A cat always "close to become constipated"

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kimouette

kimouette

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Hi everyone,

My grand mother has a lovely old cat that always had hairball and hard feces issues.
She used to feed him cheap dry kibbles and periodically gave him Laxatone to help him get the hair balls out of his body!
He is now fed with Evo 95% chicken and loves it!

The problem now is that he started to poop every 2 days instead of every day and he seems to have very hard poop (even worse than before).

Should we feed him another brand or should we give him Laxatone on a regular basis or could we add some natural supplement to help him?

Thanks
Kim and grandma
 
If he is eating canned food, then you could try mixing some miralax into the food and see if that may help move things along more easily.

As it has no taste, mixing into food with added water, should be simple.
 
Since the problem seems to be reccurent do you think it would be ok to give him Miralax on a daily basis?
 
I believe the dose is 1/4 teaspoon in meals up to twice a day (factoid check anyone?)

It may help to add a tablespoon of warm water to the canned food, too.
And its pretty safe - its an osmotic, which means it draws water into the bowel from the body. This softens the stool so it can pass more easily.
 
Because it is an osmotic it won't help much with already formed stool so it is best to give it daily. I would suggest 1/8 twice a day or 1/4 once a day to start.
Baloo gets 1/4 2 x a day with almost a can of water and fortiflora --heaping if he hasn't pooped in a while. He probably has megacolon. I would love poop every two days LOL. Baloo saves up 8 inchers :o .
 
Definitely add water to his food, make it soupy even. Do you warm a bit when straight from the frig. My mico isn't real powerful so the food is nuked for 8-9 secs with the added water. Makes it easier to blend the water with the food.

When I fed Niko the Evo you are feeding, he had really dry hard poops which I felt was due to the density of that food. It was good in that it filled him up and stuck with him longer but caused the other problem even when I added water altho I don't recall making it soupy. Now he's eating Wellness chicken or turkey flavors with water to make it soupy and he stools are much better quality and he goes more often.
 
I forgot to mention that her cat is already eating soupy food.
Based on the following website, we decided to add 80ml to his daily food meal:
http://animalendocrine.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... r.html?m=1

My grandma is asking if Miralax is the same thing as Vitalax

We both hope it's not megacolon :(

We will keep adding the water, we'll also try to warm up his food and if it doesn't work I guess we'll be adding 1/8 twice a day of Miralax (or Vitalax if it's the same thing cuz she knows and has easily access to that brand).

But I'm afraid that if only Vitalax/Miralax works she won't just give him that medicine for the rest of his life, so we'll try to find another high quality low carb food for him.
Too bad cuz Evo was one of the rare high quality food she could order from her regular store...
 
It really isnt that hard to add the powder to the food even if its every day. It doesnt sound like her kittys issue is as bad as Baloos.
Vitalax is more like Petromalt/Laxatone.. white petroleum and light mineral oil.

Miralax is a brand name, so if she cant find it, the pharmacist might know an equivalent..its polyethylene glycol (PEG) powder. But make sure it has no other ingredients.
 
If she has a Kroger nearby I use the Kroger brand of Miralax- both are sugar-free. A big bottle of Kroger is the same cost as a little bottle of Mirilax. I did check and they both have the same ingredients.

ETA**

And she gets 1/8 teaspoon BID.
 
I recently have a diabetic cat, who was close to constipated before she was diabetic, so I did some searching and because She won't eat wet cat food, I found that a probiotic yorgurt works. I use Bio's Best 99% lactose free pro biotic yogurt, make sure it's not full of carbs or sugar and that it is not flavored. It does work and best of all I use it as a treat and she loves it!! :-D
 
Ok so soupy food doesn't work
warming up the food doesn't work
other sorts or food don't work either (fancy feast, Evo, Friskies and even kibbles)

The poor cat keeps pooping every 2 days and it looks like it is hard for him to "get it out". I guess it's hurting him... poor thing

I asked her to buy some Restoralax (Canadian equivalent of Miralax) and told her she could give between 1/8 to 1/4 tsp twice a day directly in her cat's food, until the cat doesn't seem like he's suffering when he's pooping.

I know you guys said she could use that product everyday even for a long term use...
But then I read on the net some guy saying that his own digestive track get's quickly accustomed to Miralax and that he has to keep taking more and more of the product if he wants it to work now.
Any chance this could happen to ma grandma's cat? Either that or his body getting lazy because of that daily drug?
 
Martica and Fred said:
Add pumpkin puree (canned) to the food....they like it, it's natural, won't affect BGs and healthy
Click to expand...
Based on Tanya's website :
Sometimes it is also necessary to add fibre to your cat's diet in order to bulk up the stool so that it moves easily through the cat's system. These fibre-based treatments are intended to help prevent constipation, but they cannot cure it once it is present.

Be careful if using additional fibre in diabetic cats, because fibre may reduce blood sugar levels.

http://www.felinecrf.org/constipation.htm#fibre
Click to expand...

But it's weird though, I would have thought fibers were increasing blood sugar levels, not lowering them!
 
Lisa and Merlyn (GA) said:
Because it is an osmotic it won't help much with already formed stool so it is best to give it daily. I would suggest 1/8 twice a day or 1/4 once a day to start.
Baloo gets 1/4 2 x a day with almost a can of water and fortiflora --heaping if he hasn't pooped in a while. He probably has megacolon. I would love poop every two days LOL. Baloo saves up 8 inchers :o .
Click to expand...
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I hope he does not have megacolon; my Oliver has suffered a great deal with megacolon.
It is best to do what you can to avoid megacolon if it's not too late... Oliver needs miralax BID, lactulose 3ml BID, cisapride .5ml TID, and fluids every 2nd day.

if you are adding miralax to foods, you want to add more water than you usually add.
At the least, I put 1 part water to 2 parts food, and if he is having 'issues', I give him equal parts water and food.

You need that poop train to keep chugging along or you are going to be elbow deep with enemas, and many other unpleasant activities.
 
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