So, long story short, we've been having problems with our younger cat Skidd for a good while now. (several previous posts on it, in fact.) Skidd will be fine for a while then get constipated, blocked up, and end up 'losing it' at the worst possible time. It's incredibly painful for him and sometimes causes him to vomit.
The little house-goblin in question, sporting his super-cute 'bomber vest.' (He gets skittish and jumpy on occasion and it works like a Thunder Jacket for him. Also keeps him warm and comfy when it's cold.)
Recent changes: we mentioned the routine constipation to the vet yet again, he finally checked the boy out, and it turned out he was packed solid despite our best attempts at clearing him out...and despite several successful box-deposits. An enema, manual evacuation, TWO all-day vet trips, and an incredibly angry kitty later, Doc put Skidd on Lactulose...and didn't tell us anything about how to dose him besides "mix .5 to 2 mls with canned food. You'll figure out the dose with trial and error." He wouldn't explain any further because he intentionally put off letting us pick Skidd up until the office was closing. SERIOUSLY. This guy has a tendency to not give us the whole story on things AND be vague/misleading which is precisely why were were seeing a DIFFERENT vet at that clinic...but apparently our vet left the clinic and we were reverted to his caseload.
This vet is hard to understand (not on account of any language barrier, either) and, given our previous experiences with him, he's even harder to trust. We're paying a little less for our two cats because we're on the clinic's wellness plan, so this doc tries to milk us for whatever extras he can think of. Before the plan, he didn't give a hoot that Goldie was overweight and Skidd had a nasty case of recurring stomach trouble; after the plan, even a little bit of dark wax in Goldie's ears threw him into a tizzy. The slightest sign of anything even remotely abnormal and he puts on as if it's going to kill our cats. "I don't know how to say this...but...it looks like Goldie has... *rattly steadying sigh* ...ear mites. Now, don't panic, it's treatable if we catch it quickly enough but we have to start treatment now or--" ...you get the picture. A while back, he tried to put her on antidepressants because she doesn't get much exercise. She doesn't get exercise because she's a lazy eleven year-old sixteen pound indoor-only lump of lard. (...and very much loved.) As for Skidd, he's been going nuts trying to make as much money off of us as possible in hopes of 'treating Skidd's potty problem' and saying "We really need to refer you to a specialist at one of our branches - the price is a little intimidating but they may be able to help and if we increase the payment tier of your wellness plan again..." (note, by FIVE TIERS up to 'we feed our baby from a gold-plated bowl) "it'll take off X% of the price--" ...etc.
Last time we got Skidd's teeth cleaned, the vet gave us a hand-written paper showing all the teeth he needed removed and about half a dozen were clearly marked "missing." Skidd would be left with literally no teeth in his mouth, which would mean - guess what? - we'd have to shell out over $100 a month for special prescription canned food sold by the vet. Yeah. NO. We checked Skidd's teeth for ourselves; the 'broken' teeth appear intact, we saw no signs of damage to the others, and every one of those "missing" teeth are still in Skidd's mouth, right in plain view, right up front. Confronted the vet about it; "I don't know what you're talking about. My assistant filled that out." ...in the vet's handwriting...the same handwriting he signs our prescriptions and paperwork with. I absolutely do NOT trust this vet any further than Skidd could throw him, but we don't really have a better option at this point.
