Constipated kitty

Hello, I was hoping to receive some tips and/or personal experience related to my 3.5-year-old calico, Hi-Kitty.

First, a breakdown of events:

On Thursday, 11/17, Hi went to the vet to get declawed. I picked her up on Friday, 11/18, and, other than being a little sore and lethargic, she seemed pretty normal. She was eating and drinking okay and napping the day away. Same thing on Saturday, 11/19, though by this time I was becoming concerned because she had not used the litter box (with shredded paper) at all since I picked her up.

Thankfully, on Sunday, 11/20, around 3 AM, Hi finally urinated. On Monday, 11/21, however, Hi had no appetite. I came home from work to find that her breakfast had been touched only minimally and that she had vomited at least twice during the day. Her vomit is yellow and thin and the first vomit had some hair in it, but the rest have been void of any food or other materials. Hi vomited three more times that night and would drink only minimally. She was urinating fine (no straining or pain), but had still not defecated at all. Hi had no interest in dinner later that night, so first thing this morning (Tuesday, 11/22) I called the vet and took her in.

The vet felt her stomach and said she was probably constipated (causing her to resist eating and vomit), so they would give her an enema and see what happened. Three hours after administration, Hi had still not had a bowel movement so the vet decided to do an x-ray. The x-ray showed that her large intestine was very full of excrement, but no obvious obstructions. Another enema was administered and, about an hour later, Hi defecated a little (about three 3-inch-long cylindrical pieces). The vet said she should be okay and allowed me to take her home around 2:30 PM. He also gave me the all-clear to revert to her normal litter early, just in case the constipation was brought on by an unwillingness to use the paper.

It is now 11:30 PM and Hi has not defecated since I brought her home. She has not eaten or drank anything and urinated only once. I had thought that the enema would get things moving and keep them moving, so I'm concerned that she has only had one (small-ish) bowel movement all day and that was over 9 hours ago.

Her bottom also stinks a little, and I'm hoping that's due to the enema lubricating her insides and moving the excrement along. But for how long do enemas typically work?

The long and short of my concern: Is this normal? Is this what is to be expected from the administration of an enema, that it will take a little longer for her insides to correct themselves? It looked like so much excrement in the x-ray and I'm fearful it may become toxic. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, my vet will be closed from Thursday to Monday, so while I plan on calling and asking them about contingency measures tomorrow, I'm still very worried about my kitten. She doesn't seem to be in any distress, but I've read in countless places that cats are tough and will purr and cuddle and be affectionate right until their very last moments...

If you require further info/clarification, below is the list of procedures completed by my vet:

Subcutaneous Fluids (1 administration)

Enema - Fleet (1 administration)

Enema - DDS, 12 ml (1 administration)

Please, any ideas or reassurance would be greatly appreciated. I've been worried sick about her all day and have barely had a moment where I'm not tearful.

Hi,
Did your vet explain to you about declawing at all before performing the procedure? Or he just wen ahead and did it?
Declawing, I am not sure if you understand, but might help to understand what your little baby is going through, is a very painful procedure.... It is actually the amputation of the kitties toes on the first joint. You can imagine How painful it is to stand on your feet after having your little toes amputated.... and that's where the litter box usage comes in: Whenever a cat has any sort of pain - while peeing or pooping, it associates directly to the box - from there the kitty can start avoiding using the box for trauma. This is why you see kitties with urinary tract infection peeing outside of the box, and the same happens quite a bit with declawed cats.
For pooping is even more complicated, as the kitty stands on the box longer, causing even more pain.

