Hi all,
I've been reading up on this site for a couple of days during our cat's Megacolon saga, and you all seem very nice and knowledgeable. So I have a couple of panic tinged questions.
A little background--our boy is a 10 year old, overweight domestic short haired kitty, and he had a bout of megacolon four years ago. They deobstipated him, and put him on a high-fiber diet which worked for four years. He'd have these INCREDIBLY large bowel movements, usually a normal with the occasional firm lump of poo followed by a soft, mushy pile. He's a large cat, not just width wise but also length wise, so we figured a large elimination was normal for him (stupid in hindsight, I know. We've been kicking ourselves since).
So last week, we noticed he was having trouble eliminating, straining in the box, and took him to the animal hospital. They found he was constipated, borderline obstipated, gave him a few enemas; he passed an enormous amount of stool again (par for the course), sent him home with lactulose and instructions to continue putting metamucil in his diet.
Well, when we called our normal vet, he said to up his usual 1/8 of a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per meal. And, stupidly once again, we followed his instructions--only to have our poor boy become so incredibly compacted by the end of the week that our normal vet suggested to euthanize him. We sought out a second opinion and found an angel in an internal medicine vet at the animal hospital, who deobspiated him for 1.5 hours. She managed to get most of the fiber enriched poo out, except for a few pieces. Sent him home the next day on lactulose, cisapride, and a low-residue diet (which apparently he should have been on all along. I'm fuming by this point).
Our cat was sent home Tuesday; our vet told us he'd eliminated on his own before he was sent home. We're not sure if this was helped along by an enema or not. He didn't eliminate the rest of the day Tuesday. Had terrible gas, cramping, yowling--really terrible stuff. By Wednesday he'd stopped smelling like a Parisian sewer and his cramping stopped as well. We noticed him straining in the box a couple of times and then, finally, he eliminated a good sized stool. Had a second bowel movement with another good sized stool later in the day. Thursday he didn't eliminate at all again, and today, we noticed him straining in the box a couple of times, no stool production. He's peeing fine.
So I suppose my question is--should I contact the vet? She said it could take a few days for the cisapride to work. Am I just being impatient? Can cisapride work for a couple of days and then fail? Is there anything I can give him to make him more comfortable? Or his low-residue food palatable? I'm so afraid of him becoming backed-up again and damaging his colon even further. I'm afraid that our normal vet's suggestion to bombard his system with fiber may have caused even more damage than our lack of knowledge caused.
Thanks in advance,
-Cathulu
I've been reading up on this site for a couple of days during our cat's Megacolon saga, and you all seem very nice and knowledgeable. So I have a couple of panic tinged questions.
A little background--our boy is a 10 year old, overweight domestic short haired kitty, and he had a bout of megacolon four years ago. They deobstipated him, and put him on a high-fiber diet which worked for four years. He'd have these INCREDIBLY large bowel movements, usually a normal with the occasional firm lump of poo followed by a soft, mushy pile. He's a large cat, not just width wise but also length wise, so we figured a large elimination was normal for him (stupid in hindsight, I know. We've been kicking ourselves since).
So last week, we noticed he was having trouble eliminating, straining in the box, and took him to the animal hospital. They found he was constipated, borderline obstipated, gave him a few enemas; he passed an enormous amount of stool again (par for the course), sent him home with lactulose and instructions to continue putting metamucil in his diet.
Well, when we called our normal vet, he said to up his usual 1/8 of a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per meal. And, stupidly once again, we followed his instructions--only to have our poor boy become so incredibly compacted by the end of the week that our normal vet suggested to euthanize him. We sought out a second opinion and found an angel in an internal medicine vet at the animal hospital, who deobspiated him for 1.5 hours. She managed to get most of the fiber enriched poo out, except for a few pieces. Sent him home the next day on lactulose, cisapride, and a low-residue diet (which apparently he should have been on all along. I'm fuming by this point).
Our cat was sent home Tuesday; our vet told us he'd eliminated on his own before he was sent home. We're not sure if this was helped along by an enema or not. He didn't eliminate the rest of the day Tuesday. Had terrible gas, cramping, yowling--really terrible stuff. By Wednesday he'd stopped smelling like a Parisian sewer and his cramping stopped as well. We noticed him straining in the box a couple of times and then, finally, he eliminated a good sized stool. Had a second bowel movement with another good sized stool later in the day. Thursday he didn't eliminate at all again, and today, we noticed him straining in the box a couple of times, no stool production. He's peeing fine.
So I suppose my question is--should I contact the vet? She said it could take a few days for the cisapride to work. Am I just being impatient? Can cisapride work for a couple of days and then fail? Is there anything I can give him to make him more comfortable? Or his low-residue food palatable? I'm so afraid of him becoming backed-up again and damaging his colon even further. I'm afraid that our normal vet's suggestion to bombard his system with fiber may have caused even more damage than our lack of knowledge caused.
Thanks in advance,
-Cathulu