Constipation

Charlee

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As of Tuesday Jan,19 Noticed our cat wasn't pooping after 3 days. Took her to the vet they took an x-ray and determined her colon was blocked with hard stool they gave her some fluids and an enema some stool came out. I took her home with some stool softener the vet prescribed. After 24 hours one little hardball in the litter. I called the vet back they suggested to put some Restoralax in her soft food I did that for 2 days along with the stool softener in a syringe into her mouth every 8 hours and nothing. I took her back to the vet the next day Friday and they had to manually extract more hard stool from her colon after the procedure she was on a iv for several hours and we took her home with more aggressive medicine (cisapride) that was last Friday, January 22, since then she has been eating and drinking she pees in the litter box but no bowel movement. Can't believe since Friday she hasn't had a movement with the two medications and laxatives even bought laxatone hairball control. But she seems fine not crying doesn't seem to be in pain I find this very strange. On a side note, I notice she faintly smells of urine? Charlee is a 3-year-old female short hair domestic cat.
Taken her back to the vet tomorrow. If anyone has experienced anything similar please let me know how it turned out.
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. I would ask your vet if Miralax might be an option over Restoralax, and it might be that Charlee needs a daily dose of it - long term, not just for 2 days. There are many cats who do very well on Miralax to help stop constipation. I wouldn't count on something like laxatone hairball control to do much of anything, given her circumstances.

What is her food diet? If mostly dry, she needs more wet food and she needs to drink more water. Perhaps, more water dishes, or even a couple of water fountains that might help entice her to drink more.

I am not sure I see a correlation with the slight smell of urine, especially if she is peeing normally, but be sure to ask the vet about that as well, just in case.

Hopefully other members who have dealt with similar constipation issues will come along soon and have better advice to offer!

Please keep us posted.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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When my cats get constipated, our Vet has us give Miralax (same thing as Restoralax I believe) at a rate of 1/4 teaspoon dissolved in a little water TWICE a day, along with Laxatone at least daily, until that have a really good couple of poops. And then she said to keep giving them daily Miralax all the time, just cut back on the dosage. Apparently, if they show signs of constipation, particularly when already on wet food, it probably will keep happening without intervention. She also said to give them the Laxatone on a weeklly basis for "maintenance".

I also make sure I add extra water to their wet food at every meal, and I feed them three meals per day. Plus, I do keep a diary now of their daiy output so i know exactly what is happening in the litter boxes and can increase the Miralax immediately if someone gets off track.
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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My sister had a cat that would only have bm's twice a week. She tried Laxatone and other laxatives to get her to go. It took a lot! She took her cat to the vet and they couldn't pin point the cause of her constipation. My sister switched her to a high fiber diet, made sure her kitty drank lots of water, and played with her for a few hours a day to entice bm's. The constipation improved a bit, but she still was slow with having bm's. My sister chalked it up that her cat has a slow digestion system. I think she should have kept after it and see what was the cause of this constipation. The cat lived a long life nonetheless.

Did your doctor rule out Mega Colon because that is one of the first things that came to mind. Besides MC other conditions to be aware of: Nerve Damage, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Bowel Obstruction (full/partial), Tumor, complication from other conditions (e.g Thyroid disease),
Your cat having a nervous condition and is eating a lot of fur (Trichophagia) or other forms of Pica (eating non_edible food).

I know that Bowel Obstruction was ofcourse ruled out at your vet office, but if your cat has Pica, it might be causing temporary blockages that she finally able to pass. I had a cat with Pica and the times she wasn't going regular was when she got a hold of something. Thankfully, she didn't have a bowel obstruction, but what I saw in her poop alarmed me. Please make sure your cat isn't getting into something. Well, I got to end here. I will attach an article, I hope you will find helpful. Best of luck to you.
)
 
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Charlee

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Hi. I would ask your vet if Miralax might be an option over Restoralax, and it might be that Charlee needs a daily dose of it - long term, not just for 2 days. There are many cats who do very well on Miralax to help stop constipation. I wouldn't count on something like laxatone hairball control to do much of anything, given her circumstances.

