# My cat is being sick at night.



## chrisell (Jan 21, 2005)

Dory has never been a problem cat for us. She hacks up hairballs a couple of times a week, sometimes outside, sometimes inside, normally accompanied by a small amount of vomit.
Sometimes she's sick overnight - it used to be very infrequent and normally showed signs of cat food so we took away most of her food overnight (we used to leave it out). That cured the problem for a while - over a month. But in the last couple of weeks, she's been sick 4 times overnight with no evidence of hairballs. The problem is that she counter surfs and invariably she's sick from a counter which makes the mess all the more to clear up.
She has a cat fountain which she uses regularly. She's not having any problems with her litter box. We feed her a little Eukanuba dry food which is out all the time, and 1/3 tin of fancy feast a day which we put out in the morning and take away in the evening. Sometimes we give her some cooked chicken that I do for her. I put the chicken strips in a frying pan and let them cook in their own juice until its cooked all the way through, then throw in a splash of water for a minute to get some moisture into it. We keep these chicken pieces in the fridge and Dory gets them if she's been good.
In the evenings about 10pm we play with her and then she gets to play hunt the kitty treat for a while. Normally by the time we go to bed, she's settled in her basket and is asleep.
It bothers me that she's been sick 4 times in quick succession, but not on successive nights.
Anyone have any ideas what might be causing this? Apart from this, she seems like a perfectly healthy and contented kitty. Shiny coat, wet nose, no discharge from her eyes, nose or mouth, playful etc. I don't mind cleaning up after her - I know hairballs and being sick are part of what cats do from time to time. It just worries me that she's started this problem in the last couple of weeks.


----------



## spamlet (Mar 14, 2005)

Is she an outdoor cat? I have heard that cats that eat too much grass can be sick, but that it's nothing to worry about. Also if she is an outdoors cat it could be a number of things, another person feeding her food that's not agreeing with her perhaps? I wish I could help you out more than this. Maybe just ring your vet and ask what they think it may be. Sorry, hope she gets better!


----------



## chrisell (Jan 21, 2005)

She's an indoor/outdoor cat and we have seen her eating grass on occasion, but when she's sick, there's no evidence of grass 

It's worth pointing out that we keep her indoors from about 9pm until the morning.


----------



## spamlet (Mar 14, 2005)

I really wish there was more I could tell you to put your mind at rest. There will be people on here that will know more, but in the meantime I would just give your vets a call and ask them if it is anything to worry about. You never know they may tell you that it's perfectly normal...or they may tell you to bring her in. Either way that is what I would do. But don't worry I'm sure she'll be just fine.


----------



## spamlet (Mar 14, 2005)

Ok, I've just found this site http://www.fanciers.com/cat-faqs/medical-info.shtml
Scroll down towards the bottom of the page there is quite a bit on vomiting.
Hope it helps!


----------



## chrisell (Jan 21, 2005)

spamlet said:


> Ok, I've just found this site http://www.fanciers.com/cat-faqs/medical-info.shtml
> Scroll down towards the bottom of the page there is quite a bit on vomiting.
> Hope it helps!


Thanks for the link. I'll investigate her vomit closely next time to see if it's anything obvious, and if not I'll have to call the vet


----------



## emrldsky (Aug 31, 2004)

You leave her wet food out all day long?

That might be the cause of the vomiting. Bacteria love to grow on wet food, and it's usually ok up to 30 min.

Other than that, I can't think of what might be causing it.


----------



## chrisell (Jan 21, 2005)

Update:
Last night we took all her food away at 8pm and gave her the evening play session 30 minutes early to give her more time to digest the 5 kitty treats she gets after playing. This morning she was fine, and was very hungry as evidenced by the four efforts to trip me up when taking her food downstairs followed by the anhilation of her dry food and a fair amount of the wet. 
I'll post some more if this new regime works.


----------



## spamlet (Mar 14, 2005)

Cool! Glad things seem to be working out for you. Dory looks like such a beautiful cat! Good luck, keep us posted!


----------



## chrisell (Jan 21, 2005)

Just thought I'd update this thread.
We've changed our feeding habits for Dory and it seems to have cured the problem. 
We put her dry food out in the morning and leave it out until evening playtime. While I'm playing, my wife puts the dry food away.
We put her wet food out in the morning and if she's not finished it by lunchtime, clean the bowl out and give her a couple of little pieces of cooked chicken. 
So she has no food out at all overnight now. She's obviously hungry in the mornings, but the overnight vomitting has stopped completely.

Better than a visit to the vet, anyway.


----------

