Casper is in the Hospital

Caspers Human

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Casper has been having problems with constipation again.
Thankfully, we got him to the vet before it turned into megacolon, again.
The vet says that he'll be okay but he has to stay overnight so that they can give him an enema to get him cleaned out.

Casper had a case of megacolon, a couple of years ago. He went to the vet, got a couple of enemas to clean him out and he stayed overnight.
It took a few days for him to get back to normal but he eventually did.

The vet told us to give him Miralax every day, which he has been getting.
We're supposed to cut down on his dry food and give more wet food.
We're supposed to make sure he always has lots of water to drink and we have some pills for him when he needs them.

Casper was going along great but, last Friday night, he started showing signs of getting sluggish.
We upped his dosage of Miralax as much as we dared. Saturday and Sunday, he seemed to be okay but still a bit sluggish.
He was still eating and drinking but he didn't seem to be making any deposits in his litter box.
I called in to renew his prescription for Cisaprid. I was due to pick it up this morning, before work.

However, last night I happened to catch Casper on the way to the litter box and I stood by, quietly, and watched him.
He strained in the litter box and pretended to cover his business but, when I checked the box there was no deposit.

DAMN! I thought we had this beat! :hmmm:

We took him in, this afternoon and the vet took an X-ray. He was blocked up but, thankfully, it hadn't reached the megacolon stage.
The vet's going to give him the old "Roto-Rooter" and we'll be able to pick him up in the morning.
With a little luck, everything's going to be okay and he'll be home before noon. :)

However, the thing that's got me frustrated is that Casper is such a picky eater!
He ONLY wants his dry food and his kitty cookies. He's lukewarm about eating canned food. Sometimes he will. Sometimes, not.
He usually licks all the gravy off. That's better than nothing, I guess.
Once in a blue moon, he'll eat the scraps from a can of tuna.

Casper rarely eats any human food. Maybe a lick of Vegemite or butter, once in a while. He might nibble a bit of liverwurst if we warm it up, first.
He will not eat real chicken, raw or cooked. If you give him a small piece, he'll sniff it then turn up his nose and walk away.
He does like to "inspect" our food before we eat but he only comes to give it a sniff. He never eats.
He won't even eat sushi! I've never had a cat that turned down sushi! Every other cat I've had would be like "Om, Nom, Nom!!" for sushi. Not Casper!

The vet said that Casper might have food security issues because he was abandoned.
She said that, once a cat that's forced to fend for himself finds a reliable supply of food, the learn to only eat THAT food for fear that anything else might be poison or make them sick.

How the heck can we entice Casper to eat a better diet so that we won't have to keep taking him back to the vet to get cleaned out?
 

verna davies

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I have a picky eater who only wanted dry food thus developed UTI issues. I put a little wet food mixed into the dry and every couple of days increased wet and decreased dry. It took about a month but now he has wet with 6/10 small nuggets of dry on top. I hope Casper will be ok after the treatment and you find something that helps him.
 

di and bob

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If you have tried all that, I think you will have to maybe occasionally offer him different wet foods and accept that he is one of those cats that just refuses wet food, you can't force him to eat what he doesn't like. I have raised many cats on hard food, and they lived long, happy lives, just make sure he gets a good quality one. The thing to do is to try to up his water intake. He might be a good candidate for a water fountain. They are scared of them at first, but then are fascinated and drink more because they are drawn there. Try setting small bowls of water around the house. A bowl draws them there and then they may drink because it is there. Ask the vet about a different daily laxative, maybe Colace, sometimes the body gets used to one and they don't work as well. You could alternate them. Try some cat hairball remedy, these contain lubricants that may help. I had to apply it to the front leg, rubbing it firmly in, and then my cats would lick it off. Get some lickable treats, I like Hartz Delectable Lickables, (in the stew) they are mostly 'gravy or gel' and would help, I give all my meds in them. Change the protein source in his hard food, (chicken, lamb, turkey, etc.) sometimes inflammation can happen if he has an unknown allergy. It wouldn't hurt if all he ate was the 'gravy' from wet food, get a pouched food in 'cut's' they have the most. good luck and I hope he continues to do well, you are an angel for trying so hard......
 

rubysmama

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I don't have any advice to offer, but hope things are going well, and that Casper is home soon. Also hope you can find a food that he will eat, that will help prevent this from happening again. Many years ago, my family had a cat who had constipation issues in her older years and had to go in to the vet to be cleaned out several times, so I know how worrisome and stressful this is.🤗
 
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Caspers Human

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Casper is home again. :)

He's all cleaned out and he's on the mend. We just brought him home and, now, he's prowling the house checking out his territory to make sure everything is still where he left it. He'll find a spot and bed down for the rest of the day, I'm sure.

A little surprise... The vet said that, when they were doing the procedure, Casper turned on one of the vet assistants and took a chunk out of her hand! Casper has NEVER done anything like that before! I was a bit shocked to hear!

Turns out, Casper has a small perineal hernia. The vet says that's probably what caused this whole thing to happen in the first place.
It's also the reason why he turned on the vet tech, too. It HURT! :(

Anyhow, some more of the pieces of Casper's puzzle seem to be coming together.

We always wondered why Casper favored his left, hind leg whenever he goes up or down the stairs.
We always wondered why he doesn't jump a lot. He can jump. He just seems to be hesitant when he does.
He'll jump up as high as the coffee table but, when he gets down he slinks down with his front paws then hops the rest of the way.
Casper's always been a "low energy" play cat. I have never been able to entice him to play-wrestle.
He doesn't jump or reach up for his wand toy. You have to drag it on the ground or dangle it for him to catch.

