Feline Health Question

[Cuckoomamma]

I've had roughly 11 cats in my life and none have been similar to our current cat. First off, she has a number of food allergies. We only have one canned food that she can eat without throwing up or getting diarrhea. No dry food. I've only fed my cats dry food, so this in itself is different for us. And, I've never had an animal with food allergies, nevermind one with so many.

We have another issue that's the one that has me posting. If she goes more than 3 hours or so without eating, she throws up. Since we feed her wet food, it's not something I can leave out without it going bad. She's been to the vet, but at the time we thought diagnosing the food allergies would clear this up. It certainly sounds like I need to take her for another vet visit, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea as to why this might be happening. As long as she's fed regularly and often she's fine. If for some reason we stay longer someplace than expected, we come home to her having thrown up.

[kaharris83]

My cat can go 12 hours between his meals but if it starts getting longer than that he will throw up as well. For him it is a stress reaction. I know that isn't helpful to your situation as it certainly isn't 3 hours, but my cat throws up when he needs to eat as well. They do sell automatic feeders that you can put an ice pack in under the wet food to help it stay fresh. If you put a little food in there before you left and set the timer if you weren't back to feed the cat it could still eat. We always have petsitters when we leave for a day or two because our cats eat wet food too. They used to have a nice automatic dry feeder and we could leave them for a while and they'd be fine. Hope the vet can figure out why your cat needs to eat so often.

[Cuckoomamma]

I never thought that it might be a stress reaction. She has other odd quirks because she's a rescue. Hmmmmm

I've seen the automatic feeders and actually thought of getting one but didn't see that you can add an ice pack. Have you done that? Does it still work okay?

TIA!

[buddyleebaby]

It could be acid reflux. Sometimes it is enough to feed several small low protein meals throughout the day but given your kitty's other issues you may need to get some medication to help her deal with it.

[kaharris83]

I never thought that it might be a stress reaction. She has other odd quirks because she's a rescue. Hmmmmm

I've seen the automatic feeders and actually thought of getting one but didn't see that you can add an ice pack. Have you done that? Does it still work okay?

TIA!

Yeah my kitty gets very, very stressed when he feels like you've forgotten to feed him. He will lick and lick and lick himself or just howl until he makes himself sick if we start getting past the 12 hour mark between feedings.

I have not tried any of the wet feeders as we feed them 2x/day and there's 2 of them so we wouldn't be able to leave them with a feeder like that without one of them bullying the other and eating all the food so we just hire a sitter. But here are some of the feeders that use an ice pack:
http://www.justliners.com/catfeeders.htm
Amazon might have some reviews.