Cat diagnosed with megacolon

Hi, my name is Naomi and I have a 13 year old cat named Chandler. In the past week, he got really ill. Lost a lot of weight. Lethargic. Won't eat or drink much water. I brought him to the vet on Monday. She took an x ray and labs. The labs were all unremarkable except for a slightly elevated white count. His X-ray showed severe constipation. The vet admitted him to perform enemas and manual extraction. Poor guy had two done. She did another x ray yesterday morning and discovered that he still had feces in his colon that she couldn't get at. She said she thinks he is a mega colon cat. She explained what it was and was telling me how it's terminal.

I cried some at home. She told me to come pick him up. So I did. She wanted him to come home and see if he can get out what's remaining now that the really bad chunks were taken out. I've been feeding him a laxative as instructed and a nutritional supplement as he is still not eating. He pooped in my car. Diarrhea and a chunk of harder poop. I didn't think I'd be happy to see poop in my car! Haha. I cleaned him and my car up. Confined him in a relaxed space with litter box. Throughout the night, I would check on him every couple of hours. He pooped a couple more times. Got some more chunks out. He is alot more perky. Rubbing up on me and everything in the room. Walking around and nuzzling. My boy is feeling a but better. Earlier, he just didnt care. I'm assuming that he didnt get all of that out. But some is better than nothing. He nibbled a little bit of wet food I offered him but turned his nose up at it pretty quickly.

I suppose my question is, what do I do about mega colon! I feel like this vet I am using wont be much help to me for managing his condition. She has been very negative to me, causing me tons of worry and then tells me it's not so bad. I don't like the emotional roller coaster ride.

She wants to see chandler again today for an X-ray and see where he's at and we can discuss more.

What are some good questions to ask and should I change vets? This is the first time I'm using this vet and I knew nothing about her.

I don't have any experience with megacolon but my  understanding is that it is characterized by feces not moving through the bowels. But your cat is now having normal bowel movements, right? Doesn't that mean he doesn't have megacolon? Could it be your vet just suggested that he *might* have megacolon perhaps because he had so much feces backed up in him?

At this point it just sounds to me that he was constipated and that now that the hard, dried feces have been removed he is fine and you just need to make sure he doesn't get constipated again. 

I guess I would just ask the vet whether he definitely has megacolon or if he could just have had a really nasty bout of constipation. 

Once a cat has megacolon, he always has it. I lived for years with a megacolon cat and this is what I learned, through trial and error and three vets. (took that many to find a vet who had a clue)

Canned food ONLY.

LOW fiber. Bulk forming fiber is the worst thing you can give a cat with megacolon. Megacolon means the colon has been stretched out of shape because of holding so much poop for so long.

NEVER give a megacolon cat things like psylium. This makes the stools HUGE, which of course only exacerbates the problem.

So feed canned foods that are 1% or less fiber listed on the analysis. No grains. Avoid fruits and vegetables in cat food.

Give the laxative on an empty stomach at least two hours before meals. Laxatives interfere with nutrient absorption.

Cats with megacolon almost always need a motility drug, which is cisapride. I have recently read that this has become less available.

There IS a cure....but the cure is invasive surgery. If Chandler is over all in good health, you might want to consider the surgery, but of course this would depend on the vet, and if the vet is experienced with this type of surgery. It does sound like you might want to be looking for a better vet.

I actually have more to say on this, but have to leave the house, so I'll be back later.

Welcome to TCS and I am keeping my paws crossed for Chandler.

I think first of all that it needs to be determined if it truly IS megacolon or just a bad case of constipation, as suggested above.  One of my cats had chronic constipation, and we simply used Miralax  (which, BTW, is NOT a psylium based laxative or high fiber, etc)  .  The way it works is totally different from most things recommended for animals and humans alike.  We gave it to our guy twice a day, every day to keep things moving.  Did  this for over two years and it worked like a charm.  No more seeing him straining to poop, then throwing up because he strained so hard

Maybe when Otto gets back online, she'll be able to give you more info on helping you determine if, indeed, Chandler appears to have megacolon or just a bad bout of constipation.  Did you go back to the Vet for the follow-up? 

I just received a notification on this thread and want to provide an update. I was able to get a handle on this constipation. I'm not so sure if he was a megacolon cat. But my vet showed me how to make up a solution with miralax in it and Chandler did well.

Chandler lived for a couple more years. I ended up having to put him to sleep on March 8, 2016. He either had congestive heart failure or a tumor in his chest. Regardless, it was producing a lot of fluid in his chest and he couldn't breathe. When it had come to the point where the fluid had to be drained every couple hours, I knew in my heart that that was it. My vet said there was no treatment and only management.

It was really peaceful for my baby boy and I miss him every single day and always will.

Thank you so much for coming back to give us an update.  I'm glad the constipation problem was resolved and that Chandler did well with that.

So sorry to hear you've lost your little boy.  We'll close the thread now out of respect for your loss.  We have a forum for posting about our kitties who have passed on--we invite you to post a tribute to Chandler there if you wish.  http://www.thecatsite.com/f/19/crossing-the-bridge