Vaseline & Constipation

[pjleslie_2000]

This is a new one for me. My friend has a 12 year old female kitty who has occasional bouts of constipation. In the past, her vet has prescribed Metamucil and this has worked fine. A vet visit last weekend resulted in the vet instructing her to give the cat a dose of vaseline to the roof of the mouth daily. Sounds not good to me......

Anyone have experience with this treatment - vaseline????

Thanks!
Pam

 

[emb_78]

Originally Posted by pjleslie_2000

This is a new one for me. My friend has a 12 year old female kitty who has occasional bouts of constipation. In the past, her vet has prescribed Metamucil and this has worked fine. A vet visit last weekend resulted in the vet instructing her to give the cat a dose of vaseline to the roof of the mouth daily. Sounds not good to me......

Anyone have experience with this treatment - vaseline????

Thanks!
Pam

IMO I would not do that!!! ::censor::censor::censor:: Tell her to buy Canned Pumpkin... Give in small amounts that is what the vets here recommend!!!

 

[sissa]

I am familiar with it... Our sweet little Cocker got into some bones from a neighbors garbage a few years ago... She was SO SICK!

Our Vet kept her for 4 days and gave her a few teaspoons everyday that she was there.... He said it wouls help the bones pass with out slicing up her intestines ( if there happened to be anything sharp in there) It did help, and did not hurt Fergie at all. He said it was actually good for them to help with hair and other things that keep thwm from having a good BM.

 

[coaster]

Vaseline (aka white petrolatum, or petroleum jelly) is the active ingredient in many of the hairball remedies sold for cats. It won't hurt your cat. It's indigestible, so it goes through the digestive tract. The only precaution is that it does interfere with nutrient absorption, so it shouldn't be given before a meal (else the food is just wasted). I don't know if it's a cure for constipation, though. Personally, for that, I'd try the canned pumpkin a previous post recommended first. Vaseline is fine once a week to prevent hairballs, but I don't think I'd give it every day on a regular basis.

 

[hissy]

I would steer clear of it as well- and use canned pumpkin or cooked and mashed green beans- much better for the kitty

 

[rosiemac]

My vet cringed when i mentioned how i'd heard of giving vaseline to cats

 

[StefanZ]

I would prefer liquid-paraffine - this is perfectly safe and widely used.

I guess it is sold in USA as it is in Sweden.

If they dont have it in drug store (Pharmacy) it is OK with this sold in food-shops.

Possibly vaseline is also ok, dunno.

 

[StefanZ]

Do you have Swedisch soft wheycheese in USA?

Ie butter made from goatmilk (yellowbrown, halfsweet). Something of Norwegian national cuisine.

Anyway, this is very good to loosen hard stomache. Both human and cats.

Hardly dangerous at all, well proven.

And if more sewere cases: paraffin-oil as described above. The perfect lubricant.

 

[coaster]

Paraffin is a petroleum product, as is Vaseline. Cats are lactose-intolerant, so dairy products will cause loose stool. I suppose that's one remedy for constipation. But not to be given on a regular basis. If it's a recurring problem, better to find the cause than treat the symptoms only.

 

[StefanZ]

Originally Posted by coaster

Cats are lactose-intolerant, so dairy products will cause loose stool. I suppose that's one remedy for constipation. .

I dont agree with you. They dont get loose stol, they get diarrhea! Ie you try to cure one sickness with another! OK - you may do that if desperate and you dont have anything else to do. A bad decision is sometimes better than none at all... Here I may agree with you.

- Besides not all cats are lactose-intolerant...

Better use wheycheese (= butter from goatmilk) or whatewer competent american veterinary recommends for "hard stomache".

Or paraffine-oil or whatewer competent american veterinary recommends in more severe cases of stop - f.eks. a lot of cat hairs stopping up.

Both are perfectly harmless as such, well proved because widely used.
And is recommended too by swedish and norvegian veterinaries as good home remedy... (surely also by american veterinaries - but I suspect wheycheese is not sold everywhere in USA).

