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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Constipated Cat

15 replies

Confusedcatlady1 · 16/11/2018 14:03

Hello all, my cat is constipated and although she seems happy enough in herself she must be very uncomfortable. My vet initially told me to feed my cat lactulose which unfortunately did not work. I’ve now been quoted over £600 (!) for a general anaesthetic, enema and dehydration fluids which seems excessive to me. I think my cat may be prone to constipation because I feed her grain free food, Canin fibre biscuits (I’ve stopped these for a while now in case they dehydrate her) as well as all the fish liquid from any tinned fish we have. I’ve also tried her with the paste for fur balls because she overgrooms. I have two questions really that hopefully you can help me with (1) any other recommendations to help ‘unblock’ my darling cat and (2) is £600+ the going vet rate? Thank you.

OP posts:
MadCatEnthusiast · 16/11/2018 20:03

Have you tried mashed/canned pumpkin mixed with wet food?

YasssQueen · 17/11/2018 00:30

£600 does sound a lot, have you asked them for an itemised bill? (Do you have insurance?)

I've only ever used Katalax after medication caused constipation in my cat,and I'm sure you have tried this as it's also used for hairballs.

I'd recommend a 2nd opinion with a different a
Vet in a different practice.

Also the best thing a very good vet ever told me was to get all quotes written down as then they apparently cannot go over the quoted fee!

Good luck,I hope you get it sorted

Plump82 · 17/11/2018 10:00

I have a cat whos suffered with constipation for the last 8 years.
£600 is very excessive. I pay about £270 when she needs an enema. The highest ive paid is about £400 when she had to go to the animal hospital.
You really need your cat on wet food. Dry is not good for a constipated cat. Pumpkin mashed into her food did nothing for her. There is special food for cats with constipation. Its called Purina EN. Its actually for cats with diareah but it helps constipated cats as well! I was advised to put mine on that. Shes ancient now and wont eat it but she happily ate it for the last 8 years up until 6 months ago. Lactulous also didnt help mine so she gets Miralax which technically my vet doesnt know about but I know its safe for her. Im not advising you to try this as its pretty strong stuff and its a balancing act to get right. Im just letting you know about it. Plus its a pain to get hold off as its american. Theres a British version (dulcolax i think) which isnt safe for cats so please dont use that. Lastly mine is now on a medication called Cisapride because she now has no muscle control to get anything out and this does it for her. This is really a last resort and has been pretty tough going as it sometimes has the opposit affect.
Basically theres tonnes of options but try and get it under control before it becomes really bad like mine.

soulfuleyes · 17/11/2018 17:31

Hi

I have a constipated cat. I also use miralax which I get from the states and it works quite well but I recently discovered a natural remedy based on fruit (it's bacon flavoured). It's made by pet wellbeing and isn't cheap ( about £45 a bottle) but it's been really effective for my cat, he's so much more regular. A bottle should last two months but my cat is very big and it lasts less than that. Still, much better than enemas ( he's had two so far). I still give miralax but not very much as it is a chemical.

OpposableThumbs2 · 17/11/2018 17:32

My vet recommended crunching up a few shreddies and mixing with every meal.

Toddlerteaplease · 17/11/2018 18:17

Lactulose does take a few days to kick in. Someone on her suggested liquid paraffin as apparently cats love the taste.

OpposableThumbs2 · 17/11/2018 18:50

We had liquid paraffin for ours before the shreddies. It makes for very shiny poo and it is very very grim if you give too much. I ended up having to take a shower with my cat.

Plump82 · 18/11/2018 09:26

Mine wont go near her food if theres liquid paraffin in it. Soulfuleyes would you mind telling me the name of the stuff youre using.

soulfuleyes · 18/11/2018 12:02

Hi Plump82,

It's called smooth BM (stands for bowel movement) Gold. It's from a website called Pet Wellbeing. Their products are holistic and vets have a hand in developing them. It's a liquid product that you put on food. My cat has no problem taking it.

soulfuleyes · 18/11/2018 12:07

Just to add if you're going to give it a go I can give you a discount code for 20% off which might still work. It's also free delivery.

Confusedcatlady1 · 18/11/2018 18:47

I have called another vet who has quoted £190 which sounds much more reasonable but the above tips (Miralax, pumpkin etc) are really useful - thank you all for your tips and advice. I’ll let you know how my cat gets on for those who are experiencing difficulties with their own cats.

OP posts:
showmeyourgroovymoves · 21/11/2018 19:25

Lactulose does take a while to work. Another one is tuna in sunflower oil, or olive oil added to wet food?

Confusedcatlady1 · 02/06/2019 11:36

Hello, it has been a while since I posted on my cat’s constipation so I thought I’d give an update in case it helps other cat owners who are going through the same thing.

My cat was so constipated that even with Lactulose, grain free food etc she had to have the manual evacuation of her blocked poo, the vet advised that she was suffering from mega colon which is basically where the colon is too stretched and does not work as well as it should do, it is not a ‘one off’ condition and would be something that she would always suffer from.

The manual evacuation procedure was as straight forward as it could be in the circumstances and my cat was a good as new for a couple of months, she was more energetic and friendly and really cheered up but unfortunately last week over three days she was constipated again even with the regular mediciation such as cisapride and the preventative measures we had in place. Unfortunately she will have an operation next week to remove part of her colon. Apparently this procedure on average has a favourable outcome so we’ll see how she gets on (fingers crossed).

I’ve found out a couple of things throughout all this (I feel I am now an expert in cat poo!).

Lactulose definitely helps, I mash lactulose into my cat’s wet food so she doesn’t realise she’s eating it and it has made her poo less hard. I think this approach would work for normal constipation in cats.

A good tip for me to get tablets into my cat is to squeeze a large drop of Lick-e-Lix paste onto a small bit of ham, stick the tablets into the paste so that they do not drop onto the floor and drop the ham into my cat’s mouth, it fooled her every time.

OP posts:
Confusedcatlady1 · 02/06/2019 11:47

Picture of Mega Colon Cat

Constipated Cat
OP posts:
Minkies11 · 02/06/2019 11:51

Mega Colon cat is gorgeous Smile hope it goes well for you and Puss next week.

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