Constipated kitty?

I think my 7 year old kitty is having a bit of a potty problem and I am wondering if there is something I can add to her food to help her out a little.  I noticed that she was straining to poop in her box and only a little came out. She has been on Hill's Science Diet forever and doesn't love wet food.  She will lick the gravy though.  I aim to change this because I think the dry food may be contributing to her problem.  Until I can get her to switch, is there anything I can add to her food to help her out?  Thanks!

Julie

A dry only diet can definitely contribute to constipation so it's good you are going to add some wet food. Encouraging her to drink more will help. A pet drinking fountain is popular with some cats. You can also try adding some tuna water to her water occasionally.

Miralax is also helpful for constipation (start with 1/8th tsp twice a day added to her wet food). Www.catinfo.org has a very handy list of canned foods and talks about what makes some better than others.

The ASPCA has a good list of things you can do to help:  http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/constipation

Personally, I've had to use pumpkin to treat some "issues" with one of my kitties and it was actually beneficial.  It's supposed to be one of the best at-home fixes.  Hope you can find something to help her!

As you already know, the dry food is contributing to the problem.  If she doesn't like wet food, even switching to a grain-free dry will help as it doesn't have the grains in it.  Try some canned grain free all meat foods and see if that works, or even plain meat baby food (preferably Beechnut if you can find it) in chicken or turkey.  I give my kitties plain canned pumpkin to help keep things moving, about 1 teaspoon twice a day with their wet food.

Can anyone recommend a good grain free dry food?  I want to transition her to wet food, but I think it will be a slow process.

The best dry foods I know of are Ziwipeak, Wysong Epigen 90, and Young Again Zero Carb. There are other "grain free" dry foods out there, but some contain high percentages of other starches are rice, peas and potatoes.

A grain-free dry food is better, but in my opinion, won't help much. It is still dry and contains carbohydrates.Your kitty will benefit with more moisture in her diet.

If she likes gravy, you could try Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers. Or, try a few of their non-fish pate formulas and add water to make it soupy. You can add Miralax to the wet food if she'll lick it. Miralax works by drawing water to the colon, thus making stools easier to pass.

You could also encourage more drinking with a water fountain, cleaned regularly.

We feed Taste of the Wild dry grain free and Innova EVO canned.

Our chronically constipated old guy only got relief from Miralax, BUT, if your guy is only eating dry, then getting the miralax into him is going to be an issue.  Same with getting pumpkin into him, unless he takes a liking to it and will eat it just plain.  However, if you can find a wet food he will eat even a little of, then you can mix these items into it and won't have to hassle with syringing them into him .

For the Miralax (or generics work fine, but must by the generic for miralax, not metamucil or anything else), we used 1/8 teaspoon dissolved into 1/4 teaspoon of water, then mixed into just a little of his food to make sure he ate it before giving him he rest of his food.  It's totally tasteless and does not turn into a gel. Tht added liquid into his food was helpful too.  As a matter of fact, the more water you can get into him, the better, as already mentioned, so why not add it directly to his food, if he'll accept it that way and still eat enough not to lose weight (unless he needs to )