've never been able to get them to stop gobbling/puking. Though it does seem to come in spurts, we'll go for awhile with no problems and then it's like every day for a week that they puke and then no trouble for a while and so on.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seriously...damn boys! So your girls don't do it either? I dunno what the deal is with that.

It DOES seem to come in spurts. All over my carpet!! Ohhhhhhhh, and she's funny, too. :-P Sorry, couldn't resist!

[dda.livejournal.com]

Boys are just trouble.

*cough*

Puddin' used to both inhale his food and barf it up later; it was usually the dry food but sometimes the wet food, too. Since he was such a fussy eater, changing food wasn't even a real option and I had never heard of the "raise the food dish" bit. However, he's now gone with the (ex) housemate so I don't know if he's still doing it.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

*cough*? :-P

General is not really fussy. He'd probably eat dirt if I put it down for him. He just likes to eat reallyreally fast.

So do you miss having him around?

[dda.livejournal.com]

*cough*! :-P

And yes, I miss Puddin' at times; he used to come running to meet me at the door. And he'd come sleep with me on many occasions as well as pretty much demand to be picked up and petted.

On the other hand, I don't have to worry about leaving the garage door or the basement door open or accidently locking him in my room because he chose to hide out somewhere. And no cat vomit to clean up! :-)

I'm still debating whether or not to get another cat and, if so, if I should get a kitten or an adult cat.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Well, as you know, I'm a big fan of rescues, young or old. Older cats, obviously tend to be a bit more settled and calm, but there's a lot to be said for a kitten's spunkiness.

I know what you mean about worrying about the garage. Mine will get down there sometimes and I'm scared to death I'm going to accidentally open the door and let them out. Yikes.

[easybeef.livejournal.com]

I don't personally have cats, but my dad and stepmom have 11 (they tend to do a lot of rescuing of neighborhood kitties).

It seems like a combination of gooshy food to dry is good. Dry is good for keeping the teeth clean, gooshy is better for protein. I've never seen their cats barf, but one just wouldn't use the litter box so she was an "always outdoor" kitty (who was finally found a new home). 3 are "always indoors" and a couple of the others are mostly outdoors but come in sometimes. That drives me nuts because I'm super, crazy allergic to fleas and my dad says going outdoors doesn't bring the fleas in but I have bites to prove it.

The elevated bowls sounds like a good idea, the reason for it makes sense. I'm sorry General's tummy gets so sick.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Ha...the rescuing of neighborhood kitties reminds me of when I lived on Pine St. There wasn't like, a huge feral cat population, but there were a couple of unspayed girl kitties. Whenever they'd go into heat, the males would come a'callin'. I would put food out for them, because most of them were hungry, scrawny alley cats. One time I counted 16 cats eating on my porch. On occasion, one would trust me enough to let me touch it, but that was rare. I would try to capture them as I could, and take them to the low-cost spay/neuter clinic, but they were so wild, it was difficult. I admire your parents for doing their part. :-)

All four of mine are indoor-only, so their entire world is my house. And the carpeting is their own personal barf bag. Yay. I do give them a can of gooshy every morning, but they have dry all through the day (plus treats whenever I feel like dishing them out), so I guess they have a pretty good balance. Once I've gone through this Iams, I may try switching to a different brand and see if that helps the tummy issues. He doesn't seem to mind it, but it sure bugs the crap out of me.

[hardly-angelic.livejournal.com]

The Minkopotamus is female - and a complete glutton. If I don't watch how much food I put out for her, she'll gorge herself, and then inevitably hork it up.

Ugh. My poor carpet...

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

I have never had a girl kitty who did that! So, I guess you just give her small servings to control the portions, or does even that work?

She's gorgeous enough that I think I could forgive her for the barfy carpet.

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

I'm in the process of testing out some of the higher quality foods with Sniff. (He has been eating the Iams indoor formula, and before that the kitty formula. Iams is ok, better than junk like Whiskas or whatever, but now that I have a real paycheck, I feel like I can do better.) Wellness didn't go over super great, so we'll see how he does with Blue Buffalo. The thing about the more "premium" brands is that it's pretty much all protein and less filler stuff like corn or rice or wheat. Apparently, stuff like that is bad for cats' tummies and can really upset them. Also, with having higher protein food, they get full more efficiently, so they eat less food.

'Course, that doesn't do anything about the SPEED with which he horks it down, but maybe it's something to think about?

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Yes, when I was feeding them the Whiskas/Meow Mix type stuff, he was throwing up EVERYwhere, every day.

I have noticed a difference in their...ummm...litter box deposits since I switched to a higher-quality food, but your mileage may vary there.

I think General would scarf down just about anything I gave him. With him, I think maybe it's a security issue. Like I was saying above, when he was an alley cat and had to scrounge for food, he never knew where his next meal was coming from. I'd hope that after ten years of being a pampered housecat, he'd know better, but evidently not. :-/

What is Blue Buffalo? I'm not familiar with it. Oh, and I have definitely noticed them eating less food with the higher-quality stuff, so you're right about that.

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

Blue Buffalo is one of the premium brands. Here's their website: link. You can get a $3 coupon to first try it out, which is what I did recently. Sniff should be moving onto that either tonight or tomorrow, so I'll let you know how he likes it. He ate the Wellness fine, but it's pretty expensive, and he didn't seem to like the taste very much. I've noticed, though, that in just a couple of weeks of the higher protein food, his coat is soooooo much softer. Aww, baby.

I had no idea about good pet food vs. bad pet food beyond that Whiskas and the like is not very great until I came across this thread on some message boards that I post to. It was really informative. I did some reading around online and was shocked! Now that I'm actually making a paycheck (at least for now), I thought I'd see how he did on the better ones. It's such an improvement, even in his energy levels!

