Why Do Cats Throw Up?

hey everybody jackson galaxy here your cat daddy and if you've already checked out the uh the title of this here video or the thumbnail or whatever and you go oh this i need then i don't have to do any kind of like vulgar imitations of it's about throwing up barfing puking hacking now on average cats will throw up at least once to three times a month and that's okay that's kind of normal that's what we would expect when is it that we should worry when is normal puke not normal puke when i you know what i'm trying to say we're going to delve into all of it today it is a wonderland of throw up right here on cat catmojo join us why don't you now let me start off by saying this you guys i am not a veterinarian nor do i play one on tv i'm not a vet whatever i am going to tell you about why cats throw up when it's serious when it's not serious to a certain degree you have to be the judge of when it's serious and when it's routine and you have to get your veterinarian involved when it comes to things that you are even the slightest bit worried about and also what you won't see in this video is me theorizing a lot about medical causes for throwing up there's a lot of them i don't feel comfortable putting that out there because i'm just not a vet and did i say that already i'm saying it again not a vet [Music] the snarf and barf your cat basically throws up something that looks like what it looked like going down it is their meal and it looks perfectly preserved and it's right back there on the floor there's two different types of vomit when it comes to food one is digested one is undigested the snarf and barf that's undigested food and usually that's because your cat ate it too fast they snarfed it and now they're barfing it it usually happens pretty much right after they ate or within the first i don't know 10 minutes or so so what do you do about snarfing and barfing well slowing your cat down is is the paramount thing for whatever reason your cat tends to eat fast slow them down and the easiest way to do that is a slow feeder bowl there's a lot of slow feeders on the market now all it is really is a bowl with either ridges or grooves in it or something like that you can basically take the food paste it around the sides there it forces your cat to just eat slower and when a cat does that just same as a human if we eat slower we register that we're full we stop eating so fast because maybe we were too hungry for instance or maybe there's another cat who wants our food or maybe there's a dog waiting behind us and like is there leftovers and we just eat too fast and up it comes so slowing down their eating process that's really what's going to help here the one thing that you can do for your cat that you can't do for your dog is get your cat up off the ground when they're eating it's okay to have them on a table or a counter so they're not looking over their shoulder to see who's after their food if you take a look at this video right here i talk about why it is that we group our cats dishes so close together if we have multi-cat households and why we should reconsider that in terms of giving them enough space to breathe enough space to eat and so they won't snarf and barf so that's the snarf and barf one of the most common things you'll see your cats do is throw up something a lot of times we'll see grass surrounded by a little bit of white foam or something like that or you'll see an object you'll see something expelled from your cat's system and that's exactly what it is your cat's system saying nope this does not belong here and back up again it comes um if you've got a lot of cat grass and your cat loves cat grass and they just keep eating it at some point their body is going to clean itself out the only time it's something that you really should be paying attention to is a tinker toy comes out the christmas wrapping or whatever that's when you know you got a problem because your cat is trying to expel something and a lot of times that's a sign of something a lot more dangerous they're trying to bring something up now don't forget your cats do not eat like this right not like us they don't right right like that they their teeth are constructed so that they grab and yank meat off a bone grab yank and so they don't really masticate the way humans do yes that's a big word it means chew so that means that some things like blades of grass they're not going to chomp a chomp of chomp on it it's pull yank and then swallow and then a lot of times it gets stuck and up it comes and that's totally natural it's natural that your cats would do that but if you do start noticing that your cats are throwing up objects really take that as a big warning you guys i mean that could mean that you've got strings around the house whether that be from toys or presents ribbons you'll find that your cats are going to just like toddlers put it in their mouth and and sometimes bad things happen so undigestable materials that's one of the first reasons why your cats will throw up let's talk about hair balls a hair ball something is very natural in cats basically because they're so fastidious because they groom themselves so well and so often because those papier on their tongues those little hooks will grab the fur and pull it right off what's not natural is for your cats to pass it through their system so these hairs will collect in their stomach long-haired cats tend to have more hair balls than short-haired cats that makes perfect sense because there's more hair now how do you know when your cat is hacking up a hairball that word hack it's not just i'm throwing something up i have to work at it and work at it as it works its way up from the stomach through the esophagus and out the stomach it's a round hard object it's really hard by the time it starts working its way up it's not this just loose ball of matter it goes from a round object to a more sort of long object and then it is condensed it is like a rock then it comes out so working that thing up and out is what your cat is doing when they're doing that and you think it's coming but it's not coming and you're like are you going to throw up or you're not going to throw up come on buddy do it or don't do it the way you know it's a hairball i don't have a gentle way of saying this it looks like a turd coming out of your cat's mouth it's true if your cat is throwing up hair balls all the time the thing to do is to find out why is your cat over grooming because they're nervous because they have allergies there's a lot of reasons they could be over grooming and that's why they consistently put up hairballs and then the best thing that you can do is especially for long-haired breeds brush your cats and that will help there not be so many loose hairs that wind up in their gut so the next thing we're going to talk about in in the wide world of cat throw up is food allergies food sensitivities somewhat different but they all fall into the same category basically your cat's system cannot handle uh at least one ingredient in the food they're eating when we talk about food allergies certain cats are allergic to chicken to beef to fish to any of the major ingredients that we see in cat foods and the way we get around that is what we call a food trial and that is when you take a very specific food it's usually a limited ingredient diet food which means it has one protein and one carb in it so often we'll see rabbit venison things like that which are not usually in a cat diet why do we do that because we're trying to rule out everything else from beef to