Have you tried FortiFlora? It's not the absolute best thing for them but it's definitely better than them not eating. My cat was 'diagnosed' with lymphoma (didn't do a biopsy so don't know for sure), but when her appetite gets a little too low for my liking, I just sprinkle FortiFlora on her food and she goes crazy for it. I just pick it up at the vet's office, and it's pretty inexpensive!
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Megacolon - Time To Euthanize?
- Thread starter dkb817
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@foxxycat - I have not, and honestly, I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to give the injections without either getting my arms all torn up or her inadvertently getting hurt.
K kpc1024 - The vet at the Emergency Clinic suggested Cisapride for Ally as well, but I think right now, my vet and I are focused on just getting her to eat plain food without the addition of a new medication (It's hard enough most days to get the Lactulose in her, my girl is definitely a handful when she wants to be
)
My mom and I have talked extensively the last few days, and are at the point of QUALITY of life, rather than QUANTITY. Obviously, I'd love for Ally to be like my first cat that made it to roughly 23 years old, but not at the expensive of her constantly being put through a great amount of stress, quarantined in a puppy enclosure to prevent messes all over the house, and constantly being in pain or being sick. I'd rather my last memory be of her purring at me, having a last good cuddle with her favorite stuffed toy (a pink monkey named 'Greta') than of her howling, throwing up, and poo'ing more blood than actual poo.
As it is, Ally at a handful of treats earlier as well as some more of her kibble. She also tried to use the litterbox for stools twice - once was a tiny, tiny bit that was more bloody than anything else, and the second time was probably the size of a small pinky toe (for lack of other adequate description) but was actually stool
We're very much in wait-and-see mode right now. If she's perking up and doing okay, then we're in the clear. If, in a few days once she's ate enough food to really form a stool post-enema, we're right back where we started in terms of constipation, we can at least know that we gave it a fair shot.
K kpc1024 - The vet at the Emergency Clinic suggested Cisapride for Ally as well, but I think right now, my vet and I are focused on just getting her to eat plain food without the addition of a new medication (It's hard enough most days to get the Lactulose in her, my girl is definitely a handful when she wants to be
)My mom and I have talked extensively the last few days, and are at the point of QUALITY of life, rather than QUANTITY. Obviously, I'd love for Ally to be like my first cat that made it to roughly 23 years old, but not at the expensive of her constantly being put through a great amount of stress, quarantined in a puppy enclosure to prevent messes all over the house, and constantly being in pain or being sick. I'd rather my last memory be of her purring at me, having a last good cuddle with her favorite stuffed toy (a pink monkey named 'Greta') than of her howling, throwing up, and poo'ing more blood than actual poo.
As it is, Ally at a handful of treats earlier as well as some more of her kibble. She also tried to use the litterbox for stools twice - once was a tiny, tiny bit that was more bloody than anything else, and the second time was probably the size of a small pinky toe (for lack of other adequate description) but was actually stool
We're very much in wait-and-see mode right now. If she's perking up and doing okay, then we're in the clear. If, in a few days once she's ate enough food to really form a stool post-enema, we're right back where we started in terms of constipation, we can at least know that we gave it a fair shot.
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I will say this in all fairness, Sarah the cat I talked about was a bottle baby I raised, found a home for at my mom's insistence (a great home) and then she decided to keep her for herself. I did a lot of her care after her injury & the last years of her life (since I moved back in during the divorce.) So we were both owners for her. We differed on when to put her down. I started hedging on "when do you think it is time" & "mom I think she is hurting, she cries when she goes to the bathroom" 18 months or so before she was put down ... and when push came to shove I was crying and asking if we could save her. We let her go because it was the best thing for HER.
Before she passed I was feeding her 5 times a day and she was getting fed wet food by my mom breakfast, dinner & sometimes an extra snack. I was also giving her daily rinse off of her back end because of the pee.
In the last 10 years I have been in constant pain & frequent nausea from my MS. My pain & nausea are managed with medication. If could not be & I couldn't talk, I would hope my family would let me go, instead of dragging it out. I seek to enjoy what I can, while I can.
About a year after Sarah passed my mom said "yeah I probably should have let her go sooner." If it had strictly been up to me, it would have broke my heart but when she started being in pain & not eating I would have put her down if there was no way to help her. When her eyes went kinda dull.
