Always happy to do a public service, I thought I should help anyone considering getting a kitten. Poor Shallot hasn't been well again. I noticed a couple of times over Christmas some cat vomit on the windowsill, and down behind the Christmas tree. I just put this down to hairballs, something even Shallot gets sometimes. Then about a fortnight ago he seemed to be unwell. It would start with him jumping into an open area of the floor. The convulsions would start as his body would rock from front to back. The priceless look on his face as he would eject his hoop meant that I would chuck him out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes he would puke whilst mid air, meaning the splatter effect was so much more. Freshly eaten kitecat with jelly would be thrown across the carpet along with warm stomach digestive juices. I came to the conclusion he was eating too quickly after watching him wolf down his grub. I'd taken to leaving the back door open next to his bowl so he could go out afterwards, and I suspect the same dogs that have taken to using the garden as their personal toilet have been sneaking in and finishing what he's not eaten. So, the basic instinct of the cat is to eat it as quickly as possible. I reduced how much he was eating, more and more, until on Monday when it was literally 2 chunks of meat and fresh water. He ate it greedily, then disappeared upstairs. 5 minutes later and a noise that can only be described as "Me-*boilk*-ow" could be heard. Again, he'd puked, and again I threw him out.
Meanwhile, I knew I had to try something. He has treats, and he wasn't puking them (except on Monday when he had some before his meat). This told me he isn't intolerant of everything, and so on Wednesday night we had steak (with a nice garlic and mushroom cream sauce, yum) and I gave him a corner of the fresh meat. He ate it like he hadn't eaten for weeks (well, at this point that was almost true), and he kept it down. Again, this proved he was able to eat, just not
his food. Yesterday he got fish fingers, without the breadcrumb, and again he kept it down. So, I went into town and got a box of pouches with meat and gravy (no jelly). He's able to eat that as well, so I'll get his strength up a bit before switching to tins of meat with gravy.
And so, if you're about to get a cat, and you have a weak stomach (like me), get lots and lots of kitchen roll. It absorbs the stomach acid, and makes picking up the chunks of warm half digested meat a lot easier because you can't feel them.
*ack*
