Vomiting 7mth Old British Shorthair

by Horacia
(London)

Hi, I hope you can advise.

I have two black British shorthair kittens 7mth olds, brother and sister. Up until about three days ago, the boy was fine. He is the larger of the two and is very boisterous and very well built. He started to vomit clear liquid, about teaspoon with a slight bit of froth, not often (about five times in all over the past few days) that I have noticed and not after meals either. They both eat the same food and are house cats so live in doors all the time.

I have a feeling that it's the change in food. I stupidly changed the food they were eating because he became very fussy with what they were being fed. I have given them eggs in the past few weeks on the odd occasion and only as a treat. One between both of them, once in a week, but this didn't seem to change his eating pattern or cause problems at the time.

I did change their kitten dry food from Canines kitten food to Gocat dry kittens, which they didn't mind initially, but which he seemed to become more fussy with so I changed that to whiskers kitten dry food.

He now hates this too and often scratches the floor in protest, whereas his sister will eat whatever kitten food is available. (this change in food was over a period of 5mths not weeks just so you know I wasn't just flitting from one brand to the next)

He is now back on Gocat - which he eats again, but he picks through the bits he likes and leaves the rest. It's hard to monitor properly how much he is eating because they eat together and she eats much more than he does. They love whiskers kitten milk and were having it once every other day, in the evenings. I have stopped this too now because of his sickness. He is drinking still and he has just helped himself to some more food and water tonight.

His poo is sloppy, pale in colour (not white) with a mucas in it. I keep an eye on when he goes to the litter tray and it can be up to 3 times in the day; (some of the time his second, third visit there is little there) he has been like this for three days now, although no personality change in the past three days until possibly now.

I've tried to keep him away from food for a few hours to see if this stops the loose stools - it did for a while, but keeping him away from the food is difficult because he's hungry and although he eats small portions, he does still eat.

I have tried to give them plain boiled potato with plain turkey thigh chopped up small today to try bland food as suggested, he ate this earlier but then didn't want it again tonight. His stools aren't extremely runny today, just not solid yet.

I had a Burmese for 25 years who lived a very long life, who sometimes threw up on occasions and was fine as it would stop and was more than not, fur balls. so I wanted to monitor and see if he would be ok seeing as he was still quite perky and playful. But I am a bit worried now as I have been reading lots of sites on the internet. He's still eating and drinking - hasn't gone to the litter tray in the last five or so hours but has been sick (tiny froth and clear liquid) about four times today - small amounts of clear liquid again.

He seems a bit quiet tonight, earlier on he was darting around as he normally does and playing with his sister but now, he seems a bit more subdued - it could be my imagination. He is not dehydrated, his eyes are clean and clear he is still purring and responding to cuddles. Is it the food change over this period of months which has finally taken its toll on his stomach? Or something else? I will of course book him in to see his vet. I just wanted to see if anyone knows for anything I can do now? I have read the posts and other sites and am finding most of the information confusing.

Answer by KAte
Hi yes it could quite easily be the change in foods as at his age his stomach will be quite delicate.
Find a quality brand of food and stick to it from now on. Can I say that Go cat is not a good food it has a very high ash content and when I recently spoke to the RSPCA they said gocat was the worst food. Unfortynately a lot of the cheaper brands are like this and aren't really very good quality.

As for the vomiting froth it may be caused by a hairball or perhaps the beginings of one

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/hairballs.html

Needless to say if after you have fed them the same food for a period of a wekk or so the symptoms continue then it may a good option to have him checked by a vet in case there is another reason behind his symptoms.

Make sure that both fresh water and cat milk is available when feeding dry food only, I know you probably do anyway but I like to say it anyway.

best wishes Kate

P.S love the picture

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