So IMO I would see if your cat can start eating. If you can get her to eat & go #2 then enjoy every moment with her you can. If she doesn't perk up, let her go.
My heart goes out to you
Before she passed I was feeding her 5 times a day and she was getting fed wet food by my mom breakfast, dinner & sometimes an extra snack. I was also giving her daily rinse off of her back end because of the pee.
In the last 10 years I have been in constant pain & frequent nausea from my MS. My pain & nausea are managed with medication. If could not be & I couldn't talk, I would hope my family would let me go, instead of dragging it out. I seek to enjoy what I can, while I can.
About a year after Sarah passed my mom said "yeah I probably should have let her go sooner." If it had strictly been up to me, it would have broke my heart but when she started being in pain & not eating I would have put her down if there was no way to help her. When her eyes went kinda dull.
So IMO I would see if your cat can start eating. If you can get her to eat & go #2 then enjoy every moment with her you can. If she doesn't perk up, let her go.
My heart goes out to you
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Today appears to be a decent day. While the scrambled eggs (one of her old favorites) was a bust, she has started eating more of her treats, including some with Lactulose on them which should help at least delay the next round of constipation. She still won't touch her old kibble, but she at least is getting some kind of nutrients into her. She also used the litter box today and had a formed poo (only with a megacolon cat do you get excited over poo); It still had some blood on it, but we're thinking it might be leftover irritation from the enemas.
Hopefully this is her turning the corner, but my Mom (who is helping pay her vet bills) has already made clear that the next time she gets constipation/obstipated is going to be the last time. Here's to hoping that we can hold that off for as long as possible.
Hopefully this is her turning the corner, but my Mom (who is helping pay her vet bills) has already made clear that the next time she gets constipation/obstipated is going to be the last time. Here's to hoping that we can hold that off for as long as possible.
Oh, I'll pray for that to happen too, all the best to you and Ally!
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Quick update: Ally has a small BM early - and we've started her on a new dry food that she seems to be enjoying (I don't blame her - I'd get burnt out on food if I had the same thing every day too )
)Oh, I hope your kitty gets better.
Sadly, I put my boy, Herman, down yesterday. He just couldn’t move his bowels. No matter what. Believe me I tried. I spent $$$$$ over the years treating his seizures and bringing him to neurologists. I cannot believe he finally had to go because he could’t poop. He just kept filling up and need manual removals and enemas. I tried pumpkin, prescription food, lactulose, miralax, pilocarpine and cisapride. Even though it broke my heart, I knew I had to let him go. He wasn’t happy. I know him and I could tell I kept him until he wasn’t enjoying anything.
I hope so much you don’t have to go through this. Unfortunately, as a friend said “you’re kids are supposed to outlive you but you are supposed to outlive your pets.” It sounds so morbid but when he said it, it made sense. Losing our wonderful friends is the worst, but inevitable and we are sooo lucky to have them for the time we do.
I am hoping like hell your kitty poops. Thanks for letting me offer my thoughts as well as venting. I feel so sad right now.
Sadly, I put my boy, Herman, down yesterday. He just couldn’t move his bowels. No matter what. Believe me I tried. I spent $$$$$ over the years treating his seizures and bringing him to neurologists. I cannot believe he finally had to go because he could’t poop. He just kept filling up and need manual removals and enemas. I tried pumpkin, prescription food, lactulose, miralax, pilocarpine and cisapride. Even though it broke my heart, I knew I had to let him go. He wasn’t happy. I know him and I could tell I kept him until he wasn’t enjoying anything.
I hope so much you don’t have to go through this. Unfortunately, as a friend said “you’re kids are supposed to outlive you but you are supposed to outlive your pets.” It sounds so morbid but when he said it, it made sense. Losing our wonderful friends is the worst, but inevitable and we are sooo lucky to have them for the time we do.
I am hoping like hell your kitty poops. Thanks for letting me offer my thoughts as well as venting. I feel so sad right now.
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Thank you.I appreciate your thoughts and reminder that it won’t hurt forever. I look forward putting up a picture of him and smiling and not hurting.
kpc1024 I'm sorry over your loss.
