Did your vet do any lab work to check for various conditions that could be causing these issues? I would expect better guidance from my vet. I've had seven cats and none had the problems you are describing except when they had an underlying condition such as kidney disease, inflammatory bowel, etc.

No she did no lab work today.

She called me from inside to go over stuff and I kept saying it didn’t make sense why he was acting the way he was and just got that if they feel they need to go even a little sometimes they’ll strain.

She was very nice but I was scheduled to ‘fit in’ between appointments so not sure if I was rushed or what.

I’ll schedule an appointment with our regular vet.

Three hours in a vehicle with kids? Bless your heart. lol Has the straining stopped? If so I'm guessing it was the anal glands blocking the bowel movement. I remember when I had DS1's two Shih Tzu's and about twice a year they had to get their anal glads emptied because it prevented them form using the bathroom. I didn't know cats did the same, but it sure sounds like it.

As far as cat food, I've decided that some cats are just prone to being overweight while getting the same exercise. All of mine ate/eat Purina Cat Chow and lately I've been buying Purina One and they love both. The dry food is out all day, and they get wet food at night. Three cats share one small can with food left on the plate, the skinny cat eats all of one can.

Two of the cats are plain old fat. But they don't overeat. One of the fat cats just licks the juice from the canned and she's done.

I've had cats live to be 20 on this diet. I do remember buying the food the vet sells, Science or Hill. Let's just say it was a waste of money and I had to give them their real food back.

Yes really that long. They did well overall and once the wait started in the parking lot I turned on a dvd. I’m not one to use electronics to entertain while waiting but this was an exception today. My youngest still decided he had enough about 2/3 way in which was fun.

My cat’s it happy with me and hiding under my bed. I don’t believe I’ll see him until late. I‘m hoping he’s done having difficulties. I didn’t think cats even had glands like that. Vet said they were going to and it was on the paper that they did but I never got to ask if they discovered it was an issue.

Yeah all the cats we had growing up over the years we always had food out. I’m curious to see if this makes a difference. Wondering how long it will take them to really catch on to the new rule. I have two cats and don’t believe either of them are overeating the amount of dry food I put out. Vet said 1/2 cup for him.

Ah, yes the can cat food juice drinkers. Been there. I don’t understand how that’s tasty but forget the actual solid food.

Didn‘t it used to be HilI’s could only be bought from vet? Maybe a different formula. I don’t know anyone irl that their pets liked it. Maybe there wasn’t as many food companies to choose from.

Thanks Mdln. The place I went today was actually the third office I called trying to get in somewhere. I didn’t realize there are vets that specialize. I found one. Far away but doable.

I am sorry your kitty is having problems. I have a floofy kitty that gets stuff stuck in her hair occasionally. I only feed canned food. I have an older calico who cannot eat salmon, but all other flavors are OK. I feed the 2 barn cats Aldi brand, 39 cents per can, and the 4 in the house get Friskies cans. I had to up the older cats recently to 1 1/2 cans each, but all the others are still getting just 1 can per day, in the evening. I went to a cat “specialist” one time, and she told me “throwing up is what cats DO”, yes, that was helpful......

Good luck. Having volunteered for a feline rescue/shelter, and working with dozens of vets, unfortunately, all are not equal in their knowledge and skill. By focusing on feline vets, it can help narrow the field. We are lucky in the Chicago area, there are several practices that see only cats. They have some of the best cat vets.

Please keep us updated.

Another option to consider is raw food. One of our four has lots of vomiting episodes that go away when I feed raw. It is not as convenient as opening a can or a bag of kibble but it beats cleaning up throw-ups all the time. It helps with weightloss too.

I use raw ground turkey with Feline Instinct

And there are already prepared, frozen foods available.

I'm sorry that your kitty is unwell.

