Question 13: My cat frequently vomits up undigested food shortly after eating.  Should I be concerned and is there anything I can do about it?

Answer: This is an issue commonly encountered by cat owners.  The first thing to do is determine whether this is truly a vomiting problem or a regurgitation problem.  Vomiting is defined as the forcible ejection of stomach contents through the mouth and is usually accompanied by signs of nausea and abdominal contractions.  Regurgitation is defined as the involuntary backward flowing of undigested food usually from the esophagus and often seems to take the pet by surprise.  Both vomiting and regurgitation can be caused by a number of different conditions, some of which can be very serious.  It is very important that you and your veterinarian rule-out these potentially serious underlying causes.  Assuming that the cat is healthy in every other way, and the problem is truly regurgitation, it may be more of a behavioral problem than a medical problem.  Often cats will eat like there is no tomorrow, going through binge-purge cycles where they eat a great deal of food very quickly and then soon after they regurgitate the undigested food onto the floor.  The key to solving this problem is to slow down the cat's eating behavior.  We recommend that you try one or more of the following suggestions:

• Offer your cat frequent small amounts of food either by putting small amounts of food in the pet's bowl multiple times per day or better yet by using an automatic pet feeder.  Go to Products on the Links of Interest page to find suppliers on the internet.
• Spread out your cat's dry food on an old cookie sheet or similar material so that it can only eat one or a few pieces of food at a time.
• Add golf balls or similar objects to your cat's food dish so that they have to move the objects around in order to eat.  MAKE SURE that the objects are too large for the cat to swallow!
• Consider one of the new pet feeding bowls that are available to slow down the pet's eating.

Remember, it is very important to rule-out potentially serious causes for your cat's vomiting or regurgitation.  Don't self-diagnosis.  Contact your local veterinarian for a complete history and physical examination.