It's very hard to put a cat down when they appear to be doing fairly well except they cannot move their bowels. I have been through this with two cats now. It's very difficult to handle.
I lost Timmer in January to IBD and he couldn't move his bowels. His colon had swollen shut and his body did not respond to medications. I don't know if I will ever get over how it all went down in the end and it was so fast. I expected him to be with me for years to come.
They pain is not so raw now as it once was but I still miss my guy.
Love is love, and it never dies. So when our babies aren't with us anymore, the love is still there.
It's very hard to put a cat down when they appear to be doing fairly well except they cannot move their bowels. I have been through this with two cats now. It's very difficult to handle.
I lost Timmer in January to IBD and he couldn't move his bowels. His colon had swollen shut and his body did not respond to medications. I don't know if I will ever get over how it all went down in the end and it was so fast. I expected him to be with me for years to come.
They pain is not so raw now as it once was but I still miss my guy.
Love is love, and it never dies. So when our babies aren't with us anymore, the love is still there.
Thank you for your kind and supportive words. It has meant a lot to hear from the members of this community. I am surprised and saddened to see this problem occuring so often in cats.
You hit it on the head when you said it is hard to make the decision when they otherwise are doing fairly well. That was the worst part and because it is such a ridiculous problem. I lost my beautiful cat bc he couldn’t take a dump! So sad. Thanks for replying. Be well. I am glad there are animal lovers like us out there giving these guys the love they deserve.
It's just not fair. 
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Well, I fear Ally may be heading right back to where we were.
I spoke to her vet this morning who was kind enough to check in - so of course she would become symptomatic right after I said she was fine. He wants to put her on a small dose of antibiotics for some longer blood in BM issues, to make sure she doesn't pick up a little infection or something.
She hasn't had a BM today (vet said ideally one per day), though I did hear her digging around in the litterbox a couple of different times. If she hasn't gone by this time tomorrow night, I'm supposed to give her some mineral oil to help move things along.
She ate just a fraction of the treats that had the Lactulose and Miralax on them, when normally she'd eat as many as I would give her. I wish she was tame enough to syringe feed, but she's just not.
The worst part here is that she's acting fine - meows at me, walks around the enclosure area we have her confined to, shows interest in things going on around her.
I feel like such a bad person for going straight to "is it time to euthanize? Is this it?", but honestly, I don't know how many more times Ally (and, to be perfectly honest, me/I) can go through this before saying "I'm done, I can't do this anymore"
I spoke to her vet this morning who was kind enough to check in - so of course she would become symptomatic right after I said she was fine. He wants to put her on a small dose of antibiotics for some longer blood in BM issues, to make sure she doesn't pick up a little infection or something.
She hasn't had a BM today (vet said ideally one per day), though I did hear her digging around in the litterbox a couple of different times. If she hasn't gone by this time tomorrow night, I'm supposed to give her some mineral oil to help move things along.
She ate just a fraction of the treats that had the Lactulose and Miralax on them, when normally she'd eat as many as I would give her. I wish she was tame enough to syringe feed, but she's just not.
The worst part here is that she's acting fine - meows at me, walks around the enclosure area we have her confined to, shows interest in things going on around her.
I feel like such a bad person for going straight to "is it time to euthanize? Is this it?", but honestly, I don't know how many more times Ally (and, to be perfectly honest, me/I) can go through this before saying "I'm done, I can't do this anymore"
That's interesting about slowing them down eating. One of my horses used to bolt down her entire bucket of grain in 1/3 the time the others did. She would plunge her head into the bucket of grain with her mouth wide open and literally pack it full of grain and then swallow it without even chewing it. After finishing hers she would go for the others and end up eating everybody's grain. So I tried to find ways to slow her down. One thing that worked for a short time was putting big rocks in her bucket. But then she figured out to just dump the bucket and push the rocks out of the grain. The only thing that worked was to lock her in a stall and feed her all buy herself.
Not meaning to change the subject, but its interesting how so many different animals of all types can be problem eaters.
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@dkp817, as mentioned by someone above, having a bowel movement is a basic function of living. I know how you feel because I went through it twice with two different cats. I kept my cat Pickles alive an extra 6 years because I gave her enemas at home. She was a very compliant cat! But even so she rarely produced a stool bigger than say, your thumb every day. She had to have been in pain and I was too stubborn to let her go. I have been constipated before and it's miserable. I still went to work and was the same on the outside too.
