Penny Lane of Constipation

My cat, Penny, has been experiencing constipation related to his colitis.  If the colitis is due to constipation or the constipation due to colitis - we have no idea.  He is 13 yrs old.  His vet started him on Miralax to soften the hard stools.  He has been on 1/8 tsp twice a day since Monday evening (today is Wednesday evening) and no poop yet.  I had to give him lactulose on Monday morning to induce a poopie which moved things into the diarrhea phase.  I started the Miralax that evening hoping right after a bowel movement would be good timing.  He's never taken the Miralax before and I know it takes some time to work.  Should I increase the dose at this point?  Wait a little longer? He is going in for subq fluids tomorrow too.  I might ask to see if an X-ray is possible just to make sure there are no other issues we are dealing with (blockages, meagacolon, etc.).  What do y'all think?

If he's eating wet food, you can also mix in some plain canned pumpkin.  Adding in some water to make the food/pumpkin mixture like thick oatmeal will also increase his water intake and that will help soften stools as well as act as a laxative.  When I had a kitty who was constipated due to renal failure, we gave her 1/4 t twice a day until she pooped.  Once she pooped, we bumped it down to 1/8 t a day, but would bump it up if she'd not pooped for two days.

WE also give our kidney cat 1/8 to 1/4  teas. miralax twice a day.  Same with our Rainbow kidney cat. 

How much your guy weigh?  Our cats are/were small.  I would certainly think you could maybe do 1/8 in the a.m. and 1/4 in the p.m.  If that doesn't work, then 1/4 both times.   What I found is that if I used too much, our old  guy would inadvertently leave little pasta shell poopies on the floor where he layed (just one or two )  That was my clue to back down on the amount.  If I used too little...no poopies .  It's a fine line.  But it does take a few days to start. I would think it should kick in by today or tomorrow at the latest. 

Thank you, both, for your thoughtful replies!  They really helped me help Penny and also just gave me a little more confidence and comfort as I got him through this!  

He is regular now, going everyday to every other day on 1/8 teaspoon of Miralax in the morning.  I was wondering your opinions on poop consistency.  (I know that is a pretty gross question, but we re talking about kitty poop in the first place lol)  My vet told me to always dose to "prevent constipation" and therefore keep his poop at the consistency of pudding.  His is more like mashed potatoes, and is rarely formed at all.  In your experience, what consistency have you kept your kitties at?

I'm glad to hear your kitty is getting regulated(hooray for poop! LOL!)  My kitty Tiger was CKD and IBD and had issues with constipation. My vet recommended 1/4t. of pumpkin, along with /4t Miralax twice daily, I mixed both into her food and she never minded as long as I added bottled water to make the mixture more souplike. Miralax is dose to effect- too much and you will see runny poop, so i always dose conservatively.  You might as your vet about pumpkin.

Everything you ever wanted to know about poop- Here's a few links(warning:Graphic!!) 

http://www.felineconstipation.org/ 

http://www.catdocmaine.com/catfeces.html

http://thefamilyvet.net/blog/2013/9/11/purinas-fecal-scoring-chart.html

My foster Patrick had to be cleaned out by  the vet twice. Then I noticed that this cat NEVER drank water. The vet put him on prescription diet w/d, with a probiotic. So when I had to have him cleaned out a second time I asked others and was referred to MiraLax and to put water in his food. That cat pooped such a huge poop you would have thought is was people poop. Now he gets 1 half teaspoon on his wet food twice a day and that seems to have cured him. Unfortunately my Persian Bebe has now also developed this although she does drink from the fountain and I have yet to find the right amount of MiraLax for her (I now use the generic kind which costs a lot less and I have a big bottle of that stuff), she gets the poop all over her tail and backside and drags the tail on the floor, what a mess. On the other hand she can sit in the litter box all day and bring out nothing. Very frustrating. Gotta go, she needs to get washed again

As far as consistency, pudding is NOT what i am looking for.  I am looking for a well formed stool, just not rock hard.  But more to the point, regularity.  With some cats, that's not necessarily once every 24 hours though.  Sosmetimes that might actually mean once every 36 hours, or once every 12 hours...depends on the cat.   But, again, constant soft stool would not be optimal, IMHO.  For one thing, of a formed stool doesn't pass by the anal glands, then they don't get expressed, and that can cause a whole other issue (or so I'm lead to believe is how it works)

I have multiple cats in my household too (5 total)!  How do you manage keeping track of whether the constipated cat has pooped or not with all the other kitties using the litterbox?  At first I had Penny sequestered in a room with his own box.  Now that he is going #2 and it's usually soft, i can determine what is his apart from the other cats.  How do you manage it?  Aside from stalking him all day long LOL

That is always my dilemma with 5 cats :/

My constipated kitty has very distinctive poop! Longer and larger than the other 4. He has well formed but soft poop. The others are hard to tell apart. Only one of the 5 poops daily and I only know this because she sleeps and has a litter box in my DD#2 room (she's the oldest at 13 and doesn't want to be bothered by the others).

I changed all 5 to a completely wet diet after the one spent 4 nights at the vet for constipation
Now the others don't poop daily either but are consistent at every other day. My poor cats can barely get out of their boxes before I'm scooping lol. I have never been so happy about scooping poop in all my 44 years of life

It's definitely anxiety provoking but on the plus side my cats diets improved and I scoop their boxes if I walk by one and it has so much as a a foot print in it. I guess I'm obsessed!

One of mine uses ONLY the Litter Robot, he wouldn't be caught dead in any other box. The foster uses only the box in "his" room" and nobody else uses that, his poop is also very large and it is really stinky, it's been like that since he has been on MiraLax. That leaves two: the Persian and the Birman. The Birman is very fussy about the box, if it's too messy for her liking (and that does not mean it's really messy, just not to her liking) she will poop on the floor in the bathroom next to the box, nowhere else, and her poop looks like nobody else's. The Persian is the other one with the constipation problem. With giving her MiraLax it's either big or she sits in the box all day with nothing coming out. I'm still trying to get just the right amount of MiraLax for her. 

With multiple cats, determining whose poop is whose CAN be a dilemma, but you just gotta do the best you can.  As people have posted, you just kind of know.  And if you're in the vicinity and you hear the telltale sounds of someone in the box, you check to see who it is and what they're doing. That's what I do...listen for sounds, and check it out.  If I see someone pooping, that's one down.  Check them off for the day (hopefully)  It's not always perfect, but some cats use certain boxes, so that's helpful too.