Waiting to talk to the vet again.

Well I decided to give the vet a call again this morning. Jordan has been having regular BM's & I've even seen a bit of the sassy boy I know he is, but he still is not wanting to eat in the morning. He eats like a champ at night, but I think the lactulose I give him before bed really upsets his tummy. That or he's decided that he doesn't want to eat dry food anymore. I'm just trying to decide if I should try a new vet or not. I hate to start this whole process over again, but I think the 3 cc's of lactulose 3 times a day is too much. I really just want my Jordan back. Maybe I'm in denial, but I just don't believe he has cancer. He was eating fine & his personality was fine up until he started getting the lactulose every day. Anyone have any thoughts?

OK, so I just talked to the vet. He said that because he had diarreah yesterday I can cut back on his lactulose to 2 x a day. He also said that the high fiber diet might work, but that since he's already being picky about his food he may not want to eat it. So I'm going to pick up a couple cans of the high fiber stuff. He mentioned again that it could be something else. This time he said inflamatory bowel or lymphoma. He said he doesn't think that exploritory surgeroy is necessary right now. He did say that lactulose doesn't cause a loss of appitite, but I can't help thinking that if it's causing him gas that would cause a loss of appitite. I don't know I just know that I can't bear to think of losing him.

That's really odd how he's only acting funny about his morning meal. Could be something with the timing, though...I guess.

If there was something unthinkable wrong, would there be some abnormalities in his bloodwork? Has bloodwork been done? I don't think that's the case...but maybe the bloodwork could bring some peace of mind at least?

Let us know how it goes with less meds and the new food.

I had another thought. Does he have a "regular" time when he poops? If the morning meal is coming right around or before that time, that might lessen his enthusiasm a little. I'm not sure. I've seen something like that in my cats from time to time.

There was blood work done the day of the enema, but all the vet said was that it was all normal.
He doesn't have a usual time that he poops, but last week it was always right before or after their evening meal. I was giving the lactulose at 5PM, 10PM & 6:30AM, and I was thinking maybe that the 3 does so close together was upseting his tummy, but the vet said that is not a side affect of lactulose. I should also note that his morning meal has been dry food and one day last week and this morning i gave him wet food instead and he ate just fine. The vet said it is possible that he's just being picky and only wants to eat the wet food.

I think sometimes they know what agrees with their system and what doesn't. A few of my cats will just flat refuse something that they vomited up in the past. Leopold will mysteriously refuse certain things that he ate before...even though they didn't come back up. OTOH, some of mine love to torture themselves with stuff that even I know won't agree with their tummies. So it's not a solid rule, but nothing's certain when it comes to cats.

Maybe the lactulose and the wet settles fine with him but the dry doesn't.

You have a point, though... if you go to 2 doses a day, you'll be able to space them pretty evenly. Maybe that will do the trick.

Is there any reason not to give him just wet food, if he seems to prefer it? If it's a matter of cost, you could give him home-cooked food (there are some recipes here:http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho....php?t=126113), and canned.

Originally Posted by jcat

Is there any reason not to give him just wet food, if he seems to prefer it? If it's a matter of cost, you could give him home-cooked food (there are some recipes here:http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho....php?t=126113), and canned.

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I asked the vet about canned only and got the it's not good for his teeth comment. Also, it is hard to feed wet food to just 1 and I can't afford to feed all 4 all wet food. This morning I gave him some Innova that I had a sample of and he was more intrested in that and ate 1/8 of a cup before he stopped. So I being the nice meowmy that I am put a spoon full of wet food on his plate & then he ate all but 3 pieces. I guess I'm trying to decide if he's being picky or if he doesn't feel good.

