Bile is a fluid that’s yellowish-green in color. While it is made in the liver it is in the gallbladder that it is stored till after the ingestion of food has taken place. Once the ingestion of food has occurred bile is released and channeled into the small intestines. This is for the purposes of aiding food digestion and for the emulsification of food to ensure its appropriate use in an animal’s body system.

There are many reasons why a cat would vomit bile. They include:

• If a cat is experiencing stomach irritation.
• If a cat has been on empty stomach for a considerable length of time.
• If the cat is suffering from a disease.
• If the cat has poor eating habits and has fed on contaminated food.

Stomach irritation

A cat will vomit bile when, against the norm, bile seeps into the stomach. This causes irritation in the stomach and the result is vomiting. Technically what happens is that the gastrointestinal tract experiences failure in reacting automatically to the usual functions that happen in the tract with the result being that the tract’s contents fail to move as they normally do and thus resulting in the system behaving untypically. Consequently the cat expels the bile that had seeped into the stomach ending up in vomit that contains the yellowish-green fluid.

This is normally noticeable early in the mornings or in the late hours of the night prior to eating. This is especially so in cats with a feeding schedule of once in a day. It’s a condition that’s rare in cats but when it happens it is more prevalent in cats that are older. It affects both male and female cats equally.

Empty stomach

A cat being on an empty stomach is the most common cause of a cat vomiting bile. The solution for this is feeding the cat meals that are smaller in portions but with more frequency. For instance if a cat is used to feeding once a day trying feeding it 4 or 5 times a day instead. You can fill the food dish the cat eats from at the beginning of the day so that it can feed throughout the day when it feels like. This might not work with some cats though because they will wolf down the food all in one go.

If this is the case the way around this is to either serve the food in portions at various times of the day. And if you are not available throughout the day to do this the solution lies in getting a programmable pet feeder. The programmable pet feeder works by releasing a certain amount of pet food at times you have already preset. This means if you are out of the house for a large part of the day your cat will still get fed at regular more frequent times during the day according to how you have programmed the feeder.

Disease

Vomiting bile may also be a sign that the cat is suffering from a disease such as a liver disease, heartworm, cancer or thyroid problems. It could also be suffering from ulcers, tumors or blockage. Tests would have to be done by a vet to confirm this.

Poor eating habits and hairballs in the stomach

A cat may also vomit bile as a result of having wolfed down a meal without properly chewing it. it could also be indicative of the presence of a hairball in the stomach.

When it’s time to consult a vet

When your cat’s vomit is a mixture of yellow bile and blood you should call a vet without hesitation. This is especially so when the vomiting style is projectile-like, the vomiting has been persistently going on for 2 days, the look and smell of the vomit is like faces and you haven’t noticed the cat drinking water.

A cat that has been vomiting that much and hasn’t been drinking water is likely to be seriously dehydrated. Other symptoms that you should look out for include a fever, problems with breathing, sudden loss of weight, diarrhoea, bloating of the stomach and lethargy.

When taking the cat to the vet you should take a vomit sample with you to help in conducting tests. This will be helpful in diagnosing whether the vomiting has been caused by a parasite or a toxin.

Diagnosis and treatment

To further help in the diagnosis, it is important to give the vet as much information as possible regarding the cat’s history of the symptoms it was displaying, possibilities of what might have been the cause of the vomiting and so on.

The vet will then conduct a physical examination. This could include ultrasound imaging or radiographic imaging of the cat’s abdomen to determine whether the problem is being caused by stomach motility. Treatment could involve prescribing drugs that will improve gastric motility as well as drugs that reduce secretion of acid in the stomach.