Glamazon Siamese Big Baby CAN'T POOP

[clevergirlcats]

Hey, fellow cat people. I'm at my wit's end. Percy's backed up, and we need help.

Please bear with me as I fill in some background...

Percy is a 12-year-old neutered male; he's a former feral, heavy on the Siamese genes. Unfortunately, he seems prone to all the... let's call them "Siamese challenges." He's almost certainly allergic to chicken, shellfish, and some types of fish (but apparently not salmon?). He also deals with feline hyperesthesia, which has been controlled well by phenobarbital for the past 5ish years (and hasn't damaged his sweet disposition).

He's been treated for strongly suspected IBD for the past year, likely triggered by chicken allergy. I really thought we were going to lose him, but a little budesonide + Vitamin B12 + plus a diet protein change, and he gained back all his lost weight & energy and stopped vomiting. (He was in such poor health at the time, he was never diagnosed by a biopsy, but an abdominal ultrasound showed classic early stage IBD signs and the internist later suggested that his swift recovery with minimal meds made gastro cancer unlikely at this time. A year later, he's still going strong with minimal flare-ups, so I'm inclined to relax a tiny bit and believe her.)

Except, of course, his poop problems.

The underyling problem here is... Percy is a very picky eater. He's like a kid who only wants to eat the same PB&J sandwich with the crusts cut off exactly the same way, every meal, every day. I've had cats my whole life, and I've never seen a pickier eater. He will not touch pate of any flavor and hates dry food. The only non-fish, non-chicken cat food I've found that he'll eat is Lotus Just Juicy Pork... and I think this new low-fiber food is backing him up.

Since we switched to Lotus after his dramatic initial flare-up, both my cats developed constipation issues! Removing my other cat (Henry) from the Lotus food resolved his constipation, but I can't find anything else Percy can + will eat! I've tried every psychological food-introduction trick in the book (mixing, changing ratios, offering a teaspoon of new food and then taking it away, etc. etc.) and every protein I can get my hands on.

We've tried Miralax and Lactulose and pumpkin powder mixed with his food; none of them have solved the problem. I've tried blending the food and adding water and pumpkin, serving it as a disgusting meat smoothie. And my poor guy is still horribly backed up, straining hard, producing either tiny hard feces or alarmingly large logs. (Urination is normal; bloodwork is perfect; weight is stable. It's just the hard, dense feces giving him trouble, and nothing seems to help.)

At the end of the post, I'm asking for advice from anyone who has been through something like this. Food suggestions? Laxative lineups that worked wonders for you? Probiotics? Supplements? Hyponsis tricks that work on cats??? I'll take any advice I haven't tried! I'm terrified the straining is going to irritate his entire system again and throw us into another vomiting flare-up or turn into megacolon.

Thanks so much for reading this super long post from a newbie! I'll attach a picture of Percy for the forum tax. He is truly a good boy. He takes medicine like an absolute champ; he just won't try any new foods!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! Oh, my gracious, he is !!gorgeous!!

I lovelovelove meezers and lookalikes

I am not a vet, but I will say that s. Boulardii is helping keep my boy's poops more normal.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

When you tried the Miralax, how did you try giving it? It needs to be dissolved in a little water first, which Vets don't often tell people. When my cats get constipated, Miralax is my "go to", and it hasn't let me down yet, but it does usually take a day or two to work. And I've found I need to give it regularly if they have chronic constipation (say if they only eat low fiber food). In addition to using Miralax, our Vet said to give Laxatone (which is very similar to Hairball gel) every day until they have a bowel movement. She said the Miralax will help anything in the intestines, but if there is anything right at the end ready to come out that is hard as a rock, it won't help soften that, so the Laxatone with help grease the wheels to get that part out. I tried that with one particularly bad episode and it worked!

Probiotics might help, but you might need to pill him. Many people use Nexabiotic probiotics, which also include S. Boulardi mentioned above.

OR, have you tried adding something like psyllium husk powder to his food for extra fiber? Perhaps he wouldn't notice it as much as pumpkin powder.

 

[clevergirlcats]

Thank you both so much for your helpful suggestions! Furballsmom mrsgreenjeens

I'll definitely give the probiotics & psyllium husk powder (which I'd never even heard of!) a try! He has a low acceptance threshold for the pumpkin, so that sounds like a great idea for getting more fiber in.

A vet advised me to mix the Miralax in with his (wet) food daily, no more than 1/8 tsp a day. Is that similar to the doses that have worked for your cats, mrsgreenjeens ? Percy is a big muscular tank of a guy at 16.5 lbs, so it seemed a little low to me. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do anything for softening up his stools at our current dosage & method.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

My big guy who was on Miralax weighed in at 15 pounds when he needed it, and his dose was 1/8 - 1/4 teas. (always mixed with water BEFORE adding to his wet food) TWICE a day. Once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. He is the third cat of ours who has needed Miralax at times, and the dosing has always been the same. We have to adjust depending on what's happening. With a different cat, if we gave too much, he would sometimes squeeze out tiny little turds that looked like small shell pasta shapes while he was lying down and not even realize he did it, but he was quite ill at the time with kidney disease, thus the need for it in the first place. But if we didn't give him enough, he would strain and even fall down trying to use the litter box .

I cannot reiterate enough though, it needs to be dissolved in water before adding to food. I would say at least 1 teaspoon of water for 1/8 teas. of Miralax. More if you use 1/4 teas.

