Constipation help

CallieKatherine

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Constipation help

Hi all, I have a senior cat and lately he’s been having issues when pooping. He’ll have no problems for a couple days and then he’ll really struggle to push the next one out. The weird thing is that the poop looks totally normal, it’s not dry and hard. A lot of the times he’ll throw up from straining so hard but then once he’s finally pushed everything out he returns to normal. He eats Purina pro plan plus 11+ wet food. Has anybody else had an experience like this?
 

Jcatbird

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Yes. Cats don’t always drink enough so maybe simply adding a bit of water to his wet food might help. Plain puréed canned Pumpkin is something that has helped my kitty. If you can’t find that, Weruva makes canned food with pumpkin in it. Wet food with lots of gravy or broth has helped a kitty here too. If it is an ongoing issue a vet check is probably in order. There are things like lactulose that can be prescribed if a vet feels it is needed. Others here may have some ideas too. Please let us know how he is doing.
 
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CallieKatherine

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Yes. Cats don’t always drink enough so maybe simply adding a bit of water to his wet food might help. Plain puréed canned Pumpkin is something that has helped my kitty. If you can’t find that, Weruva makes canned food with pumpkin in it. Wet food with lots of gravy or broth has helped a kitty here too. If it is an ongoing issue a vet check is probably in order. There are things like lactulose that can be prescribed if a vet feels it is needed. Others here may have some ideas too. Please let us know how he is doing.
Thank you for the suggestions! I do add water to his food because he isn’t a big drinker but it’s very confusing to me why his poop isn’t dry since every time i look up constipation it describes that as a symptom. Another tricky thing about him is that he gets very bored with food fast so i have to find a food that has a lot of flavors otherwise he’ll stop eating it after a couple days.
 

Jcatbird

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Changes in food can cause some odd things but have you talked to a vet? Older cats can have some issues that are easily addressed. Maybe the vet could suggest a food more easily digested or with more bulk to help him have an easier stool. If the kitty has anything like arthritis it may be more of an inflammation problem or some pain in his body that makes it uncomfortable to push. It might be something you can call about for suggestions or the vet may want to see him to evaluate.
 
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CallieKatherine

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Changes in food can cause some odd things but have you talked to a vet? Older cats can have some issues that are easily addressed. Maybe the vet could suggest a food more easily digested or with more bulk to help him have an easier stool. If the kitty has anything like arthritis it may be more of an inflammation problem or some pain in his body that makes it uncomfortable to push. It might be something you can call about for suggestions or the vet may want to see him to evaluate.
I think i am going to call the vet on Monday and see what they say! I switched him over to senior food a few weeks ago because i thought maybe he wasn’t able to digest his old food anymore but unfortunately it doesn’t seem like that was the problem. He is 17 and actually still is able to move around great for his age but about a year ago my vet did give me arthritis medication because at his age it’s likely he has some degree of arthritis, Unfortunately he is almost always able to detect when i mix the medication in with his food so i don’t get him to take the medication often. Arthritis does seem like a plausible expanation considering the poop itself doesn’t look bad. Thank you for the responses I really appreciate all your suggestions! Because of his age i am extremely paranoid about losing him and have been really freaking out since this issue started.
 

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I have some older cats too but he can still have quite a few years ahead of him. My Felv cat turns 17 this year! He knows there is medicine in his food? Lol They always seem to know! Cats are so smart. If it is a pill, have you tried the pill pockets treats? Sometimes I get away with medicating by hiding it in the Gerber 2nd foods all meat baby food. I warm it slightly so it smells good and use a tiny bit to hide the meds. After they eat the medicine I give them a good spoon full of the baby food. Besides liking the baby food, they love eating from a spoon. Extra attention. They have me well trained. Some meds can be transdermal and that might be an option to discuss with the vet.
 
