High Fiber Canned for Megacolon?

So my kitty DeeJay was just diagnosed with Mega colon.  I was told to put her on a high fiber diet, (vet prescription of course) but I was wondering if there is anything otc that I could give her.

High fiber is controversial. The members of the Yahoo! feline megacolon and chronic constipation group typically feed low fiber. Some of the members did feed high fiber, but switched, and of those some of them thought that the high fiber stretched out their kitty's colon and pushed them from a chronic constipation situation into megacolon. The high fiber diets also tend to be high carb because the high fiber is achieved through vegetables and grain.

The low fiber camp says that cats don't handle fiber very well, so give them less to deal with. My kitty had chronic constipation which I treated with a low fiber diet after switching from pumpkin. I noticed no difference in the frequency of bowel movements, just less poop.

Thank you for the information.  I am in the process of researching it so I know what I am up against.  I have never dealt with this so it's all new to me. 

I have a chronically constipated cat and a low fiber diet of canned food only, combined with doses of Miralax have given the best results. I got the advice from one of the megacolon threads on here and it has worked wonders for my Bob.

Edit: Just looked, the thread is called 'diet to manage megacolon' and it has lots of good info.

The typical treatment in the Yahoo! group was a low fiber diet, Miralax, and cisapride. The low fiber diet is usually low in starches, which act as a binder and constipate. One member recommended Tiki Cat chicken flavors because of the extremely low starch content.

Cisapride stimulates gut motility, but has a health price. After a while it becomes less effective and the cat develops a "lazy bowel," so its natural bowel movements are weaker. So you are kinda painting yourself into a corner which can result in a subtotal colonectomy. (Note this does not always happen.) Stubborn people like me or people whose cats are borderline (which my cat was), try to rely on other remedies like coconut oil (increases metabolism and greases the gut so that waste can move) or aloe vera. Some members said that acupuncture helped. I also used probiotics and digestive enzymes.

For most the low fiber, Miralax, and cisapride works and they can go years without incident.

Thank you I am reading up on it, and discussing things with my dad (retired vet).  He was excited to learn about the latest and greatest treatments :-)  Is there a % of the fiber in the diet that I want to stay under?  I am reading that people add a little bit of pumpkin every day?  Is that necessary?

For a low fiber diet, you want something that is 1%-1.5%, which is the majority of canned cat food. The pumpkin is fiber, so if you're going low fiber it's not necessary. Pumpkin usually helps in milder cases of chronic constipation. For a megacolon cat you need bigger guns.

One thing that I did was keep a journal. The journal will help you remember when your kitty last went and if you can attribute anything to changes in diet or meds Establish a new diet and meds and from there make only one change at a time so you can see the effect. I kept track of time of bowel movement, how much volume (I would measure and make a rough guess as to diameter), brand of food, any changes in meds and any unusual occurrences (strained to poop, explosive poop, etc.).

Ooops. On that fiber percent you want 1%-1.5% or lower. There are a few brands that are .5% - .8%.

Thank you   Learning lots tonight.  I called my dad with my findings and he was very happy to learn some new things.  DeeJay will be our 'test' kitty LOL.  She did finally eat about 3oz of food after 24 hours of not eating.  She's on an appetite stimulant at the moment.

I hope the low fiber helps your kitty. I have a cat with chronic constipation that is getting worse as she gets older, she is only 6 years old. She also suffers from allergies and is very picky when it comes to canned food or dry food. I have tried everything with her but we still end up at the vet office getting enemas and fluids. She can't take the lactulose, makes her very sick and she gets Miralax twice a day but like I said it does not completely work for her. I finally gave in and we are trying the Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Fiber Response food. Three different vets have been trying to talk me into this food for a few years now. I know it's not a good food but since we have been dealing with this and nothing is really working for us I had to give it a try.  My cat can actually have bowel movements and still have dried poop stuck in her so it takes me a while to figure out that we need to see a vet. I just started giving her probiotics so I'm hoping this all helps.

Good luck and I would like to know what works for your kitty.