He did have diarrhea on Sunday, so I cut the lactulose back to 2-1/2 CC 2x a day. Last night he didn't finish his wet food, but then he had a LARGE (this is gross buy 10-12" long x at least 1" dia) stool. This morning he ate almost all of his dry food. I have started adding fiber to his wet food at night.
The vet did x-rays when he was there and was constipated, his poor little tummy was all full of dry hard stool. Then the next day they did a follow up x-ray just to make sure everything was emptied out. It will be 2 weeks ago tomorrow since he had the ennema, so this is a fairly new issue. He's had problems with constipation for about 2 years, but never bad enough to require a vet trip. It actually all started when he had a very bad URI & I had to force feed him and then he became dehydrated so I had to do sub-Q fluids for a week.

Hmmmm.... Also, if your kitty is still getting constipated on that much lactulose, then it seems like the lactulose isn't really doing what it's supposed to. My cat gets between 4-5mls per day, and the vet I've started dealing with lately said that much lactulose should be doing the trick. I'm going to start the canned pumpkin thing and see if she likes it. Is that what you started adding, or are you using a different fiber source? My understanding is that canned pumpkin can go both ways as far as helping with constipation and diarrhea. Plus, cats can be constipated and still have diarrhea, because soft stool can push out PAST the hard stool that's built up. I learned that the hard way when I was just about to leave for work one morning and stepped in a huge pile of poo. That was one of the least fun things that I've ever had to clean up. I brought her to the vet, and he could feel solid poo in there when he did a physical exam, even though she'd just had diarrhea the night before. He thought she might have had poo with hair in it stuck in her colon or intestines or something, so I ended up giving her laxatone to aid with that. I've heard that it shouldn't be used long term though, so I give it to her every now and then.

Has your cat officially been diagnosed with megacolon? Like, does he have an enlarged colon? With megacolon, the colon can't contract properly, making it difficult for a cat to poo. They have motility drugs for that reason, but that's only if your cat has been diagnosed with definite megacolon or some other condition related to decreased motility.

You mentioned something to me about IBD, so I wonder if Jordan might have that. It's hard to say. I've also been told that relatively large doses of lactulose (the vet was referring to 6ml per day) shouldn't cause nausea or vomiting because lactulose does it's job in the lower GI tract and has little effect on the upper GI tract. I'm not sure if I agree with that, because my cat has puked up nothing but lactulose on several occasions. Then again, my cat could have an ulcer somewhere in her upper GI tract, or she may be producing too much stomach acid for some reason.

As far as the vet vs. dry debate, I'm really not convinced that dry food helps their teeth. I had a cat growing up that ate nothing but Friskies and Tender Vittles, and my parents said he'd never had a dental in his life (and honestly, the vet we went to at the time was awesome). He just had good teeth. Then my Bailey was fed nothing but dry food for the first 8 years of her life, and her teeth were pretty bad when I first got her 4 years ago. I think it really does depend on the cat, genetics, and the quality of food (regardless of wet or dry). I give Bailey about 1 can a day, split between 3 meals, and I leave dry food out all day (1/2 cup per day, but I put down 1/4 cup in the morning and 1/4 cup in the evening to make sure she doesn't gorge herself with it in a short period of time.) I think I have noticed a connection between eating dry food and her constipation. Like, if she goes through the night and eats a ton of dry food, she'll have a tendency to get constipated. I don't know, it's a balancing act, I guess. One of the reasons I give her wet food at pretty regular intervals 3x per day is to make sure she's regularly getting accurate moisture, which she'll get from the wet food. Maybe you could try splitting up her wet food into 2 meals, and then feed her dry during the day/night after she's eaten her canned food? Then again, I know you have multiple cats, which definitely complicates it.

People who say that cats are low-maintenance animals would certainly be proven wrong if they had out cats!

