Please help! My baby has constipation problems and hates his new low residue food.

Hello to all of you! I've been reading through the forums and very much appreciating all the help you provide other members.  I had been hesitant to post because I thought we were out of the water but it looks like the issues are continuing.

My beautiful Maine Coon, Monino is 12 years old.  Soon to be 13.  He's always been a healthy cat, very amorous and gentle.  A few months back he seemed odd, my husband said he was fine but my cat-mom instinct told me otherwise.  I picked him up and his little butt was swollen and oozing stuff.  I freaked out but we took him to the ER right away - this happened on a Saturday night - we were told that he was very constipated and they didn't know why, but he got a cat enema, antibiotics and pain medication.  We thought we were out of the woodwork.  Except that the next weekend it happened again and we found ourselves back in the ER.  Well by this point we had already paid over $800 for both visits and still had no idea what was wrong. Side note: I don't want to be paranoid but all of this happened shortly after I had started him on Call of the Wild, which had the recall, except my state was not included in it but I ordered it through Amazon.com.  They didn't find Salmonella in any of his tests either but I have a feeling there was something sketchy.

We were told that he might have megacolon and might need to have surgery to remove it.  We were then sent home with Lactulose and told to give it to him twice a day.

Within two weeks Monino was backed up again, this time it happened during the day so we took him to a vet in the area - if you are from IL, we live in the burbs and took him to Northlake Animal Hospital to see Dr. Blazer - the vet there said that he didn't think Monino needed the surgery right away and gave us additional medicine - cisapride - to give him twice a day.  He also said Monino needed to be in a low-residue diet and gave us two options IAMS or Eukanuba;  we tried the Eukanuba and he didn't like it, we tried IAMS and he was eating it just fine.  I started to think that Monino was feeling a little bony and sure enough within two weeks he was really, really bony.  He's never been a chubby cat so I could tell the difference right away.  We took him back to the vet and he said we could try mixing in fancy feast - Monino's favorite food - with the low residue.  Within a week we were back in the vet's office getting another enema.  

So that brings us up to today.  Monino does not want to eat the IAMS food, he looks depressed and I don't know if it's because he hates his food or why he's acting like this.  The vet says that this is the only option for Monino but my heart is breaking because he's not eating and now I don't know if he lost the weight because he's not eating or if it was from the food.  

I'm hoping some of you who've experienced this before can offer me some advice.  Here is a picture of my baby so you can get to know him:

Ileana said:

So that brings us up to today.  Monino does not want to eat the IAMS food, he looks depressed and I don't know if it's because he hates his food or why he's acting like this.  The vet says that this is the only option for Monino but my heart is breaking because he's not eating and now I don't know if he lost the weight because he's not eating or if it was from the food.  

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Have you thought about trying a raw diet? Not sure if Monino would go for it at his age, but he might surprise you. Balanced, species appropriate fresh meat with little to no plant matter is as "low residue" as it gets.

In the meantime, it's crucial that you get him eating something. Was the IAMS kibble? What about giving him canned?

Ask fro some AD canned food from your vet if you cannot get him to eat anything else.  My very picky kitty would eat only this when she did not feel well, not even her normal food.

First off, I'm so grateful someone responded.  

I've seen the raw food at Kriser, which is where I used to buy Monino's food.  I haven't been back since he got sick.  It was so disappointing to think that I was feeding him the absolute best only to have the recall happen.  I digress.  

My sweet boy will probably at least try it, I think I just saw it at Meijer too.  Before he got sick he would only eat the dry food, after he got sick we started giving him the fancy feasts because I remembered they would give him diarrhea in the past if it had too much gravy.  But then he got sick again.  The low residue we've tried has all been canned food.

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try a little bit and see how he does.

Thanks so much for reading and responding! 

What is AD?

Ileana said:

What is AD?

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That would be Hill's A/D, a "prescription" pet food that many cats find highly palatable. Good for those with diminished appetites, but you can only get it from the vet.

If he doesn't go for the raw (which hopefully he will, even a little bit) try some grain free canned food with a good quality protein. Something like Weruva, Wellness, Evo or Merrick. These are much better foods for him than Iams.

