Severe Megacolon

I just joined this site, hoping to get some new advice.

Our 5 year old cat has been diagnosed with megacolon.....after several visits to clean him out its just impossible for him to do his business.

After the diagnosis, we were told to eliminate all dry food and only give him wet food and add water......he was also placed on 2 medications. The lactulose and cisapride, 8ml & 1ml 2-3x per day.....and still nothing!

I then tried mucilax instead of the lactulose because he was fighting us on it and it just ended up all over him and not in him. But the mucilax has not produced anything. 

He still eats, does not appear in pain but there is NO poop!

Clearly he is slowly building up a blockage again. My wife even tried a gentle childs laxative and it did make him runny but it was watery and clearly did not help him.

We are at a loss here, the vet said he is a tough case as his meds climbed higher and higher. We have not been back to the vet in a couple weeks. Because we are reaching the end of what we can continue to afford. We love this boy, he's 20 lbs or was, now 17.....but very sweet and gentle. We still give him the cisapride before meals along with mucilax but nothing. We just do not know what to do with him.

If we can't create some type of system for getting him to produce, not sure what we can do.

If anyone has any practical advice that we can try. It just is not feasible to give this cat 20-30oz of lactulose each day. The cisapride has been easy because its not as awful and its just 1ml per meal.

Anyway, if anyone can suggest anything, we would be forever grateful. 

Thanks

I'm so sorry you guys are going through this. While Megacolon is not something I have any experience with there have been a lot of threads by people in your shoes. Perhaps looking through some of them is a good place to start until someone more knowledgeable in this area comes along:  http://www.thecatsite.com/newsearch?search=megacolon . 

I wish you both the best of luck! 

Thanks, I am going to read through some right now.

If they cleaned him out recently, like yesterday then he doesn't have anything in his system to eliminate. If you're using powdered Miralax, which is best, add it to the wet food twice a day.  Add a bit of water to the mixture to make it like oatmeal.  That way he'll get a bit of extra moisture and the med will dissolve in the mix.  No fighting the cat!

No, he was cleaned out over 2 weeks ago!

And we have been feeding him wet food, with miralax mixed in, extra water too.......and while he does not seem to be in pain or suffering at all, he is not pooping. It's quite odd actually because he seems fine but he must be accumulating even if he's eating much less.

Our 2nd cat is also pooping much less too but we seem to be able to identify his stuff. Usually one goes in one box and Baxter goes in the other. And they have different looking stuff......we are just worried that he's building up as we speak.

So, I have never heard of Mucilax, but have definitely heard and used Miralax.  Which are you using?  When I googled Mucilax, it indicated it was high fiber, which I have heard should NOT be used with cats with Megacolon, as that just makes the stool larger, and since they already have a hard time passing the stool, makes it even worse .

Miralax works in a completely different way.  It is not high fiber, so doesn't enlarge the stool, but softens it, which makes it easier to pass.  Does'n't make it runny, though,unless you overdo it.  1/8th to 1/4 teaspoon twice a day (every day) usually does the trick.  Just mix it in a little bit of water, then mix that into his wet food. 

Here are a couple of threads you might find useful:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/205398/diet-to-manage-megacolon

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245960/help-for-kitties-with-megacolon

I meant Miralax....sorry 

Hmmm.  That's weird then.  But you also said your other cat is also pooping much less.  This is not a coincidence, I don't think.  Have you recently changed them to raw, by chance?  Or a very good grain free canned food.  You know if you aren't feeding them grains, their stools will be less, and on raw they will be WAY less!  Could that be part of what you are witnessing (or should I say "aren't" witnessing )  Just trying to figure out why neither cat is producing much stool.

Has the Vet every shown you how to feel your furbaby to see if he is constipated?  And usually a constipated cat will not eat much, yet your said your little one is eating just fine.  This is quite mysterious!   So, you are giving him miralax twice a day? It's powder, right?  how much are you giving him?  We gave our Sven 1/8th to 1/4 teaspoon (dissolved in a little water) twice a day, and he only weighed 6 lbs.  You said you guy weighs 17 lbs. so I'm thinking you probably give him at least 1/4 teaspoon each time, right? 

I have upped the Miralax to 1 tsp per feeding over a week ago.

After reading lots of other people talk about what a miracle this stuff is we expected something.

We have been feeding both cats 2x per day.

The food has been the basic friskies stuff (not gravy) 

And yes its mysterious because this morning he was ravenous!

Both cats have been much hungrier since we removed the dry and only feed them 2x day. 

I have no idea how to feel him under there to know if he's backed up.

I suppose I should not worry as long as he's eating but its gotta come out eventually.

We fear he's just in build up mode and soon we will have a sad kitty. 

Whoa!  That a whole lot of Miralax.  He's getting 1 teas. twice a day ?  Holy .    And nothing is coming out??????  I can see why you are concerned

That being said, I still wonder why your cats aren't pooping much .  How much are you feeding them, since you cut out feeding kibble?  Is he on a diet, is that why he's down from 20 lbs to 17?  How much does the other cat weigh?  (just trying to figure out what could possible be happening here, but, seriously, even with raw, which is the perfect food for cats, they DO still poop, just not as often, and not very much.)

They have been on a forced diet because he is too big....but its basically been 1 can per day for both cats......they split half a can at the 2 feedings.

Cat #2 is about 15 pounds himself. They are both wanting more food but we figured why over-do the food when he's got poop problems to begin with. Trying not to rush the inevitable backup. 

I checked and his last vet visit was March 12th (19 days ago)

My wife cleans the liter and says there are no poops in there every day and when there are, its not much......but now she says its harder to differentiate who is doing what since they all look the same now. So, its possible he is doing something but minimal. But I never see him in that box!

I guess we will try that non grain cat food and keep doing what we are doing and monitor him. 

It's almost 3 weeks and he appears fairly normal despite a lack of significant evidence he's doing much.