It all makes sense, now. If he's had a hernia brewing all this time, it's no wonder he's always been like that.

So, now, we have to give Casper some time to recover from his trip to the vet.
We'll keep him on Cisaprid for the next week to ten days then see if we can go down to once or twice per week after that.
We'll double down on the Miralax and give him as much as we dare, up to the point where he starts to get the squirts. Right now, I'd rather he was a bit on the runny side. Then, when he heals up a bit, we can figure out what his maintenance dose should be.

The big thing is to figure out how to switch his food.

Right now, he's eating regular Purina Cat Chow. Yeah, it's not the greatest but it's all we can get him to eat. When we first adopted Casper, he would only eat Meow Mix. It was a big deal to switch him off that and get him to eat Cat Chow.
We're going to have to figure out a way to switch him to canned food. Maybe he can still have his Cat Chow for snacks but his main food needs to be canned.

But, how the heck are we going to get him to change his old habits?

Maybe we'll do what Verna says. Put some wet food in his dry food and slowly increase the mix until he's eating more of the new food.

The vet says that Casper ate last night, while he was in the hospital. I asked her what kind of food she gave him and she said it was Fancy Feast Kitten. I was like, "Well... If that's what he ate, let's try to get him to eat that." The vet tossed me a can to take home. We're going to give Casper a day or two to recover then try to switch him to a new diet.

This kind of makes sense, too. The vet said that strays, ferals and abandoned cats often become picky eaters because of their food insecurity issues. If Casper was abandoned and the cat rescue people used Meow Mix to entice him in, that's what he got used to eating. The vet said that, once a stray cat decides that one, certain, kind of food is safe to eat, it becomes hard to get them to eat anything else. I think that this is why Casper is such a picky cat, too.

Well... Now it's time to let Casper settle down and recover.
We'll give him a quick bath in the morning... He's still got "poopy bum" left over from getting cleaned out.
Then it'll be minding his meds for the next week or so.
Once we're settled, we'll start trying to change his food.

After that, we'll have to see what to do about his hernia but that's going to have to be down the road.
 

rubysmama

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Glad Casper's home. I remember my Mom cleaning up our cat's "poopy bum" after her procedures. Not fun for either kitty or human, so good luck with that. How old is Casper, btw, and how long have you had him?
 

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Hi there !

Just a 'yellow caution flag' for you - about this:
"Right now, I'd rather he was a bit on the runny side"​
IF you go that far, you may end up with an anal gland issue/s......compounding things, perhaps significantly.

The stool needs to be firm enough to 'stimulate' the anal glands to secrete as the stool is expelled. Absent secretion there will be accumulation/possible infection etc.

I think the kitten food discovery may be a 'godsend' for you - personally, in your shoes, I'd immediately begin a transition from the kibble to that. I would guess that the need for miralax will lessen somewhat with that wet food, too.
.
 
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Caspers Human

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We adopted Casper right after Christmas, 2015, and he was two or three years old.

That makes him about seven, now.

No, the Miralax is only temporary until his bum stops hurting.
Once he heals up, we’ll adjust the dose so that his stools are the way they should be.
 

rubysmama

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We adopted Casper right after Christmas, 2015, and he was two or three years old.

That makes him about seven, now.
Oh, so he's still quite young. Our family cat was in her mid teens by the time she started having her major issues. Hopefully you can convince Casper that a change in food will make his system work better. I know, easier said than done. Good luck. Do keep us posted.
 

neely

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But, how the heck are we going to get him to change his old habits?
We had a similar problem when we adopted Carleton. He came from a bad hoarding situation and who knows what, if anything, they fed the cats since the shelter found them in deplorable condition. I could only get him to eat dry food also so I fed him better quality dry food at first. He flat out refused to eat wet food just like Casper. I introduced freeze dried raw food and he liked it but it's expensive. Then out of the blue he wouldn't eat the raw food anymore so back to the drawing board. Fast forward, I tried canned food again and again, many different brands and flavors. He sort of ate one so I persisted in offering it to him. Eventually I was able to get him off the dry food except for a late night snack. Now he meows for his canned food.

I sincerely hope Casper makes a complete recovery and that you are successful in transitioning him off the dry food even if only partially. Best of luck with his hernia health problem too. 🤗
 
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Caspers Human

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Well... Casper just got his bath. We only washed his hind end but he cried the whole time. Poor Casper! :sniffle:
But... Y'know what? I think he kind of appreciated it even though he complained the whole time.
I think he's happy that he doesn't have a poopy bum, anymore. ;)

Now we have a wet cat scampering around the house! :dunno:

We left some food out for Casper before we went to work.
Half a dish of dry, Cat Chow and a full serving of his usual wet food, Friskies.
Yeah, I know that they are both run-of-the-mill but they are the only thing we can get him to eat.
He ate about half of the Cat Chow and a nibble or two of the Friskies.

Well, at least he's eating. Last time, he was off his food for almost three days.

We still plan to try giving him the Fancy Feast Kitten but we're going to wait until he settles down, first.
Casper can be a very stubborn, bump on a log when he wants to be. I think it best to do things gradually.

I guess everything is on an even keel, so far, given what Casper's been through.

Wait and see, for now. Right?

Thanks for all your advice and support!

Casper is the Girl-Human's support animal and she'd be devastated if we lost him unexpectedly.
It helps, a lot, to be able to talk things out. :)
 
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Caspers Human

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Hmmm... Casper does eat liverwurst, once in a blue moon.
Last time it was what I used to entice him to start eating again.
Maybe raw liver will work. It's a thought!

We'll try the Sheba, as well.

At this point, ANYthing! ;)
 
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