So. Back to medicating the munchkin. We've called the office several times and asked for clarification but haven't gotten any answers, and the vial has even less information. (there's not even a label on the blasted thing.) THIS is our normal routine once weekly: warm 1/4 cake of canned pate in the microwave for 30 seconds, add 1 ml of medicine, and about 1-2 tablespoons of water to render the texture similar to soupy vomit. If he's been showing warning signs (again, agitation, discomfort with being held or petted, crying, straining in the box and whining, walking like a cowboy after a week of driving herds, etc) I increase the dose to 1.5 mls and add a bit more water. If after a day or so he's not improved, second dose, same method and mix. If the weekly dose rolls around and he's been defecating just fine, I drop the medicine dose to .5 mls or give him a full half-cake of pate and just keep an eye on him. I'm highly reluctant to give him an entire 2 mls at once no matter how bad it gets - the one time I resorted to that, he wound up lying limp on the bathroom floor messing himself and wailing in pain for over an HOUR, too tired and sore to do anything but stare at me as if asking me "WHY?" He was so miserable and there was nothing I could do except keep him comfortable, rub his side and scratch his cheeks, clean up as necessary, and offer support and love. I couldn't stand seeing him hurting like that...it was enough to make me cry. This happened after midnight and our emergency/after-hours vet recently closed up shop; the closest one is now well on the other side of the state line, over an hour away. The next day he was sluggish and visibly sore...I hated seeing him so miserable.
Anyway, I ramble, sorry. What we're doing clearly isn't working for him, and our vet won't answer us without trying to sell us a hundred more things we absolutely can't afford and which might not even work. Just Thursday afternoon I gave Skidd a whole 1.5 mls in his food because he was clearly blocked, then about an hour or so ago (Saturday around Midnight) he started howling, vomiting, and squatting on the office floor...still just as blocked up. I dosed him a second time - 1 mls with extra water - and he managed to pass something. He's a little more comfortable now, flopped bonelessly on his desk pillow and whistle-snoring.
Someone told us that giving Lactulose to a cat with a present stool blockage can end up hurting them (I'm not going to repeat the explanation as it was highly graphic and full of intentionally gross descriptors) but the idea was it could increase bowl pressure with looser materials then rupture his colon) but I'm not entirely sure whether that's true or a myth.
For anyone else whose cats are on Lactulose, what dosing instructions were you given?
Are we supposed to be dosing him daily? Weekly? Do we just watch him, see if he starts getting agitated and cranky (warning signs of constipation for him) then dose him for a couple days to clear it up? We've got to figure out something to keep this little guy regular. He's clearly suffering - when he's blocked up he gets agitated and aggressive but every time he's finally "empty" he's the sweetest, clingiest, most purr-happy cuddle-bug you've ever met. This Mama just can't stand watching her furbaby suffer anymore...
The little house-goblin in question, sporting his super-cute 'bomber vest.' (He gets skittish and jumpy on occasion and it works like a Thunder Jacket for him. Also keeps him warm and comfy when it's cold.)
Recent changes: we mentioned the routine constipation to the vet yet again, he finally checked the boy out, and it turned out he was packed solid despite our best attempts at clearing him out...and despite several successful box-deposits. An enema, manual evacuation, TWO all-day vet trips, and an incredibly angry kitty later, Doc put Skidd on Lactulose...and didn't tell us anything about how to dose him besides "mix .5 to 2 mls with canned food. You'll figure out the dose with trial and error." He wouldn't explain any further because he intentionally put off letting us pick Skidd up until the office was closing. SERIOUSLY. This guy has a tendency to not give us the whole story on things AND be vague/misleading which is precisely why were were seeing a DIFFERENT vet at that clinic...but apparently our vet left the clinic and we were reverted to his caseload.
This vet is hard to understand (not on account of any language barrier, either) and, given our previous experiences with him, he's even harder to trust. We're paying a little less for our two cats because we're on the clinic's wellness plan, so this doc tries to milk us for whatever extras he can think of. Before the plan, he didn't give a hoot that Goldie was overweight and Skidd had a nasty case of recurring stomach trouble; after the plan, even a little bit of dark wax in Goldie's ears threw him into a tizzy. The slightest sign of anything even remotely abnormal and he puts on as if it's going to kill our cats. "I don't know how to say this...but...it looks like Goldie has... *rattly steadying sigh* ...ear mites. Now, don't panic, it's treatable if we catch it quickly enough but we have to start treatment now or--" ...you get the picture. A while back, he tried to put her on antidepressants because she doesn't get much exercise. She doesn't get exercise because she's a lazy eleven year-old sixteen pound indoor-only lump of lard. (...and very much loved.) As for Skidd, he's been going nuts trying to make as much money off of us as possible in hopes of 'treating Skidd's potty problem' and saying "We really need to refer you to a specialist at one of our branches - the price is a little intimidating but they may be able to help and if we increase the payment tier of your wellness plan again..." (note, by FIVE TIERS up to 'we feed our baby from a gold-plated bowl) "it'll take off X% of the price--" ...etc.
