If any of you out there also struggle with this, please chime in!
So my 14-year-old boy has been stable on his dry food with a particular dose of Miralax daily for many years now -- since whenever I was lucky enough to read about Miralax on this message board -- and even after I slowly introduced wet food to his diet (he still snacked on the dry food during the day). However, he broke a molar recently, and I decided I didn't want to risk another surgery with general anesthesia at his advanced age, so the dry food he used to eat, which was really huge hard pieces of kibble on which he broke it, is history. I have since tried a few other varieties, including kitten chow (small enough that he could just swallow it whole, without chewing at all), but he hasn't been able to tolerate any of them and ends up vomiting it back up....
Thus, we transitioned to entirely wet, even though he could really use the "snack" calories between feedings.
I've been on the fence about the Miralax, as his stools were getting progressively looser, so I cut the dose in half. Yesterday I didn't use any at all, and last night his stools were so loose as to be liquid. I had to isolate him just to keep them from dripping all over everything. We've experienced this before with an impaction (the obstruction irritates the colon, and diarrhea passes around the bolus), but in the end-- no pun intended -- he always eventually passed the bolus and all was well. He's gradually getting better, but I haven't found the dislodged stool anywhere. Could it just be that he just OD'd on the Miralax he was still getting when, on an entirely canned food diet, he doesn't need any at all?
I need to know how to proceed going forward!
Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a lighter, crisper, smaller, easy to chew -- and digest -- dry food for snacking between meals, I'm all ears.
So my 14-year-old boy has been stable on his dry food with a particular dose of Miralax daily for many years now -- since whenever I was lucky enough to read about Miralax on this message board -- and even after I slowly introduced wet food to his diet (he still snacked on the dry food during the day). However, he broke a molar recently, and I decided I didn't want to risk another surgery with general anesthesia at his advanced age, so the dry food he used to eat, which was really huge hard pieces of kibble on which he broke it, is history. I have since tried a few other varieties, including kitten chow (small enough that he could just swallow it whole, without chewing at all), but he hasn't been able to tolerate any of them and ends up vomiting it back up....
Thus, we transitioned to entirely wet, even though he could really use the "snack" calories between feedings.
I've been on the fence about the Miralax, as his stools were getting progressively looser, so I cut the dose in half. Yesterday I didn't use any at all, and last night his stools were so loose as to be liquid. I had to isolate him just to keep them from dripping all over everything. We've experienced this before with an impaction (the obstruction irritates the colon, and diarrhea passes around the bolus), but in the end-- no pun intended -- he always eventually passed the bolus and all was well. He's gradually getting better, but I haven't found the dislodged stool anywhere. Could it just be that he just OD'd on the Miralax he was still getting when, on an entirely canned food diet, he doesn't need any at all?
I need to know how to proceed going forward!
Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a lighter, crisper, smaller, easy to chew -- and digest -- dry food for snacking between meals, I'm all ears.