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I'm going to lose my f*cking mind if one more vet tells a cat owner their chronic vomiting is "just a sensitive stomach" or "scarf and barf" without ever reading the Norsworthy study. Dr. Norsworthy tested 100 "harmless" chronic vomiting cats. 99 had thickened intestinal walls. 49 had IBD. 46 had CANCER. "Just a sensitive stomach" doesn't exist. It's a lie we tell to justify $200/month prescription food that doesn't fix the root cause. And I told that lie for 28 years. My name is Dr. Richard Hayes. I practiced veterinary medicine for 28 years before I retired in 2021. And I need to tell you why I walked away. Because I spent nearly three decades telling cat owners exactly what your vet is telling you right now. "It's just a sensitive stomach. Some cats are prone to vomiting. Keep him on the prescription food." I prescribed thousands of bags of Royal Canin Gastrointestinal. Thousands of cans of Hill's i/d. I told owners: "This food is specially formulated for sensitive stomachs. Keep him on it long-term." They'd spend $200 a month. Sometimes more. And their cats would still vomit. Maybe less frequently. Maybe once or twice a week instead of every day. But still vomiting. And I'd say: "That's normal. He's just a sensitive cat. The food is helping—imagine how bad it would be without it." I believed that for 26 years. Until 2019. That's when I read a study that made me physically ill. Dr. Gary Norsworthy. Board-certified feline specialist. The study was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2013. But somehow, in 26 years of practice, I'd never read it. The title: "Diagnosis of chronic small bowel disease in cats: 100 cases (2008–2012)." Here's what Dr. Norsworthy did: He took 100 cats whose owners said they "vomited frequently"—defined as twice a month or more—but were otherwise "healthy." Cats like yours. Cats I would have called "sensitive" or "just pukers." Cats I would have put on prescription food and sent home. Dr. Norsworthy didn't do that. He performed ultrasounds on all of them. Then biopsies. The results destroyed me. 99 out of 100 cats had thickened intestinal walls. 99. Not "some." Not "a few." 99%. The diagnoses: 49 had severe Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). 46 had Intestinal Lymphoma. Cancer. Only 1 was normal. I sat in my office staring at that study for hours. 99 out of 100 cats with "harmless" chronic vomiting had serious, life-threatening disease. And I'd been telling owners for 26 years that it was "just a sensitive stomach." I'd been prescribing $200/month food and calling it management. While their cats' intestines were slowly being destroyed. Here's what the study explained—and what nobody had ever taught me in vet school: Chronic vomiting doesn't just indicate disease. It causes disease. When a cat vomits repeatedly, stomach acid and undigested food come back up through the digestive tract. This creates chronic inflammation in the intestinal lining. Over months and years, that inflammation causes the intestinal walls to thicken. Thickened walls → IBD. IBD, left untreated → Lymphoma. The vomiting wasn't a harmless quirk. It was the first domino in a cascade that ended in cancer. And I'd been telling owners it was fine. I started going back through my files. Patients I'd diagnosed with IBD or lymphoma over the years. I pulled their histories. Every single one had been a "chronic vomiter" years before the cancer diagnosis. Every single one. Cats I'd put on prescription food at age 3 or 4 for "sensitive stomach." Diagnosed with lymphoma at age 7 or 8. I'd watched the progression happen in real-time and never connected the dots. Because I'd been taught: "Some cats just vomit. It's normal." It's not normal. I started asking a different question. If chronic vomiting causes this cascade of damage, what causes chronic vomiting? The standard answer was: "Sensitive stomach. Food intolerance." But that didn't make sense. Because the prescription foods were specially formulated. Hydrolyzed proteins. Limited ingredients. Easy to digest. And the cats were still vomiting. If the food was the problem, switching to prescription food should have fixed it. But it didn't. It just made the vomiting less frequent. Which made owners—and vets like me—think it was working. But "vomiting less" isn't the same as "cured." And the Norsworthy study was clear: 99% of these cats had progressing disease. I started digging into research on