What Food Makes Cats Throw Up

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June 10, 2017

Interview! Part One, Monica Frenden, Cat Program Manager, Austin Pets Alive!

June 13, 2017

June 12, 2017

Please join me in welcoming Diana Hutchinson to the blog today, to talk about What Food Makes Cats Throw Up! We’ve all been there and we all don’t enjoy it. Narrowing down the culprit can be a very lengthy process. There are many reasons as to why a cat will throw up, but it mostly has to do with something that was recently ingested.

Acute Vomiting

While cats will often throw up for more minor reasons, it’s important to monitor your cat and see how often they are throwing up, how much is coming up, etc. There are a lot of causes for an episode of vomiting that could be considered very sudden. This is known as acute vomiting.

You may not have to worry about any of the following, but if your cat has been throwing up more frequently than usual, you should bring him to the vet to have him checked for the following:

Gastrointestinal tract bacterial infection
Intestinal parasite
Acute gallbladder inflammation
Acute liver failure
Acute kidney failure
Ingested chemicals or toxins
Viral infections
Certain medications as a result of a preexisting condition
Post-operative nausea
Pancreatitis

You should also be watching for diarrhea as well as frequent vomiting. Cat food for diarrhea usually involves low-grade cat food brands, eating from the garbage, etc.

Top 3 Foods That Make a Cat Throw Up

Learning the many reasons as to what food makes cats throw up will help you learn what not to feed your cat. This is also important for the case of how to determine what food we should feed our community cats, strays, ferals, etc.

Milk

While mammals, including cats, do drink milk for the first couple of stages of their life, drinking milk from other species can cause serious problems. A cat’s pancreas is not able to brown down all of the lactose found in cow’s milk because that organ does not secrete enough lactase.

Because a cat does not have the proper enzymes and lactase to break the milk down, drinking milk from another species will cause secondary GI symptoms. One of these symptoms – vomiting.

Poor Quality Cat Food

If a cat has a poor quality diet that consists of filler cat food with more additives than healthy ingredients, they’re no doubt going to throw up. Their systems will reject what they are ingesting and will induce vomiting. This typically occurs when their bodies cannot assimilate and further digest what they’ve eaten.

Poor quality cat food is also known to cause allergies. This is very common with poor quality cat food and vomiting. You may notice that their weight and energy levels remain at a healthy, normal level, but that vomiting occurs after they are finished eating.

If either is the case, you must switch your cat to a brand that is of good quality. This can help, if not solve, the case of constant vomiting in your cat and give them a long, happy and healthy life.

Low-Quality Treats

You may be feeding your cat the best cat food on the market, but if you give him treats that are made of garbage, they’re still going to throw up. In fact, you’re pretty much canceling out all of the good that the high-quality cat food is doing for them by feeding them the cat version of McDonald’s.

Though it may be a bit more expensive, buying good quality treats definitely goes a long way. Just remember to keep their diet balanced while you’re doing so. You can do this by feeding them good quality cat food and proper quality treats.

Trying to save on money will be shortening your cat’s life faster than you think, so remember that those cheap treats are the culprit for your cat constantly throwing up.

How to Determine What Food We Should Feed Our Community Cats

Listed below are some human foods that are safe to give to stray/feral cats:

Baked carrots
Steamed broccoli
Steamed asparagus
Green beans
Chopped greens
Winter squash
Small bits of cheese
Cod
Halibut
Flounder
Tuna
Eggs

Ensure that you do not feed a cat too much cheese if you plan on doing so. It can cause issues with their digestive systems and cause vomiting, diarrhea, etc. Ergo, only a few bits of cheese mixed with some fish, for example, is a great choice.

What Food Makes Cats Throw Up