Thanks, you two. He's been getting NVI as part of his rotation, but just the rabbit and the duck (and he's not always a fan of the duck). He doesn't care for the chicken, he can't tolerate the lamb and I'm avoiding the beef because right before I went grain-free with them, he was developing a problem with beef.
This is what he'd been getting before I stopped the carageenan foods: Wellness Core (2 flavors), Go! grain-free (chicken, turkey & duck), and Instinct rabbit and duck. Wellness and Go! both had carageenan, so I had to replace those with Weruva (yeah, wasn't happy about all the potato starch) and a couple other brands that I was able to find. He didn't seem to care for the Tikicat (wow is that stuff expensive) or the other brand, and I gave him Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain Feline (a lot of fish) which he did eat, but I think that added to the lip swelling.
I think all of these foods contain at least 1 of the gums, including NVI.
I'm not sure there are any canned foods that DON'T have xantham or guar gum.
Nope, no signs of discomfort on Pookie's part. It's just this has been going on for a while now (2 years or more I think?), and I haven't been able to really work on this until now. I think I mentioned it to the vet and his response was probably something like "I wouldn't worry about it."
Which is what he said about Pookie's sister when she started with the burping/lip-smacking, and THAT didn't work out well. He tends to be very laid-back about things. Maybe I worry too much, but I don't like it. I wish I had a good holistic vet near me, but no such luck.