Has anyone’s cat gone over the 48 hour mark with no poo, but no sign of straining or impacted poo?

[catloverfromwayback]

Ermagerd I’ve never seen a dancing poo before!

 

[catloverfromwayback]

More celebration: Daisy went at 10.30 Sunday morning after 44:30 hours, then followed with a smaller poo seven hours later.

That was the last until sometime today. It was between 9.30 and 4pm, that’s all I know. Wasn’t Phoebe’s - she’d done a big one in the small hours, and the texture, size and odour all pointed to it being Daisy’s. So even if she went the moment I left the house, it was 47 hours since the last big one, and given it wasn’t dried out when I got home, probably a lot later. It was medium soft and had plenty of moisture.

All of which makes me hopeful that she may well have a longer cycle (if inconsistent, unfortunately) but that going over the 48 hours, when she’s not even trying to do a poo, let alone straining or crying, is not itself call-the-vet time.

 

[lisahe]

Poor, poor boy!

Phoebe’s often sound like cannon balls when she drops them (partly because she scrapes all the litter away from the bottom of the bin first) but they’re not hard, just firm and big. Daisy’s tend to be a bit softer and smoother.

What you write about Daisy sounds a lot like our cat Ireland, who has always tended toward constipation. She has occasionally gone a few days without pooping. Raw foods containing bone have been a problem for her. We no longer feed those but she still has (more) minor episodes. Our vet has been telling us for years that cats' motility decreases with age so that could be a factor, too.

I'm not sure if they're available in Australia but Vet's Best hairball relief tablets help Ireland a lot. She's never had a hairball problem but I read that they'd worked well for other cats with moderate constipation. The tablets have psyllium (among other ingredients) in them.

Good luck!

 

[catloverfromwayback]

What you write about Daisy sounds a lot like our cat Ireland, who has always tended toward constipation. She has occasionally gone a few days without pooping. Raw foods containing bone have been a problem for her. We no longer feed those but she still has (more) minor episodes. Our vet has been telling us for years that cats' motility decreases with age so that could be a factor, too.

I'm not sure if they're available in Australia but Vet's Best hairball relief tablets help Ireland a lot. She's never had a hairball problem but I read that they'd worked well for other cats with moderate constipation. The tablets have psyllium (among other ingredients) in them.

Good luck!

Thanks!

Daisy’s never had hairball problems, strangely enough (she has very thick fur). She’s an outlier with the megacolon issue, too - she’s only five.

Unfortunately raw food isn’t an option. I have nowhere to store it - my fridge is only a mini fridge with a tiny freezer.

The Purina Pro Plan weight loss food she’s on has probiotics in it, which hopefully will help everything. I just hope she loses weight on it, it’s difficult when 56g (196 calories) is such a huge amount she doesn’t get through it all. Almost makes me wish I had high calorie food for her so she could have smaller meals!

 

[Serenityinaz12]

Yes my cat usually goes every 2-3 days. I only give him wet food apparently it’s more common with wet food.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

Daisy’s never been that keen on wet food, never even got through one of the small serve types in one sitting, and Phoebe is always hovering ready to pinch it, so I can’t serve it and leave Daisy to eat it. (Phoebe has to stick to her anallergenic food.)

Daisy was on Cat Time again on Tuesday - last poo was a second effort at 2pm Sunday, next was probably after 3pm Tuesday (I was out but it seemed recent when I got home at 4pm). Then she went within 24 hours yesterday! All good, formed, softish, moist poos, so clearly constipation isn’t really happening at present.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

She really outdid herself in Making Meowmy Worry yesterday. Did a poo - a perfectly ordinary couple of sausages - at 6.45 am, after 58 hours. And of course she went all that time when today is Good Friday.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

Thought I’d come back to update this thread with an interesting response from my vet clinic. Daisy had stretched it out to 52 hours again on Monday afternoon. Tuesday was a public holiday and the vets would only be open from 10am for emergencies. I rang to ask if they thought I should bring her in on Monday afternoon rather than let it go any longer. They asked “Is she comfortable? Eating? Happy and normal?” The answer was yes (I’d already told them that far from straining, she doesn’t even go to the litter except for a quick wee otherwise). They said to give her an extra dose of Osmolax and keep an eye on her. Did that, and of course she did her poo 57:30 hours after the last. Since then she’s had 24:30 and 36:15 hour intervals.

Maybe the fact they had been very busy that day affected it, but it was interesting to me that, unlike the broad, general advice one sees, the baseline as it were, long intervals, as noted by everyone on this thread, are not unfailingly “constipation, get to the vet for an enema” situations.