You’re relaxing after a long
day, and suddenly you hear it: “the pump.” That’s what we veterinarians call
that distinctive heaving sound a cat makes before it vomits up a hairball. (By the way, is it just my cats, or do your
cats always choose to defile the rug you got just last week from Ikea?)
Many cat owners are all too
familiar with that scenario. In fact,
most of you probably jump into a practiced drill when you hear the dreaded
hacking noise. Mine is to grab the offending cat and try to make it to the
shower in time.
Is chronic vomiting normal
for cats? The problem is so common that many of us – owners and veterinarians alike
– sometimes tend to dismiss it. We say the cat simply eats too fast, or has a
sensitive stomach, or is “just a puker.”
But a recent article in
Journal of the American Veterinary Association (JAVMA) reported that vomiting
from hairballs is neither as normal nor as benign as we once thought. In fact,
it said that a cat’s frequent hairball vomiting should be a wake-up call to the
veterinarian to dig deeper for the real cause.
It’s true that treatments
such as sensitive-stomach diets, hairball medicine and anti-vomiting drugs may
improve symptoms. But the relief may be
incomplete or short-lived.
The JAVMA article described a
study involving 100 cats that exhibited chronic vomiting. Researchers performed
biopsies on abnormal-looking areas in the cats’ intestines. What they found was
mind-blowing: Of the 100 cats, one was in normal health, 50 had cancer of the
gastrointestinal tract, and 49 had enteritis (an inflamed GI tract). The finding of enteritis is important because
without treatment, the condition can progress to cancer.
This was a select group of
cats, notable for their frequent vomiting. Still, the study holds a lesson for
us doctors and our cat-owning clients: It’s time to take hairball vomiting more
seriously. If you have a frequent puker and brief symptomatic therapy doesn’t
solve the problem, get a diagnosis. You might be able to prevent a minor
annoyance from turning into a serious problem.
