Constipation

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andreazina

Member Since 2016
Hello, I'm new to the forum and did not want to sign up but at this point we are desperate for help.

We have a 13 month old cat who we've noticed had an empty litter box last Thursday 10/20. She has always been healthy with no diet changes (dry food) nor any other major or even slight health issues. We switched her to wet food around Saturday and took her to the vet on Monday. The vet did an exam on her, decided to give her enemas, kept her overnight and then put her under anesthesia to do a "clean out". He called to tell us she wasn't waking up as quickly as expected and that he'd watch her for a few extra hours. We picked her up Tuesday evening and was told to give her 2mLs of Lactulose 2x daily, every 12 hours. She was a little out of it as expected but otherwise seemed very happy to be home, playing, eating, etc, but no bowel movements. She seemed great as well on Wednesday, no bowel movements but continued to eat, drink, urinate and such. We gave her the first dose of Lactulose at 4pm and she had her first small bowel movement (about an inch) Wednesday evening. Great news! Or so we thought....

Thursday morning we gave her the 2nd dose at 8am. A few hours later around 11:30 she strained and cried every five minutes for about an hour trying to defecate in her litter box and all around our home with no luck. She then started to throw up and sneeze. We decided that was enough and took her back to the vet at 1:30. He admitted her and did more enemas. He also did his first set of xrays. He said she does not appear to have megacolon and he also noticed that her colon was in the shape of a seven. He said that he was able to clear out the most of the horizontal part of the seven during her first stay but showed that she was still pretty backed up in the vertical part. He kept her overnight again and did more enemas but not much luck with those. He did not want to put her under anesthesia again so soon. He prescribed new medications in addition to the Lactulose.. Baytril and Metoclopramide. We figured that as enough, again, and picked her up Friday evening to take to new vet #2 for another opinion.

There he also did xrays and decided to do her first blood work, an IV, enemas and have her hooked to a catheter. Turns out her xrays and blood work were unremarkable. No issues. He also didn't have luck with enemas but determined that she does in fact have quite a bit of poo that seems to be too firm to be softened by the enemas. She also had a temperature of 103.5.

He suggested that we pick her up and take her back to vet #1 and continue IV fluids, etc. there, otherwise we could send her to a specialist within their facility for further investigation. We decided enough was enough and wanted to bring her home. He said to continue with the meds that the first vet prescribed, Lactulose, Baytril, and Metoclopramide, but instead he wanted to increase the frequency of her Lactulose from every 12 hours to every 6 hours, and he also wanted to prescribe Clavamox.

We took her home Saturday morning at 9:30am (yesterday) and gave her all medications from everyone as directed. She slept the whole day. She would sleep, wake up, urinate, sleep, take medications, etc. No playing, no drinking, no eating... It just wasn't like our girl. We decided that we would stop all medications Monday as it was obvious they were making her feel worse and were not helping. So today (Sunday) is her first day without anything and she has been playing, nibbling food off and on all day, and has seemed to be pretty much her old self other than the fact she still hasn't drank much nor has she defecated. She has tried, and strained, but luckily has not cried or vomited.

We really are concerned for her and aren't sure if this constipation process is relatable to anyone else, seeing as how she's so young. We've read that numerous people have tried Miralax and that it has done the trick, so we gave her 1/4 tsp of that this evening to see what will happen. So about $1600 later for constipation issues just to leave us with no results and still have a sick girl. I mean with the heck?

Help? Advice? Opinions or anything?

:-(
 
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Poor girl. Add extra water to the food along with plain canned pumkin and the Miralax. No dry food. I don't have experience with this kind of sever constipation, only minor bouts, but hopefully someone else can help.
 
Poor girl. Add extra water to the food along with plain canned pumkin and the Miralax. No dry food. I don't have experience with this kind of sever constipation, only minor bouts, but hopefully someone else can help.

Thanks :-(
We've been putting a little water into her wet food too just to ensure that she gets fluids since she's protesting her water. Haven't tried pumpkin yet as I've read mixed reviews as to what it does, loosen stool vs. firm, but its still an option for us. She seems ok other than she's not doing her business and drinking :-( She's the sweetest girl ever...
 
I am so sorry you are having such troubles...
Yes many of us use miralax and it does work but not immediately. It builds up and draws water to be sure to give the fluids so she does not dehydrate.
When my guy is backed up sometimes it takes a few days and then the miralax sort of explodes out of him:eek:
He does not get the runs but it can be a big messy one. If I keep up with a small dose daily we can usually avoid the issue.
Sending prayers....:bighug:
(also I would consider going to a feline specialist)
 
I am so sorry you are having such troubles...
Yes many of us use miralax and it does work but not immediately. It builds up and draws water to be sure to give the fluids so she does not dehydrate.
When my guy is backed up sometimes it takes a few days and then the miralax sort of explodes out of him:eek:
He does not get the runs but it can be a big messy one. If I keep up with a small dose daily we can usually avoid the issue.
Sending prayers....:bighug:
(also I would consider going to a feline specialist)

Thanks so much for the response. This is only the first day of us trying Miralax, we've tried Lactulose for a week with not much luck. I just don't know how long is too long for her not to go without doing her #2 bathroom business. So far her first successful one on her own was Wednesday evening. Fingers crossed that Miralax will do the trick
 
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