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CallieKatherine

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I have some older cats too but he can still have quite a few years ahead of him. My Felv cat turns 17 this year! He knows there is medicine in his food? Lol They always seem to know! Cats are so smart. If it is a pill, have you tried the pill pockets treats? Sometimes I get away with medicating by hiding it in the Gerber 2nd foods all meat baby food. I warm it slightly so it smells good and use a tiny bit to hide the meds. After they eat the medicine I give them a good spoon full of the baby food. Besides liking the baby food, they love eating from a spoon. Extra attention. They have me well trained. Some meds can be transdermal and that might be an option to discuss with the vet.
Wow that’s really incredible about your cat! They really are tough aren’t they? The medication that they gave me is a sprinkle capsule so it gets mixed in with his food but i think i’m going to ask for some other alternatives and see what they say. I even bought some treats that had the medication in them from amazon to see if he would like the treats better but that was also a no go. I might have to try that baby food method though that’s really smart!
 

Jcatbird

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The cats here keep teaching me new tricks. Lol They keep trying to educate me. If you can’t find a solution, let me know and I can consult the cats for new ideas :lol: I am sure they can think of some treat they would like. Tuna in water is one they love. Mostly they drink up the tuna/water liquid. That might work to hide the medicine. Just make sure it is plain canned tuna and water. They are tough and they are really smart.
 

jman_in_mn

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I have a cat in the same boat. Senior cat (15 yrs), doesn’t like the taste of pumpkin, searching for something he’ll eat and keep things moving along. I found some seafood wet food broth from a brand called Tiki Cat which contains pumpkin, but haven’t used it long enough to determine it’s benefit. Going to try and get to the vet next week for their recommendations.
 

jman_in_mn

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I have a cat in the same boat. Senior cat (15 yrs), doesn’t like the taste of pumpkin, searching for something he’ll eat and keep things moving along. I found some seafood wet food broth from a brand called Tiki Cat which contains pumpkin, but haven’t used it long enough to determine it’s benefit. Going to try and get to the vet next week for their recommendations.
Is my cat going to make it until a Wed vet appt? (it's Sat right now) Already at 48 hours with no stool. The odd thing is that he's drinking tons of water and continues to eat food
 

jman_in_mn

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jman_in_mn jman_in_mn watch your cat. I have a much younger female who only poops every 48 hours, but a couple of months ago suddenly stopped entirely, refused food and water, and hid. If you need to, at least call the vet and let them know what is happening.
Yup, doing that, always good advice for all the guardians out there

80% certain he pooped in the middle of the night and wasn’t the other cat. So as long as he’s going every couple days I think he’ll be fine until the scheduled vet appt.

He’s never stopped eating and drinking throughout all of this so part of me is wondering if he might have some other ailment (irritable bowel or something)
 

Jcatbird

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With Banjo I had to separate her to figure out if she was pooping or it was another cat. She (and many others here) has a fairly regular routine. After breakfast she would go , or try to, and rather late in the evening. I have some baby monitors and I put one in the room with her so I could hear. Each time I heard scratching I could sneak in to watch. Many baby monitors these days have cameras and that has proved very helpful here. There are a lot of rescues here and deciding who did the poo was a big guessing game! Hopefully things will begin to move more and the Tiki cat will have enough pumpkin in it to help. Maybe you could get away with adding just a bit of extra pumpkin to it? I know cats are smart but..... Lol Maybe?
 

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My girl is only 9, but she has chronic constipation--even though she eats only wet food to which I add water. I've found that Miralax works wonders--daily pooping with normal stools (not hard and dry). She won't eat any of those pumpkin things, but Miralax is totally tasteless, and I just mix the dose in her food.
 

Tobermory

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Same here. Eighteen-year-old Iris gets 1/8 tsp. Miralax twice a day. If she didn’t, with her weak back leg muscles and arthritis, she wouldn’t be able to push it out.
 
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CallieKatherine

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hi all, just saw some more people commented on this and thought i would give an update. I ended up buying liquid health joint purrfection for arthritis and he’s been able to go with little to no issues so i do believe arthritis was the cause. Thank you everyone for your suggestions and i hope all goes smoothly with your cats:)
 

jman_in_mn

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also have an update, my cat's issue ended up being too much fiber in the diet, so the vet wanted us to focus on more wet food vs. dry, and if the problem gets worse to contact the vet at that time (I'll continue to use the Tiki Cat food as well which includes pumpkin in it)
 
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