Cat w/ Spinal Injury Leaking Liquid Stool - Diet Help Needed!

Hi everybody - 

I've never posted here before and have a lot of info to share so please bear with me.

I have a 6YO (7 in August) female Tortie named Taya. When she was a baby, she was involved in a car accident that broke her spine near the base and left her with residual nerve damage and an amputated tail. Despite the injury, she's still able to walk/run/jump/play. For a few weeks after the accident, she had trouble urinating and had to be expressed, but her nerves have since healed enough that she can urinate on her own. As far as pooping goes, she has very poor anal tone and cannot push stool out on her own, so it just falls out in little nuggets that I find all around my apartment (they are dry to the touch and leave no residue on the floor). The vet says she has no anal tone, but I have seen her sphincter contract and twitch (eek, I know, but she has no tail so it's always on display). She's prone to UTIs sometimes (vet says this is common in cats with spinal injuries/nerve damage), so I feed her Hills Prescription Diet Urinary Health c/d dry food, recommended by the vet, which I buy at the office.

Things were trucking along just fine until about 7 months ago. One weekend I noticed Taya acting very strange (she's temperamental and sassy all the time, but this was different). She was angry, very reclusive, hiding under furniture and beds, clearly uncomfortable, so I ran her over to the ER vet (not her normal vet), where they examined her and determined that she was very constipated and backed up with rock hard poop. Poor baby. They kept her for 2 days and flushed her out with enemas until she was clean, then I brought her home. Vet recommended a switch to canned food so I switched over to the wet food version of the Urinary Health c/d from Hills. She had another constipation episode (back to the vet for enemas) so I made the decision to keep her only on wet food.

Well, now we're experiencing the other end of the spectrum - far from being plugged up with huge stools that she can't pass (vet warned us about megacolon), she's leaking liquid poop all over the place. This started happening about two months ago but went away after about a week. Now it's back, and has been for the past 3.5 weeks. My carpet is covered in tiny dots from where she sits. There are old towels/blankets draped over all the furniture and the places she likes to hang out. Her backside smells terrible, poor thing. And I am so discouraged and nearly at my wit's end.

I love Taya and she's my baby, but I can't live like this. It smells awful, looks awful, and most of all, I feel so bad for her, because I want my clean kitty back! Despite all this, her mood is fine. She's not acting like she was when she was constipated so badly the first time. She still crawls onto my lap and wants to cuddle, bathes herself, eats and drinks, looks out the window etc. The vet warned us that stuff like this was common and that we might be dealing with it for the rest of Taya's life, her bouncing back and forth between hard, huge stools she can't pass that get backed up and liquid stool that leaks all over the place. He also said we should think about euthanasia if her quality of life becomes bad. That thought breaks my heart! Taya's only middle age. I owe it to her to try everything I can before just giving up on her. I knew when she first had her accident that it might get tricky, but I'm willing to try. I hope that with the proper regulation of her diet, we can fix this.

If anyone has any advice about what I can feed her/supplements/medications, I'm all ears. I admittedly know nothing about cat nutrition/fiber/etc - but I do know there are a lot of owners that have dealt/are dealing with issues like this with their own furbabies. So sorry for the novel, but I am finally desperate enough to appeal to others who are more knowledgeable than me about this kind of thing! Thanks all

Anna

Has the vet checked him since he started doing this?  Sometimes a constipated kitty will do  this.  The liquid is  going around the impaction.

You could try probiotics to improve his general digestive health.  If you  do  a search at the  top of  the  page for probiotics you will  find a number of threads with what different people  are using for  their kitties.

I know  a lot  of  people with kitties  that have Manx Syndrome use  diapers  and baby  onsies.  http://www.lovemeow.com/this-specia...per-everyday-but-hes-the-happ-1608446890.html  has a video clip with a kitten wearing her diaper.  Of course an adult would  take  awhile to get used to it. I know your kitty doesn't  have actual Manx Syndrome but it is also incontinence due to spinal nerve damage, it's just congenital rather than caused by injury.

If your kitty is actually constipated ask your vet about using Miralax.

Thanks for your reply. The vet has not seen her since this began a few weeks ago. I guess I just assumed that she was having liquid stools because she was eating only wet food all the time. She is still eating, drinking, bathing etc. Last time she was constipated she acted so strangely, but she has not been this time. I don't know, she may be constipated again. I've heard about the impaction issues and the liquid stool leaking around the poop.

Right now I can see a piece of stool ready to come out. When I touched it with a tissue to see if it was hard, it was somewhat formed but also gooey. She has had some random hard/gooey stools of various sizes on and off the past week (should have mentioned in original post, sorry) but still leaking. I will try to get her to the vet very soon.

I have thought about diapers, but Taya can be so sassy, I can't see her liking that at all. May be worth a shot though! Thank you for your help!

