Kitty can't poop

A little bit of background, she is 15yo and has been on the raw diet from catinfo.org for about 5+ years.  She's had small hard poops for quite a while now, so I have been adding more and more water to her food, but it hasn't helped.  As of today he has not gone in about 3 days, but she can still urinate.  She has been straining hard which has been making her vomit.  I've given her a small amount of food, loaded with water and some pumpkin, with a little olive oil to try to lubricate things.  I even rubbed some olive oil on her anus because she now has a dried clump of fecal matter and I can no longer even see the link part of her anus.  I'm guessing this has happened due to the lack of fiber in her diet, but has anyone else's furbaby had this issue while on the raw diet?  I'm taking her into the vet tonight since these home remedies have not helped.

I have a 16 1/2 year old, he gets a bath every two weeks or when needed.  They are 80 plus years in human life she may start to look unkept....mine loves juice from a tin of corn eats corn, always water down all tins have salt. Also salmon juice.  Plain yogurt watered down in a dish. They enjoy a smorg of assorted drinks  Pumpkin in great but is she eating it?  Sorry have no experience with raw food diet.  *Monitor washroom habits she could just be constipated or it could be a sign of something more serious. Just re read your post     3 days...Vets will help you  

I've read that Dr. Pierson had to adjust her ingredients because her kitties poopies were hard.  If I recall correctly, she had to add guar gum in with the rest of the ingredients to help them go to the bathroom?  I remember her saying guar gum makes poop stinky and she reluctantly added it back, but to be sure I will go to the site and see if I can find where she said that.  

Poor girl. Please take her to the vet. Please type 'constipation' in the search box above and you'll find many contributions on this topic. Please let us know the results after her visit to the vet. Wishing her speedy recovery and good health! 

Castle Cat (Late Jethro's humble servant)

Thanks for the well wishes everyone!  We visited the vet last night and it turns out she had an abscess in one of her anal glands.  He was able to drain it without cutting and gave me some antibiotics for her.  She still wasn't able to go this morning, but she at least didn't vomit after trying, so finally keeping food down.  Will be calling the vet again if she still hasn't gone by this afternoon. 

Poor kitty, I hope he poops!

I'm surprised they didn't give her an enema.  We have an old guy who has to get his anal glands expressed every 2-3 months or they get impacted and rupture- it's horrible.  Our vet had us add fiber to his food to bulk up his stool, and that helps some.  That aside, I have another cat who has pancreatitis, and was on strictly grain-free wet food, and he got super constipated.  Apparently on a high-protein diet, the body uses up all of the food, and the stool can be light tan and like compressed sawdust.  Our vet put him on Miralax daily mixed into his food.  But obviously, for both remedies, talk to your vet first.  There is specific dosing for both, and sometimes fiber can create constipation.

I'm surprised too, unless they didn't want to stress out the kitty any more than they already did.  

Yea, she was pretty stressed and exhausted after they expressed it.  I'm hoping it's just cause her bum is still too sore.  She drank a whole bowl of water last night, so I hope that helps soften things a bit.

If this goes on the anal glands can be removed and you won't have that problem anymore. My boy is now on MiraLax and wet food only with water added to his food as he does not seem to drink ever.

My other boy had a hernia right next to his anus and had to have that repaired because he also could not poop. Both of them are doing fine. The stuff we do for our kitties.

Anal gland removal is an extremely dangerous surgery, and only done as a very last resort.  It's such a delicate area, and if the vet is one micron off, the cat will be incontinent for life.  You can learn how to express anal glands- it's pretty easy, albeit messy, or you can do as I do, and pop your cat into the vet every couple of months to have a tech do it (I don't do it at home because my cat FREAKS out, and sometimes they have to insert a finger into the anus to get a full expression).  Talk to your vet about adding Benefiber to the wet food- it's helped my Leonard.

Well, it's back to the vet today for blood work to start.  He also wants to do x-rays.  He's pretty confident it's not just plain constipation   This couldn't be happening at a worse time as I am leaving tomorrow to go spend Xmas with family and my landlord/roommate is looking after her.

ace1977ca said:

 
Well, it's back to the vet today for blood work to start.  He also wants to do x-rays.  He's pretty confident it's not just plain constipation   This couldn't be happening at a worse time as I am leaving tomorrow to go spend Xmas with family and my landlord/roommate is looking after her.

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Bad timing but good vet is going to do xrays.  Still sounds like an obstruction to me.

No news is good news?  I hope.  How is your kitty doing today?

Sorry I haven't updated....been crazy with holidays and travel. Zoe is doing much better now. Her blood work came back fine Xmas eve morning and just before I packed her up to come with me to my parents, she had a huge poop! I was so relieved! She has been having good healthy movements ever since and she really seems to like the pumpkin I'm putting in her food now!
Thanks to everyone for your kind words and advice!

YAY!!!!   

So good to hear!