Cat strains but still poops?

[catcora]

I’ve noticed the last two times I saw Pepper poop, he sort of strains a bit- let me explain.

The first time, he went into the box and dug a hole and then was able to poop one log immediately, but then he stayed in the position to poop and did 5-6 poop-jerk motions after as if he wanted to poop, but nothing came out. So first time: 1 bigger log immediately, and then 5-6 butt twitch motions without any poop coming out and then he covered the poop and left

The second time, he went in, dug a hole, and did the butt twitch poop movements, and only 20 seconds later did he poop out 2 small logs. He then buried it and left the box

He has had no other symptoms, the only difference is we had stopped giving him dry food a few months as his old dry food was discontinued, and then he started having Open Farm Lamb dry cat food, and found it was making his poop very smelly so we stopped giving it to him. We couldn’t find any better dry food to replace, until a few days ago, Wellness dry cat food. He’s been getting half fancy feast wet food (he was on this before and was pooping generally fine) and half of this new wellness cat food. Yesterday he also got some plain steamed chicken breast for dinner. I’m going to stop feeding the dry cat food today to see if he still has the straining issue

Any thoughts?

 

[FeebysOwner]

Could just be related to the food change, they can affect stool while the digestive system adapts - although, it seems that usually brings about loose stools rather than harder stools and straining. The best thing you can do is what are you doing to see if the new food is the issue. Maybe the Wellness contains less moisture, or less or more fiber than the Open Farm does? Too much fiber, or too little fiber can affect stools as well as a different moisture content.

The other thing you could consider doing is slowly transitioning to the Wellness from the Open Farm Lamb, especially if he wasn't having issues with it other than the smell.

If he is not a prolific drinker, you might set up some additional bowls of water around the house. Oftentimes that will help a cat drink more water as they tend to stop at any water dish they happen to pass by.

 

[daftcat75]

Does he usually get plain chicken breast for dinner? Because if you aren't adding supplements, chicken breast alone is not a nutritionally complete meal. It's okay for a snack (no more than 10% of his calories.)

That out of the way, the chicken breast may not have enough fat. Cats don't generally need fiber to poop. But a little bit of fat helps grease the chute, so to speak.

I recommend increasing his Fancy Feast and making sure the chicken breast is only a treat. I can't recommend dry food. But I know it has its place with some cats or cat parents whether I agree with it or not. If he's still straining to poop, you can either add a little Miralax to his food or a little egg yolk or egg yolk powder.

This is an egg yolk powder that is cat-friendly (no additives, preservatives, flow agents, seasonings, etc.)
Amazon.com

And this is the rationale behind egg yolk (it says for hairballs but the way egg yolk works, it's going to help everything move a little easier. For that reason, you should start very small and go from there as needed.)
How Best to Manage Hairballs