With my Timmer, he was in obvious pain. Kept going to the box and straining. At one point he was straining so hard he fell over. That broke my heart into a million pieces.
The regular vet said he suspected along with IBD he had some type of GI lymphoma. The GI specialist kept telling me to hang in there and it would take awhile for the chemo to kick in but I told her this cat doesn't have months to wait to see if chemo kicks in!
I'm not telling you to let your cat go, just telling you what I went through and that you are not alone in this. It is heartbreaking. I talked to my vet a month after I let Timmer go because I felt guilty I didn't bring him in for one more enema or sedate/flushing out and he said it would not have made a difference. He didn't respond to medications. Some people don't either. That made me feel a little better.
So yes, I know you have some guilt there, too. You are doing everything you can. If there is blood in the cat's stool too, that might be colitis. Without extensive testing there is no way to really know.
Take it one day at a time. That's all you can do.
With my Timmer, he was in obvious pain. Kept going to the box and straining. At one point he was straining so hard he fell over. That broke my heart into a million pieces.
The regular vet said he suspected along with IBD he had some type of GI lymphoma. The GI specialist kept telling me to hang in there and it would take awhile for the chemo to kick in but I told her this cat doesn't have months to wait to see if chemo kicks in!
I'm not telling you to let your cat go, just telling you what I went through and that you are not alone in this. It is heartbreaking. I talked to my vet a month after I let Timmer go because I felt guilty I didn't bring him in for one more enema or sedate/flushing out and he said it would not have made a difference. He didn't respond to medications. Some people don't either. That made me feel a little better.
So yes, I know you have some guilt there, too. You are doing everything you can. If there is blood in the cat's stool too, that might be colitis. Without extensive testing there is no way to really know.
Take it one day at a time. That's all you can do.
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T
tazcat
- Surgeries typically run anywhere from $2000-4000, which is money we just don't have right now. I'm worried about how I'm going to pay for a nearly $800 test that I need for myself , so we definitely can't afford to drop a few thousand on a surgery for Ally (which sounds awful and I'm certainly not suggesting that her life is worth less or anything; If a person can afford it and can handle the fact that the surgery may leave their cat with near-diarrhea, go for it)
Timmer
- As bad as it sounds, it would almost be easier to make this call if she WAS showing signs of obvious distress. I've got issues with constipation myself (we think potential IBD) and I know how miserable I get with the stomach pain; I can only imagine what she's going through, not knowing what's going on or how to get it stop. We certainly don't want it to get to that point where she IS in obvious distress, but it would cement the decision for us. Ally HATES going to the vet (requires sedation for everything, even just a simple exam, which to my understanding gets more dangerous the older a cat gets), so repeated enemas are akin to putting her through regular torture sessions.
I think I'm going to watch her like a hawk the next few days and see how we do. If we're still no better by Monday or Tuesday, we'll have to make the call.
Timmer
- As bad as it sounds, it would almost be easier to make this call if she WAS showing signs of obvious distress. I've got issues with constipation myself (we think potential IBD) and I know how miserable I get with the stomach pain; I can only imagine what she's going through, not knowing what's going on or how to get it stop. We certainly don't want it to get to that point where she IS in obvious distress, but it would cement the decision for us. Ally HATES going to the vet (requires sedation for everything, even just a simple exam, which to my understanding gets more dangerous the older a cat gets), so repeated enemas are akin to putting her through regular torture sessions.I think I'm going to watch her like a hawk the next few days and see how we do. If we're still no better by Monday or Tuesday, we'll have to make the call.
As I think you've concluded, with a cat it's quality of life that's important--and age is irrelevant. My first cat lived to almost 20, but my last cat was at end-stage renal failure at age 8. My own criterion for deciding for euthanasia is the quality of life for the cat.
I was actually quoted $4,000 to $6,000 for the surgery, and I turned it down too. Right now Yoda is having a bowel movement every 2.5 days while on a crazy high dose of Cisapride. It is the only thing that has worked. She seems comfortable, so we keep going. But the Cisapride is horribly expensive, and she is on 5 other meds right now too. If this stops working, I will have to euthanize her.
