CHRONIC constipation, crystals in urine, my sick boy :(

PLEASE help!! I have a 9 year old male Maine Coon, Wesley, who is my absolute world. When he was 3, he had severe reoccurring crystals in his urine, which led to him getting the PU surgery. Over the last few months, he has redeveloped crystals, but we managed to get rid of them by switching to Royal Canin SO. Around the same time that he started redeveloping the crystals, he also started having some constipation. Well at this point, the crystals are gone but the constipation is unbearable. It's a the point where I have him at the vet about once per week, because he has to get an enema. He can be quite a viscous cat when it comes to the vet. So even to do an xray means sedation, which isn't a good thing on regular basis anyway, let alone for a 9 year old cat. He is currently still on the RC SO. We're at the point with mediations that he's taking 5mg of Cisapride per day, plus 2 ml of Lactulose, every 8 hrs, per day. We just upped from 1 ml to 2 ml of Lactulose, due to the constipation still occurring, but we have no idea if this is going to do the trick. He definitely does not have the energy that he used to have. I set my alarm for every night at midnight just for a Lactulose administration and have to run home everyday during my lunch break to do another. Quality of life for both him and I are significantly suffering. But I'm not willing to give up on him :..( My team of vets are incredible and have tested everything and tried everything that they can think of, but all tests continue to come back fine. One of the vets, last week, mentioned that if this continues he may need another surgery (guessing a Colectomy?). I've been doing research and, while I see some good reports, that after effects of the surgery can be really tough and I don't know that I can put him through another surgery (in addition to the PU, he had a feeding tube for 9 weeks 2 years ago, due to not eating, infections, unknown causes). I'm just at a complete loss right now and it's weighing on our lives, but again, I'm not willing to give up on this. Losing him would absolutely break me. I've tried to research if the RC SO Urinary food may actually cause increased constipation and I've found SOME reports of it, but it's all guesses from ppl thinking it was so. I don't want to just change it and risk making things worse on multiple levels. If anyone at all has any thoughts on this, I'm desperate. Please.

Thank you,

Kristin and Wesley

By the way, I used a combo of the RC SO wet dry foods. He has dry out all day that he nibbles on, but then eats wet for breakfast and dinner.

Normally I would say to just try Miralax but with the issues that your kitty has I would ask the vet about it.  It has worked wonders for other kitties with chronic constipation,  It is a tasteless powder that can be mixed in wet food.  It's called a laxative but it works by drawing water into the colon.. Normally you begin with 1/8 teaspoon twice a day and adjust the dosage to find what works for your kitty.

We have a kitty with chronic constipation. She also has bladder issues, though her problem is sterile interstitial cystitis, not crystals. (Though, actually, she was starting to have chronic UTIs with actual infections!)

Here's the thing: the biggest contributor to formation of crystals is urine pH. This is why the prescription diets help. They are designed to be low in certain precipitating minerals and help target the proper urine pH of 6.25 - 6.5.

With constipation, minerals in the diet is also often a contributing factor - but constipation can be complicated, with contributing factors being the make-up of the bacteria in the GI system, motility factors, and CLEARLY there is a problem with the amount of moisture in the colon.

With Spooky, we give her 50ML of sub-q fluids every two days. We tried working with fibers in her food, to hold water through the GI transit - we played with insoluble vs soluble, but getting her to eat food with fiber in it was the problem.

Here is an excellent site on feline constipation. My ONLY issue with it is that it does not address the relationship between constipation and diet from the minerals perspective, because they can play a huge role. For instance, ever taken a calcium supplement that didn't have magnesium in it? Hugely constipating. Same thing for our cats.

With Spooky, I make a homemade raw food diet, and I use eggshell rather than bone (because it provides the needed calcium and trace minerals but with a vastly lower overall mineral content in the diet). I target the low-end acceptable Calciumhosphorus ratio, which lowers the chances of constipation due to minerals in her diet. With the additional water, it has resolved her constipation - and her bladder issues. Oh - and I give her a pretty large dose (just mixed with her food) of a human quality L. acidophilus-based probiotic that has other important strains in it for GI and bladder health (a "for instance" being L. plantarum, already shown in studies to benefit bladder health).

With the constipation AND the potential crystal issues lurking in the background, I would consider at a minimum transitioning to an all wet diet and removing the kibble altogether, because both problems are ALL about moisture: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth


Oh - here's the feline constipation.org link: http://www.felineconstipation.org/


...but I'd be talking to the vet about administering sub-q fluids at home, working with fiber in the diet, transitioning to an all canned food diet, and adding probiotics. At least that's where I would start. For us, it took managing her diet entirely and taking control of the minerals and water getting into her.

Everything that LDG said!

Sub-q fluids could really help. They always say to humans that you need to drink more water to ease constipation, so it should help cats too.

Plus switching to an all wet diet is also better for his crystals problem. You'll find many website that show that dry food dehydrates & makes the formation of crystals more dangerous & more able to form a clog. Eating all wet keeps things moving. I really hope you can find an answer soon!

Oh - I should add, the number one symptom for Spooky of pending constipation is she doesn't want to eat. That still happens at times. When it does, I give her 1/4 teaspoon of miralax twice a day and then give her 100ML of sub-q fluids that night. So far, we've been able to prevent her from becoming uncomfortably constipated with this approach.