If your cat vomits once or on rare occasions, it’s usually not a big deal (other than the mess to your carpet or furniture). But if it happens more often, there may be some concerns. Not only is vomiting a symptom of cat health issues, but it can lead to other problems such as dehydration.
If your cat is vomiting up blood, take your pet to a vet or an emergency veterinarian hospital immediately.
The following will help you treat your cat’s problem. If your cat continues to vomit for more than 48 hours, gets worse or becomes lethargic or sick-acting, contact your vet for further instructions. Here’s how to identify and treat the condition.
- Starve your cat for twenty-four hours. You will want to take away your cat’s food for about twenty-four hours. Your cat may object to this, which may indicate they’re not too sick.
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Take away your cat’s water. If you’ve taken away your cat’s water and they haven’t vomited for a few hours, reintroduce it slowly. Drop a few milliliters of water into your cat’s mouth or give your cat an ice cube to lick. If they still don’t vomit, you can offer a little more water to your sick cat on regular intervals for twenty-four hours. - Watch your cat’s fecal material. Try to keep your cat inside for a few days with a litter box so you can keep an eye on her fecal material. Watch for small rice specks or tiny worms. These are parasites and your vet has a treatment for it. You also may see parasites in your cat’s vomit. Keeping an eye on this is a good way to quickly spot signs of cat illness.
- After twenty-four hours, replace your cat’s food with a bland diet for three days. A bland diet may consist of small pieces of cooked chicken (no skin, no bones), rice or chicken broth. You can also feed your cat Feline I/D. Feline I/D is a Hill’s Prescription Diet. Your vet probably carries this product or a similar one. After three days, start reintroducing your cat’s regular diet by mixing it with the bland food you’ve been feeding them. This should help get rid of cat vomiting.
- Groom your cat. If your cat is suffering from hairballs (you’ll know if you see big clumps of fur in your cat’s vomit), grooming your cat on a regular basis will help them from swallowing fur.
- Give your cat hairball medicine or petroleum jelly. If your cat is vomiting due to hairballs, this will help ease the fur out of your cat’s digestive tract. If it’s hard to get your cat to take hairball medicine, try coating their paws with a small amount. Some hair ball medicine comes flavored now. In addition, some food products claim to help with hairballs.