I would steer toward homemade - and raw, yes if done safely:

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#The_Recipe

http://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/making-raw-cat-food-for-do-it-yourselfers?start=1

Buying prepared raw sounds like a good immediate plan to help your baby now.

The one thing I can tell you with dealing with low appetite (with a Chronic-Renal-Failure cat I had) is - "priming the pump" can do wonders.

That is - coaxing with your finger, dabbing it on his paw or edge of lip.

And if that fails, there is "Assisted Feeding".  It requires you to put his wet food in a blender and add water so that it is a slurry that can be passed through a syringe (a 10 ml big one is good with the tip cut off a bit for a larger hole).

I sit indian style and plop them in my lap "corral" on the floor and lift their lips with one hand and tilt the head straight back enough to see the lower jaw drop open a bit (they tend to do this naturally).

Then you carefully but quickly shoot the food across, more from the side of the mouth across the tongue.  A bit at a time.

Never shoot it directly down the back of their throat, as this might cause aspiration (getting it into their lungs) and that's a big no-no.

The idea is, is they get a bit of food in them, and the taste "registers" with them, it might kick in their appetite.

And a little bit of food is better than none, of course.

There are good web pages and You Tube videos (I think they're still up, it's been a while) to help you see how it goes.

Also -

I have had good results with sprinking a bit of "Miralax" in with wet food for constipation.  It is a very gentle item - it is merely polyethylene glycol - which holds water in their stool and makes it easier to go, rather than chemicals/stimulants.  Walmart has it pretty cheap and a medium bottle lasts forever.

It is tasteless, which is a godsend to cat owners.  ALWAYS add water to the food with it, and frankly - wet/canned food is what I would tell you is *very important* at this stage.

If however you conclude that he just will not eat anything else, go with a dry he'll consume.

Getting nutrition in somehow is a priority.

That first link goes into detail elsewhere about the philosophy growing in popularity, that dry, commercial pet foods, especially cat food since cats have a specialized, narrow, fussy system,

are a huge factor in digestive and other chronic illnesses in cats.

Many people swear by the switch to homemade, and switches to canned (where cats will receive much more water that dry diets deny them) have eliminated all together health problems in their pets.

Cats in general have such a low thirst drive, it does makes a lot of sense.

I wonder too, if your vet would get you started on subcutaneous fluid therapy at home.  Has the doctor outright said he is also coming in dehydrated?

It's common with CRF cats, but it might also help your boy.

It's scary at first, but I was amazed my cat got used to a needle every day, and the vet wrote me a Rx for getting the ringer's lactate from Walmart pharmacy, so I got 12 bags for $25 bucks, instead of 1 bag for the same price the vet was charging.

Good grief.

But anyway, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. I can explain in more detail, but the vet would have to be involved to get to that point, I'd think.

Don't be discouraged if you try the assisted feeding - it can be messy and the cat may not at first "get it", but many do calm down about it after a while.

Best of luck - he's a beautiful boy - and has such kind eyes. 

Oh, and if you can stand one more thing from me -

I use Fancy Feast too, I mix it with homemade sometimes and give it to my one cat who is borderline anorexic and it's about all she'll touch-

but I would encourage you to feed only, or mostly, the Fancy Feast "CLASSIC" variety.

And I would only feed the chicken, turkey and beef Classic, to boot. Not the fish-shrimp-salmon Classic varieties.

All the other Fancy Feasts, especially the Gravy varieties, have wheat gluten and other thickeners and weird stuff that can be serious triggers for digestive issues and outright food allergies.

And the reason I say not Fish Classic is, that it's not uncommon for cats to be allergic to fish.  And food allergies can manifest themselves in different ways, so much so vets don't always hone in on that being the problem.

And actually, the poultry and beef classis can contain some fish, too, but in much lower quantities.

Frustrating and maddening, huh? 

Who knows, food issues may be what's initially troubling your guy with blockage.

My cat who was chronically constipated also rec'd Miralax twice a day in his food.  I put 1/4 teaspoon into a tiny bit of water (maybe 1 teaspoon) and mixed that into a tiny bit of wet food just to make sure he ingested that Miralax. It worked like a charm.  Our Vet had never heard of using it (Miralax), but checked it out when I mentioned it to her, and gave her AOK, since our furbaby had kidney disease.