I have read through pretty much every thread on constipation, lactulose, cisapride, miralax and megacolon on this site. It has made me feel like i'm not all that alone in dealing with a kitty with chronic constipation issues, but I'm not sure what to do anymore. My Noah is about to turn 8 and he has had issues with constipation for the last 3 years, but nothing that ever required the vet, or so I thought. Last year it started happening more often and for longer bouts, but I figured it was dietary and made adjustments. I feel like such a bad cat mom knowing now what i know. Had I dealt with this a year ago it may not be as bad as it is.
Never the less, at the beginning of January of this year, he got really bad to the point where I said enough was enough and I took him to the vet. He was so backed up she had to give him an enema to clean him out. She told me he didn't seem to have megacolon as that was my major concern, and she suggested a high fibre diet and manual massage if he got another build up in his rectum. She also said we could do surgery, but we didn't want to do that if it wasn't our only option. Fast forward to 3 weeks later and he was backed up even worse from the high fibre food and my husband was ready to have him put down. The surgery my vet suggested was a colopexy, which from my own research is not common in cats. It is a specialty surgery and we were looking at approx. $4000 (cdn) if she referred us out, but our vet said she could help us out financially and do it herself, but we had to understand she hadn't ever done this specific surgery before. I managed to get my husband to agree to the surgery which ended up costing $1500 + meds - still a lot of money for us considering we are expecting our first child in 2 months, our only car just kicked the bucket, and we are trying to save up for our first home.....things has been really tough lately.
Through reading on here I heard of lactulose and cisapride and mentioned those to my vet to help keep the stool soft and moving along post surgery and she said they both would be a good idea, along with a low fibre canned food diet. She said during the surgery she felt a pocket in his rectum where poop has been sitting and building up causing a blockage thus not allowing him to follow through in the cat box. She didn't do anything to fix this at the time as she didn't feel it was necessary.
Post surgery our vet had us giving him 2ccs of Lactulose 3x a day, and .5ccs of cisapride 3x a day for the first 5 days, but he got really bad diarrhea 24 hours after the surgery so she said to drop the lactulose down to 1cc 3x a day. We did this and he was still pooping pudding-like poop, which was still too soft. I decided to drop one of the doses of lactulose and cisapride and he pooped one more time, but that was it.. that was sunday night (he had the surgery last Wednesday). fast forward to last night (wednesday) and I was starting to freak out that he was getting all backed up again and putting strain on his colon he had sutured to his abdominal wall. He has been trying to go the last couple nights but with no success. He hasn't been straining to go, but when he tried nothing came out. I went out and picked up some Restoralax (canadian version of Miralax) and started him on a 1/4 tsp dose this morning with his food and then again at lunch time along with his .5 ccs of Cisapride (which I have started giving to him 3x a day again), and this afternoon he tried going and only pooped a soft little nugget the size of a dime...I know there is more poop in his colon though. He has been eating daily, and there is a soft build up in his rectum just above his tail. I have tried manually massaging his rectum as instructed by my vet, but so far he just struggles to complete a poop. We go in to the vet tomorrow to have his stitches out and we have to let her know that things are not working out as hoped. We are financially strapped and I am feeling really overwhelmed by this whole ordeal. I haven't cried and felt so depressed since my sister passed away 5 years ago. I love my kitty, but my husband doesn't want to spend anymore money on him as the cost has accumulated to over $2000 in the last 2 months, and I know that once our little girl arrives in April its going to be too much for me to handle; its hard enough right now. I'm afraid we will have to have him put down and it just breaks my heart, but I feel like we have no other options. Just saying such words causes such feelings of guilt.
Never the less, at the beginning of January of this year, he got really bad to the point where I said enough was enough and I took him to the vet. He was so backed up she had to give him an enema to clean him out. She told me he didn't seem to have megacolon as that was my major concern, and she suggested a high fibre diet and manual massage if he got another build up in his rectum. She also said we could do surgery, but we didn't want to do that if it wasn't our only option. Fast forward to 3 weeks later and he was backed up even worse from the high fibre food and my husband was ready to have him put down. The surgery my vet suggested was a colopexy, which from my own research is not common in cats. It is a specialty surgery and we were looking at approx. $4000 (cdn) if she referred us out, but our vet said she could help us out financially and do it herself, but we had to understand she hadn't ever done this specific surgery before. I managed to get my husband to agree to the surgery which ended up costing $1500 + meds - still a lot of money for us considering we are expecting our first child in 2 months, our only car just kicked the bucket, and we are trying to save up for our first home.....things has been really tough lately.
Through reading on here I heard of lactulose and cisapride and mentioned those to my vet to help keep the stool soft and moving along post surgery and she said they both would be a good idea, along with a low fibre canned food diet. She said during the surgery she felt a pocket in his rectum where poop has been sitting and building up causing a blockage thus not allowing him to follow through in the cat box. She didn't do anything to fix this at the time as she didn't feel it was necessary.
Post surgery our vet had us giving him 2ccs of Lactulose 3x a day, and .5ccs of cisapride 3x a day for the first 5 days, but he got really bad diarrhea 24 hours after the surgery so she said to drop the lactulose down to 1cc 3x a day. We did this and he was still pooping pudding-like poop, which was still too soft. I decided to drop one of the doses of lactulose and cisapride and he pooped one more time, but that was it.. that was sunday night (he had the surgery last Wednesday). fast forward to last night (wednesday) and I was starting to freak out that he was getting all backed up again and putting strain on his colon he had sutured to his abdominal wall. He has been trying to go the last couple nights but with no success. He hasn't been straining to go, but when he tried nothing came out. I went out and picked up some Restoralax (canadian version of Miralax) and started him on a 1/4 tsp dose this morning with his food and then again at lunch time along with his .5 ccs of Cisapride (which I have started giving to him 3x a day again), and this afternoon he tried going and only pooped a soft little nugget the size of a dime...I know there is more poop in his colon though. He has been eating daily, and there is a soft build up in his rectum just above his tail. I have tried manually massaging his rectum as instructed by my vet, but so far he just struggles to complete a poop. We go in to the vet tomorrow to have his stitches out and we have to let her know that things are not working out as hoped. We are financially strapped and I am feeling really overwhelmed by this whole ordeal. I haven't cried and felt so depressed since my sister passed away 5 years ago. I love my kitty, but my husband doesn't want to spend anymore money on him as the cost has accumulated to over $2000 in the last 2 months, and I know that once our little girl arrives in April its going to be too much for me to handle; its hard enough right now. I'm afraid we will have to have him put down and it just breaks my heart, but I feel like we have no other options. Just saying such words causes such feelings of guilt.