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I'll check those links out. Thanks!

Did/does he ever have urinary tract issues? Boy cats seem to have more problems with that, because the dust from the litter gets in their winky and causes infections. General used to have some pretty serious UTIs, but I have noticed that he's not doing that since switching foods, which makes me wonder if his water intake was not adequate before. I don't know that they're related, but he's had no problems in the last several months. I changed litterboxes, too and I think that helped. He didn't seem to like the ones I had in Knoxville and I think he'd hold it, which is obviously not healthy.

I think Sniff was pretty energetic already, wasn't he?! :-P

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

No urinary tract infections, but we did have a slight issue with constipation. He was acting really lethargic just before winter break last year. I was worried about bringing him to town with me since I didn't know any vets around here, so I took him in before I left. They did an X-ray, and apparently he had poop backed all the way up his little intestines. The doc told me to give him some hairball medicine and keep an eye on him, and between that and the stress of a vet visit, he was ok by the next day.

Haha, he has chilled out a bit since he's (a little) older. Man, when he was a kitten, if I could have bottled his energy, I'd have made millions. :-p He's been especially a little blah lately with the move and being in a weird place, especially since I'm out and about and often spend the evenings and nights at David's. He and my mom are tight now, though. She's totally going to miss him when we finally find an apartment (hopefully soon, oh God).

[macaholic.livejournal.com]

kitty has hairball issues.

As to General, he is probably stresses from being the only male in a house full of females!!!

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Oreo has an occasional hairball, but her fur is so long (and she tends to groom all the others, too), that it's not surprising.

General LOVES being in a house full of females, what are you talking about?! He's got his own little harem!

[macaholic.livejournal.com]

Figures, you being female, would not recognize the stress level that brings... all those performance demands....

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

He's tutored. There is no performing. Although he does try to hump Misty and Oreo on occasion.

[macaholic.livejournal.com]

you mean someone has to teach him how?????

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

I've never had a male pet. Well, not if you don't count Bill. :P

Sassy throws up about once a month. Holly -- hardly ever. We use Meow Mix Hairball Control, and I think that has helped quite a bit. Sassy is a nervous kitty, and I think she mostly throws up when upset. She usually hurls if we are gone for a few days.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Well, as you know, nerves are NOT General's issue. I don't know that I've ever had such a laid-back cat (well, except for the mooing, of course.)

It's funny that Holly is the longer-haired kitty, yet she doesn't throw up much. Oreo tends to get the hairballs.

[samuraigrrrl.livejournal.com]

my boy, vinnie is a gobbler and a horfer. the two female cats rarely throw up. the long-hair tortie, kwan yin, is prone to hairballs and will throw up food if it is in front of the offending mass when it comes up.

as for the dogs, nikki does not throw up. she grew up on the streets. if she gets it down, it's never coming back up. rosie has a touchy stomach, but her issues present at the other end. actually, when she ate brownies and i needed to make her throw up with hydrogen peroxide, she held out for HOURS. doggor threw up just last night. :/

kottke the corn snake, well, we don't really know if it's a he or a she, but if it gets too excited after swallowing a meal, it will regurgitate it - whole. ew.

icky boys.

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

Kwan Yin is the one who took over my lap, right? That was such a sweet kitty.

Dexter was BAAAD for throwing up. He had such a sensitive tummy, I finally started just making him homemade treats, rather than trying to buy them. But when I had Cinnamon, my rescue dog, she kept everything down. What is it about the street dogs? I guess like you said, they don't want to lose anything. Rosie is the one I petted, right?

And yes, icky boys.

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

First of all, boy cats are way easier than girl cats. We're never getting another girl cat again. :)

Secondly... well, the reason that General is barfing up the dry food, is that he can't actually digest most of it. Chip used to do it with his dry food also. He would cram it down, and then it would come up undigested about two minutes later. Most dry food is filled with stuff that is a) not good for cats and b) not digestible for cats. Imagine eating piles of sand every day mixed in with your breakfast cereal. It's sort of the same thing.

I'm not going to lecture about this, because up until Chip got diabetes, we've always given our cats a mix of dry and wet food. Not every cat will develop diabetes, but as an overweight male cat, unfortunately General is at high risk (and for FUS, as well). If you can pull him off the dry, he will feel better, stop puking, lose weight, and dramatically decrease his risk for diabetes.

Good luck!

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

Also, keeping your food out all day so the cats "nibble and snack whenever they want" is evidently what causes obese cats that are more likely to get diabetes. :(

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

The boys cats (with the exception of Sabrina) have tended to be friendlier. But as for ease of care, I've had more issues with boy kitties. Even after Dazzle was neutered, he'd still spray, and General has always been bad to mark his territory. The girls never do stuff like that.

General has actually lost some weight! I think the change from crappy discount store food to better stuff may have helped him some. Sabrina has actually lost a little, too. They were the two most overweight. Misty and Oreo are actually pretty lean. So, you're saying feed JUST a diet of canned food? My old vet would always fuss at us for giving Dazzle ANY canned food, and said to keep him on an exclusively dry diet. We didn't because he loved the cans, but we still always made both available to him.

Do you know of any dry foods that are more digestable? They seem to really enjoy having something to crunch on.

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

The more digestible are the kinds that are all protein without filler - no corn, wheat, rice, blahdy blah. Check that forum link I sent above. It explains it all really well. (If it's members only, I can copy-paste for you if you want.)

[bluesilverkdg.livejournal.com]

D'oh!

I got distracted paying the power bill and cooking dinner and totally forgot to look. It's not members only. Reading it now. :-)