Cat Can't Eat Dry Food Anymore

Any thoughts as to why an otherwise totally healthy and energetic 14 year old tom can't hold down dry food anymore?

As a test, I fed him a whole 5.5 oz can of moist food this morning and he held it down. This evening I gave him 6-8 pieces of newly purchased dry food and they came back up within ten minutes.

He can even hold down moist food which has been in the refrigerator and hasn't been warmed.

No hairball problems right now as we are well into summer down here.

The vet has been unable to find anything wrong with him.

Thanks!

If the vet couldn't find anything wrong with him, I assume you took him to the vet specifically for this problem?

I was going to ask if you switched foods on him suddenly. What brand are you feeding him?

It really doesn't matter too much, all wet diets are much healthier especially for an old cat. It should be just fine to keep him on an all wet diet.

Has the cat had a senior blood panel done within the last six months??? If no I would advise it ... My girl with kidney issues has been on wet and raw for over a year due to no longer handling dry... Wet is far better for cats any how

He had a complete physical in December and was declared healthy by my regular vet. I wasn't aware of any specialists, at least not around here (Houston)

As a precaution, I will schedule an appointment for ten days from now (when I'm back from my mini-vacation).

He was on WD for weight control and it all seemed to happen rather suddenly a week or so into a new bag in January. I tried some prescription senior for from my then recently departed 23-year old with the same result. The stuff last night was store-bought (the cheapest box I could find).

I'm thinking maybe I could mix some dry stuff up with water in a blender to the same water content as moist food (~80%) and see if he can hold it. If not it might be some sort of allergic reaction(?) to the food. I think I have a can or two of prescription senior wet too somewhere.

The fact that small amounts of dry stuff come up within a few minutes and a day's worth of wet in one or two gulps stays down is puzzling (yes, he does "wolf" his food - always has).

Any other thoughts?

I'm thinking it may be something to do with the fact that dry food expands when it mixes with stomach fluids? Perhaps there's some sort of blockage? constipation? or maybe he's just extra hungry for some reason and eating too much - when it gets wet and expands in the stomach it may be too much so comes back up again. It's harder to overeat wet food. Just a thought. Or an allergy to the dry food you're feeding - have you tried a different dry food?