Hoping someone out there who has been through something similar can offer some advice, positive stories, or support.
History:
Our baby Meow is 8 years old. We've had no health issues up to now. In July I noticed he was pooping outside the litter, straining, crying. We brought him to vet and they put him on easy digest food, lactulose and husk. This seems to work and eventually we tapered off. We have 2 cats, who use the same litter box, so it's been hard to tell who is doing what. When I would noticeMeow straining or poop outside the litter box, we would start up the same treatment.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, we had a lot of poop outside the litter box in multiple places. This poop was mostly bone dry, rock hard, and large diameter. I started up the same treatment, but no poop last week for 5 days. I called the vet on day 3 (saturday) and they said if he was eating and playing and peeing normally it wasn't an emergency.
Monday (Day 5, and maybe more since we have two cats and hard to tell who is pooping when), still no poop so I brought him to the animal hospital where he was admitted.
First X-ray showed A LOT of impacted feces. The plan was to do multiple enemas with manual extraction with control x-rays in between.
Vet initially said, its borderline megacolon. Not there yet from what she could tell, but possible.
Today (Wednesday) she called me to pick him up. She said the latest enema she removed a lot of feces but the x-ray still showed he had a lot left. She said that since the feces they were removing was soft, they felt it was definitely megacolon and there was nothing else she could do for him at this point. That he would pass it on his own if he was able to. She said the xray showed mild improvement and we are to return in a week for a followup x-ray.
We were sent home with the advise to give him high fiber wet food, lactulose 2x day, and mineral oil 2x a day for the next week until he has the next X-Ray to see if his colon is improving. The vet said there is a chance that it improves, but the prognosis is poor and if he isn't pooping normally within 2 days and the follow-up x-ray shows no improvement that it's time to discuss the options realistically. She said that surgery wasn't an option because it would mean removing his entire colon. (What??)
Tonight we are home. Meow still with old stool in his colon. Arriving home, he was immediately playful and energetic. He ate dinner like a champ, licked the bowl clean. After dinner he seemed visibly uncomfortable and was pacing and went into the litter box, no poop though. A few times tonight, some soft mushy stool has dropped from his behind.
I'm very nervous about that...if he has soft stool in his rectum that he is not able to "push" out, that seems like a really negative sign.
SO, here I am. Hoping that someone out there has a success story, or some advice, or has been in this situation before. Anything to give me some kind of hint what to expect and feel a little less alone in this.
Is it like the vet says, a nearly hopeless case? I can't imagine it when my baby is playful, energic, eating and drinking and only 8 years old.
I am from the US but now living in a very small country in Northern Europe, where I can't imagine vets see this type of thing very often. Hoping there is hope...
+ does anyone have an amazing vet I could get a second opinion from with the xrays this vet took?
History:
Our baby Meow is 8 years old. We've had no health issues up to now. In July I noticed he was pooping outside the litter, straining, crying. We brought him to vet and they put him on easy digest food, lactulose and husk. This seems to work and eventually we tapered off. We have 2 cats, who use the same litter box, so it's been hard to tell who is doing what. When I would noticeMeow straining or poop outside the litter box, we would start up the same treatment.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, we had a lot of poop outside the litter box in multiple places. This poop was mostly bone dry, rock hard, and large diameter. I started up the same treatment, but no poop last week for 5 days. I called the vet on day 3 (saturday) and they said if he was eating and playing and peeing normally it wasn't an emergency.
Monday (Day 5, and maybe more since we have two cats and hard to tell who is pooping when), still no poop so I brought him to the animal hospital where he was admitted.
First X-ray showed A LOT of impacted feces. The plan was to do multiple enemas with manual extraction with control x-rays in between.
Vet initially said, its borderline megacolon. Not there yet from what she could tell, but possible.
Today (Wednesday) she called me to pick him up. She said the latest enema she removed a lot of feces but the x-ray still showed he had a lot left. She said that since the feces they were removing was soft, they felt it was definitely megacolon and there was nothing else she could do for him at this point. That he would pass it on his own if he was able to. She said the xray showed mild improvement and we are to return in a week for a followup x-ray.
We were sent home with the advise to give him high fiber wet food, lactulose 2x day, and mineral oil 2x a day for the next week until he has the next X-Ray to see if his colon is improving. The vet said there is a chance that it improves, but the prognosis is poor and if he isn't pooping normally within 2 days and the follow-up x-ray shows no improvement that it's time to discuss the options realistically. She said that surgery wasn't an option because it would mean removing his entire colon. (What??)
Tonight we are home. Meow still with old stool in his colon. Arriving home, he was immediately playful and energetic. He ate dinner like a champ, licked the bowl clean. After dinner he seemed visibly uncomfortable and was pacing and went into the litter box, no poop though. A few times tonight, some soft mushy stool has dropped from his behind.
I'm very nervous about that...if he has soft stool in his rectum that he is not able to "push" out, that seems like a really negative sign.
SO, here I am. Hoping that someone out there has a success story, or some advice, or has been in this situation before. Anything to give me some kind of hint what to expect and feel a little less alone in this.
Is it like the vet says, a nearly hopeless case? I can't imagine it when my baby is playful, energic, eating and drinking and only 8 years old.
I am from the US but now living in a very small country in Northern Europe, where I can't imagine vets see this type of thing very often. Hoping there is hope...
+ does anyone have an amazing vet I could get a second opinion from with the xrays this vet took?
? Anyway, have a look at this while you are waiting for more responses:
