Why is my cat throwing up pink watery vomit every week? Is it serious?

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear about Charlie. Vomiting has many causes in cats including intestinal worms, overgrooming leading to hair balls or problems with too much hair being ingested, anything that can affect the motility or functioning of the stomach and intestinal tract, inflammation, infection, dietary problems (including dietary indiscretion or eating things pets are not supposed to eat, food sensitivities/allergies), ingestion of foreign bodies or exposure to toxins, bacterial overgrowth in the gut, problems in the stomach, intestines, or even problems outside of the intestinal tract/stomach including pancreatitis, kidney/gallbladder/liver problems, metabolic disease (diabetes,etc), endocrine diseases (thyroid or other hormone problems), etc. I always tell clients that if signs persist, worsen, or other signs develop you should have your pet evaluated by your veterinarian. A thorough history and physical exam with resultant diagnostics such as fecal tests, blood tests, imaging studies such as x-rays/ultrasound can be done to try to determine what is going on. Once a diagnosis is made or suspected a sound treatment plan can be implemented. Good luck with Charlie

vomiting that frequently is not normal. The blood can be from an ulcer or acid reflux or rupturing of a blood vessel due to the retching. Frequent vomiting can be due to a food allergy or intolerance to an ingredient or inflammatory bowel disease. You can start by changing to a novel protein/hypoallergenic diet to see if this help. If the pattern continues then you will need testing such as an ultrasound or biopsy to find the underlying cause for medication to help control the symptoms.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. It is possible that this is a hairball issue, so placing Beans on a hairball supplement or changing the diet to a hairball formulation may help. If this continues to happen, then I would recommend an abdominal ultrasound to see if there is any indication of what may be causing the nausea / vomiting.

It is not normal for a cat to vomit that frequently, so your cat may have inflammatory bowel disease or another type of chronic gastrointestinal disease. Since it has been going on for so, a diet change may not be enough at this point. The ideal situation would be to have your veterinarian do some testing to determine what is causing the vomiting. If that is not an option, then I would discuss treatment options with your veterinarian. There are a number of medications that may be able to resolve the vomiting. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. With Sasha's age and the consistent vomiting, I am concerned that she may have something systemic going on. Quite commonly I see kidney disease in older cats and this can cause consistent vomiting. There are also other conditions such as GI inflammatory disease that can lead to persistent vomiting like you are seeing. My best recommendation would be to have a veterinarian examine Sasha and have her blood tested to start with. This will help rule out multiple potential causes of what you are seeing. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction and that everything ends up ok with Sasha. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hello, and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Poor Izzy! Vomiting and lethargy are very nonspecific symptoms and can mean a number of possible problems. I don't see an age in Izzy's profile; if she's young, I would worry more about a problem with her stomach or intestines, such as if she ate something that upset her tummy, or more seriously if she had foreign material stuck in her GI tract. If she's an older kitty, I would worry about a possible organ problem, such as kidney disease or diabetes. However, all of these problems could affect any age. If she was acting pretty normal, I'd suggest you could wait 24 hours and see if it self-resolves - but if she's also lethargic, then I recommend having her seen by your vet as soon as possible in case it's something serious. Be very careful when you get her in the carrier - her growling is telling you that she's feeling crummy enough that she wants to be left alone, and if she's prone to nipping she might try to do so when you pick her up. I hope this helps and she feels better soon!

Hello and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! There are many different reasons why cats will vomit periodically. It could be an allergy or sensitivity to the food, to inflammation anywhere in the GI tract, pancreatitis, liver or kidney disease, and many more. These cases can be extremely frustrating and take lots of testing to figure out because of this. The first thing I recommend is screening blood work to look for organ dysfunction that could lead to vomiting. In the vast majority of cats who are acting normal other than the vomiting, the blood work is usually normal. X-rays are also performed to look for any obvious change in organ shape or size and to look for obstruction, masses, etc. Beyond that, the testing gets more involved and typically involves an abdominal ultrasound. Sometime this can give you an answer. Other times the only way to confirm a diagnosis is through biopsies of the affected organs. The other thing that is commonly recommended is a change in diet. If there is an ingredient that she is sensitive to, we want to try to eliminate it from her diet. This is best done with a prescription diet because over-the-counter diets can be contaminated with ingredients that are not on the label. Food trials need to be done for at least 6 to 8 weeks and they can't eat anything else during this time. If the vomiting resolves with the new diet, I recommend keeping her on that diet long-term.