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Does anyone have any ideas what could cause a hard and bloated tummy in a 4/5 year old cat?
Jinx is a purebred Maine Coon, and since his brother George has been on Royal Canin urinary and gastro dry food, he has been bloated. We finally found some other food that he would eat (Jinx is SUPER picky!) - they had been on Acana dry before this change, and Jinx won't touch it now - but his tummy has remained fairly hard. It varies from day to day (degree of hardness) and while he doesn't really like having it prodded, it doesn't seem to be causing him any pain (he doesn't make any noises, just tries to get away when you check it too long. He also is picky about when he wants to be touched, so it may be part of his sensitivity to touch).
There don't seem to be any signs pointing to illness - he's still eating, drinking, using the litter box (hard to tell if he's constipated, since the boys haven't each chosen a box and they don't exactly appreciate being watched while doing their business), playing and running around. He basically looks and acts normal, except you can tell his tummy is bigger than it should be.
When we had first taken him to the vet, we were told to get him some special allergy food (he has some allergies that act up during parts of the year, but it's usually irritated skin or respiratory based reactions). The allergy food was super expensive, though, and he wouldn't have been allowed to eat anything else, so we didn't get it. Plus, George eats everything and he wouldn't have been allowed to eat this (and Jinx likes George's food; hard enough to keep them from going to the other's dish as is. And yes, they are fed separately, but Jinx doesn't eat all of his food all the time, and then George sneaks in to hoover it down when no one's looking. A grazer and a gobbler).
I've looked all over for possible causes, and I haven't been able to find anything that seems to fit (ended up having a minor little panic attack when reading some of the stories that ended up being really bad, but there has been no diarrhea and he's older, so most of the horror scenarios are pretty unlikely). We're planning to take Jinx in to the vet again sometime soon; we wanted to see if putting him on different food would make a difference, but it doesn't seem to have done so.
Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Jinx is a purebred Maine Coon, and since his brother George has been on Royal Canin urinary and gastro dry food, he has been bloated. We finally found some other food that he would eat (Jinx is SUPER picky!) - they had been on Acana dry before this change, and Jinx won't touch it now - but his tummy has remained fairly hard. It varies from day to day (degree of hardness) and while he doesn't really like having it prodded, it doesn't seem to be causing him any pain (he doesn't make any noises, just tries to get away when you check it too long. He also is picky about when he wants to be touched, so it may be part of his sensitivity to touch).
There don't seem to be any signs pointing to illness - he's still eating, drinking, using the litter box (hard to tell if he's constipated, since the boys haven't each chosen a box and they don't exactly appreciate being watched while doing their business), playing and running around. He basically looks and acts normal, except you can tell his tummy is bigger than it should be.
When we had first taken him to the vet, we were told to get him some special allergy food (he has some allergies that act up during parts of the year, but it's usually irritated skin or respiratory based reactions). The allergy food was super expensive, though, and he wouldn't have been allowed to eat anything else, so we didn't get it. Plus, George eats everything and he wouldn't have been allowed to eat this (and Jinx likes George's food; hard enough to keep them from going to the other's dish as is. And yes, they are fed separately, but Jinx doesn't eat all of his food all the time, and then George sneaks in to hoover it down when no one's looking. A grazer and a gobbler).
I've looked all over for possible causes, and I haven't been able to find anything that seems to fit (ended up having a minor little panic attack when reading some of the stories that ended up being really bad, but there has been no diarrhea and he's older, so most of the horror scenarios are pretty unlikely). We're planning to take Jinx in to the vet again sometime soon; we wanted to see if putting him on different food would make a difference, but it doesn't seem to have done so.
Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks!
