How to Handle a Cat that is Vomiting

Video Transcript

" Hi! I am Dr. Adrienne Mulligan. I am the owner of Camp Verde Veterinary Clinic. I am here today on behalf of expertvillage.com, and I am here to talk to you about taking care of cats with critical conditions, critical emergencies and health issues. Another problem that you may see with your kitty, that looks and sounds really terrible, is vomiting. Cats are really big pukers. They have trouble with foods, they have trouble with swallowing of their own hair, they have trouble with eating grass and getting that stuck, and they often eat things like bugs and things that they have no business eating; but the number one cause of vomiting in cats is hairballs. And it does not have to actually be a conglomerative hair, it can just be that the hair in their GI tract causing irritation, and it makes them vomit. So you may not see them throw up hair, but the hair or the hairball may have already passed through into the intestine, where they cannot throw it up, but they are still very aggravated in the stomach, so that they continue to vomit. So vomiting and hairballs often go hand in hand, although there can be many other reasons for vomiting. And cats can sound really horrible, and they can sound like it is a major emergency, and it may well be. So vomiting is something you should see you cat’s veterinarian for, and get that sorted out; but if you do think it is hairballs from the history of your cat, you can, if it is after hours and you cannot get to see a vet, like then, if you have got some hairball ointment called Laxotone, Laxiar, there are various kinds…then give your cat a good big tablespoon and at least grease things up a little bit, so anything that is in there irritating can move on through. "