Last time we got Skidd's teeth cleaned, the vet gave us a hand-written paper showing all the teeth he needed removed and about half a dozen were clearly marked "missing." Skidd would be left with literally no teeth in his mouth, which would mean - guess what? - we'd have to shell out over $100 a month for special prescription canned food sold by the vet. Yeah. NO. We checked Skidd's teeth for ourselves; the 'broken' teeth appear intact, we saw no signs of damage to the others, and every one of those "missing" teeth are still in Skidd's mouth, right in plain view, right up front. Confronted the vet about it; "I don't know what you're talking about. My assistant filled that out." ...in the vet's handwriting...the same handwriting he signs our prescriptions and paperwork with. I absolutely do NOT trust this vet any further than Skidd could throw him, but we don't really have a better option at this point.
So. Back to medicating the munchkin. We've called the office several times and asked for clarification but haven't gotten any answers, and the vial has even less information. (there's not even a label on the blasted thing.) THIS is our normal routine once weekly: warm 1/4 cake of canned pate in the microwave for 30 seconds, add 1 ml of medicine, and about 1-2 tablespoons of water to render the texture similar to soupy vomit. If he's been showing warning signs (again, agitation, discomfort with being held or petted, crying, straining in the box and whining, walking like a cowboy after a week of driving herds, etc) I increase the dose to 1.5 mls and add a bit more water. If after a day or so he's not improved, second dose, same method and mix. If the weekly dose rolls around and he's been defecating just fine, I drop the medicine dose to .5 mls or give him a full half-cake of pate and just keep an eye on him. I'm highly reluctant to give him an entire 2 mls at once no matter how bad it gets - the one time I resorted to that, he wound up lying limp on the bathroom floor messing himself and wailing in pain for over an HOUR, too tired and sore to do anything but stare at me as if asking me "WHY?" He was so miserable and there was nothing I could do except keep him comfortable, rub his side and scratch his cheeks, clean up as necessary, and offer support and love. I couldn't stand seeing him hurting like that...it was enough to make me cry. This happened after midnight and our emergency/after-hours vet recently closed up shop; the closest one is now well on the other side of the state line, over an hour away. The next day he was sluggish and visibly sore...I hated seeing him so miserable.
Anyway, I ramble, sorry. What we're doing clearly isn't working for him, and our vet won't answer us without trying to sell us a hundred more things we absolutely can't afford and which might not even work. Just Thursday afternoon I gave Skidd a whole 1.5 mls in his food because he was clearly blocked, then about an hour or so ago (Saturday around Midnight) he started howling, vomiting, and squatting on the office floor...still just as blocked up. I dosed him a second time - 1 mls with extra water - and he managed to pass something. He's a little more comfortable now, flopped bonelessly on his desk pillow and whistle-snoring.
Someone told us that giving Lactulose to a cat with a present stool blockage can end up hurting them (I'm not going to repeat the explanation as it was highly graphic and full of intentionally gross descriptors) but the idea was it could increase bowl pressure with looser materials then rupture his colon) but I'm not entirely sure whether that's true or a myth.
For anyone else whose cats are on Lactulose, what dosing instructions were you given?
Are we supposed to be dosing him daily? Weekly? Do we just watch him, see if he starts getting agitated and cranky (warning signs of constipation for him) then dose him for a couple days to clear it up? We've got to figure out something to keep this little guy regular. He's clearly suffering - when he's blocked up he gets agitated and aggressive but every time he's finally "empty" he's the sweetest, clingiest, most purr-happy cuddle-bug you've ever met. This Mama just can't stand watching her furbaby suffer anymore...