I've had 10 cats over the years. Other than 2 that died young of cancer, they have all lived to be old, some very old. Like 3katz4me, this sounds to me like there is an underlying problem. The vet should do a full blood panel for a senior cat to rule out hyperthytoidism, renal insuffiency, diabetes and to check for changes that can indicate cancer or infections. Diverticulitus and irritable bowel syndrome are possibilities. I'd also want a urinanalysis and culture in case kitty has urinary tract issues.

Cats are obligate carivores. They must have meat to thrive. They don't need carbohydrates. In the wild, a little grass and the contents of the prey's stomach are all the carbohydrates they get. Cats also get most of their water from food rather than drinking, so wet food is a better choice than dry. If the cat isn't getting enough water, the feces can be hard and difficult to pass. Paradoxically, kitty can have hard stool and diarrhea at the same time.

The first thing to do at home is get more water into kitty. I'd cook a chicken thigh and puree it with water and a pinch of salt until it's like baby food. This isn't nutritionally balanced, but that's not a problem for a treat/bribe food. If kitty will eat it and can keep it down, you have a starting place.

in the later stages of renal insufficiency, cats tend to be constipated. The laxative of choice is Miralax, because it doesn't taste bad to cats. It draws water to the intestine which soften the feces. You shouldn't do this without checking with your vet, but it's safer than Laxatone if a laxative is needed.

I cook for my cats. It's not cheap, but I know what they're getting. IIRCC, I used Newman's Own canned cat food to transition DH's cats from some really junky dry food to a high protein homemade diet.

I don't have any recommendations or advice, just commiseration. My Texas was vomiting up blood, and the vet put him on very expensive rabbit canned and dry food for a while, which he hated but seemed to remedy the problems. In elimination diet fashion, I switched him over to a brand of wet food that doesn't have wheat, soy, or corn. When he tolerated that well for a few weeks, I switched his dry food over to something corn, wheat, and soy free. I've been mixing up the wet food a bit but continuing to avoid those three ingredients (it's probably only one of the three, but I don't have enough energy to keep doing diet experiments). So far, so good.

I second the recommendation to feed raw.

https://www.stellaandchewys.com/frozen-raw-dinners-for-cats/

I feed the dog version to my dogs. My small older dog is a picky eater, would throw up regularly and wasted a lot of food that she would suddenly decide she didn't like. We don't have any of those issues since I started her on the raw food. She actually comes running now at meal time and cleans her plate out. The big dogs are less picky with food, but they much prefer the raw patties. It is expensive to feed prepared raw food to 3 dogs, but I am hoping it will mean better health and less vet bills as they get older.

Chispa - The prepared raw is expensive. I figure that the ground turkey from Aldi and the Feline Instinct cost about the same as a high quality canned food. With one cat I would fo the prepared frozen but with 4 it would be a budget buster.

Besides the one that throws up we have one with skin issues and after trying a fish diet (canned and dry) that didn't help the vet suggested a limited ingredient diet. They all loved the expensive canned food for about 2 days and then in typical cat fashion decided to not eat it anymore. That's when I decided to try raw. Can't get more limited in ingredients than that,

Not all cats can handle a raw diet, either because of gentics or having eaten commercial food for a long time. I had one cat that simple couldn't keep raw meat down. My current girls had raw treats from the time I got them as kittens. They love it. I never feed human-grade raw ground meat because of the bacteria content. When I do feed raw, I freeze it first to kill some of the parasite eggs that all meat has, then chop the meat myself. Feeding raw isn't risk free, but cats have a short intestine and seldom have problems.

Shee, how's the kitty? You haven't checked in. If nothing's been solved and kitty is still straining, scroll down to the bottom about hairballs.

