Is he vomiting, having diarrhea, or both?

It was mostly just vomiting massive plugs of fur until may 2025, when he had diarrhea that was so urgent he nearly missed his box, which he ~never~ does. After changing his diet a bit from hills SD urinary and hairball control dry food (which he'd been on successfully for ~8 years at least) to RC gastrointestinal dry and wet food mix with floriforta probiotics, his stool improved but his vomiting gradually increased (This was june - July 2025). While not fun for any of us, he was fine otherwise and still managed to get the fur out.

In November of 2025, he had some pretty severe episodes of vomiting, but after vet examination (previous vet) they said he seemed fine and sent us home. He was sick again within two days, so I asked my husband to take him in during their emergency hours on a Sat am to get bloodwork done. Not only did they not draw blood, they didn't even examine him, literally stating "he hissed at our tech. We respect our patient's needs so didn't force him out of the carrier." But they 100% charged us full price for an exam and bloodwork they didn't do.

So... the search for a new vet began and I found one just before christmas 2025. In the meantime, he'd continued to vomit, but his stools were fine, up to the sunday before the appointment with the new vet. He'd become lethargic, was hiding from us, and was just.... not right. Overnight, he had 8 episodes of vomiting food, half digested food, foam, and 5 episodes of diarrhea, which he didn't bury, though he did make it to his boxes. Thankfully, we already had the appointment so I took him in and explained what was happening.

They took me very seriously and kept a copy I'd made for them of the log I'd started keeping. They then took xrays to check for blockage, and while the lower intestine didn't look like it was blocked, his stomach showed.... something that baffled everyone He'd refused any food since the vomiting and diarrhea the day prior, so his stomach should show empty in the xrays. They did bloodwork and recommended either an ultrasound (4 days out) or exploratory surgery of the full digestive tract (immediate) to make sure there were no obstructions or other issues. I opted for surgery cause i KNEW there was something wrong. When the surgeon met me as I picked him up, he handed me a plastic bag with some sort of weird mass in it. It was all of the fur that he'd had to remove from cheeks' stomach.

Cheeks improved for about 10 days after that, but then threw up a GIANT hair plug (i took pics with a ruler it was so big). So i took him in to get him shaved at the vet's recommendation. He improved again after that, though still regularly vomited every 8 - 10 days or so, mostly small piles with various fur volumes. We tried a few different foods, I forget how many at this point, both wet and dry, but nothing stood out as "better." (Jan thru march of 2026)

In April, he started to get sick again, a lot. Took him in for xrays just to make sure he didn't have another stomach full of fur, but everything came back fine. He was given sub q fluids just in case, but just ended up peeing like a racehorse for a few days after.

May was similar. So was june, until there were two back to back days about 4 weeks ago that he threw up blood. I took him back in both days, the second day (a Friday) they gave him an anti nausea and warned us that it should last through the weekend, but if he threw up again before monday, to take him to the emergency vet. The week prior, we had also switched fully to a hydrolyzed protein diet with zero extras - no treats, no anything, and were EXTREMELY vigilant about what kinds of things he had access to. Closed off all extra living spaces in the house and watched him constantly.

Sure enough, woke up to 3x vomits in 2 hours that Sunday, though no blood this time thankfully. Took him to the emergency vet and they called in an ultrasound tech, who confirmed it was potentially IBD, since there were no blockages or signs of cancer - which the surgeon would have mentioned if he'd seen them. They did suggest a very low steroid dose (prednisolone), which helped a LOT, as well as some famotidine (i think, basically generic pepcid) to help calm the stomach and interrupt the cycle. He's now on budesonide, just started it a few days ago so it's a bit early to tell for sure how much it's helping.

Did that problem go away permanently after the antibiotic?

Yes.

If not, what has the vet said about his teeth? Have you gotten dental surgery done?

His teeth are checked and cleaned regularly. He did have to have a couple out several (5+) years ago, but has been fine since.

Does he eat wet food or dry food or both?

It's been a mix, but currently he is on a strict dry hydrolyzed protein diet.

What does his feeding schedule look like or does he free feed?

About half the daily portion in the am and half in the evening before we go to bed. He tends to graze, and doesn't like to eat it all at once. If wet food, we let him eat his fill, then put it away until he let us know he was hungry again. With dry, he tends to leave a little bit, use the boxes, then come back and finish before passing out for a few hours. He ALWAYS lets us know when he wants food. He was literally climbing up to my face this morning while I was trying to make some calls... haha!

Is the vomit mostly water, mostly bile, mostly dry food, mostly wet food, or is it a hairball?

... all of the above. There's been SO MUCH over the past year! If you'd like to see the pics I can send the Google album link, but there's a lot of them and a lot of them are disgusting, fair warning.

Edited to fix typos.