Laxatives or probiotics for long term constipation?

[MsPrudence]

So Minerva has had mild constipation as long as I've had her (nearly a year). I took her to the vet last May, and he told me to go buy Mira-lax. After some trial and error, I found she does best at a little less than 1/8 tsp twice a day. She's had very few issues since I found the correct dose and usually poops every day like clockwork, or at least every other day. 

At couple months ago I saw probiotic treats and decided to give them a try. I weaned her off the laxatives in a couple days and gave her one probiotic treat a day, and lo and behold, she kept pooping once a day that entire month. I couldn't find the treats in the store again, so I've just been using laxatives again.

So my question is, would it be better to simply keep her on laxatives her entire life, or to try switching permanently to probiotics? And if probiotics would be better, is there a good brand someone can recommend? I used GNC Digestive Health treats, and found they also have probiotic powder online so I can get a lot more doses for cheaper and simply sprinkle it on her wet food like I do her laxatives. If anyone knows a good brand on Amazon that would be a huge plus as I currently have giftcards from the holidays that need spending.

I included a poll so more people can chime in without having to type out a response if desired. Thanks for any help!

 

[lavishsqualor]

Someone else will chime in but I personally think pro-biotics would be the healthier option.

 

[denice]

It really depends on the kitty.  There are different things that can be used and each cat responds differently.  Miralax isn't a traditional laxative, it works by drawing water into the colon.  It's really more of a stool softener.  Some people have used an herb called Slippery Elm and have had good luck with that.  If the probiotics worked well then you could continue with those.  I don't use them, hopefully someone with recommendations will post.

Is your kitty eating an all wet diet?  If not then I would go to all wet food.  Some  kitties will drink more water with a fountain others won't.  I have an IBD kitty that is prone to constipation.  I don't think he drank anymore with the fountain and my other kitty wouldn't touch it so I gave up.

 

[MsPrudence]

She's always been an avid drinker and I recently got her a fountain that she adores. The vet and I agreed that it's possible her constipation is related to the fact that she's blind so she's not able to be as active as most cats.

She's on a mostly wet food diet. She gets about 2/3+ of her calories from wet food and nibbles at dry food throughout the day, both grain free. I've thought about switching her to all wet food and may do that in the future when I get a better job and and don't have an entire unopened bag of dry sitting around (she goes through it SO slowly, she's also very petite). Once I can afford it, I'll likely switch her to all high quality wet/home-made and try to wean her off whatever I have her on and see if her constipation clears up on its own. 

 

[stephanietx]

Long-term use of laxatives isn't really healthy for cats or humans. Have you ruled out anything medically wrong?  If so, then I'd look at adding plain canned pumpkin and a daily probiotic to her food and use the laxative sparingly.  You could also try something like slippery elm bark to help with the constipation rather than miralax.

 

[MsPrudence]

I've tried mixing just a little bit of canned pumpkin in her food and she won't touch it. I'm getting some probiotic powder online like I had been thinking about doing and will see how she does with just that. Thanks for the input everybody!

 

[babiesmom5]

I had a senior cat in Chronic Renal Failure who often experienced constipation.  I was advised by an Internal Medicine Specialist Vet to mix 1/8 teaspoon of plain Benefiber in her food once per day.  It worked like a charm!

 

[molly92]

I tried everything that's been suggested here and more for my cat's constipation, and probiotics were the shining star by far. I found that after a few months I was having to increase her Miralax dosage and fiber additives to get the same results, and I did not want to keep upping her dosage for the rest of her life. That's when I tried probiotics, and a year later they still work wonderfully. On the rare occasions I haven't added them to her food, the constipation returns, so I'm content to keep giving them the rest of her life. For whatever reason her gut doesn't keep the proper balance of microbes without them. Aside from the resistance over time I haven't heard anything dangerous about prolonged softener use, but there hasn't been a whole lot of research on that either. Probiotics are not a drug, but are a replacement for something that should be in the body already. Probiotics are a popular area of research right now and seem to have the potential to be helpful for myriads of health issues, so they definitely seem like the safer option. Still, each situation is different, and if nothing else works, it seems like it would be better to keep a cat on Miralax forever rather than risk the dangers and pain of chronic constipation.

I've given pet formulated probiotic powder and just plain human acidophilus from PB8 with the same results, so I continue to use the less expensive PB8. I do keep it refrigerated and am fairly generous with my dosing, because probiotics are living and can die off over time.