With that stated, I would not change the litter just yet.....
Also: Is she, was she on pain killers for a long time? If she was, especially Buprenex, that does give constipation....
You absolutely need to feed your kitty - even if you have to syringe feed her..... this is very very important - she can get very sick from not eating, and I can't stress enough the importance of her eating - her liver can shoot down otherwise. One thing that you can do do get her intestines moving is to add a bit of canned pumpkin to her wet food - 100% plain canned pumpkin. Now we are close to thanksgiving and the supermarket is full of it - they sell on the baking isle, close to the pie crusts - again make sure it is 100% pure. Since she is a kitten, add 1 tsp per meal, that should do it. If she does't eat, give it to her with a syringe. Feeding syringes can be bought on petsmart, pet supplies plus and petco - usually on the small animal session, or puppy care. Those are better than the ones you get on the pharmacy, as they hold more food. You can also get syringes for free at the pharmacy - ask for oral syringes - the bigger the better, or from your vet. On CVS, they sell them to give baby meds - you can get those too. Syringe feeding, or assist-feeding, with a spoon, for example, means you need to feed the whole amount the kitty eats a day - that's very important too - that the kitty gets all the daily nutrition it needs
Stop giving her dry food, and feed her only wet food.

If she is vomiting - check to see if she can hold down the food. If she eats and vomits right out, that is a sign of obstruction, and it is an emergency. Make sure she eats and she holds it is. Eating and vomiting everything is a no-no. Kittens go down very very fast, and you want to take her in tomorrow if that's the case - do not get out of the vet until she is unblocked and you have proof. It can be even for constipation and hairball, or for a foreign object, but it has to come out all the same.
Enemas work pretty fast by the way...
Please, if she continues to vomit and constipated, take her to the vet again tomorrow - do not wait.... Kittens do go down fast....
Hopefully things are going to start moving and your girl will start feeling better soon

Enamas only work on the lower intestinal track. Then you have to wait for the rest to come down within the next day or two.

I changed my kittens litter back to normal after 3 days when she was declawed. She refused to have a bowel movement in the shredded paper or Yesterdays News litter. After I changed itback to Fresh Step, everything went back to normal. She never had a problem re-adjusting. Hope all works out soon. Keep giving us updates on how shes doing. 

The declaw is probably causing alot of discomfort and could be part of the problem. With that being said in my years being a vet tech and having to see this procedure done and the after care, I haven't seen a cat get constipated from it. She might not have much stool if she isn't eating much. I have seen plenty of cats go off their food because of the pain. I hope they are giving you something to give her for the pain. It is very possible like Carolina said that she is developing an aversion to the litter box because she associates it with the pain in her feet. Sometimes using just torn up papertowels or newspaper in the litter box might be better as it is softer on the feet. I would definitely try the canned pumpkin. Also there is a product called miralax that works like a wonder. I give it to my megacolon kitty to keep her regular. I would try that as a last resort though and only after making sure she isn't obstructed or obstipated(so full that she can't defacate, it is the step after constipation.) Only a 1/4 teaspoon of the miralax works on my kitty, but again she has a different issue so I would use it as a last resort. Good luck to you and your kitty.  Also I did notice that you said the vet used a fleet enema. That kinda concerns me as the stuff in those enemas can be toxic to cats if they include phosphates. Some Fleet enemas don't use phosphates but I would definitely ask about that. the phosphates can cause an electrolyte imbalance in cats as they try to regulate themselves. The DSS  is safe as is plain old soap and water.

Many vets use pumpkin as the first resort for constipation. Some cats like it and eat it plain. Others eat it if it's mixed into wet food. And as Carolina explained, some cats it's best just to use a syringe to get it into them. We have to do that with our Lazlo. I mix it into a little food and use the syringe. It is a very safe fiber for cats, and helps regulate the amount of water in the colon.

for your baby. I hope you spend a little time learning about declawing so if you ever get another cat, you'll consider other options. :heart3:

Hi,

My kitty had problems with pooping because her kidneys couldn't put enough water to the poops. So everytime she was pooping it was painfull for her. I got her checked maybe 10 times, they never found anything unusual. Vets ended saying that she should take some laxatives. I tried also pumpkin, also fiber for baby in powder (bought in pharmacy), but everytime I had to prepare it for her and I wasn't really sure about quantities I should use. I saw when I gave her too much she would have gas. And then I found quite known brand (not sure if I can say the name here), veterinary Fibre. It's a dry food, so perfect to use, it doesn't smell and my kitty loved it. I just mixed it with her kidney dry food and everything was perfect.