Elevated Dining: The Possible Solution To Preventing Cats From Vomiting After a Meal

Last week I had a big vomiting event after I ate my breakfast and proceeded to have dry-heaves for a few hours with only yellow bile coming up. I felt like “poop” all day and refused treat offerings and even dinner, as I watched Beau enjoy his evening meal from my favorite cardboard box.

And when I did move around, I was lethargic and not interested in mom’s sweet words or being pet, I just sauntered off to another one of my hideaways. Thankfully within 24 hours I was back to my old self and wanting breakfast the next morning! 

My poor meowmy always worries so much when this happens as cats have been known to develop health issues sometimes it seems overnight, and we are masters at concealing many of the things that bother us.

The message here is, if your cat vomits often, sometimes, once in a while or kind of regularly, be sure to have your cat checked out by your vet to rule out any health issues that could be causing it. Because "regular vomiting" like 2-3 times a week is not normal.

I have to admit, I do vomit every so often after eating. I guess you could say between me, Bouvier and Beau, I have a more delicate stomach. 

I have been known to scarf, barf and then eat my regurgitated mess! (Yup, it’s true!) Mom says it the most disgusting thing us kittys do next to licking our butts.

Just for the record they don’t know why we do this actually, maybe it’s behavioral or maybe now the food is finally warm and therefore more desirable?Bottomline here is to clean up the vomit as soon as you see it and do not allow us to eat it!

Okay, moving on, solutions to the vomiting issues might be as easy as elevating our bowls!

What are the basics to help prevent cats from vomiting after they eat?

As many of our readers know, we 3 cats follow a fresh raw human-grade animal protein diet that has never been cooked or processed. A proper diet is key to a healthy digestive tract. Just like you, we are what we eat.

We also have mealtime security in that Beau eats in one corner of the kitchen, Bouvier up on a bench at the other end of the kitchen and I eat in the guest bathroom. This way each of us can dine in solitude and there is no competition at a communal dining station. This helps prevent a cat from gobbling its food and taking in air with it which can cause gastroesophageal reflux.

Even in a small apartment, serve one cat in one corner, and the other in another corner and turn them away from each other.

Since mom felt that she had done the right things to help prevent me from eating and vomiting, the one thing she hadn’t explored was raising my bowl off the floor. She had started to notice a trend in the cat chat rooms towards that being another possible solution as the cat would now be eating in a more comfortable position and the esophagus in a more level position leading to the stomach.

She also noticed that many of the pet food bowl manufacturers started making elevated cat bowls and even vets were weighing in and recommending them as a possible solution to cats vomiting after a meal.

With an elevated bowl, gravity would help the food move along the track rather than working against it in the more traditional way of feeding us cats on the floor!

Since we naturally eat in a somewhat crouched position, the ideal height for our bowl is 3” above the floor - about equal to our "elbow" or first joint. When our food bowl is placed on the floor, we have to bend down creating a downward slant to our esophagus where the food now has to travel upward to get to the stomach. It also causes us to curve our spine which puts stress on the vertebrae.

Since us cats don’t chew, we bite, tear and swallow our food, you can imagine how it can back up in the esophageal tract and guess what happens next? That horrible sound you all hate when we throw up!

So mom created DIY elevated dining platforms for Beau, Bouvier and me to try out, so each of us could be more relaxed while eating therefore reducing the strain of bending over. And of course our esophagus is a little more level with the bowl.

I am happy to report that once my bowl was elevated, there was an immediate reduction of my vomiting events which made mom even happier than me! I still have an incident every so often - maybe once a month. Mom says maybe I ate a bug or a fly? 

So check out getting your cat an elevated food bowl or create your own like mom did and see if that is the solution to your cat's vomiting incidences!