Thanks, Snugglecat, for reminding me to talk about lactulose vs. Miralax. They both do the same thing, draw water into the bowel and soften stool so it is easy to pass. Most people prefer Miralax for the following reasons:

1. They feel it is more effective

2. It is easier to administer. Lactulose is made from a sugar and is a sticky mess.

3. It is OTC and cheap.

I read on Wikipedia that lactulose creates an irresistible urge to go, which Miralax does not do to the best of my knowledge. However when I used lactulose its performance seemed lackluster when compared to Miralax.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions.  Right now she is on i/d (not my favorite but I want to give her intestines a break from everything) canned food.  She will be on Miralax once the diarrhea from the enema clears up. I have learnt so much in the past 24 hours about this condition.  Thank you everyone for your help. 

Just saw this thread and thought I would add some of my experience in the hopes that it can be helpful.

I find that the response to constipation from vets is to prescribe more fibre in the diet, but sometimes too much fibre can have the opposite effect and cause constipation in itself. Especially if it is the wrong kind of fibre.

Our Max (nine year old brown tabby) has been experiencing problems with constipation and what I believe are IBD issues, for the past two years.

One of our vets insisted that Max had developed Megacolon and started him on Peg and Cisapride. The Cisapride and Peg took quite awhile to work and eventually Max started having 'some' bowel movements, but still not very regularly.

My husband and I weren't convinced that Max should be on Cisapride indefinitely but thought that this must be just a temporary problem and we both felt a more natural solution is the way to go. We sought another opinion. Another vet put Max on Lactulose and voila, Max started pooping more regularly. We also started giving Max pumpkin, which he loves. The other piece however, was that the vet suggested putting Max on Medi-Cal High Fibre Response diet. Max has been pooping fairly regularly on this diet but still not everyday.

On the Medi-Cal I noticed that Max would get very bloated leading up to having a bowel movement which suggested to me that he was not digesting this food well. As this food contains a lot of grains as first ingredients, I was uncomfortable with this and thought we could still do better. I decided to start looking at other dry foods that do not contain or are significantly lower in grains. We tried Origen an Acana which are very good grain-free foods, but had so so results. Recently I found another new dry food called PC Nutrition First Grain-Free Chicken & Rice Cat Food which contains no wheat, corn or soy. There is a bit of grain but this is barley and rice which is definitely better than wheat and corn. All three of our cats get wet food (wellness canned chicken) first thing in the morning, and then 1/4 cup of the PC dry twice a day. Max is no longer bloated which is confirmation that the other food was not good for him. Both Max and our other male, Thomas, also get 1/4 cup of pumpkin everyday. So far so good.

From my experience, I think there can be other factors besides fibre when it comes to constipation, just like it is for humans. Certain foods will make us constipated, like cheese, but this doesn't mean that we are not getting enough fibre. I have to think that it is the same for cats (and dogs), when certain foods will constipate them. When it comes to constipation, it's not always megacolon. I have found that most vets prescribe Cisapride and Peg too readily without doing enough research or what I call, due diligence, to determine if there might be other underlying causes for constipation.

I really hope you can find the right solution for your kitty, cprcheetah. It can be a frustrating journey, but there is hope. Keeping a journal as one other poster suggested, can be really helpful in helping you to find clues and pinpoint when the possible cause and effect of the constipation is coming from. 

Good comments re. Cisapride and its purpose. The long-term use of this and the possible outcome was my great concern. Like you I really wanted to find another more natural solution. 

oneandahalfcats-  Can I ask where you get the dry food you are using?  I too think Peaches has IBS and constipation issues. She does not like pumpkin so that is not an option for us. Right now she is eating Wellness Turkey and the fiber responce in the dry food. She would not touch the canned food. I too am hoping to find the right combination for her. We just started the dry food a couple days ago.

