My poor cat gags at the smell of anything! Something wrong?

[timjfisher]

My poor cat gags at the smell of anything other than her own food or water. This has been happening for the last two months. I mean it's everything - chicken, cheese, beans, gum, greens, toothpaste... you name it. Even the wrappers that food comes in. Anything that has the most remote smell, she'll gag. Even things with very little scent (to us).

It's not disrupting her normal activity. She runs and plays and eats fine (in fact, she over eats - is this related?).

Any ideas????

Thanks!

[Traci]

My question is, how or why does she have access to these things? Are you trying to tempt her, giving her things to smell or??

Play it safe and get her seen by your vet, it could be nearly anything or may be nothing at all, but you'll have peace of mind for getting her seen to ensure she doesn't have a health problem surfacing.

[timjfisher]

Traci, absoultely not! We eat those foods and brush our teeth and thus, when she's around, she's curious. When we can brush her away, we do - we're afraid she is going to vomit. But she does get a whif every once in a while.

I agree - we have a vet appointment already. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and if so, what happend with your cat?

[Traci]

She could have a very sensitive orofactory sense...cats generally do not like human foods or human products anyway, so keep these things away from her. The gagging, if consistent, could produce vomiting at some point, which of course could lead to a health problem.

[pixiemaxiris]

Another possibility is a tumor in the cat's throat or back of the tongue. My last cat, a big male named Socks, started gagging on occassion and then becoming more frequent. I thought it was a hairball problem. I took him to the vet and it turned out to be cancer on the back of his tongue (he was 11). I had to have him put down only days later--he stopped eating since he could no longer swallow properly. The vet advised me that it would be only 25% likely to be able to remove the tumor with surgery.