# Vomiting Kitten Ate Feathers



## Kittybuns (Sep 19, 2012)

I always turn to this forum when I have a question about my cats!

Okay, this is what happened. Last night when I was cleaning up before bed, I found our kitty fishing pole that has feathers lying on the floor with the feathers chewed up. Normally I have this out of reach of the cats because they like to eat feathers, but they apparently got ahold of it. Most of the feathers had been yoinked out of the toy months ago, but the remaining ones (maybe 3 three inch long feathers, nothing huge) had been well chewed up by whoever was responsible last night.

I came downstairs this morning to an e-mail from my husband saying one of the cats threw up a lot in the kitchen. He assumed it was our adult cat because he didn't think our 5 month old kitten, Purrcy, could hold that much. He said (gross alert, proceed with caution) that Purrcy ate as much of the vomit as he could while my husband was cleaning up. When I came downstairs 2 hours later, I found more vomit and it was definitely from Purrcy because my husband put Declan in the bathroom (where his litter box and bed is). 

Purrcy doesn't seem to be feeling too badly. He's purring and wanting to play. I cleaned everything up and he has fresh water, but he hasn't eaten in at least 3 hours because my husband took his food away when the first round of vomiting happened. Here are my questions:

1) When should I give his food back? I don't want to starve him obviously, but also don't really want to just give him more vomit fuel.

2) Should we take him to the vet? I personally did not see any feathers in the vomit but some of it was hard to identify (he threw up mostly in the litter box and on his corrugated scratching post bed, which has a rough and absorbent surface). Not much feather was swallowed.

3) If he is playful and eats and drinks later today and stops vomiting, can I assume he is okay now and doesn't have a feather lodged in his belly that's going to hurt him?

Thank you


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Kittybuns,
Purrcy should be OK to give some food to! 
If you're worried about him throwing it up, just give him a part of the amount that you'd normally feed him! If he keeps that down, feed him some more, a little later!
The food will also help to move anything along!
Sharon


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

Does it look like he might have ingested the hard middle part (sorry, I'm lacking in feather terminology)? That would be the only thing that would worry me. If Purrcy is energetic enough to want to play, he might have gotten everything he munched out of his system (one of my girls has eaten what she's vomited too. gross). 

I think that if you put some food down, it might tell you a lot. If he's hungry and eats, everything's probably out of his system. If he sniffs like he's hungry but then won't eat, some of the feather might still be in him. Hopefully, it'll just come out the other end.

Since he doesn't seem to be uncomfortable and is playing, I think I'd just watch closely tonight. 

That little Purrcy (LOVE that name!)! Causing his mommy and daddy grief and worry! Hope he eats (and keeps it down!) tonight!


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## TabbCatt (Mar 26, 2014)

I think it won't hurt to also feed Purcy wet food with some added water for a few days to help with his digestion. If he's blocked, the dry food will not help (because he won't drink as much water as he needs). I'd also keep close monitor on all his intakes, appetite, energy levels, and all litter box activities for a while, too.

Hoping he feels better very, very soon!


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