The stool he had last night was very soft, but very large. The other thought i had was that I'm very stressed and I'm wondering if he's picking up on that stress (basicly I'm grabbing at straws so that I don't have to face the unthinkable). The vet told me he has mega colon and labled it idopathic, but said there are other possibilities. He did mention the motility drugs, but I'm trying to see if I can regulate him first. I couldn't stop by the vet last night, but I will tonight and try to get some high fiber food.
I did do the canned pumpkin for a few days. It worked at first, but I think when he realized it wasn't just a special treat he lost intrest. So now I'm adding fiber (I think it's metamucil?) to his wet food every night. I just keep praying that he will continue to eat. Other than the eating his behavior was preety normal last night. A bug landed on the screen door & he tore 1/2 of the screen out of the frame jumping at it (I was a little irritated, but then had to hug him because that is my Jordan and I know if something happens to him I'll miss those things). Then he started chasing Maggie & got a little ruff with her, once again a very Jordan thing to do. Then this morning he knocked something out of the closet. It may sound crazy but I really miss this crazy stuff when he's not being himself. He's my trouble making, trouble maker and that's just fine with me.

Just a quick update. Last night Jordan had another large soft BM. He ate all his dinner last night & every last piece of his dry food this morning. He's down to 2 cc 2x a day of the lactulose. I should add that I switched them back to all nutro dry from a mix of nutro & California Natural. He was feeling so good this morning he even dropped a fuzzy mouse at my feet and was playing fetch. I was so happy I almost started to cry, my crazy cat that I love is back!

Originally Posted by Rang_27

Just a quick update. Last night Jordan had another large soft BM. He ate all his dinner last night & every last piece of his dry food this morning. He's down to 2 cc 2x a day of the lactulose. I should add that I switched them back to all nutro dry from a mix of nutro & California Natural. He was feeling so good this morning he even dropped a fuzzy mouse at my feet and was playing fetch. I was so happy I almost started to cry, my crazy cat that I love is back!

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That's great!!

Strangely enough, Bailey started having issues when I started feeding her California Natural Chicken & Rice. That was the dry food she was eating (she had been eating it for a week) when she rapidly lost her appetite and ended up at the e-vet. When I was feeding her from a small sample bag, she totally dug in. Then when I bought a bigger bag, she wanted nothing to do with it and then lost interest in food altogether. She was a finicky eater before, but that was the first time she'd just stopped eating (except for the first time she became severely constipated). Could be a coincidence, but I thought it was interesting, especially since Jordan and Bailey have similar issues. Hmmmmmmm.....

Glad to hear Jordan's eating and pooping and feeling better! Also, kudos to you for appreciating the small things. It can be easy to overlook the little things our cats do that make us happy. That is, unless you have cats like ours- they can make us get excited over seeing poop in the litterbox.

Originally Posted by JennyJen

When I was feeding her from a small sample bag, she totally dug in. Then when I bought a bigger bag, she wanted nothing to do with it and then lost interest in food altogether.

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Same thing with my guys they loved it when I gave them some from a sample bag. The manager at the pet store said that C.N is a simple food and that some cats don't like it because of that.

Originally Posted by JennyJen

That is, unless you have cats like ours- they can make us get excited over seeing poop in the litterbox.

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Yep every poop makes me happy and I tell him what a good boy he is. It's funny because it used to bother me when he would get all crazy, but I've really missed that over the last couple of weeks. It was so quiet around the appartment. It has really helped me appreciate him for who he is, a crazy cat.

Originally Posted by Rang_27

Same thing with my guys they loved it when I gave them some from a sample bag. The manager at the pet store said that C.N is a simple food and that some cats don't like it because of that.

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She really liked the sample though, and the ingredients were identical. Oh well. Now she's enjoying her icky by-product filled food. I'm not willing to take any risks with her food quite yet. I'm afraid she might stop eating again.

Originally Posted by Rang_27

Yep every poop makes me happy and I tell him what a good boy he is. It's funny because it used to bother me when he would get all crazy, but I've really missed that over the last couple of weeks. It was so quiet around the appartment. It has really helped me appreciate him for who he is, a crazy cat.

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Haha, since I've been giving Bailey her Pepcid in treats, I always amuse myself by how I praise her for eating treats.