I need to brush all 4 cats today, they shed like crazy and follow me when I have the brush in my hand so they get a chin rub with the wire bristles. lol

Hi! He seems good to go today. Eating, drinking, using the litter with no problems. I put a call into the new vet this morning but didn’t get to talk with her until almost closing. Understandable as crazy busy as they are. She said no kidney stones on the x ray but mentioned she couldn’t be sure of this or that without bloodwork or urine analysis. I bit my tongue. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that while he was there. His last labs were good and I was so focused thinking he was constipated. She mentioned his anal glands (that sounds so icky!) were very full. I’m sure that wasn’t helping anything. We talked about food again and she said the grain free ones have a lot of fat, but I’m still not on the cat needs grains band wagon. I’m going to do a thorough sit down comparison of a few dry ones. He was just at our normal vet a few weeks back for an updated rabies shot (indoor only but needs one to go to the groomer). DH took him but I didn’t realized until today his weight was down (same) at both appointments. DH was telling me how vet was pleased about that. This new vet encouraged wet food because of the additional moisture plus I add water. Past few days I’ve been feeding both of them Wellness Core Pate turkey and duck and they very much like it. There’s been no vomiting from it (or in general).

The more I thought about it the specialty vet is a few hours away and he doesn’t do well with car rides so I’m tucking that place aside for now and am going to try and stay closer to home. I’m going to contact our regular vet to talk about food and weight and probably schedule another appointment.

Neither one seem to have hairballs. I will say their grooming habits could be better so that probably factors in too. :)

New vet suggested moving water fountain to encourage more drinking. Going to order one. So much for matching pretty food and water dishes!

Thank you for all the thoughts and suggestions! I’m looking into the raw food too and will talk with vet about that as well.

I try to stay away from dry food because the water in the wet food is needed for healthy urinary tracts. My cats generally were not huge water drinkers. The new kitty will drink water after he eats the dry food, but I'd still prefer to change him over for wet.

I've tried various brands, and I also use the Purina One dry, and then Friskies and Fancy Feast cans. I know they are not chi-chi brands, but they seem to like them. I originally thought grain-free would be great, but I've read not so great things about heart issues. At least the commercial cat foods contain the nutrients they needs. With various recalls over the years, it does make me question their quality and standards and are we really getting what they say they are. Like human food, manufacturers have a fairly wide tolerance level for variability in their samples. So, if you sample something off a production line, they are allowed to be x% off in their calories, nutrients, etc from what you see on the label.

Also, I don't know if boiled ground turkey and rice would be helpful for him.

My kitty who recently passed away never really lost his appetite during his final days compared to my other cats. But he had the floof, and yes, I would have to do the dingleberry duty. He hated being dirty yet he hated me cleaning him. I am grateful Blue is not long-haired! Though he had some loose stools Sat night that I had to clean up off his leg. He's finally eating a normal amount of food, so I hope his digestive system moves along now. I had him at the vet yesterday.

I feed my cats wet only because from everything I've read, it's healthier. I do the fancier grain free brands, but I volunteer at a shelter and the cats all seem to do quite well on Fancy Feast. Even given the wet-only diet, one of my two senior cats is still chronically constipated. He had the full battery of tests/exams at the vet, but there is, apparently, no detectable underlying problem. My vet said that this is common, and it will just have to be managed into the future.

One thing that has really helped with the constipation is a product called Smooth BM Gold (yes, I know. Bad name). A few drops in his wet meals keeps him regular, with only occasional flare-ups, at which time I use Miralax, too. But the drops have been amazing in helping to manage the issue.

Glad kitty is doing better! Canned Wellness is decent food. If kitty likes it and does well on it, it's a good choice. That will help get more water in him.

Most vets will give a resounding "no" to raw food. I happen to disagree. Unless you go with a commercial raw food, a raw diet does move you into the "homemade" food realm. It can be hard to get the right nutritional balance in a homemade diet. If you aren't up for a cat food project, I suggest sticking with the Wellness. If that goes ok, buy a small, cheap beef steak (NOT ground meat) and freeze it for a few days. Beef isn't a normal food for cats, but it has less salmonella than poulty so it's a good way to try out raw food. Thaw in the fridge - enough so that you can cut it in little pieces. See if kitty likes it as a treat. I have one cat that waits until it warms up. Refreeze most of it in treat-size portions - or make stir-fry if kitty wouldn't eat it.