digestive function. And that's when I found it. Bile production. Cats need bile to digest food. Bile is produced by the liver and breaks down fats and proteins. Without adequate bile, food sits in the stomach undigested. Eventually, the stomach gives up and ejects it. That's vomiting. And here's what I'd never learned: bile production requires taurine. Taurine is an amino acid that cats use to create bile salts. Without taurine, the liver can't make enough bile. Without bile, cats can't digest food—even "easy to digest" prescription food. So the food sits there, undigested, causing irritation and inflammation. The stomach ejects it. Stomach acid burns the intestinal lining on the way up. Repeat this twice a week for years. The intestinal walls thicken from chronic inflammation. IBD develops. IBD progresses to lymphoma. This is the cascade. And taurine deficiency is the trigger. I tested this theory on my own cat first. Luna. 9 years old. I'd had her on Royal Canin Gastrointestinal for four years. She still vomited once or twice a week. I'd accepted it as normal. After reading the Norsworthy study, I ran a taurine test on her. 22 nmol/mL. Normal range: 50-100. Severely deficient. I stared at the results, confused. How was that possible? Luna had been eating premium prescription food for four years. Royal Canin Gastrointestinal lists taurine as an added ingredient on every label. Every cat food does. The FDA requires it. So how could Luna be severely taurine deficient while eating food that claims to contain adequate taurine? I started digging. And that's when I found the 2019 FDA warning. The FDA had issued an alert about grain-free diets and their connection to heart disease in cats and dogs. When manufacturers removed grains from pet food, they replaced them with legumes—peas, lentils, chickpeas. These legumes are cheap. High in protein. Look good on a label. But here's what the FDA found: Legumes contain anti-nutrients. Compounds that bind to nutrients in the digestive tract and prevent absorption. Specifically, they bind to taurine. So even though the food label says "taurine added," most of it never reaches the cat's cells. It gets bound up by the anti-nutrients and excreted. The cat is eating food that claims to be "complete and balanced" while their taurine levels drop month after month. But it wasn't just grain-free food. I kept reading. Even foods with grains often use legume proteins as fillers. "Pea protein." "Lentil fiber." "Chickpea meal." All cheap. All binding taurine. And here's the worst part: High-heat processing—the kind used in both wet and dry commercial cat food—destroys up to 60% of the taurine that was added. So manufacturers add taurine to the recipe. Then cook it at high heat, destroying most of it. Then add legume fillers that bind whatever's left. The label says "taurine added." But the bioavailable taurine—the amount the cat can actually absorb—is minimal. Over months and years, the cat becomes functionally deficient. Their liver can't make enough bile. Food doesn't digest. Vomiting starts. We call it "sensitive stomach" and prescribe expensive food. The expensive food has the same problem—destroyed by processing, bound by anti-nutrients. The cat keeps vomiting. We call it "chronic." The inflammation progresses. IBD develops. Then lymphoma. And the entire cascade started because the food industry prioritized cheap ingredients over bioavailable nutrition. Luna had been eating $200/month prescription food. With "taurine added" right on the label. And she'd been severely deficient for years. While I—a vet with 26 years of experience—never questioned it. Because I'd been taught to trust the labels. "Complete and balanced." "Meets AAFCO standards." "Taurine added." I'd never thought to test if the taurine in the food was actually reaching the cat. I started Luna on taurine supplementation that day. 500mg daily, mixed into her food. I kept her on the prescription food—I didn't change anything else. Week one: Still vomiting twice. Week two: Vomited once. Week three: Zero. Week four: Zero. Week six: I ran another taurine test. 68 nmol/mL. Normal range. Luna hasn't vomited since. That was two years ago. She's still on the same prescription food. The food was never the problem. Her liver's ability to produce bile was the problem. And I'd spent four years managing symptoms instead of fixing the cause. After Luna, I started testing every chronic vomiting cat that came into my clinic. Over six months, I tested 84 cats. All of them on prescription gastrointestinal food. All of them still vomiting 1-3 times per week. All of them labeled "sensitive stomach" or "chronic puker." I ran taurine tests on all of them. 79 were deficient. 