What Are The Next Steps For Constantly Constipated Cat? (has Had Ultrasound, Bloods, Fiber Food)

cat 11, female, domestic shorthair.

first went to vet a few weeks ago bc our cat stopped eating. vet gave her bloodwork. found a uti and hard stool inside her, so she also gave her an enema. she said take her home and see if she eats. bloodwork came out clear besides uti,

cat came home, ate for a day or 2, got a cold/uri, took appetite stimulant and antibiotics, stopped eating. back to vet. another enema, ultrasound came out clear.

vet (and online reviews) made it seem as though royal canin fiber dry food would make her poop like crazy, so we bought some.

we took her home and were delighted that she was eating like a champ, however it's been 5 days and she still hasn't pooped (even after eating royal canin, psyllium husk mixed with wet food, a little pumpkin), and now this morning refused to eat - i am thinking the constipation makes her not want to eat.

i have to find a solution for her. we've already spent over $1700 and i wonder what the next steps are. i've already called vet and am awaiting a call back but i thought i 'd ask here. i can't see bringing her in every 5 days for an enema.

Have you tried canned food?

maggiedemi said:

Have you tried canned food?

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yep, that's what she was eating for over a year before the constipation started. since this last vet trip, she's turning up her nose at the canned food and only wanted the royal canin. and now she wants nothing, presumably (and i could be wrong about this) bc of nausea due to constipation....

If the dry food with psyllium didn't work, maybe try a different stool softener.

do you have any brands you like? i've never heard of stool softeners. do you think i'll have to go back to vet for an enema or if i give her a stool softener today should that make her poop?

Maybe try a couple different brands of hairball treats or paste. Those often help with constipation. Some members here use stool softeners from the vet. Hopefully they will chime in.

My bfs cat had a constipation problem when it was living in a cramped apartment. After she was given more space to rome it doesn’t seem to happen as often now. It used to be so bad that she would stand there and growl while trying to go before dragging her bum across the carpet. If I were to guess now I would say it was caused by stress, over eatting and not enough excersise. Just my experience.

Krystal02 said:

My bfs cat had a constipation problem when it was living in a cramped apartment. After she was given more space to rome it doesn’t seem to happen as often now. It used to be so bad that she would stand there and growl while trying to go before dragging her bum across the carpet. If I were to guess now I would say it was caused by stress, over eatting and not enough excersise. Just my experience.

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you may be right, or she may have megacolon or something else...

Dry food is dehydrating. Pulverize it and use it as a topper to entice her to eat canned food again. In the meantime, a half to a full teaspoon of raw egg yolk (not the whites) should get things moving again. It will take about 12 hours for the egg yolk to do its job so be patient and don’t overdo it. She will get diarrhea if you give her too much yolk. If that works for her, you can start at 1/8 tsp twice daily to find a preventative dose that’s doesn’t swing things too far in the other direction. Theres also an egg yolk powder you can buy since cracking an egg for an 1/8 tsp gets wasteful if you’re not already eating eggs daily.

My cat gets mildly constipated with dry stool even though she eats raw almost exclusively. She definitely loses her appetite. My "treatment" might not be acceptable to many, but I give her a few licks of petroleum jelly. Our old vet says it helps to "grease the chute". Whenever she gets the vaseline, she poops more easily........
(FYI the inventor of Vaseline ate a spoonful of it every day and lived to age 96)

My first attempt at converting Krista to raw bunged her up pretty good. Constipation, nausea, refusal to eat. I got her eating again on her old canned (Rawz, still a very good option) and we’re taking the raw transition more slowly. In fact, I’m working out the preventative dose of egg yolk for her to end her hairball/constipation cycle (she gets like five good days of eating before she’s bunged up again and off her food.). Once we’ve got the egg yolk dose worked out and the hairball cycle snapped, I will proceed further with the raw transition.