What is her food diet? If mostly dry, she needs more wet food and she needs to drink more water. Perhaps, more water dishes, or even a couple of water fountains that might help entice her to drink more.

I am not sure I see a correlation with the slight smell of urine, especially if she is peeing normally, but be sure to ask the vet about that as well, just in case.

Hopefully other members who have dealt with similar constipation issues will come along soon and have better advice to offer!

Please keep us posted.
Thank you for the advice, I will ask about miralax for the diet it's kibble and wet food twice a day along with pumpkin. She has been drinking water and getting moisture from the wet food. Definitely at a loss hopefully our vet can figure this out. Amazing how much these little kitties runs our lives.... But I love them.
 

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Hi there! Sorry to hear your dear Charlee is having trouble! Let us know how the vet appointment goes tomorrow.

It might be normal for her not to poop for a few days after receiving an enema. Once after getting one, my cat did not go for at least three days because she was so emptied out and had not been eating much, it took some time for her to fill up and things to move again. Hopefully that's the case for you but you seem to be very watchful and keeping a close eye on her which is great, and always good to go to the vet if in doubt.

My cat, Amber, has had constipation issues for years now but she is 16, so much older than your cat. Last year, we started her on cisapride and it has made a big difference. I wish I'd done it sooner! The vets don't know why but her digestive system basically just doesn't move the way it should so as a pro-kinetic, the cisapride helps. We also increased her wet food and decreased the dry portion just in case more hydration would help.

I'd recommend logging what she is eating and outputting in the litterbox every day so you can monitor it. I found I had a hard time remembering two days later if she had pooped or not. I now have what I call her poop journals and yes, I update it every day so that I can look back and assess how she is doing. Logging what she eats is also helpful in terms of indicating appetite loss due to constipation and can be a good early indicator something is up.

Hope it is some good news tomorrow at the vet. Wishing you both the best! <3
 

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My cat had a similar experience, and unfortunately it can be difficult to get the right balance of everything.

I agree with the advice given so far. More water and more wet food can only help! We did Miralax for a while and it did help, but it lost effectiveness over time. I finally tried probiotics (L. acidophilus) and that solved all our problems. That was 4 years ago, and even as recently as a couple months ago when I ran out of her daily probiotic for a few days, her constipation came back. When she's on the probiotic she has no problems. I guess her gut microbiome just doesn't sustain itself well on it's own!

The best part about probiotics is that they're pretty well tolerated by any cat, healthy or sick, and it's hard to overdose. With fiber and miralax and such, you do have to be careful to get amounts right.

Is your cat overweight at all? The urine smell makes me think she's not cleaning herself thoroughly, and that can happen if the cat is overweight. Or, I imagine a cat might not want to twist around and clean themselves if they're having uncomfortable constipation, although that's just a theory.
 

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Thank you for the advice, I will ask about miralax for the diet it's kibble and wet food twice a day along with pumpkin.

Miralax and Restorlax are the exact same thing (Polyethylene Glycol 3350 aka PEG), just different product names based on where in the world you live :) Restorlax is the Canadian brand name.
 
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Charlee

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Hi, Yes we live in Canada. Charlee is at the vet now it's starting to sound like she has megacolon waiting to hear from the dr on the next steps.
The phrase we may have to let her go came up. Not feeling good about that
 
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Charlee

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My sister had a cat that would only have bm's twice a week. She tried Laxatone and other laxatives to get her to go. It took a lot! She took her cat to the vet and they couldn't pin point the cause of her constipation. My sister switched her to a high fiber diet, made sure her kitty drank lots of water, and played with her for a few hours a day to entice bm's. The constipation improved a bit, but she still was slow with having bm's. My sister chalked it up that her cat has a slow digestion system. I think she should have kept after it and see what was the cause of this constipation. The cat lived a long life nonetheless.

Did your doctor rule out Mega Colon because that is one of the first things that came to mind. Besides MC other conditions to be aware of: Nerve Damage, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Bowel Obstruction (full/partial), Tumor, complication from other conditions (e.g Thyroid disease),
Your cat having a nervous condition and is eating a lot of fur (Trichophagia) or other forms of Pica (eating non_edible food).

