Cat vomited three times before lunch but is eating and playing normally Is This Urgent

I work in a clinic and the honest answer is that we would want to hear about it, but over the phone rather than as an emergency walk-in, based on what you have described. Most practices will triage this on a call for free and it takes five minutes.

The things that move it from "call in the morning" to "go now" in our triage are: repeated unproductive retching with nothing coming up, a hard or painful belly, hiding and refusing to move, pale or tacky gums, no urine in the litter tray, or any chance she got at string, tinsel, hair ties or a plant. A cat that is eating, keeping it down and playing an hour later is a much more reassuring picture than one that is quiet in a corner.

I would hold food for a couple of hours rather than offering more, keep water available, and write down every episode with the time. That log is genuinely useful if you do end up going in.

One thing worth checking that solved it for us: is she eating too fast? Our cat did the exact pattern you describe, food in the first one then clear foam, and it turned out to be a gulping problem rather than illness. A slow feeder bowl and splitting the same food across four smaller meals stopped it completely. Obviously that is what worked for one cat and not a diagnosis for yours, but it is cheap to test.

Take a photo of anything she brings up before you clean it. Sounds grim, but colour and content are what the vet asks about first and nobody remembers accurately three hours later.

At ten years old I would mention it at the next routine appointment even if it settles, and ask whether bloodwork is worth doing. Not because this episode sounds alarming, but because a baseline while everything looks fine is far more useful than a first-ever test taken on a bad day.

Most vets have an out-of-hours triage line and they are used to being called about exactly this. I spent years agonising over whether something counted as worth phoning about, and every nurse I have spoken to would much rather take the call.