Silly question: what makes cats sick?

[Hex]

Is there a normalish kind of food that would make a cat sick? Or could a cat be allergic to a specific kind of food?

Nothing too fancy, ideally.

 

[hopewrites]

my aunt had a cat that was allergic to wheat. gave him diarrhea.
we have a dog that's allergic to corn. same problem + gas.

do you need the cat to throw up? or just be out of sorts? or near death?

I heard one cat owner say their friend was always out of sorts after getting into the neighbors catnip. they apparently didnt grow quality nip.

 

[Erin99]

Avocado is the one I know that can cause vomiting, among other horrendous symptoms. Can't think of the rest...

Oh, here we go: http://www.cat-world.com.au/human-foods-which-are-poisonous-to-cats

 

[Jo Zebedee]

How sick? Antifreeze is lethal to them. Furballs make horrendous sick like gracking. Oh, and check out lily pollen, that's poisonous to them but i don't know how badly.

 

[Hex]

Thanks, guys!

I was thinking of something that'd make them sick but not seriously. Looks like citrus may be the answer (though I'm tempted by potato too). Who knew cats were so fragile?

 

[Scott R. Forshaw]

Grass. I can't understand why they'd be dumb enough to eat the stuff, knowing the consequenses, but it doesn't seem to stop them.

 

[Boneman]

They eat the grass to make themselves sick usually to get rid of furballs that have formed when they clean themselves... My cats have always got sick if they eat chocolate!!!

 

[Warren_Paul]

Yeah, the eating grass to induce vomiting is normal. Furballs are the main thing that comes to mind. If a cat has long hair and more prone to malting then they'll likely get more furballs building up in their system.

I had a cat that would eat too quickly and upset his stomach, causing him to vomit. Didn't matter what food he ate; it was the speed he ate it that caused the problem. Too greedy for his own good.

 

[Lucky_Lola]

Dairy. Cats are lactose intolerant... a little can be ok, depending on the cat, but for most of them it comes out the other end pretty quick :O We've also had to stop giving our cats pet milk because one of the kittens will gorge herself and then throw it all back up again, poor mite.

 

[Warren_Paul]

That's interesting. I thought pet milk was lactose free? Certainly the stuff I got was. My kittens loved it and had no trouble drinking it.

 

[Lucky_Lola]

WP - it is. We got the two munchkins as 4 week old orphans so we were dropper-feeding them the same stuff exclusively for weeks. I think she just likes it too much and overestimates the capacity of her little tummy.

 

[The Ace]

I'd swear they sometimes throw up for the sheer hell of it.

 

[The Judge]

I was thinking of something that'd make them sick but not seriously. Looks like citrus may be the answer (though I'm tempted by potato too).

All the cats I've been owned by have hated the smell of citrus fruits, so they wouldn't go near enough to eat any.

When you say something to make them sick, do you mean something to make them ill, or just make them vomit? As the others have said, most cats vomit quite easily as a result of furballs, so no need to give them anything, but they're over it about 10 seconds later without any ill-effects. Some of the things on that list, though, are poisons, and though they won't necessarily take effect at once they're dangerous so are likely to make the cat very poorly unless a vet's help is sought quickly.

It's not just foods which are poisonous, either, some plants are dangerous, and some cats are stupid enough to graze on them.

 

[Hex]

It's a stupid cat. It lives inside all the time (so no grass, sadly) and it eats what a human eats rather than special food.* I just wondered if anything it would eat would make it sick.


*Fictional cat. No cats were poisoned in the writing of this scene.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

If it's around Christmas, eating icicles (the tinselly kind on the tree) will do it every time! They play with them, bat them around, eventually swallow one, and then puke it up on the carpet.

We are catless this year, so no cats will be harmed in the making of Christmas either.

There are, of course, houseplants that will poison cats, some more temporarily than others. Poinsettias, and I think rhododendrons (or is it philodendrons?), and some others.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Of course when a cat gets worms they throw everything up.

 

[James Coote]

Older cats can get sick from eating even slightly off / old food. Equally older cats can get sick just generally being in poor health / having a weakened immune system. After all, they eat a lot of non-cooked / raw food, which could have all sorts of stomach bugs in it

Another one is bioaccumulation. The classic one is if a cat eats a rat that died of rat poisoning, the cat can't break down the poison it got from eating the rat. However, these kinds of poisons and toxins can build up over time as each animal in the food chain can't get rid of them, meaning each animal higher up ends up collecting more and more toxin / harmful substance they can't get rid of, resulting in them getting sick

 

[MstrTal]

Chocolate.

Believe it or not but chocolate is not good for cats. . .

 

[James Coote]

Chocolate.

Believe it or not but chocolate is not good for cats. . .

I think it is the salt/sugar content. For example, my cat likes to lick crisps because he likes the salt flavour. However, that much salt is really bad for them.

Same with cheese (which is surprisingly salty), or say, processed ham.

Dogs also have the same problem with chocolate apparently. Think they have a bit more tolerance than cats, but essentially, we have cat/dog food because they are different animals with different biology. They are not just miniature humans and can't eat what we eat.

 

[Montero]

All of the above plus

Dodgy mouse (though possibly also a case of greed). Had a cat that would eat a mouse, come in, eat biscuits from his bowl, throw the lot up into the bowl, take a step sideways to the other bowl with the fresh biscuits (we had two cats) and start eating again. He didn't fancy the soup of lightly diced mouse bits (recognisable bits), stomach juices, blood, with cat biscuit croutons. The fresh biscuits would stay down.

Cat biscuits. Had an old cat from the rescue centre with really bad teeth. The vet said to make him eat biscuits for the good of his remaining teeth (to clean them). If we put cat biscuits down he'd nibble at them in a pathetic way, then throw them up ten minutes later. If we put down high quality tinned food he'd ignore it. If we put down the most disgusting, humming, cheap tinned cat food he'd lick the bowl round the floor getting the last little bit and keep the lot down.

Spiders. They seem to be chucked up half the time.