Phoebe's Constipated!

Help!!!

We adopted 1 year old Phoebe who is a Russian Blue 3 weeks ago and she has been having toilet troubles ever since she arrived. Her previous owners say they don't know if she had the problem while with them because she always went to the toilet outside.

She only goes about every 2nd or 3rd day and when she does she poops little black marbles and seems to have trouble pushing it out. The past few times there have been some normally formed poopies following the marbles so I haven't been compelled to take her to the vet.

She eats Eukanuba dry food (third of a cup) for breakfast then about 150g fresh cat meat for dinner. Is there anything I could add to her diet that will provide more fibre or other essential ingredients? I've read other posts about Eukanuba and most cats seem to have problems with diarrhea rather than constipation.

Phoebe is also unusually overweight too which might somehow be related to this problem but I'm not sure. She likes to have her stomach massaged and I can feel little lumps in her tummy which I'm not sure is normal.

Any advice on how to help Phoebe overcome this uncomfortable problem would be much appreciated!


Lisa

You can either start giving her some laxatone every few days, or you can give her a teaspoon of vegetable oil once a week. It may not be an ongoing problem, she may just be a little constipated from the enviroment change or a switch in food. In either case, try either of the 2 just the once and see if it helps.

You should probably contact your vet to get some answers so you can help your cat feel better as soon as possible. Getting some tests done will probably be a good idea--your vet will probably be able to tell you what is causing the problem.

Good luck to you both!

Lynn

Lisa, My cat, Billy, has been having a problem with constipation for almost a year. I have had to take him to the Vet every 2-3 months to have his colon cleaned out. Now his problem seems to be recurring more often.

The lumps that you feel in the belly of your cat could be that the feces is backed up in the colon. Have you noticed you cat straining when trying to have a bowel movement?

My Vet told me that 1/4 teaspoon of Metamucil twice a day or 1 teaspoon of crushed Bran Flakes would help, but I would recommend that you see your Vet before giving this to your cat for your cat's problem could be different than mine. I tried the Metamucil but my cat would eat very little of it on his food. Also, I have searched on the Internet and found that feline constiipation is relatively common in pets. Look at web site:
www.cah.com/library/felconstip.html. It states that surgery for this problem is very sucessful in cats. It is subtotal colectomy and major
surgery, according to this report.

Since my cat has had this problem for quite sometime I DO plan to find someone that can perform this surgery even though it is major surgery. I believe without it my cat will not live. The procedure that I have done now requires that he be put to sleep every time it is done and since it is becoming more requent I do plan to do the surgery.

Hope this information will help you.

P J

Lisa,

A vet call would be a good idea just to be safe. You can start moistening the dry kitty kibble with a little bit of water. You can also give kitty some canned pumpkin with her wet food to see if she will eat it. It is great source of fiber, and most cats love it. Good luck!

Hi Lisa,

My first kitty is now 11 years old and happens to be a Russian Blue, too. Her poopies have always been hard as marbles that have no moisture and roll around. Before we got other kitties, I thought this was normal for a cat. I refer to her as leaving me a pearl necklace cuz. . .well that's what it looked like a string of pearls

She has always pooped 1x a day, though, so that is different from Phoebe, and I can't say she has difficulty; cats normally make a bigger deal out of pooping vs peeing I've noticed.. . .more scratching, sniffing, covering, etc. She also stands on the edge of the box to poop, which I read that some Russian Blues are prone to.

I can't add much more to others people's advice.. .a gradual change of diet might help her, perhaps trying an all wet food diet? and maybe more exercise? Also, one of our cats has a marbley tummy too, but she poops "regular" poops.