He’s done this before; the first time it happened, there was a big hairball in it, but the second time, it was just foamy liquid. I sure hope this is the end of it; this was Signal Numero Uno that his “big sister” was dying back in 2009 - and she did, less than 24 hours later.
If it happens again, he’s headed to the vet, and I’ll go to the veterinary ER if I have to.
One of the sucky things about being owned by animals.
He’s now sitting on my lap and purring. Big Sis sure wasn’t acting like that in her final hours, so I think he’s going to be OK.
He was dumped in or near my yard shortly after 9/11, and the vet said that he was 18 to 24 months old, so I refer to him as “The Millennium Kitty”.
18 years old? You know there are not too many good years left. Hopefully kitty is fine. But if not, the next best thing is a quick, relatively painless decline into a peaceful end.
(Related aside: I have a wonderful, healthy 16-year-old cat. In about a year and a half, we will make an international move, out of Indonesia and about 95% likely to Hawaii. She’s already too old and frail for the difficulties of a move like that. While healthy, she’s gotten much thinner than she used to be, and the vet gave a thumbs-down at her last check-up to a rabies vaccine, since she is an indoor cat, the vaccine is hard on elderly/slight animals, and we know we cannot move her to another country. My greatest hope is that she stays healthy for 16 more months, and then goes quickly down hill so that it is clearly time to put her to sleep as an act of mercy just before we move. If I have to euthanize her at age 17+ while she is still alert and loving, well…let’s not think about that yet.)
Well, if she is healthy in 18 months, what do you have to lose by giving her the shot? If she handles the shot, then you can take her. If not, that is not the desired outcome, but at least you tried. I’m assuming you can’t re-home her, based on your post. I hope it works out.
Shoot, my 17 year old kitty vomits all the freakin’ time. She’s vomited every other day since I took her in five years ago. I think she just likes vomiting.
Try feeding your cat smaller meal though out the day and see if this helps , you should also made sure he drinking enough water . Vomiting a lot can cause
dehydration in cats and you have an elderly cat so you want to made sure it drinking enough water . Poor kitty ,18 years is a very full life for a pet . I would be spending as much time with your cat as you can .
He’s back to normal now, meaning that he’s basically Mr. Meh, but then again, he’s always been this way.
He came to me neutered AND DECLAWED; what kind of sicko dumps a declawed cat? :mad: He was also ridden with parasites, and fattened up once those were cleared up.
International importation is tricky with respect to rabies vaccines. You can’t just get the shot, then go. The timing has to be pretty far in advance (there is a window - something like “not more than 12 months but not fewer than 6 months in order for a pet to enter the country”*), then followed by a blood test that takes forever as it can only be read at certain approved laboratories (for Hawaii, I believe it is somewhere in Kansas).
So, all moves must be planned at least 6 month in advance with respect to rabies shots. We’ll see how things are in a few months, but I doubt we should do anything related to moving her. The vet has already said she’s too old and fragile to endure the move. That’s not going to change in the next year and a half.
*Not all places are like this. But the EU, the UK and Commonwealth countries (Oz, New Zealand), Hawaii, Singapore, and anywhere that is paranoid about rabies will have hoops to jump through.
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Anecdotally speaking, a friend of mine had a cat, who finally died of natural causes at the age of 23. Another friend has a cat around 20, she says, who is thin but still OK. And I know a guy whose female cat lived to 30. So, all other things being equal, just reaching the age of 16 or 18 does not spell immediate doom for a cat; think of it as a human pushing 85.
He coughed up another hairball today, along with his lunch, so I used the Furminator on him earlier this evening. He HATES it (so does my other cat) but it was unbelievable how much loose hair I got off him. I’m surprised he’s not bald; I’d hate to see how much I would have gotten had he not let me know when he was done.
I know Hawai’i in particular can be a royal pain. I’m not sure what I would do in 12 months if faced with an elderly but otherwise healthy cat. I’m sorry you have that lurking ahead. 
My 16 year old kitty has had eating issues for the past year. She got extremely picky and I was having to open can after can to find something she would eat. She also started throwing up 3 or 4 times a week. She was deemed otherwise healthy by the vet a couple weeks ago but was put on Pepcid to see if that would help. She has not thrown up since and is eating better, though still picky. So it could just be stomach acid.
Of course, I have another kitty who throws up because she eats too fast. So who knows?
Thanks for the kind thoughts. The thing is - there is nothing we CAN do. We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Fingers crossed that things work themselves out one way or another.
Poor little fellow’s puking again tonight, and so far, no hairball. I just hope this last time was the end of it.
Plus, from a purely selfish POV, I’m getting a little tired of cleaning it up. :o
Update: He’s OK now.
Time to go to the vet. My Ursula had random puking last summer. Turns out she had mild pancreatitis?
In the ‘can’t hurt, might help’ stash is coconut oil. Cats love it, Louana’s cheap, it’s got calories and good fats plus it can move things along in the GI tract - like hair.
I found cats love it by accident; I rubbed it on my hands and hair before showering and my cats started licking my hands and arms as soon as they could reach me.
I put Miralax in their water, after my vet said he was pretty severely constipated. I also filled capsules with it at first, which he hated, but two days after I started using it, he left an unbelievable deposit in the litterbox. :eek: He’s doing much better in that department now, and when my other cat had some diarrhea a few months ago, I stopped the Miralax for a couple days and opened probiotic capsules instead, and they were none the worse for it.