 

[coaster]

OK, didn't realize you meant cheese made from goat's milk. Goat's milk is OK for lactose-intolerant consumption. However, not widely available in the U.S. Almost every type of dairy product here is cow's milk.

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by hissy

I would steer clear of it as well- and use canned pumpkin or cooked and mashed green beans- much better for the kitty

I have used the green beans for my dogs for years... I to would avoid vaseline..

 

[StefanZ]

Originally Posted by coaster

OK, didn't realize you meant cheese made from goat's milk. However, not widely available in the U.S. Almost every type of dairy product here is cow's milk.

Actually, I do mean butter, as there is both butter and cheese made from goats milk.
I dont understand why they translate the goatbutter as wheyCHEESE, but it is from the manufacturers site, so it must be right.

Anyway, both will do of course, but the butter is easier to administer.

If the cat doesnt want to eat it, you can always use the foul way:

smear it in the cats fur, so she must lick off that...

- not my own idea, read about it...

 

[coaster]

Goat butter is a better translation. I doubt anybody here knows what "wheycheese" is.

Yeah, OK, goat butter. I can see that would make a decent constipation remedy as well as a hairball remedy.

 

[msmith71]

IMO I would not do that!!! ::censor::censor::censor:: Tell her to buy Canned Pumpkin... Give in small amounts that is what the vets here recommend!!!

i agree it's good to recommend pumpkin, BUT not good to give the impression vaseline is not good, especially since not only do alot(not all, but alot) of Vets recommend it, but its also one of the main ingredients in hairball related remedies. Most vets and indeed other cat experienced people will have different advice for dealing with this issue, rather than just taking in one person's advice, try and read up on it and take in a few different peoples and veterinary services ideas on any situation you could be looking for advice on.

 

[foxxycat]

Personally I don't recommend Vaseline. It's not made for consumption. If you want to use an oil based product=use butter instead or olive oil.

I don't like the idea of my cat swallowing a petroleum product. Yes I know it's in hairball remedy but I just don't think it's a good idea. For it coats the insides and can affect absorption of nutrients=we don't know how long it takes to unstick from inside.

Stick to edibles. Beans, pumpkin, squash, butter or oils.

 

[orange&white]

I have softened my stance on Vaseline for constipation after seeing it recommended by a holistic vet.

If you have a normally regular cat who starts straining, and pumpkin isn't helping after a day or two, then I would use Vaseline as a last ditch effort before taking the cat to the vet for evaluation and X-rays. If I had a chronically constipated cat due to some other medical issue, I wouldn't want to be pumping the cat full of Vaseline on an on-going basis.

 

[maggiedemi]

They took the Vaseline out of most of the hairball treats. I have to admit, they don't work as well anymore. They don't have oil in them anymore either, just cellulose. I have a hairball paste, but it has hydrogenated oils in it. I need to find something better. I didn't know cats could have butter. How much, 1/4 Tsp? Do you have to hide in food, or do they like it?

 

[foxxycat]

most cats love butter. Just a few licks I would think won't hurt them. I get "Kate's" Homemade butter from Maine=or any other local made butter. I would guess 1/4 would be ok. My girls lick it right off my finger. or you can smear it into some wet food after it's room temperature. One of my cats licks it off toast..so I just make a slice of toast and let her lick what she wants then toss the bread. This was my Angel Floey. She was NOT pillable or able to syringe feed. She was my grouchy girl.

Olive oil is another one you can try. any oil should help=but I don't know if other oils are safe for cats-I only know about olive oil because we use it in nursing kittens-we put a drop in a bottle of KMR for them. You can always get a can of KMR and add a half of oil and let them lick it up-the milk won't hurt them. I got my can at Walmart. It was expensive but I was at my wits end trying to get a sick cat to eat and then I took some of that milk and mixed in kitten canned food-and they ate it up! Fussy cats!

The pumpkin I used in another cat=she won't eat it so I put a dab on my finger and smeared it on the roof of her mouth. Only a small amount works for her so it was a twice a week event...she hates pumpkin but if I put a small dab on roof of mouth she ate it..then when she calmed down I would give her some treats.

The things we do to keep them healthy!