My 12-year-old cat vomits every morning. The vet found nothing wrong... A few days later, the owner discovered the "surprising cause."

In late August 2026, I noticed something was wrong with my beloved cat, Kotaro. When I woke up in the morning, I found two piles of vomit containing food on the living room floor. "Maybe he threw up his food along with a hairball?" I thought, and kept an eye on him for a while, but the morning vomiting continued.

Worried, I took him to the animal hospital. However, the tests revealed nothing unusual, which was a relief. But since the morning vomiting continued to occur from time to time, I found myself struggling to find the cause.

Learning about "hunger vomiting" in cats after living with Kotaro

Kotaro is a burly cat. He has a thicker frame than the average cat and weighs about 6 kg. Since I wake up at the slightest sound, our style is for the cats to sleep in the living room while the humans sleep in the bedroom.

What I learned for the first time after living with Kotaro was that some cats engage in "hunger vomiting," where they throw up stomach acid when their stomachs are empty. I am not a morning person. When I couldn't get up easily and meal times were delayed, Kotaro would sometimes vomit from hunger.

So, I decided to use an automatic feeder. However, life with cats rarely goes as planned. Kotaro was startled by the sound of the food being dispensed and fled the scene.

And who would take advantage of that situation to eat the food but our youngest cat, Leon. Every time Kotaro finally calmed down and returned, he found that Leon had already gobbled up all the food dispensed by the automatic feeder.

Days of trial and error in finding a way to cope with "hunger vomiting"

After a few days, he got used to the sound of the food being dispensed, but then a situation arose where Leon would rush over faster than Kotaro. Since there were no free outlets to set up a second automatic feeder, I felt it would be difficult to prevent Kotaro's hunger vomiting this way.

So, I tried the simplest solution: "waking up earlier myself." However, as someone who was born with heart disease and tires easily, continuing to wake up early was physically exhausting.

After a week of waking up early, I ended up feeling unwell and had to rest. It took me two weeks to recover. It's pointless if I end up bedridden. I learned my lesson and abandoned this strategy.

The next thing I tried was the "late-night snack strategy," which involves feeding him a small amount of food before bed. We usually fed our cats a fixed amount morning and night, but I decided to give only Kotaro a small portion before going to sleep.

Experiencing vomiting that was different from "hunger vomiting"

This strategy was more effective than I thought, and Kotaro's hunger vomiting stopped. Great! I'll keep doing this, I thought. I felt relieved, but this August, another problem arose. Unlike the hunger vomiting, I started seeing vomit that contained food.

However, he still had an appetite and was energetic; there were no other abnormalities besides the vomiting. Maybe the portion of food I gave him before bed was a little too much? Thinking that, I standardized the amount, but for about a week, I would go to the living room in the morning to find vomit containing food.

Could it be a serious illness? Feeling anxious, I rushed to the animal hospital. Kotaro hates the animal hospital. He is so timid that he starts shivering the moment he sits in the waiting room, and shakes even more once he is on the examination table.

Other owners and the vet often say, "He's such a big boy, but he's shivering? How cute." Since the animal hospital is clearly a stressful place for Kotaro, I don't want to take him there unless necessary, but this was no time for such considerations.

At the hospital, we went through the standard tests, including blood work, and waited for the results. He's already 12, so there was a possibility of discovering a kidney-related illness. As I waited for the test results, I couldn't focus on anything else, considering various possibilities and mentally calculating the costs of potential treatments.

However, the vet told me, "There are no particular abnormalities." Since he still had an appetite after vomiting and wasn't vomiting all day long, we decided to monitor him for the time being by adjusting his diet.

Witnessing a "secret midnight dinner party" in the living room

Thank goodness it wasn't a disease... At the same time, the question arose: "Then why does the vomiting continue?" Then, I had a realization based on the vet's words: "True, he's not vomiting randomly throughout the day; it's only in the morning."

Is it because he's such a needy boy that he gets stressed when I'm not around? Or maybe he's been eating things he shouldn't at night? Various thoughts ran through my mind, but a few days later, I would discover the cause of the vomiting.

It started when I woke up in the middle of the night and went to the living room. As I entered, Kotaro scurried away from a cardboard box filled with unopened food. That way of running off was his reaction when he had done something mischievous or felt guilty.

Thinking he might have had an accident, I checked the box and saw that the bag of unopened food had been ripped open, and food was scattered inside. It seems Kotaro had learned how to open the food bags himself and was enjoying an "all-you-can-eat" situation night after night.

Actually, I had anticipated this kind of situation and tried to prevent it by placing another cardboard box on top of the one containing the food as a weight. However, the box I used as a weight was light, so Kotaro used his strength to move it and had been having a "dinner party."

This might be the cause. I thought, and the next day, I moved the box with the unopened food to another room. As a result, the morning vomiting that had no clear cause stopped completely.

The cleverness of Kotaro finding where I hid the food was amazing. That's my boy. As a doting owner, I felt a sense of pride, but at the same time, I learned the importance of managing food properly.

Having been rescued while wandering alone along an embankment, Kotaro knows the harshness of life on the streets, so he has a strong obsession with food and will eat whatever is available.

That is exactly why I was reminded once again that I must accept this side of his personality while taking appropriate measures to protect him.

Thank you, Kota, for showing me your sharp powers of observation. I, your humble servant, will do my best to make sure your belly and heart are satisfied.

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