r/PetCare • u/_b3rtooo_ • Nov 28 '24

Why do we take pets throwing up more seriously than people throwing up?

My mom's cat threw up once and hasn't again in the days following but she is terrified that something is wrong with her. Throwing up is a natural reaction to try to eject something that your body thinks may be wrong. I imagine it's the same for pets.

Is she being too jumpy? Maybe my hesitation to alarm is a little influenced by the costs of vet visits, but I just don't think one case of a body doing a normal function is worth too much concern if it's an isolated incident.

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u/protogenxl Nov 28 '24

People can communicate, Cats can't say "damn hairballs" or "I have been nauseous all day" so you need to watch for behaviour changes and inspect the spew

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u/LavenderClouds6 Nov 28 '24

Throwing up once is not a big concern for a cat. Probably ate something slightly bad outside. As long as there is no other symptoms and rhe cat acts themselves it's most probably fine so no need to worry 👍

However as to why we worry more when a pet vomits than a person here are my thoughts

Humans catch more innocent "stomach bugs" than animals, it's normal for people to occasionally have an episode of throwing up or diarrhoea esp if they've been near others who have. So for us it's not worrying unless it's too regular etc etc. With a pet it could be something the owner is doing/controlling that's made it sick (diet, too much sun exposure, stress etc) But also, when it's yourself you know how you physically feel and what you've been doing. Ie you'd know if it's likely due to heat exhaustion, potential pregnancy, if you've eaten food that was bad... With us if we eat undercooked eggs/meat we know there's a chance of food poisoning but when a pet is sick we don't know if they ingested something toxic. You know you didn't eat anything super dangerous because you wouldn't but a dog would.

Another factor may also be because when we feel other symptoms we likely get treated before it's reached a severe level (like chronic diseases and such) but animals often hide their symptoms until they're bad enough that they cant hide it anymore, so a symptomatic animal is usually already more sick than a person who's first t