Help with cat vomiting

Hi. We have been having problems with our 8 year old cat. It first started around November last year, around the time we were moving to a new house. She started to vomit her food a lot after eating. We took her to a vet that gave her an anti nausea injection and gave me some tablets (Omeprazole). She also told me to reduce her food and then slowly build it back up again. The vomiting stopped straight away and everything was fine for around six weeks and then started  happening again. Again we took her to a vet and the same treatment was given and she stopped vomiting again instantly. The vet said we could try some different food (She will only eat dry food) So we bought her several types of food that were either supposed to be gentle for stomachs or easy to digest. Most of them she refused to eat but she seemed ok with one of them. It's now about a month later and she seems to have started vomiting again. The vet did say that they could do a set of tests but it would be very expensive and might be inconclusive. Im not sure if she is allergic to something (She has always had quite bad dandruff which I read can be connected to allergies) and if so how I can find out what it is. One of the cat foods we gave her did seem to give her really bad watery eyes. We are not really sure what to do now so would appreciate any advice that you might have.

Hello!  You have made a rapid leap here from vomiting to allergy.  Yes, it's true that some cats with allergies do vomit but it in my experience it is much more common for vomiting cats to turn out to have latent kidney disease, liver disease, pancreatitis, hyperthyroidism, cancer or gastritis and many of these cats would also improve to some extent on a bland diet, perhaps especially the pancreatitis cat.   I hear that you do not want to carry out bloods due to cost (and of course, you may be right, they may be negative - a cat with a stomach cancer for example would not necessarily show up on bloods).  However, just because you have decided not to look for many possibilities on blood tests, doesn't rule them out as possibilities or make focussing on allergy any more of a logical conclusion.  Further, Pancreatitis and hyperthyroidism both require specific tests and are extremely common in middle aged female cats (we used to use lipase from old-style basic blood tests as an indicator to do pancreatitis tests, but the truth is that lipase is often not raised in these cats and the true specific pancreatitis blood test is worth doing).  The problem is, that without knowing the cause of the problem, it is hard to know how best to help the patient, apart from continuing to feed bland food and monitor in case they become dehydrated, so opportunities to make a huge difference may be missed.  Dandruff and watery eyes are unfortunately common in cats with many different underlying illnesses.  Best of luck and please let us know what is found.

Thank you for the reply. We haven't necessarily ruled out blood tests however the vet we visited suggested that we try different food and seemed to think that would be more likely to help. She doesnt seem to have any other symptoms. i.e. she is still playful, staying at a normal weight. She did have an operation for breast cancer about a year ago and I had thought it may be that the cancer had spread but the vet seemed to think that was less likely.