If too much wet food = liquid diarrhea and too much dry food = constipation, what do I feed her? Are we doomed to go through one or the other all the time until the end of her life? Yikes...

Can I ask is it the Hills Urinary C/D wet food you're feeding her? I had a cat who did great on the dry but the wet always made her runny. It worked well when I did a mixture of mostly wet, some dry. Balancing them might help.

Definitely get it checked that she's not backed up again. Being backed up can cause liquid poop but also goo. It squeezes around the hard stool as well.

Alternatively looking at things that help IBD kitties might be useful also. Perhaps slippery elm as it helps to bulk stool up but also helps it move through. Maybe a fibre supplement like psyllium or benefibre with the wet food (obviously talk to your vet about all this as I have no experience with kitties with spinal issues). If they're not helpful perhaps time to get a second opinion. I do hope you can get it sorted though

Hi there Tobilei! Yes, I have a supply of both wet and dry versions of the Hills Urinary Health C/D food as recommended by her vet. In a futile attempt to dry up her runny stools, I've been feeding Taya the dry version only for the past two weeks. Last night before bed I found that she'd dropped a good-sized piece of stool (I'd seen it poking out for a few hours). The turd was definitely formed and solid enough to hold together, but very gooey to the touch. Does this rule out possible constipation? Could she pass a fully-formed soft-ish piece of stool if she was backed up? It seems that the dry food only diet is slowly but surely causing her stool to solidify back to its usual dry and hard state. Now, I don't want it to become so dry and large that she can't pass it (she has poor colon motility according to the vet).

I guess I'm hoping for a best-case scenario in which she stops leaking poop and then we can sort of "start over" with regards to her diet. I wonder what to feed her from here on out. Her diet needs to be fine-tuned but I'm so lost with regards to what to feed a cat with these problems! I need to speak to the vet more about this, but he always gives me the impression that he thinks she's somewhat of a lost cause (I know, I know). I kind of get the impression that he expects owners in this situation to want to put the animal down rather than work through the issues and try to regulate things with diet. Sad I'll look into the slipper elm/fiber supplements. I've heard conflicting information with regards to whether a high fiber or low fiber diet is better for animals with these issues.

Thanks for your reply!

Hmm I would guess if she's firming up that no, she's not clogged. Poor little girl. It's hard when a vet thinks you shouldn't bother. Is it possible to find one in your area who does think it's worth bothering and will work with you a bit more easily? Mine is fantastic, she allows emails so you can just email questions and she goes into great detail if you require it about whatever you need to know. If you were in Australia I would send you to her!

I think it's just going to require some fiddling with the wet and dry amounts. She might need more wet than dry or she might need more dry than wet. Or maybe 50/50 once she's firm. A different food may work for her too. Hills don't do it but many royal canin foods are okay for urinary issues as well as something else. A digestive one might work better for her (Royal Canin Gastrointestinal). Just check is has urinary so index on the bag, those one's work for the urinary issue as well as what they're scripted for.

I do understand that fibre can be hit and miss (I have stomach issues and fibre is a nightmare on my system). The slippery elm though isn't a fibre. I have also read that boiled mashed pumpkin added to the food is good for regulating the bowel, although my cats will never eat it.

Sorry I can't be of any more help I'm glad she has you, sweet little thing (PS, we always love a picture around here, if you have one of her I'd love to see her!)

Oh wow. You've taken on a job that not many people could handle and seem to have been trucking along for quite a while. This sounds like it really might be an off and on thing for the rest of her life. It's not easy and I can understand the frustration of having your living environment basically destroyed by diarrhea and your worry's over Taya's health and well being. Have you thought about getting an indoor cat enclosure like the one below. You can lay a piece of sheet vinyl down and screw it into the wall. Put a cat tree, shelves, and other kitty essentials in it. It would be a place just for her that is easy to clean. It doesn't have to be an all the time thing but it in combination with cat diapers might make your living situation much more manageable. Also has anyone talked to you about the possibility of a fecal microbiota transplant? It's really effective for IBS in cats but it might help some in her case as well. It would be worth talking to a holistic vet about it at least.

Today she's back to leaking runny, gooey, light brown-colored poop all over the place. It just seems to ooze out. Not sure how we went from a few firm-ish turds back to this in the span of two days. As always, her mood is fine. She actually darted outside a few minutes ago and managed to catch a lizard, which I refused to let her bring inside, much to her annoyance. She's not an outside cat, but I let her roam around the porch as long as she's being watched and she loves that. She bit the lizard's tail off before I could get her away from him, poor guy haha.

There seems to be no end in sight for this! I don't know how to get her stool to firm up. She's still just eating the dry food (I haven't opened a can of wet in weeks) and no luck. It's back and forth. I'm going to take her into the vet and hope for the best. Maybe she's got some kind of bacteria that's throwing her bowels out of whack. I always tend to assume that whatever bowel problems she has are because of her spinal injury, but I know I owe it to her to make sure it's not something else! You never know, I guess!