94%. Every single one was eating food with "taurine added" on the label. Premium brands. Prescription formulas. $70-90 per bag. And 94% were taurine deficient. Because the taurine in the food was either destroyed by processing or bound by anti-nutrients. The labels lied. Not intentionally, maybe. But effectively. "Taurine added" means nothing if the cat can't absorb it. I started supplementing all of them with taurine while keeping them on their prescription food. Within 4-8 weeks, 76 stopped vomiting completely. 91% success rate. These weren't miracle cases. This was just fixing the root cause. But here's where I ran into a problem. I'd tell owners: "Start your cat on taurine. 500mg daily." They'd go online. Order from Amazon. Four weeks later, they'd come back. "Dr. Hayes, it's not working. She's still vomiting." I'd run another taurine test. Still deficient. "What brand are you using?" They'd show me. Amazon. Great reviews. Cheap. I started collecting these bottles and sending them to an independent lab. What came back made me furious. Most were 60-75% underdosed. Contaminated with fillers that blocked absorption. Or degraded from improper storage. The cats weren't getting the taurine they needed. So their bile production stayed low. And they kept vomiting on $200/month prescription food while taking worthless supplements. I tested nine different brands. Eight failed. One passed. KittySupps. 503mg per scoop. Label claimed 500mg. Over-delivered. 95-98% bioavailability. Zero contamination. Zero fillers. Pharmaceutical-grade. I started recommending only KittySupps. And the four-week follow-ups changed completely. Cats that had been vomiting on prescription food for years stopped vomiting within a month. Their taurine levels normalized. Their bile production restored. They could finally digest the food they were eating. In 2020, I started presenting this data to other vets at our regional conference. I showed them the Norsworthy study. I showed them my taurine test results. I showed them the 91% success rate. I showed them the FDA warning about anti-nutrients. I showed them the research on high-heat processing destroying taurine. Most of them didn't care. "That's not standard protocol." "Prescription food works fine for management." "We can't just start testing every vomiting cat for taurine." One vet pulled me aside after my presentation. "Rich, do you know how much revenue we'd lose if we actually cured these cats instead of managing them?" I stared at him. "A cat on prescription food for life is $2,400 per year. Minimum. Plus the follow-up visits. The bloodwork. The ultrasounds when it progresses to IBD." "You're talking about a $40 bottle of taurine that lasts three months. Where's the recurring revenue in that?" That's when I knew I couldn't stay. Because the system isn't designed to cure. It's designed to manage. A cat vomiting on prescription food isn't a failure. It's a revenue stream. "He's a sensitive cat. Some cats just need this food for life." $200 per month. Every month. For years. Until the vomiting turns into IBD. Then you add steroids. More medications. More visits. Until the IBD turns into lymphoma. Then chemo. Thousands of dollars. Months of suffering. And it all started with "just a sensitive stomach." I retired in 2021. I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't look owners in the eye and tell them their cat's chronic vomiting was "normal" when I knew what the Norsworthy study showed. 99% of chronic vomiting cats have serious disease. And most of it is preventable. Fix the taurine deficiency. Restore bile production. Stop the vomiting. Stop the chronic inflammation. Stop the cascade that leads to IBD and lymphoma. I'm writing this because I see so many of you posting the same things I heard for 28 years. "My vet says he's just a sensitive cat. Put him on prescription food." "He's been on i/d for two years and still vomits twice a week. Vet says that's normal." "Spending $200/month on Royal Canin and he still throws up. Is this just how it is?" No. It's not how it is. Your cat isn't "just a puker." The Norsworthy study is clear: 99% of cats with chronic vomiting (twice a month or more) have physical disease. And that disease progresses. Chronic