Hi Snugglecat,

The PC food we are using is President's Choice Nutrition First Adult Cat Food which I believe is only sold in Canada, unfortunately. If you are interested in grain-free foods, you might want to try ORIGEN or ACANA which are both grain-free, made in canada but both are sold in the states. I am not sure if the forum will accept posted links but if you plug in Acana Cat Food or Origen Cat Food, the sites should come up for you in Google. Once at either website, you can use the 'Where to buy' link to find a store in your area.

Incidentally, I had purchased some of the Wellness Turkey grain-free wet food and my female, Maggie, did not like this. I think she found this too rich. She also seems to prefer the wet food at room temperature rather than straight out of the fridge as the food tends to get a little gummy when its chilled? I tend to stick to the Wellness Grain-free Chicken which all three cats will eat. You might want to try the Chicken if you haven't already.

Hope the above helps. Wishing your kitty good health.

Our 13 year old Siamese cat has had megacolon for about 4 or 5 years. After having to take him in for an enema under anesthesia for the 2nd time in two months about 1 year, 5 months ago (when he weighed about 26 pounds), the vet suggested a new diet: Royal Canin Gastrointestinal Fiber Response Diet. Since he's been on that diet, we have not had to take him back to the vet because of constipation and we've eliminated the Lactulose he was taking 3 times a day (2 ml each dose) and cut back Cisapride from 1 ml, 3 times a day to .5 ml once a day. He's lost over 4 pounds in that year and 5 months and is becoming more active. We are thinking of asking the vet if we could wean him off Cisapride since his stool is soft, large and daily. We are so happy with the results. He's a much happier cat now, although he complains that he doesn't get enough food (we give him 1/2 cup per day, divided into 3 portions, along with a tiny amount (1 1/2 teaspoon) of low-fat canned food, twice a day

"Most" urinary and bowel problems in cats are caused by diet.

Cats in the wild get most of their fluids by eating their prey. They instinctively have a low thirst drive.

This carries over to our domesticated friends.

Something to consider. The worst wet food is better than the best dry food. Hydration is critical to cats,

especially the boys.

Cats are also an obligate carnivore. They eat meat. Cats are not designed to process high carbohydrates

that you'll get in those foods packed with grains and vegetables..

Real world experience. My old "Fluff", I miss you buddy.

Fluff started having constipation problems, oh, at about 15 years old or so.

He was a long haired brown tabby, that was more maine coon than anything. He had very long fur. He was

also a constant groomer. This cat never got mats and always had the softest fur I have ever petted which is

why his name eventually migrated to Fluff or Fluffa.

It was pretty obvious when Fluff started showing trouble. His poop would get all over his back end, thoroughly

caking up his butt, and then he would run around, leaving a poop print everywhere he sat. 

After trying to deal with it ourselves, we ended up going to see our vet. 

Dr. Paul checked Fluff out and said he couldn't feel any obstructions. He then had me hold Fluff down

as he slipped on some gloves, grabbed some lube, and shoved a finger up poor Fluff's butt! You should

have seen that cat's eyes. Wide open would be understating it greatly.

The next step was an enema. I've never seen so much poop. It was flowing around Fluff's front feet before he

was done. 

We took Fluff home that night and gave him a bath. Well, that warm water must have really loosened him up,

because he went right to his fresh box, and destroyed it. Another monstrous release of poop, everywhere.

This is when I started to learn that dry food was bad. Everything we had been learning was pointing to the

dry diet. My ex wanted to switch to wet food, but I'm stubborn. I was a busy guy. I didn't have time to be

whipping up soft food when I can just pour some kibble from a bag.

Fluff never had to go back to the vet for constipation, but we battled it several more times.

Wet food, pumpkin, and baby food took care of the recurring problem, but if I had switched to an all wet,

or raw diet back then, many of those issues could have been avoided.

It makes me very sad when I read all these kitty health posts. it makes me sad that so many kitty's are so sick.

I'm glad they all have owners that love them enough to come to the internet to research some answers.

My mega colon baby is wasting skin and bones...I've tried everything...he's eating and has diarrhea poop around little balls...he will eat wet or dry...prefers dry but I prefer wet and know it's better..