 

[di and bob]

My big guy was given 1/4 tsp. of Miralax mixed with a little water (about a Tablespoon) and then into a beaten egg yolk twice a day too. It was the ONLY thing that worked!

 

[clevergirlcats]

mrsgreenjeens Thank you SO much!! Yeah, I thought that initial dosage from the vet sounded a little light...

At this point, I'd much rather deal with a little experimental accident on the carpet or two than a backed up cat.

Really, can't thank you enough for sharing your experiences and what worked for you. It feels good to have a few new tricks in my toolbox.

 

[clevergirlcats]

Ah, the egg yolk is an interesting idea! Maybe my guy will want to eat it more. Thanks a bunch, di and bob !

 

[casportpony]

clevergirlcats , did the vet mention "mega-colon" as a possible problem?

 

[lisahe]

My big guy was given 1/4 tsp. of Miralax mixed with a little water (about a Tablespoon) and then into a beaten egg yolk twice a day too. It was the ONLY thing that worked!

Egg yolk, yes, is also good. And all your need is a small amount.

Our cat who tends toward constipation has improved a lot since we started giving her Vet's Best hairball relief tablets (psyllium seed is one ingredient, so there's fiber!) last year. She's been doing even better since we added Adored Beast's Feline Gut Soothe into her diet. Ireland's now far less picky about her food (that's apparently often a sign of constipation) and generally, hm, in a better mood. Gut Soothe's positive effect on her was a total surprise for us: I started giving it to her for the probiotics' general help but never thought it would bring her back to eating better food after she'd decided she wanted to eat almost exclusively dry food.

We bought Feline Gut Soothe for our cat who, like Percey, has presumed IBD. Edwina has had an inflammation problem forever. FGS has probiotics plus herbs and it's done wonders for her, drastically cutting back on her vomiting. She had to have patches of her stomach removed last summer so we definitely want to keep that from happening again!

Good luck, clevergirlcats , I hope you're able to resolve Percy's problem soon.

 

[clevergirlcats]

clevergirlcats , did the vet mention "mega-colon" as a possible problem?

That was my big worry too. Luckily, his ultrasound was perfectly normal except for the "mild all-over thickening" of the intestinal lining (which led to the presumed IBD diagnosis). I've heard that IBD & megacolon can go hand in hand like two horrible besties, though, so of course I want to get his bowels moving again as fast as possible!!

 

[clevergirlcats]

Gut Soothe's positive effect on her was a total surprise for us: I started giving it to her for the probiotics' general help but never thought it would bring her back to eating better food after she'd decided she wanted to eat almost exclusively dry food.

Thank you so much for the suggetions!! I'll see if I can get my hands on some Gut Soothe and sneak it into his meat smoothies. So glad Ireland & Edwina are feeling better... I know how the chronic vomiting just tears you apart to see.

 

[lisahe]

Thank you so much for the suggetions!! I'll see if I can get my hands on some Gut Soothe and sneak it into his meat smoothies. So glad Ireland & Edwina are feeling better... I know how the chronic vomiting just tears you apart to see.

Yes, chronic vomiting is just awful. As is constipation, for different reasons, of course.

The interesting thing about Feline Gut Soothe is that Ireland (the constipated cat who's picky) absolutely loves it but Edwina (the chronic vomiter who eats anything) isn't thrilled about it. FGS doesn't work for all cats but it's been surprisingly effective for both of ours. It did take a couple months to get to full effect since we started small for both cats.

No matter what you try or what works, I hope you're able to figure something out soon for Percy!

 

[clevergirlcats]

HE POOPED! An actual one-piece sort of normal-looking poop! This is the first one in a week!

Everybody, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I'm excited to try these supplement suggestions and see what helps in the long term, but for now, I'm just so relieved. Special thanks to lisahe and di and bob for suggesting egg yolk, and to mrsgreenjeens for getting my Miralax dosage sorted!

A combination of those two changes over the past few days seems to have loosened him up a bit in the meantime while we wait for the supplements and our next vet visit today.
Seriously, yall catsiters are the best!!!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Yay! I'm so happy for you, and most of all, for Percy. He's got to feel better now

 

[lisahe]

I'm very glad to hear that he pooped -- egg yolk can really work well!

I hope you're able to get his gut back into shape relatively soon. If he's taking any oral (pharma) meds and you try the Feline Gut Soothe (or any other supplement with slippery elm bark or marshmallow root for that matter), it's worth checking with your vet about giving the oral meds an hour or two apart from the supplement. There's some concern that those ingredients may inhibit absorption of oral meds if they're given simultaneously. (I try to plan ahead when I give Edwina her Cerenia, though my timing has been off majorly a few times and she still did fine. Of course barfing and IBD aren't always very predictable!)

Good luck and please let us know how Percy does in the coming days. Fingers crossed that he continues to poop well and maybe get a little less picky about his food now that he's not so constipated.

This page, by the way, has good information about how much egg yolk to use, if you're considering continuing it:

How Best to Manage Hairballs

Hairballs are an early warning sign of a motility problem in cats. This article describes how best to manage hairballs.

www.foodfurlife.com

I used to add egg yolk (pretty close to the max mentioned here) but stopped because of suspicions that Edwina was sensitive to egg yolk. Egg is apparently a common issue for cats. (I nixed egg and fish at the same time and am not sure what, exactly, helped!)