What Might Cause Your ESA Cat or Dog to Vomit?
Coming home after a long day, only to find a gross mess on the floor is something all pet owners experience at some point. More often than not, an ESA dog or cat may vomit simply because they have gobbled down too much food or happened to eat something bad. However, vomiting can sometimes be an indication of a serious problem, such as ingestion of toxic stuff or a health condition requiring instant medical attention. Here are the top 20 reasons why your dog or cat might suddenly experience an episode of vomiting.
- Diet-related reasons, such as a change in diet, ingestion of trash, food intolerance
- Bacterial infection in the gastrointestinal tract
- Presence of foreign elements, such as bones, pieces of toys and chewies, in the gastrointestinal tract
- Severe kidney failure
- Intestinal parasites
- Viral infections
- Consumption of toxic matters
- Bloat
- Car sickness
- Heatstroke
- An infected uterus
- Pancreatitis
- Use of certain anesthetic agents or medications
- Serious gallbladder inflammation or liver failure
- Feline Heartworm Disease
- Inner and middle ear Infections
- Adrenal gland disease
- Bartonella, a chronic digestive infection in cats
- Feline AIDS and Feline leukemia
- Stomach or tumor intestine
A vomiting episode that occurs irregularly or periodically over a long period of time can be a result of severe constipation, intestinal or stomach inflammation, cancer, systemic illness, liver disease, or kidney dysfunction.
What to Do In Case Of Frequent Vomiting
An occasional bout of vomiting may not be a red light. However, chronic or frequent vomiting can indicate something serious, such as parvovirus, colitis, or intestinal obstruction. If your pet has been vomiting for a while, it is your job as a responsible owner to take him to the vet as soon as possible for a thorough exam and diagnosis.
Other Symptoms You Don’t Want To Miss
Vomiting can be caused by various reasons and thus diagnosing the root cause can be a little difficult. For the same reason, it becomes important for you to provide your vet with as much details and information about the problem as possible and specify if there are other accompanying conditions. Here’s what you need to watch out for:
If your pet vomits occasionally and goes on to eat and drink normally with regular bowel movements, the bout was most likely a remote incident and something to not really worry about.
- Dehydration
- Diarrhea
- Weight loss
- Blood streaks or chunks in vomit
- Lethargy
- Increase or decrease in urination or thirst
- Significant change in appetite
Most ESA owners with cats or dogs who have medium and long coats of hair have a common vomiting problem. Indoor pets, exposed to continuous lighting, shed all around the year. Once this fallen hair becomes stuck in their spiny tongues, it becomes impossible for them to spittle it out, and are thus eventually swallowed.
Shot strands of hair then get mixed up with food and travels through the digestive system easily, but the longer hair strands collect in the stomach and cause the pets, especially cats to vomit when they start irritating their little stomachs. When this happens, your pet will gag, retch and hack in the most frightening way, but this is generally not a cause of concern.
It is still best to get your pet checked occasionally so problems like these can be detected at an early stage and thus save you and your pet considerable inconvenience.