vomiting → chronic inflammation → thickened intestinal walls → IBD → lymphoma. This isn't a maybe. This is documented progression. And prescription food doesn't stop it. Because prescription food doesn't fix bile production. It just provides "easier to digest" proteins. But without bile, even hydrolyzed protein can't be digested. The food still sits in the stomach. The cat still vomits. The inflammation continues. The disease progresses. You're spending $200/month to slow down the inevitable. Or you can fix the root cause. Taurine deficiency prevents bile production. No bile = no digestion. No digestion = vomiting. Vomiting = inflammation. Inflammation = disease. Fix the taurine. Fix the bile. Stop the vomiting. Stop the cascade. You don't need your vet's permission to start taurine. It's an amino acid. Not a prescription drug. You can start today. And here's why you should start today instead of waiting for a test: You can't oversupplement taurine. It's water-soluble. Excess gets filtered by the kidneys and excreted in urine. No toxicity risk. No overdose danger. Waiting 2-3 weeks for a vet appointment, then another week for results—while your cat keeps vomiting, while the inflammation continues, while the Norsworthy study says this is progressing toward IBD or lymphoma—doesn't make sense. Start the taurine today. Test in 6-8 weeks if you want confirmation. But don't wait. But—and this is CRITICAL—don't buy random supplements. I tested nine brands. Eight failed. Underdosed. Contaminated. Degraded. Cats got worse on Amazon taurine because it was 70% underdosed with 20% bioavailability. The only brand that passed every test was KittySupps. 503mg per scoop. 95-98% bioavailability. Pharmaceutical-grade. One scoop per day, mixed into food. You can keep feeding the prescription food if you want. Once bile production normalizes, they should be able to digest it. Or switch to regular food. Doesn't matter. Bile production is what matters. Within 4-6 weeks, the vomiting should stop. I recommended KittySupps to 84 cat owners over six months. 76 stopped vomiting completely. 91% success rate. Not because prescription food suddenly worked. Because their livers could finally produce bile. My cat Luna was on Royal Canin Gastrointestinal for four years. Vomiting twice a week the entire time. I added taurine. She hasn't vomited in two years. Same food. Different bile production. Your vet will tell you chronic vomiting is normal. The Norsworthy study says 99% of these cats have serious disease that progresses to IBD and lymphoma. Your vet will say prescription food is the solution. I prescribed it for 28 years. The cats still vomited. The disease still progressed. Your vet will say taurine testing isn't necessary. I tested 84 cats on prescription food still vomiting. 94% were taurine deficient—while eating food with "taurine added" on the label. The system doesn't want you to know this. Because a $40 bottle of taurine that lasts three months doesn't generate the recurring revenue that $200/month prescription food does. But I don't work in that system anymore. I don't have to protect the revenue stream. I can tell you the truth. Your cat's vomiting isn't harmless. It's the first step in a cascade that leads to cancer. And it's fixable. Fix the taurine. Fix the bile. Stop the vomiting. Stop the disease. Get the pharmaceutical-grade taurine I recommended to 84 cat owners—the only brand that passed independent lab testing: https://kittysupps.com/products/taurine Because the Norsworthy study tested 100 cats with "harmless" chronic vomiting. 99 had serious disease. 49 had IBD. 46 had lymphoma. Your cat isn't "just a puker." They're sick. And taurine fixes it. P.S. The Norsworthy study is clear: 99% of cats vomiting twice a month or more have thickened intestinal walls from chronic inflammation. 49% had IBD. 46% had lymphoma. "Just a sensitive stomach" doesn't exist. Chronic vomiting causes progressive intestinal damage that leads to cancer. It's not harmless. And prescription food doesn't stop it—because it doesn't fix bile production. P.P.S. Amazon and Chewy taurine has 20-70% bioavailability—your cat only absorbs a fraction. I tested 9 brands, 8 failed. Cats on $200/month prescription food were still vomiting because they were taking worthless taurine supplements. KittySupps has 95-98% bioavailability. It's the only brand that actually worked for my patients. Don't risk counterfeits—only buy from: https://kittysupps.com/products/taurine