Constipation and mega colon

[Kiki Thor]

Hi!

A few weeks ago I began fostering a new cat, Cola. She is about 10 years old, very overweight, has arthritis, and chronic constipation. She does not have mega colon, but her colon is on the larger side of normal. She's not diabetic, but I see it in her future if we don't get her weight down.

She is on a monthly injection of catrophen for her arthritis, 2.5 mg of cisapride once a day for her constipation as well as 1/8th tspn of laxaday twice daily. She is on a diet of hills i/d and purina en.

She has a bowel movement about 3 times a week.

My question is, are these prescription foods really helping her? They are loaded with things like rice, potatoes, oats, wheat, corn starch, etc. Which obviously are not species appropriate, and the crude fibre content is 1-1.5% where as in the fancy feast pate the crude fibre is the same but a more species appropriate diet with way less carbs.

Here is my girl

 

[Kris & Teasel]

She's lovely! My diabetic kitty's brother needed to lose a bit of weight. I switched him to the same low carb wet food that my diabetic eats (less than 10% carbs), absolutely no dry food at all. All three of mine eat scheduled meals of a fixed amount in three separate rooms three times a day, except for my diabetic who gets a 4th snack in the evening. Over the course of a year my pudgy kitty lost over a kilogram.

 

[Lillie]

My cat gained 4 lbs on Hills ID and I could not for the life of me get him to lose weight until I took him off the ID dry food. He just kept getting bigger and bigger. He was on this food due to his chronic vomiting and it was supposedly good for his digestion but he became very constipated. It seems that the current canned food that is recommended here for diabetic cats would be a good choice for you to try. The high carb foods can put a lot of weight on a cat especially if they aren't a very active cat to begin with.. My cat is now a very slim guy after losing those 4 lbs and has no issues with constipation any more.

 

[JeffJ]

Now that is one pretty girl! I like the first picture - what a looker.

There is nothing prescription in prescription cat foods. You are correct to evaluate them. We have never seen a cat eat grains in the wild, so those grains don't belong in cat food.

Dr. Lisa Pierson has evaluated foods and created a
chart here
Food is a common topic in this forum.

 

[Kiki Thor]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!

I have another cat, Herbert, which is why I know about this forum and species appropriate diets. He was diagnosed with diabetes in April and I switched him to fancy feast pate. He doesn't require insulin anymore

Because I am fostering Cola I am not allowed to change her diet. I mentioned species appropriate diets to the shelter and they seemed uncomfortable with it. I don't want to worsen her constipation by changing the diet her vet and shelter staff have her on, but I truly believe it isn't helping her, and is doing harm. I wish more professionals supported species appropriate diets. I'm stuck until I adopt her and am allowed to change her diet.

I also have not found a vet who supports my views on diet for my other cat Herbert. I am constantly having hills diabetic foods shoved in my face and I feel like I'm being judged for saying no. But he's not on insulin, and its because of fancy feast, so I'm not budging on that one.

 

[JeffJ]

Kudos to you for getting Herbert "off the juice" (off insulin). Too bad you are under the food constraints with Cola.

 

[Lillie]

Clearly the current diet they have her on is not helping her lose any weight. You would think they would realize that?? How long will it be before you can adopt her? Soon I hope.
I was actually told by my cat's vet tech that I HAVE to feed the Hills diabetic prescription food when they diagnosed him with diabetes. I just flat out said- No I don't. He went into remission in three weeks on insulin and his canned duck grain free food.

 

[jayla-n-Drevon]

ID is high carb and basically like eating cardboard
Not to say that sometimes it does help when the tummy is not good--it is very bland.
My boy had constipation as well--luckily he likes vaseline and he gets natural moves as needed and I know others have had success with it as well.
http://www.nativeremedies.com/petalive/natural-moves-for-pets-support-digestive-health.html

pretty girl she is

 

[Kiki Thor]

I remember from posting here before that there were some people from Vancouver. If anyone can recommend me a vet that would be amazing atm

 

[Red & Rover (GA)]

Tagging @Wendy&Neko for you.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

What part of Vancouver are you in? I can recommend vet's that believe in species appropriate food in Vancouver or North Van where I am.

 

[Kiki Thor]

What part of Vancouver are you in? I can recommend vet's that believe in species appropriate food in Vancouver or North Van where I am.

I'm actually on the edge of New West and Burnaby but I'm willing to travel for a good vet

 

[Squeaky and KT (GA)]

If I'm reading this correctly, you're having to feed dry? THAT is about the worst thing for a kitty with poop issues! The dry food has to pull water from the body to rehydrate it before it can be digested. The rehydration process continues thru the colon. That pulls water from the colon that's designed to keep the poop moving thru soft and moving well. Another thing that makes it worse is freeze dried treats - those also must use the body's water to rehydrate. I have a a cat with the same enlarged colon/small descending colon issue. After years of struggle, we've got it going fairly good most of the time. NO hard food, NO freeze dried treats (or hard ones), all wet diet, Miralax once a day (twice when having issues), Laxatone or other hairball remedy daily and Reglan as needed (in place of Cisapride). I don't like giving either Reglan or Cisapride all the time as it cause all the body's muscles to contract stronger not just the colon....heart is a muscle, it can be affected too.

HUGS! It really can be controlled!

 

[Wendy&Neko]

I'll send you a message with some vet ideas.

 

[Kiki Thor]

If I'm reading this correctly, you're having to feed dry? THAT is about the worst thing for a kitty with poop issues! The dry food has to pull water from the body to rehydrate it before it can be digested. The rehydration process continues thru the colon. That pulls water from the colon that's designed to keep the poop moving thru soft and moving well. Another thing that makes it worse is freeze dried treats - those also must use the body's water to rehydrate. I have a a cat with the same enlarged colon/small descending colon issue. After years of struggle, we've got it going fairly good most of the time. NO hard food, NO freeze dried treats (or hard ones), all wet diet, Miralax once a day (twice when having issues), Laxatone or other hairball remedy daily and Reglan as needed (in place of Cisapride). I don't like giving either Reglan or Cisapride all the time as it cause all the body's to contract stronger not just the colon....heart is a muscle, it can be affected too.

HUGS! It really can be controlled!

Ugh cisapride makes me so uncomfortable. I find myself checking her when she's asleep to see she's still breathing #paranoidmom. But hopefully I can adopt her soon and take her to a different vet.