Constipation Remedies?

[Calicat13]

Hi All. My 14yr old cat is experiencing constipation - she poops daily, but strains in the box and then runs out and ends up going outside of the box. She has been having a harder time eating her hard food (I think her teeth are more sensitive in the wintertime). I've tried breaking the kibble up, but it is still hard for her and she only licks wet food. She is a good drinker. The only thing the vet recommended was Miralax, which she knows when I mix a little in water then put it in her wet food even though its supposed to be odorless and then won't eat it. She won't eat pumpkin. Has anyone found any other remedies that would help her? Thank you in advance.

 

[Maurey]

I'd suggest psyllium husk, which is tasteless, but if she won't eat wet food with Miralax, it may not be an option. Have you tried syringing Miralax into her mouth, instead of adding it into her food?

Sweet potato and squash can be good veggie alternatives to pumpkin, but no guarantee that she'll eat it. When you gave her pumpkin, was it puree? Juma loves the Gerber pure pumpkin baby puree, she's ready to eat it on its own, but she's also a little weirdo.

Another long-term solution might be pre and probiotics, which you can partially supply by just offering her a small amount of natural/greek yogurt, though there are plenty of feline pre and probiotics on the market.

 

[Calicat13]

I'd suggest psyllium husk, which is tasteless, but if she won't eat wet food with Miralax, it may not be an option. Have you tried syringing Miralax into her mouth, instead of adding it into her food?

Sweet potato and squash can be good veggie alternatives to pumpkin, but no guarantee that she'll eat it. When you gave her pumpkin, was it puree? Juma loves the Gerber pure pumpkin baby puree, she's ready to eat it on its own, but she's also a little weirdo.

Another long-term solution might be pre and probiotics, which you can partially supply by just offering her a small amount of natural/greek yogurt, though there are plenty of feline pre and probiotics on the market.

Thank you for your suggestions - I read that they can be allergic to psyllium husk so was concerned about trying it. She won't let me syringe anything

I tried a couple different pumpkin puree, but not baby food will try that and the yogurt.

 

[daftcat75]

Many pet stores sell kefir which is similar to the Greek yogurt without the risk of unnecessary and potentially irritating ingredients such as thickeners like carrageenan.

Psyllium husk adds bulk which is likely not what you want. Also cats can get used to psyllium rendering it less effective over time.

Egg yolk can help move things along. You can offer it raw or cooked. You can offer scrambled egg or hard-boiled yolk. But you shouldn't offer raw egg white. Egg white always needs to be cooked for cats because of an enzyme in raw white that can interfere with thiamin (B vitamin) absorption. Do a Google or TCS search on egg yolk and cats for more details on how much to give and how often. You can start with 1 teaspoon in a 24 hour period and see if that helps. For the ceiling (how much is too much), I don't have that answer.

Increasing the amount of wet food and reducing the amount of dry food in her diet will be better for her teeth and her kidneys, and easier on her gut and her poops. Dry food has many more unnecessary and poorly digested ingredients than wet food. Thus there will be more stool to eliminate on a dry diet. Try supermarket wet food brands like Fancy Feast, Friskies, or Sheba. Popular brands are popular with cats. They wouldn't be on the shelves otherwise. Once she's eating one wet food regularly, you can try to convince her to add another brand. But cats are picky and that's okay. If it works, there's no reason to change it. Your worst wet food will be better than the best dry food on digestibility and moisture content alone.

Optagest is digestive enzymes which also has a pre-biotic (fermentable starch that encourages the growth of the good bacteria.) My Krista took about 1/8 tsp of this with every meal in her last year. It seemed to help.

Has she had an ultrasound? Constipation may just be her senior gut not working as well as it did when she was younger. But it could also be the early warning signs of IBD or lymphoma. If she's maintaining her weight, it's probably not lymphoma (yet). But many vets are starting to believe that IBD and lymphoma are just two points on the spectrum of the same condition. In other words, IBD today can progress to lymphoma in the future.

You may also want to get her teeth checked out with a dental exam under anesthesia with oral X-rays. A lot of problems occur below the gum line and won't be visible on a visual exam. Teeth problems left unchecked can become systemic infections affecting multiple organs. Unfortunately, cats aren't complainers. They will hide their pain and eat through pain until they are finally in more pain than they are hungry. By that time, things have gotten pretty bad.

So once again, I published a novel here.

Here's a summary:

1. Less dry food. It's poorly digested and almost certainly contributing to the constipation if not outright causing it.
2. More wet food. Better for her health all around. But also the moisture in wet food cannot be made up for at the water bowl. Even a good drinker would have to be drinking all day long to get the same moisture from an all wet food diet. That moisture is needed for healthy stools.
3. Try egg yolk.
4. Try Optagest digestive enzymes.
5. Consider an ultrasound.
6. Get her teeth checked.

 

[Katdog]

daftcat75 thanks for that long write up, it just saved me from a post. I'll try the optagest option.

korra is only 3-4 and seems to be having constipation issue. I thought it was bc she was on a high protein diet, so she was pooping less, like cats on raw food (even though I'm not feeding her raw)....shes been pooping every other day for the last 2 months.

but I just watched her pooped and felt her poop. def straining when she was on the litter box, and as she got out, she dragged her butt across the floor (thank goodness it wasn't carpeted)...which def can't be right. her poop also felt hard as a room temp tooties roll (even though she literally just pooped it out).

hopefully there isn't residual damage now that i've let this go on for so long.. ugh I'm such a newb!!

 

[daftcat75]

daftcat75 thanks for that long write up, it just saved me from a post. I'll try the optagest option.

korra is only 3-4 and seems to be having constipation issue. I thought it was bc she was on a high protein diet, so she was pooping less, like cats on raw food (even though I'm not feeding her raw)....shes been pooping every other day for the last 2 months.

but I just watched her pooped and felt her poop. def straining when she was on the litter box, and as she got out, she dragged her butt across the floor (thank goodness it wasn't carpeted)...which def can't be right. her poop also felt hard as a room temp tooties roll (even though she literally just pooped it out).

hopefully there isn't residual damage now that i've let this go on for so long.. ugh I'm such a newb!!

Miralax is also a good option to soften up the stools. It’s an indigestible starch that brings water along for the ride. It’s tricky getting more water in the stools because the kidneys want to excrete any excess and the colon wants to absorb it. Miralax binds it up, making the stools retain more water than they normally would. I forget the dose. But that should be easy enough to find online searching for “cats and miralax”

 

[Calicat13]

daftcat75 thanks for that long write up, it just saved me from a post. I'll try the optagest option.

korra is only 3-4 and seems to be having constipation issue. I thought it was bc she was on a high protein diet, so she was pooping less, like cats on raw food (even though I'm not feeding her raw)....shes been pooping every other day for the last 2 months.

but I just watched her pooped and felt her poop. def straining when she was on the litter box, and as she got out, she dragged her butt across the floor (thank goodness it wasn't carpeted)...which def can't be right. her poop also felt hard as a room temp tooties roll (even though she literally just pooped it out).

hopefully there isn't residual damage now that i've let this go on for so long.. ugh I'm such a newb!!

Hi! My cat is doing so much better! I used Smooth BM Gold from Pet Wellbeing in her water for about 2 weeks and it got her normal again. She would not take the Miralax. I also have her on 8% fiber food - Solid Gold Indoor Cat formula Chicken flavor and feed her 1 can of wet food a day. Hope that helps!