Is Optifiber stopping my kidney cat from vomiting hairballs?

I am sorry we didn't answer your question sooner. Hopefully you have heard from your vet by now. The tissue in the picture is actually a couple of hairballs. I would recommend talking to your vet about what may be the best option for preventing additional hairballs (medications, dietary change, shaving the hair, etc).

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. It is possible that this is a hairball issue, so placing Beans on a hairball supplement or changing the diet to a hairball formulation may help. If this continues to happen, then I would recommend an abdominal ultrasound to see if there is any indication of what may be causing the nausea / vomiting.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Semintra has actions of decreasing blood pressure and decreasing the protein loss with kidney disease. Therefore, if no kidney disease is present, and no high blood pressure is present, then you might see signs of low blood pressure or changes in the sodium and potassium. These are unlikely to occur but possible. Foaming urine is a sign of protein in the pee. Has the urine been checked for protein? I would recommend a Urine Protein:Creatinine Ration to properly assess if protein loss is present. Checking the blood pressure is a good idea as well (although somewhat difficult to perform in stressed cats accurately). I would probably recommend starting on a kidney food as a early management/prevention vs. starting on Semintra, unless your vet has a high suspicion clinically that Nomar has kidney disease (weight loss, dehydration despite drinking/peeing a lot, overly dilute urine, etc.). Kidney values only go up once 75% of the kidneys are affected, so we have to rely on other indicators to catch kidney disease early. Talk to your vet about IRIS staging. Best of luck with Nomar, I hope he feels better soon.

Thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach with your question about Alonzo. It could be irritating from the hair ball or it could be due to a stomach illness. I can give you a home remedy for him see if that helps. I recommend withholding food for tonight, then feed a bland diet of boiled white meat chicken (no bones) in small amounts several times a day for a couple of days. Then slowly add back in his normal diet. If the vomiting continues in the absence of food, he refuses to eat the bland diet, he vomits the bland diet, develops diarrhea, stops drinking water, starts vomiting water, or becomes very lethargic, he will need to see a vet right away. I hope this helps!

Hi and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I am sorry to hear Mojo has been having some health issues recently. Kidney disease can often cause nausea and vomiting. Breathing trouble could be caused by a virus, bacterial infection or something more serous such as pneumonia, fluid in the chest, or lung cancers. Yowling at night or in the early morning could be a sign of dementia which typically happens in older pets. A veterinary check up would be recommended just to check his blood work and do a chest x-ray to see what is going on with his lungs. Anti-nausea medications can be prescribed to help control his vomiting. Sometimes certain medications can be prescribed for dementia as well, however, calming chews or Feliway plug ins/spray you can find over the counter at your pet store may help with night time disturbances as well.

It is important to note that elderly feline patients with chronic renal disease are much more likely to dehydrate than your average kitty. Some thing you will want to check for at home for evidence of dehydration is the moistness on the gum line as well as the pink / paleness, the skin turgor (the skin should return to the body when you pull on it). Dehydrated cats will also usually appear weak, lethargic and unwilling to perform some normal activities. Without having your cat in front of me, I would say that an actively vomiting cat with chronic renal disease should be seen tonight for sure IF the vomiting continues even once more. If you decide to hold off on going for now, that may be OK. You can consider trying to give something for the vomiting like pepsid or prilosec, though unfortunately I am unable to offer doses. Hope this makes sense. If you are having any doubts are all about your kitty's well being just bite the bullet and have him seen .

It is ot possible to identify the source from the photo but your vet may be able to examine to confirm if it is indeed cat hair or synthetic yarn. I would recommend feeding a diet formulated for hair ball reduction for 3-4weeks. A full health check and abdominal xrays would be recommended to rule out any partial obstruction or sooner if there is any weight loss