Why is my 14-year-old cat vomiting and in pain when trying to poop?

Chronic diarrhea in an older cat with vomiting can be a sign of an inflammatory bowel disease or intestinal cancer. The only way to differentiate between the two disease is a surgery to take biopsies of the intestines and have them analyzed. Based on the diagnosis, the diet may be changed or vitamin supplements or steroids may be added to manage her symptoms. They will check for parasite and check her labs for any renal or endocrine disease

Yes, I do think it is time to go to the vet. Arthritis is very common in older cats, and frequently underdiagnosed since they are so good at hiding pain. Rocky may need medications to treat pain if that is what you are seeing. Other treatment modalities such as cold laser therapy or acupuncture are also great for arthritis. There are a few things that could cause loose stools and occasional vomiting in cats, including hyperthyroidism, IBD, intestinal lymphoma, kidney disease, among others. Your vet will probably recommend starting with bloodwork that can diagnose some of this issues, or send out labwork for a GI panel to see if Rocky is having trouble absorbing nutrients like normal.

What you are describing are some very general signs, and unfortunately it's going to take a bit of detective work in the form of a vet visit for exam and testing to figure out what's going on. Vomiting could be due to a number of causes, both GI-related (infection with virus or bacteria, parasites, foreign body blockage) and non-GI (kidney disease, toxin exposure, liver disease, etc). The lethargy (only walking) is a very general sign that usually occurs when animals don't feel well, and the lower back pain could be related to GI issues (i.e. abdominal pain) or another problem entirely. Please get Daytona seen by his vet right away to start figuring out what is going on, if he is still displaying these signs.

Your cat could be severely constipated and the straining can make him nauseous. For severe constipation, your pet should be seen by a vet. Hard stool building up in the colon stretches it out of shape, and it also causes stretching of the muscles around the anus, causing perianal hernias that trap the collected feces, effectively making a plug. Your pet may need more than one enema and even manual extraction of the feces in order to relieve this episode. To help avoid this in the future, you can add Miralax to the food. Miralax is a very gentle, easy to give treatment for constipation, available over the counter at any pharmacy. The dose of Miralax is 1 tsp per 50 lbs mixed in with food once a day. You can also add a tablespoon of vegetable or olive oil to his food once daily, or add a couple of teaspoons of canned pumpkin (not pie filling) to his food daily.

Gage could have any number of gastrointestinal issues including parasites, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, etc. I would bring a stool sample to your vet and have Gage examined. He might do well on a prescription allergy diet like Hills z/d as well if all the tests appear to be normal. Your vet may want to do blood work and other diagnostics like xrays and ultrasound as well.

Vague behavior changes like you are describing can be the first sign of illness in an older cat, so if you feel something is wrong I would encourage you to see your veterinarian again. Blood work might be recommended to rule out kidney or liver disease. The vomiting could be a sign of inflammatory bowel disease or even an intestinal mass and if the blood work is normal an abdominal ultrasound might be recommended. Finally, the vocalizing and hissing could be a sign of pain from something like arthritis and there are some supplements and now pain medications that can be used in cats.

Poor kitty! In a 13 year old cat, I strongly suspect that she has a medical problem causing these issues. Some common possible causes would include hyperthyroidism, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. I would recommend taking her to the vet for an exam as soon as you are able to - he/she can do blood work and a urinalysis to help diagnose the problem and get her started on appropriate medication to treat it.