I'm going to check out the Royal Canin food that you mentioned, Tobilei. I've seen it mentioned around here before. Do you need a prescription to purchase it? As far as the slippery elm, does that have any effect on the firmness of stool or is it just to help with colon motility? I tried a bit of canned, no sugar added pumpkin mixed in with her dry food and she ate it right up, so I guess she doesn't mind the way it tastes. I was afraid the pumpkin may have made the runny stool worse though. Not sure about that.

Thanks for the idea about the kitty enclosure, MingsMongols. Ideally she'd hang out in there and not complain, but I don't know... She roams around the house a lot and loves to cuddle. I can hear her sassy mouth now if I tried to shut her in something like that, haha. But it's a good idea and may be something that I have to revisit if I can't get her diet regulated. I haven't heard of a fecal microbiota transplant - what's that? 

Here are some photos of the ol' gal. She's a sweet girl, and I wish she wasn't having to go through all this



 (I love that blonde toe  )

Update: Found out today that Taya is backed up again with dry, hard poop. Poor girl. I finally got her in to the vet (she's been acting normal, still eating, playing, bathing etc., didn't seem to be in pain like last time she was so constipated). I thought that she wasn't constipated this time since she was passing a few soft stools from time to time. I feel so bad that she's having to go through this again. They're going to keep her, sedate her, and clean her out again. I'm desperate now to figure out what to feed her from here on out, so that this doesn't happen again! I'm afraid if I go back on wet food only she'll leak all over the house still. Poor girl. If anyone has any advice on what to feed a cat with a spinal injury who has poor colon motility and is prone to constipation, please let me know. I'm desperate for anything.

Anna

ald8 said:

 
Update: Found out today that Taya is backed up again with dry, hard poop. Poor girl. I finally got her in to the vet (she's been acting normal, still eating, playing, bathing etc., didn't seem to be in pain like last time she was so constipated). I thought that she wasn't constipated this time since she was passing a few soft stools from time to time. I feel so bad that she's having to go through this again. They're going to keep her, sedate her, and clean her out again. I'm desperate now to figure out what to feed her from here on out, so that this doesn't happen again! I'm afraid if I go back on wet food only she'll leak all over the house still. Poor girl. If anyone has any advice on what to feed a cat with a spinal injury who has poor colon motility and is prone to constipation, please let me know. I'm desperate for anything.

Anna

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Oh she's just beautiful! I have a blue tortie and she has a blonde tail tip. I had another classic tortie a couple of years ago Layla who looked so much like her. I miss her terribly.

How are things going now? I'm sorry I didn't get back to you before now! Sometimes I get on here a few days running, other times it's a while between visits and last time I was here I couldn't find this post!

Yes, the Royal Canin Gastrointestinal is prescription, as is Hill's I/D. Dry food you could maybe try Royal Canin Sensible33, it's not prescription. They also make a wet called Digest Sensitive which might help without having to try prescription food.

Slippery Elm works a little like fibre in that it bulks up the stool. It helps with both diarrhea and constipation. Many IBD kitties have success with it for their diarrhea. You can either sprinkle it over her food or make a paste and give it to her via syringe (if she's okay with that method it might work better, she'll need plenty of water/wet food as well if you decide to give it a try).

She's beautiful. I'm sorry she's going through all health issues.

To me it seems like the diarrhea is related to constipation. As has been mentioned, it can be a response to constipation. With a kitty that has nerve damage and trouble with hard stool, you may want to consider asking the vet about Cisapride. It helps move things along in cats digestive track and may make everything more consistent. It can be compounded into a liquid by a compounding pharmacy. My cat Booberry's is flavored "Tuna pu ke" and he gets it as an appetizer (via syringe) before meals twice a day. He was a stray who had been hit by a car and had a broken pelvis in 2013.

Another thing to consider is probiotics that can help a kitty re-establish the proper gut bacteria to correct diarrhea if it isn't related to the constipation. Vets have this stuff you can sprinkle over their food called Fortiflora. It really helped one of my cats get things back in balance who suffered from IBD and colitis.

If you don't have a compounding pharmacy, Cisapride can also be sent in liquid form from Petmeds. It's definitely a prescription. My vet has mee bring Booberry back every six months to evaluate him on the medication. Since he started on it--no enemas.

Hello, so sorry Taya has this issue. May I suggest that you give her some canned PUMPKIN (NOT the pie filling) for her stool problem?? It is a yummy natural fiber itself, can help as a stool softener, as it is VERY soft coming right out of the can, most cats and dogs love the taste, and is good for hair ball control as well. I learned about it from my Vet years ago. I transfer the unused portion of the can into ice trays and thaw out ice cubes daily as treats and to mix directly into my two cats' meals! Perhaps this will give Taya some comfort.