chicken to fish right so it's just that one novel protein that one carb they have to be on that food trial for about eight weeks where they don't need anything else but that food and that's not the easiest thing in the world but well worth it though if it turns out your cat is allergic to that one ingredient getting back to vomiting vomiting is just one of the symptoms that you would see if your cat is is throwing up chronically and you can't quite figure out why the higher the quality of the diet the less you're going to have a problem with things like byproducts or other kind of crappy things that are in food the closer you get to number one human grade and number two bioappropriate if we think about the natural cat diet which is i'm eating a mouse out there that's all bone and and flesh and and fat and whatever else and muscle and also what was in that mouse's stomach which is usually grasses or something like that but grains should not be a part of your cat's diet nor should hooves or tumors or any kind of byproducts as well same thing goes with milk everybody cats are lactose intolerant and i know i can hear you so please don't say it out loud nor write it in the comments about how your cat can drink milk and no problem and your you know your family's cats drink milk and your grandparents whatever they're still lactose intolerant and whether they wind up having diarrhea or throwing up from it or not it is a uh a culprit so if your cat's drinking any kind of milk if you put out the sauces of cream if you let them have whipped cream or ice cream or anything like that stop and see if that helps okay going down the list folks going down the list and there's no way that i can be exhaustive when it comes to this list but here's another reason why your cats would throw up although with this one throwing up would be sort of associated also with diarrhea or or or anemia a lot of other symptoms that you would see but foreign parasites parasites are feasting upon your cat's digestive system and they're causing vomiting and diarrhea and everything else whether it's hook worms or round worms or tapeworms or flat worms coccidia giardia there's a whole ton of parasites listen if you're if you're seeing your cats poop and and vomit oh my god i can't believe what i'm talking about if you look closely enough you might see something wiggling around in there and maybe you don't want to deal with that maybe you don't even want to watch this video anymore i don't blame you whatsoever now in this category this is not actually your cat throwing up because they never throw up anything what happens when it's just this hacking sound and you're just waiting for something to come up but it doesn't come up it's just a hack and a hack and a hack and it sounds like they're gagging but they're not gagging they're coughing but nothing's coming up that's usually a sign that your cat is suffering from asthma so that's something to go get checked out again right away and it's a very specific look and sound they'll get down like they're going to throw up their butt will be up in the air and they will just hack hack hack i should be collecting my emmy any moment now no white foam no bile no vomit no nothing nothing ever comes up but those episodes can last about 30 seconds or so of just hacking and like i said that is usually asthma and something that you and your vet can discuss how you're going to get through that if there's three letters that cat guardians hate to hear when they take their cat to the vet and they're like my cat's throwing up all the time those three letters i b d inflammatory bowel disease and you've heard ibd uh referred to in humans before and there's a lot of folks who are diagnosed with ibd and it's kind of the same thing that you'll hear about in cats which is we kind of don't know what's going on but we know that we know what the symptoms are we know basically by imaging your gi tract your gastrointestinal tract what it looks like but we're not sure why that's ibd right there so it is a very frustrating thing for a lot of people i'm going to make a separate video on ibd because it is so frustrating for so many people but just though that's another reason why your cat would sort of chronically throw up the cures are a lot of trial and error and you working very specifically with your veterinarian to find that thing that works for your cat to keep their gi tract nice and relaxed but like i said i will make another video on this but that is just a reason why your cat could be throwing up and there are so many other reasons why your cats could be puking you guys let's just re-run this one thing kind of normal for most cats is one to three times a month they're going to throw up they're going to throw something up something is going to come out one of your pieces of furniture is going to be ruined or your favorite pillow or whatever it is okay but if they're throwing up every day that's chronic vomiting that's something that your vet has to get involved in don't play vet at home don't ask me to be the vet go to the vet if your cats are throwing up consistently if it's something you haven't seen before if it's something that is in the back of your head worrying you listen i want to know what kind of videos you guys want to see and that's what we talk about in the comments down here and different experiences we've had i don't want one of you to go hey jackson my cat's been throwing up for four straight days now what should i do ah you should have gone to the vet three days ago once again by giving you the information i'm giving you i am by no means saying it's exhaustive it's a place to start the conversation it's a place for you guys to start reading uh start doing your due diligence on your feline children because in the course of their life there's going to be a lot of things that would cause them to vomit i just want you guys to be aware of what might be considered normal vomit behavior and where it is that you got to say nope this is not cool let's go to the vet okay so that's really what we're here about today not just to sort of make puke jokes hey and just not for nothing you guys but if your cat's barfing or puking or snarfing or doing any of the things we've talked about today you really should try my cleaner jackson galaxy stain and odor remover i'm telling you i wouldn't put it out there if this is not true there hasn't been a puke stain that i haven't been able to get up off the carpet out of my bedspread out of wherever it is that it wound up try it you really should all right so uh whatever video it is that you guys want me to go on and on about that's what the comments are for let me know what video you want to see don't forget hit the bell thing do the subscribe thing because it's not every day that you go whoa wait a minute ding ding ding jackson has a video on vomit gotta go right now okay you guys until next time you guys all light and all love and all mojo to you [Music] meow

Channel: Jackson Galaxy

Views: 206,679

Rating: 4.9743671 out of 5

Keywords: why do cats throw up, why do cats throw up their food, why do cats throw up so much, why do cats throw up after eating, why do cats throw up hairballs, cats throwing up, vomiting cat, cats throwing up hairballs, cats throwing up undigested food, cats throwing up alot, cat throwing up a lot, cat vomiting a lot, cats throwing up all the time, cat puking, cat vomiting, my cat throws up every time he eats, my cat keeps throwing up, my cat throws up every day

Id: ZBjGMldteeM

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 24 2020