Cat Won't Eat After Enema

[DukenGizmo]

Hey there,

I have a cat who occasionally has pretty bad constipation. We once even did an exploratory surgery to find out what was causing it to no avail. Once things get back to normal (and I am hoping that they will), the only advice I can really recommend is to ask the vet about Fiber Response from Royal Canin. This has made a huge difference for my cat Gizmo. It took a little while to adjust (softer than usual stools), but now no more constipation or bile barfing.

Bets of luck!

 

[1 bruce 1]

Yes, I mean the juice from a human tuna can, packed in water. Not oil.

Last time I fed tuna our food obsessed cat reached up, slapped the newly opened can out of my hand, tuna and tuna-water everywhere. Cats and dogs had a tuna fest and I spent a few seconds scrambling and screaming about how the dopey dogs trying to carry the can away were going to cut their tongues, and wailing "FFS you're not goats!"

Tuna water is a great idea, as is baby food mashed and watered down (onion free, please, read labels!)

Barry'sMom , did your vet recheck him (blood work, etc.) for any kind of liver or kidney damage from being put under so many times in a row? Even if it's not "damage" the kidneys may be working extra hard and kidney woes = lack of appetite. The liver can actually regenerate itself if damaged.
Do you have access to nutri-cal or nutri-stat? This is a last ditch thing for us but we've had really good success using this as a calorie booster (it's CRAZY high in calories, crap ingredients but who cares?!), as well as an appetite stimulant.

 

[laura mae]

If your kitty had trouble on the food you were offering, it is important to not feed it any longer. I know that there are all sorts of reasons cats get constipated. I've read a lot on the Little Big Cats constipation web site and it really made sense that the combination of soluble and insoluble fiber was important. Roughage by itself can potentially make constipation much worse because it gets bulky and can make it more difficult for a cat to pass the stool. Super low residue foods can have not enough fiber to send a well-formed stool through the system and instead form round stool that don't exit well.

Psyllium husk in a freeze dried food I fed Booberry the constipation prone cat, was a complete disaster. A $2,400 disaster. I had to lay off all of the freeze dried stuff because the passageway for him is slightly smaller because of a past pelvic fracture. I would never give him pumpkin or added fiber. He does okay on Weruva and some of the Royal Canin Fiber Response but really doesn't like to eat it any more. So I'm just super careful with the canned food and miralax.

 

[Barry'sMom]

Barry ate quite a bit more today He is still pretty tired, but is now asking for food too.

laura mae I am pretty sure I have figured out what went wrong here finally. I had no idea you weren’t supposed to switch their food without doing it very carefully. Petco had a free bag of their new healthy food and Barry absolutely loved it, but I read something bad and switched to Instinct. Then I read about Dr Esley and was really excited about feeding clean protein. The switches happened in a short time and I also started BFF in pouches for his wet food. I was mixing in B1 and pumpkin with the BFF, and it looked like a congealed nightmare. I think that mess combined with the switches in his dry food probably caused his constipation I was always seeking out the best food to feed, but had no idea the harm these switches would cause. The vet said I shouldn’t feed any of these foods anymore since he may be sensitive to them now. I don't care about the other foods, but I really was excited about the Dr Esley, but since I didn’t do it right, I don’t ever want to chance giving it to him again. It’s so hard to know what food to feed when the vets apparently get their info from the big pet food companies. I remember when I tried a vet prescription food for allergies when we thought that was why he was over-grooming. That stuff was so nasty it smelled like a chemical experiment gone wrong. I couldn’t believe he ate it. I may not be a doctor, but I am pretty sure no cat’s diet should be soy and chemicals.

1 bruce 1 The vet did check his blood work on Tuesday and everything was still ok then.

 

[Barry'sMom]

I forgot to mention, I started the pumpkin when he had a few hairballs and it did a great job on that. I must have gotten lucky with the food combination I used to feed, but that pumpkin made it worse with these foods

 

[Barry'sMom]

The vet thinks that considering his history, we should put him on Purina Pro Plan FOCUS Sensitive Skin & Stomach. I never wanted to feed grains, but at this point with what a mess I have made of things , I am going to try this and see how he does

 

[1 bruce 1]

The vet thinks that considering his history, we should put him on Purina Pro Plan FOCUS Sensitive Skin & Stomach. I never wanted to feed grains, but at this point with what a mess I have made of things , I am going to try this and see how he does

I'd give it a shot. Some cats do not so good on grain free. There's a good thread in the nutrition section on premium vs. "regular" brands that has a lot of good points when it comes to choosing grain free vs. non-grain free!
You could do way worse than Pro Plan IMO =)

 

[Barry'sMom]

Yah he might have been ok on grain free if I hadn't switched things up But yeah, most of my family that has cats, they have lived to be at least 12-14 and they have been fed the cheapest grain cat foods. I am pretty sure when I originally switched from blue wilderness to CORE, I did transition him slowly, but what I have learned from all of this is that a person does have to consider the whole picture of what is being fed. Some things may be great, but combined with other things, not so much. And of course not to do any changes unless it is done VERY gradually and with careful monitoring. Barry (and me of course) are very lucky that he was a somewhat young, strong, healthy cat or I am pretty sure this all would have turned out much worse

 

[laura mae]

I'm so glad he's eating more! I don't know that you screwed up anything. Dry food requires a more slow intro, but wet food variety is just fine.

It could be that for your particular cat, the other food you tried just doesn't agree with his system. Just watch and make sure you see some...errr output in the litter box.