 

[molly92]

This is the specific kind I use, by the way: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002LMIWW8/?tag=&tag=thecatsite

I'm careful to get this rather than the vegetarian one, because too much cellulose has caused problems for her in the past. Plus she really likes the gelatin capsule, so when I've emptied a capsule she gets the empty casing as a treat. I give 1 capsule sprinkled over her wet food throughout the course of the day.

 

[MsPrudence]

Thanks for the great tip Molly! I bought some cat probiotics a couple days ago and took her off the laxatives and so far everything seems to be going well (her poop even stinks less!). I will look into the human probiotics you use, as the probiotics I got were $33 and is only a 2 month supply. I just have to be careful with dosing in general, as Minerva is smaller than most cats at about 5.5 pounds.

 

[MsPrudence]

UPDATE: Help! Everything seemed to be going just fine, then tonight she was constipated again. I saw her straining in her litter box, then she gave up, puked, and continued straining where ever she was standing and was clearly in a moderate amount of pain as she was growling and hissing and yowling any time I touched her to put her back in her litter box (but not scratching or biting, luckily). She continued to growl and strain and got out two little turds but is still very unhappy. This is exactly how she was before I put her on laxatives in May, and she never once had this problem while I was using them. She has a water fountain and drinks plenty of water, and she gets about 2/3 of her nutrition from wet food, and she won't touch anything with pumpkin in it. I'm thinking about trying fiber powder next, then back to laxatives if that doesn't work.

I don't want to keep her on laxatives her whole life, but it seems to be a better alternative to her being in pain and unable to poop.

 

[Brian007]

I'll probably get shouted at for saying this but ordinary cows milk gives cats diarrhoea.......  In an emergency like now, I'd maybe give her a wee bit. 

 

[Brian007]

And I'm all up for the slippery elm idea.  Also psyllium husks and olive oil mixed into her food.  And furball treatment paste or treats as standard. 

 

[MsPrudence]

I wouldn't  say it was an emergency. A couple minutes after I posted my last message, I found another sizable turd near where she threw up, so she did actually manage to poop a good bit. Within 10 minutes of the whole ordeal, she was purring and crawling into my lap for head and cheek rubs and was acting normal. I gave her a slightly bigger portion of wet food tonight, and mixed in a dose of laxatives until I can get slippery elm or anything else

 

[artiemom]

I think she needs to see a vet... sorry just my opinion from my own experiences...

 

[MsPrudence]

Update again: Took her in to the vet (she was due for a vaccine anyway) and talked it over with the vet. He said she seems fine otherwise and that keeping her on Miralax her whole life is okay, especially since it's such a tiny dose. I still want to try other more natural approaches like slippery elm like has been mentioned, but seeing as I'm getting ready to move, I'm just going to keep her on the laxatives for now until we settle down into the new place. Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[Brian007]

Thanks for the update and good luck with your move.  

As a wee anecdote, 35 years ago, when veterinary medicine wasn't what it is today, we had a Burmese rescue cat who was chronically bunged up his whole life.  We took him to the vet what seemed like all the time, but I was a small child so it might have been once a fortnight or so.  The vet stuffed a tube of laxatives up his bum and then squeezed rock hard balls of poo out by massaging his bowl & rectal colon, and often getting right in their by hand to dislodge the impact.  After a while, when we could no longer afford the vet, we just bought the medicine from them and mum and did it at home.  He was a lovely, well-behaved, and understanding cat, thank goodness.  I'll never forget our regular squeezing sessions!  Everyone we knew said we should put him to sleep, but he was otherwise healthy and, albeit not the most pleasant of activities, debunging our Burmese by hand was just part of family life.  We also used to regularly pour cod-liver oil down his throat.  I hope that you can find a less hands-on way of lessening her pain though, heehee!

 

[helpinghand]

I saw you mentioned about your cat not willing to eat canned pumpkin. Try cooking thin slices of fresh pumpkin with a little chicken thigh, I trick my cat into eating pumpkin as if it's chicken. I usually mashed up the pumpkin slices with a spoon and feed it with the chicken.

 

[cheeser]

I started out with Miralax for Buddy's constipation, and it worked great at first. Then he got back into a cycle where he'd only go every 4 days, even when I increased the dosage and upped it to twice a day. On the bright side, he'd dump 4 days worth of feces in one fell swoop, but he seemed so miserable until he could finally unload that load.

So a couple of days ago I gave Buddy some slippery elm bark syrup instead, and he pooped the next morning. It's probably going to be a few days before I'm able to tell if there's any improvement re: the frequency of his poops on an ongoing basis, but I can already tell that they look much better, so I'm very much encouraged.

Good luck, and I hope you find something that works best for your kitty soon!