My vet suggested MiraLAX. He originally told me to give her a full teaspoon (which is WAAAAY too much) and I learned from this forum to start her out with 1/8 of a teaspoon instead. Worked wonders for her constipation and much cheaper and less invasive that vet visits/enemas. Ask your vet about MiraLAX for your kitty.

thanks all, i am still getting familiar with this site and didn't see all of your notifications. i got miralax, and lactulose in case it doesn't work. well after the enema two nights ago she hardly ate until last night, but now isn't eating again this morning. i doubt she's constipated again bc she's hardly eaten. :/ so now i have to worry about getting her to eat again (i'll give her mirzapan or whatever it's called on her ear, the appetite stimulant) and i'll put miralax in that. i can also try egg yolk etc but now she isn't even eating. AYE AYE AYE am worried sick about her!

and a sincere thanks for all your advice!

sorry i am not writing clearly - on top of all pf this i have a really bad cold. i meant i will give her the appetite stimulant, and then for her next feeding i'll try miralax in her food :-) i am praying this works.

Aww man, sorry you're going through all that. I hope all the stuff you got works. Let us know what happens.

The Miralax has to be dissolved in some water first. A spoonful or two is plenty. Let sit for a minute to allow the powder to rehydrate. Then add it to canned food.

Probiotics, probiotics, probiotics!!!

I had a 6 month stretch after I first adopted my cat where we were trying to figure out her constipation, and I have tried almost everything. In the end, probiotics were, and still are, the only thing that worked consistently and without side effects.

Her colon is clear right now, so you're at a good place to incorporate good preventative measures. Miralax worked very well for us if given before hard stool started building up in her colon. Start with 1/8 teaspoon daily and increase by 1/8 teaspoon increments as necessary.

Calories are really important. I recommend turkey, chicken, or ham baby food (gerber or beechnut, stage 2) because it is really appetizing to most cats. Or, try tuna or deli meat (low sodium if possible). Feed that until you get her appetite back up to normal again.

So, she has had a rough few weeks, and the stress of illness and vet visits has probably really messed up her healthy microflora, and then she had antibiotics which would have wiped out a lot, so her microbiome is qll over the place, and that had an effect. For those reasons along I think probiotics would be really helpful for her right now.

But also, consistently giving my cat probiotics with every meal changed her digestive health completely. Miralax worked well for a while, but I had to keep inching up the dose because it was losing effectiveness over time as her body got used to it. Plus, even though it's pretty safe, it's still not ideal to keep a cat constantly on a medication that's meant to be used as needed. I finally tried probiotics and was able to stop miralax entirely. Even now I notice that if I skip the probiotics, she starts having straining and discomfort.

I started with a pet formulation, but I switched to a human one and did not notice a difference. Main strain is acidophilus, CFU count is in the billions, and I keep it refrigerated (I use PB8 Nutrition Now specifically).

Fiber is a double edged sword with constipation. It can draw in some moisture or help push things through, but it also adds bulk, potentially making stool more difficult to pass and stretching out the colon. Those prescription foods really pack in the fiber so I would be very careful using them.

At one point woth my cat I think her colon muscles were just exhausted and 2 weeks of cisapride, a muscle stimulant, was very helpful.

Slippery elm bark is also a remedy that some like for constipation. It made my cat incredibly uncomfortable, so I can't recommend it personally, but other people have tried it and gotten great results.

I would focus on getting her to eat something, mixing in the miralax and probiotics. Then transition her back to a good canned food, continuing with probiotics, and miralax as needed, and see how it goes.

Raw egg yolk gets my Krista's gut moving. A little too well. I'm still trying to find the preventative dose that I can give her for hairball management that doesn't give her diarrhea. But yeah, I would prefer using raw egg yolk over a laxative, fiber, or enema. Raw egg yolk contains a natural emulsifier, lecithin, which helps pull fats (and the stuff that gets bound up in them) on through. There is also dried egg yolk powder you can order that should make dosing easier. I plan to check out that probiotic above too.

LTS3 said:

The Miralax has to be dissolved in some water first. A spoonful or two is plenty. Let sit for a minute to allow the powder to rehydrate. Then add it to canned food.

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i did not know this, thanks. the problem now is that she is refusing to eat anything again, even though she had mirataz a few hours ago. hopefully that will change and then i'll try your tip.