Post-surgery poops!

So, my 1.5yr old kitty, Baby Cat, had surgery 6 days ago for bladder stones. It was pretty much a nightmare.. One vet diagnosed her with a uti and sent us home for 2wks with antibiotics and pain meds, only for an X-ray to show she had two fairly large stones.
Post-surgery has been pretty great for her--except for her constipation! It took from Thursday when we picked her up, until Monday night to strain to poop out a really dry, solid mass.. And today, two days after this, she strains again to push out a few smaller, but equally as dry lumps.

Now, we've been feeding her just shy of 1tbsp of pumpkin purée (not the pie filling) mixed in with her wet food, but during the day she eats the royal canin urinary tract stuff.
The vet has suggested some cat laxatives, and some medicine she only described as, "lube for her colon."

Should I just opt for more vet meds? I really would like to avoid them, seeing as I've already dumped about $1300 into bills (which includes their techs charging me for things without my permission.. Like the royal canin), but I just want her to feel some relief after this horrible health episode.

Any suggestions???

I have heard recently that the royal canin causes constipation.  Are you feeding canned or dry?  Canned food is better as it has more moisture in it which is better for urinary tract health as well as constipation.  You can try adding some Miralax to your cats diet a couple times a day, it does however take a few days to take effect.  Here is a website that talks about constipation: http://www.felineconstipation.org/acutetreatment.html  and here is one that talks about Urinary Tract Health:  http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

One of mine had knee surgery recently, and had similar issues. I gave her pumpkin and 1 mL of vegetable oil each day.  It took her 6 days to poop, and then another week of pumpkin to get her back regular, soft poops. 

The next step, if she didn't go on day 7, was the lubricant medicine (which I think is just Petroleum Jelly?). I think that I would have given it to her, because it's so uncomfortable to be constipated.

The vet said that the anesthesia combined with the pain medicine she was on after surgery can cause some pretty serious ileus (fancy name for slowing down of the intestines). Plus, cats usually eat and drink less because of the fasting, then the stress. Bad combinations for kitties. 

Wishing you and Baby Cat good health!

(I have a cat named Baby, too.) 

Well, I gave my vet a call and she basically just told me to look out for loss of appetitie, lethargy and throwing up.. But haven't seen anything like that! Baby Cat is happy just to be out of the room she was in with me. She's active, plays and acts like she didn't even have the surgery.
Per my paranoia, I'm mixing wet food (organix and blue) with her royal canin and feeding it to baby cat as well as my two other cats. They hate the new feeding schedule (as they grazed all day before), and will sometimes pick at the food.. And now it seems like nobody poops! I dunno if it's the diet change, their pickiness, or what.. But I wanna see some poops!

Here's how she's doing!

What is she doing? Just lounging around...is she feeling better?

allenkm said:

What is she doing? Just lounging around...is she feeling better?

Click to expand...

She seems to be doing ok! Just waiting in everyone to get back to pooping. Bladder wise, she pees like a champ!

Looking dopey lol

she looks smart to me...and those claws look dangerous

i used vasoline and mineral oil for my cat...I think the latter works better