Feline Constipation And Mega Colon

[skrinkle]

Hi,

I am fostering to adopt a cute 10 year old cat named Cola. She has arthritis and gets a once a month cartrophen injection. She also has chronic constipation. Her colon is normal, but on the bigger side of normal. She takes cisapride once a day and laxaday twice a day. She eats high fibre wet food. She still only poops every three days, and when she goes she meows first and paces around before getting in the litter box. She likes me to come with her for moral support (lol) and I think she doesn't like to squat. Her poops are bigger than my other cats poops and very soft. I don't know what else I can do to help her. Is every 3 days going to be enough?

 

[RosesNoThorns]

No experience with this drug (had to look it up) but the first thing that jumped out at me (and even mentioned on its own website) is that it is used off-label in cats without much evidence besides anecdotes as to its efficiency.

That's a big red alert sign for me.

I am not a vet and so take what I say with a grain of salt---buuut I have arthritis/join/neuro issues and IBS which results often in constipation.

If your cat's pain is not being well-controlled it can cause bowel upset (and can go either way with either constipation or the runs). Likewise, it is probably very painful for her to get into the proper position to poop (and she knows this!) meaning she will want to hold it. Holding it will make the constipation worse and can worsen/cause an enlarged colon. It also of course, can hurt quite a bit to move dried up/hardened/bulky stool through the bowels. It can become a vicious cycle

Her meowing a lot before going is a sign that something is wrong. Either due to her arthritis or due to her bowels or both. The type of litter you use may worsen her discomfort as well. Perhaps she might enjoy puppy-pad type material instead of litter? Does she have a litter box that is easy for her to get into?

I would look at getting her well-studied and approved medications for arthritis in cats and possibly changing her litter and litter box type and see if that helps.

 

[skrinkle]

Oh my god I love the purraise button.

Her stools never get hard, but I think that's because of the laxaday.

Cisapride is a drug I had never heard of before either, and reading about it made me uncomfortable with her being on it. I was told that she was on double the dose before I got her and her bowel movements hadn't improved, but they only took her back down to one pill a day because they ran out of the prescription. I don't know if this drug is helping or not and I would be interested to hear others opinions on if it worked for them or not.

The shelter gave me a litter box with high sides because she tends to poop over the edge onto the floor, but I offered her lower ones (my other cat poops over the side too, I'm ok with that lol) and she seems to not choose one over the other. I use the finest litter I can find but I wonder if she would be willing to use a pad?

My gut tells me this could be more of an arthritis issue than anything else, since her poops are always very soft. But the shelter seems to think it's a mobility issue in her intestines, and the cisapride is meant to stimulate smooth muscle contractions. I'm very concerned about arthritis medications because of the side effects on cats kidneys. One of my biggest fears is my cats dying from kidney related issues. The cartrophen is safe (as far as I've read) and maybe she could be getting more of it? For some reason I'm dogs they tend to give it way more often for a short period of time and then wait months for the next doses. But she gets hers steadily once a month.

Idk I just want her to be healthy and I want to know exactly why she isn't pooping, but I feel like maybe I won't find the answer.

 

[RosesNoThorns]

The problem with the cartrophen is that's an off-label use in cats without solid evidence/studies on how it controls/reacts in cats. So I don't know how effective it is as it's not approved for cats.
If her pain is not well controlled she is not going to enjoy life very much so going for longevity at the expense of quality is kinda pointless, y'know?

Has she been given a glucosamine, msm and choindroitin supplement? That in addition to a low dose NSAID or painkiller might be an option. With monitoring and a low-dose you might be able to protect her kidneys and relieve her pain.

From personal experience Laxaday stops working eventually (also twice a day is a pretty heavy dose----I was told to never take it more than 1x daily) and can be pointless if I'm in pain or stressed or both. Your cisapride actually has GI pain and diarrhea as a side effect, so I wonder if it might be actually causing more problems than it solves? Sounds like she might need a team of vets to go back to the drawing board so to speak. Hopefully they can find a solution for the poor girl.

 

[skrinkle]

The thing about her pain is I don't really see it anywhere other than the litter box, and when someone actually tries to touch her hips. She still runs around the house at night with her catnip ball waking us all up so I don't think her pain is to the point of pain killers yet.

I'm going to adopt her in a few weeks and take her to my own vet. Hopefully he has some new ideas.

 

[RosesNoThorns]

While it's great that she's still willing to play, I would be very careful in using it as a benchmark for 'well she still does this so she doesn't need pain management yet'.

As you know, most animals hide pain very well until it is too much for them to do so.
Speaking from experience as someone with chronic pain adrenaline/excitement can make it very easy to 'mask' the pain/have me ignore it---and pay for it later (not to mention the longer this goes untreated/without attempts to decrease inflammation the more damage is done). Being able to have adrenaline/excitement make me push past/overlook my pain doesn't mean I'm not in pain or that I don't need my medication.
If the only way that doctors would acknowledge my pain/arthritis is 'RosesNoThorns is no longer enjoying or excited by anything and is extremely painful when touched or trying to poop' it would be a catastrophic medical failure on their part as the point would be to treat my pain/relieve the inflammation long before then. To me the fact that she is painful when touched and experiencing pain/distress around trying to poop says nope, she needs medication and more help.