Cat got enema earlier this evening, kind of worried

Hi all, I'm new here and I'm a bit anxious about my cat Trix. She's been lethargic and was straining to the point of crying out. She stopped eating and drinking so we (husband, sister, and me) took her to the emergency animal hospital nearby. they did a full blood panel and a urine, both of which came back stellar for her age of 14 years. When they tried to get a temp they found that she had a hard stool in her rectum so they gave her some pain medication, an enema, anti nausea medication, and some SubQ fluids.

We got her home and have her in her own room since we have another cat and are trying to monitor her output. It's been a little over 4 hours and she's just been hiding under the couch in that room looking pretty stoned and she hasn't passed any stool or urine. Is this normal? Could the pain med (buprenorphine) and/or the nausea med (cerenia) be contributing to her not passing anything? How long until I should freak out and get her to the vet again?

Ahhhh so many questions. I'm just scared because I adore this little girl. I've only had her a year. I adopted her after my previous cat passed away after being my constant companion for 15 years so I'm obviously not wanting to lose another beloved friend so soon.

Thanks all.

Sorry no one has responded.  Has she passed anything yet?  I'm sure hoping so!  If not, I would definitely call your Vet back, which I'm guessing you have already, if nothing transpired.

Hoping everything is ok by now. 

Hi there, thank you so much for your response. She ended up having a pretty terrible night so we brought her to another vet that my sister swears by. She was 100% right on. The vet examined Trixie and found that she had a large rock hard ball of stool blocking her up. They anesthetized her and removed it. It was a good thing they did because she was crashing pretty bad after not eating for close to a week. She was given injections of antibiotics, pain relief, and a steroid to ease swelling.

We got her home and she's like a completely new cat. Eating, playing, bunting, and being her sweet little self. We were recommended to supplement her food with miralax and if she experiences another bout of constipation we can give her lactulose. She also needs to be on SubQ fluids for the next 5 days.

All in all a very happy ending.

Wow I'm so glad to hear she's ok. Did they tell you what could have caused that?

So glad she's better now.   I've had two senior cats that needed to be on Miralax for chronic constipation.  Worked like a charm.  I gave it to my cats twice a day,morning and night and boy could I tell if a missed a dose. 

Do you feed only wet food?  That really helps.  Dry food is exactly that....dry.  and they need moisture to keep thing moving along, particularly as they get older, just like with us humans

KittensNCoffee said:

Wow I'm so glad to hear she's ok. Did they tell you what could have caused that?

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There were a number of different ideas going around in the vet's office. One was that this could have been a chronic problem that became acute when she became stressed by the introduction of a new cat into our home. He would often chase her out of the litter boxes we put out so she may have been holding it and it went too long causing a blockage. We remedied the problem a little too late when we bought a 3rd box and put it in her safe spot. She uses it exclusively now and has been doing great.

Another idea was that she's a medium haired cat and may have had fur gumming up the works. We've addressed that now as well with routine hair ball treatment since she doesn't tolerate brushing. When I brush her I have to be very sneaky and get her when she's sound asleep.

She's been doing great though now. She's completely her 3 days of SubQ fluids at home and is eating and eliminating regularly now. I add 1/8 teaspoon of miralax to her food each day per the vet's suggestion and this will hopefully keep her moving freely.

mrsgreenjeens said:

So glad she's better now.   I've had two senior cats that needed to be on Miralax for chronic constipation.  Worked like a charm.  I gave it to my cats twice a day,morning and night and boy could I tell if a missed a dose. 

Do you feed only wet food?  That really helps.  Dry food is exactly that....dry.  and they need moisture to keep thing moving along, particularly as they get older, just like with us humans

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I definitely feed her wet food pretty much exclusively. I have some dry food (both by Merrick) that I offer when I'm away so she can snack. She's very dainty so she doesn't eat much at all. The dry food will last her a week and she eats one small can of food a day. I offer her as much as she likes but she wasted a lot of food in the beginning. Her appetite is much better now though so I'm guessing that some of her pickiness was due to not feeling well.

She's very much a different cat now. Very sweet and getting on well with our other cat so I think she was sick for a while. I took her to two different vets when she was adopted and both said she was fine. They won't be seeing her again. The new vet is on top of her game and fixed everything in a day.