I know that Bowel Obstruction was ofcourse ruled out at your vet office, but if your cat has Pica, it might be causing temporary blockages that she finally able to pass. I had a cat with Pica and the times she wasn't going regular was when she got a hold of something. Thankfully, she didn't have a bowel obstruction, but what I saw in her poop alarmed me. Please make sure your cat isn't getting into something. Well, I got to end here. I will attach an article, I hope you will find helpful. Best of luck to you.
)
Thank you for your input. Hopefully, this can be resolved
 

molly92

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Hi, Yes we live in Canada. Charlee is at the vet now it's starting to sound like she has megacolon waiting to hear from the dr on the next steps.
The phrase we may have to let her go came up. Not feeling good about that
Oh dear, I hope not. I suppose we don't know when this started to develop, but that sounds really fast to me. As I understand megacolon, there are a few steps to try before considering it a lost cause! Cisapride can be great.
 

sidneykitty

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Please let us know how she and you are doing. molly92 molly92 is right - there are things that can be done for megacolon, and cisapride is one of them. If it does turn out to be megacolon, you might want to start a new thread to seek advice from our members here experienced with it. Sending you both positive vibes :vibes:
 
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Charlee

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Charlee is being hospitalized since yesterday. They are treating her with fluids and enemas to help with her passing a bowel movement. Despite charlee being on cisapride and stool softener and laxatives since last week, she hasn't had a movement on her own. Today they are going to see if she will pass anything until noon. If nothing they will sedate her and do a manual procedure to empty her colon because it is full, since she has been eating and drinking water in our home since last Saturday until I took her back to the vet yesterday. This procedure was done last Friday and again today if she doesn't do anything on her own. It is sounding like it is megacolon and from what I understand is that this condition is a nerve issue with the colon being enlarged and stretched out and Charlee doesn't realize that she needs to have a bowel movement?
if she doesn't respond to the meds then the last procedure is surgery I was told that this can cost upwards of $2,000 plus with no real guarantee and of course I was laid off from Jan 1 until April which isn't much help. For now, they will try treating her as is and I can take her home tonight or tomorrow morning. If we don't elect to have the surgery the only other option is to let her go which I don't even want to consider. I am really struggling with this.
 

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Oh no! I was hoping it wasn't that, but after reading your thread I had a strong hunch it was Mega Colon. I am so sorry your baby is going through this. My thoughts are with you and your kitty. I hope you can get the money together for the surgery and all goes well. That other option is not an option at all.

I hope someone who has experience with Megacolon answers this thread. If not, put up a separate thread asking for advice about the condition Mega Colon. I sure some member who has cat(s) with this issue will respond.
Best Wishes.🙂
 
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Charlee

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Hi, thank you for the message, We have Charlee home now. they did acupuncture and helped her have a bowel movement I had no idea they did this for kitties. We are watching her closely and have switched her to a high fiber diet and no kibble until she can have regular bm's.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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:cheerleader: :clap2::cheerleader: I knew they did acupuncture on cats, but didn't know they could do it for constipation! Wow, how interesting. Just glad it worked and hopefully the new food will do the trick.

Keep us posted.
 

molly92

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That is interesting. I didn't know about acupuncture for megacolon either. So nice to have another option in the toolkit! I'm glad she's home!
 
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Charlee

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Hi,
Since Charlee had the acupuncture at the vet and stayed there for two nights we picked her up the following day we are happy to report she's much better and no constipation. As per instructions from our vet, we changed her kibble to Hills prescription diet w/d multi-benefit with chicken formula (kibble) and for her soft food, we went with authority weight control chicken formula both kibble and soft food are high in fiber. Also, we add psyllium and restorlax twice a day to her soft food once in the morning and once around dinner time and we are still giving her Acilac once a day this is a stool softener with all this she is pooping on her own in the kitty litter we check it every day now and make sure there are no problems. It's a big problem if you don't stay on top of it. This has been ongoing since the beginning of February. If you have any questions let me know.
Thanks
 
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