I have a 13 year old siamese (possibly balinese) cat. They eat dry food during the day and at night they are used to betting a 1/2 can each of wet food as a treat. Recently, my husband switched from wet pouch type food to a well known brand of canned food. Before the cat is finised eating even his 1/2 of the can, he vomits all of it. He does not vomit the dry food or anything else. Could this be due to the change of food?

shellyjo68

First of all remember--cats vomit--a lot--so do not panic.
I would go back to the original cat food and see if the vomiting continues. If it does then treat the cat for hairballs. If this does not solve the problem take him to your regular vet for diagnostics.

Chery

I do the same, switching food types. My 16 year old cat barfs out some types, and some not, it is just trial and error.
But sometimes it can be because they are emotionally upset, especially if there is no hairball.
At the age of your cat, I'd suggest a vet visit as they can develop intestinal and heart conditions just as us old folks.

Good luck dear, and keep us posted.

shellyjo68

[quote=Chery]
But sometimes it can be because they are emotionally upset, especially if there is no hairball.

Has anything else in the household changed besides the food? Routine? Cleaning solution? Family members move or return?

We have a high chair in our kitchen that isn't used but when we tried to get rid of it the cat that has claimed it got VERY distressed.

Chery

[quote=shellyjo68]
How true, cats are territorial and any change will be noticed and reacted to. I'm sure that you have noticed that when even a shopping bag is brought in, a cat has to smell it and rub against it - to recognize it as part of their belongings. Also when there are new people, or even arguments, they react to the changes.

When I was in hospital, my cat refused to eat and slept in his catbox. Now, that catbox is not used for anything, and I had to get him a new one and put it in another room - and the only place he sleeps now is right on me or near my head. He does not even look at his old bed anymore.

His way of telling me I belong to him and will not have it any other way - neither will I - I love him too..

morgaine300

If this happened right after changing foods, I'd be more inclined to think it was due to the change. If they've been eating the same thing for years, that is what their systems are used to. So you have to make food changes very slowly, adding just a tiny bit of the new at first, and gradually increasing.

Or... another thought. Does he eat the new food really, really fast, more quickly than the other food? If so, it might just be he's gulping it too fast and it's regurgitation.

I have doubts about it being an allergy, simply because most dry foods and a lot of the pouched foods have common allergens in them, so it's hard to believe they don't and this new canned food does. However, that is a possibility. May I ask what each of the foods are?

I think, if you can do it, that it would be good to completely switch over to all canned. There's several reasons for this. One is that it's just better food. Canned more closely resembles what a cat eats in nature. Dry food is very high carb and usually has sub-standard ingredients and a lot of grain and other plant fillers. A lot of pouched food can also contain grains and are high carb, in order to make gravy stuff, though not all of them are like that. The high carbs aren't good for a cat and can cause diabetes, especially given the age of your cat. Their pancreas was never meant to process all those carbs that way.

Also, I'd definitely dump the dry cause it's dry. Cats get their moisture from their prey and quite a bit of what they eat naturally is full of moisture, whereas most dry foods have only 10% moisture. They don't naturally drink a lot of water, and while they drink more on dry food, they don't drink enough to make up for the lack of moisture. Of course, yours has been getting the pouched, which is better than dry, but probably not as good as canned. (Honestly, I don't know a whole lot about the pouched stuff.) A lot of cats are dehydrated. And dehydration can lead to urinary problems and eventually kidney problems. They can seem fine for years, but then when one of these problems hits, you can't go back and fix it. And then people try to solve it by giving a food specially formulation (supposedly) for that problem, when the problem could've been prevented, and possibly solved, just by feeding a good quality canned food only.

And I'm particularly concerned in this case, because Siamese are prone to kidney problems.

Not because of the puking, but if you haven't had him to the vet recently, you probably should be getting twice-yearly lab work done.