Anyone dealing with frequent constipation in their cat due to renal disease?

Cottage_Economy

My elderly cat had to have an emergency colonic irrigation on Friday night as she had been extremely constipated and vet administered enemas didn't work.

She's 18, has the beginnings of renal disease so is on special renal food, and also has dementia. She has a bird-like appetite so getting lots of food into her is a problem. Despite bowls of water everywhere and adding extra water to her food she became constipated.

After about 15 hours at the vets, being cleaned out, and rehydrated with an IV the vet said she was really pleased with her progress, was eating and drinking normally and had peed and poo'ed normally that morning. The vet was sure that her bowels were working normally and it wasn't that they had packed up.

She had a couple of stress related poos on the way home Saturday lunchtime and since then nothing, despite eating and drinking normally, and now she's back in the tray straining again and there are all sorts of noises coming from her back end.

I've just added a little oil to her food in the hope that may lubricate everything, and she's due back at the vet for a check up Tuesday.

The renal disease means her body is absorbing a lot of water from her colon which it wouldn't take as much of normally, so how can I help get more water into her and stop this from repeatedly happening?

Gold_Dust_2

Sounds like your cat needs a laxative added to her food, one that will help her stools to retain some water. See this page for some information:

http://www.felineconstipation.org

It's best to ask your vet which one is most suitable for a cat in her condition, or if one is even suitable at all. When my cat had chronic constipation, the vet gave me lactulose to add to his food.

You can try giving her some plain chicken broth (nothing but the water that's had boiled chicken in it), mine found that quite tempting.

And this is just for a laugh, because I know how stressful it can be:

http://www.catenema.com/?m=0

All the best

donnac2558

Yes. Big Zanzi 15 gets constipation, I freaked the first time as I thought he could not pee. He was on the litter tray crying and not going.

He has been in to the vet and cleared out. Vet who I trust told me simple I have to give him 3mls a day Lactulose by oral syringe. I just buy the Lactulose in the chemist(vet did tell me to just buy a bottle. But never tell the chemist its for the cat as they will not sell it to you), he has to get it orally to make sure he has it.

He does two big poos a week and a few small balls every couple of days. I also give both mine a cold liver oil tablet for their joins but I think that helps with the constipation too. They get one tablet twice a week.

chocdonuty

It could be that the special vet only and probably expensive cat food may not be helping if it's a dry food, I'm only going on others recommendations here and am certainly not a vet but wet food and possibly raw may help a lot as it contains a lot of moisture and obviously dry does not so liquids have to be gained elsewhere and a lot of cats simply don't drink much.
It's worth looking into as what the vet sells you may not always be the best, just be warned though some advocates of the raw diet are very passionate and while I get their point and agree with a raw diet in principal everyone has to make their own decision on what to feed their cats to suit them best
Lactolose may be a possibility too, and like the pp said never mention it's for a cat! I work in a pharmacy and have to refuse a sale if I know it's for an animal although I know some items are reccomended by vets themselves, quite how you get a dog to take pepto bismol or cough medicine I'm not sure lol!

kitty08

My cat sounds very similar to yours. As her renal disease has progressed she has become more prone to bouts of constipation. She is also VERY strong willed, (impossible to pill!) and as the disease has progressed has become fussier with what she eats. We started with lactulose, but she just refused to take it in any form. She won't eat dairy, so mixing it with a little yogurt or cheese spread (as recommended by of of my vets) didn't work for her. The vet has now prescribed Peridale for her (capsules containing granules, which you sprinkle over / mix in with food) to relieve her constipation. To begin with we just gave her one capsule twice a day for 2 days whenever she showed signs of being constipated, but recently the vet has recommended that we give her peridale twice a day every day for a week, and then a week off, and keep repeating this pattern. So far, it seems to be working.:) Good luck!

Cottage_Economy

Thanks for the advice guys and sorry for not coming back sooner. It's been a nightmare. Nothing is working.

She only eats wet food, as dry food gives her cystitis because she doesn't drink enough water. For one day she allowed me to feed her liquidised food with a syringe and then the next day refused it. I've been through multiple brands of cat food, renal and otherwise, and her favourite human food. Chicken, which she loves, is now disregarded, as is mince and tuna. Cod was briefly enjoyed and now refused.

She cannot be pilled, never have been able to, and is now refusing to be medicated. Any attempt to put a laxative in her food is met with a total refusal to eat the food. Even one drop in an entire liquidised pouch of food is met with refusal. The same food liquidised without is licked and an attempt made to eat although not a lot before she goes off it. She's been the same over worming tablets and antibiotics over the years. Always either an injection or a spot on treatment has to be used.

We put a drop of the laxative in one 2ml syringe if liquidised food tonight, figuring we'd just get this done instead of keep wasting tons of food trying to deceive her, and she started foaming at the mouth with stress. I didn't even get the syringe in the corner of her mouth before she was a foaming mess, but I still had a go and got some of it in, but I just cannot see how we can continue this. I don't want her to keel over with heart failure from stress. The foaming is almost like a defence mechanism that forms a literal barrier to getting anything past it.

She is not drinking anywhere enough water. Chicken or tuna water is left untouched. We've put tons of water bowls around the house which she is using, but not enough.

I'm trying to stay positive, but really I'm at screaming pitch. My whole life for the last 7 days has been monitoring her deterioration. She's done a few nobbles, nothing of any significance, so she is completely bunged up again. She has been peeing all over the carpets in stress.

As she is his cat, my husband has a decision to make and he knows it, but he just won't make it. She is stick thin and in my opinion suffering as we try and cajole/assist/force her to eat and drink. I believe that the dementia means she sometimes doesn't know who we are and so is getting frightened by two apparent strangers tying to get food into her mouth.

Cottage_Economy

Ok, I've calmed down a bit (I was soooooo frustrated earlier on).

Thank you to the lovely poster who sent me a PM earlier.

We've come to the conclusion that we will have to take her to the vet as there has been no movement from her back end for a long time an she is distressed.

Although I have given her two small doses of lactulose today, reading up every resource I can I don't think it will work until the impacted matter is removed. It will just sort of back up behind the hard stuff, maybe even leak around it. I think we have to start with a clean colon, which will mean having her knocked out again.

I just wish the vet had told me more about how to manage this when I spoke to her last Saturday. i could have started her on lactulose or something similar straight away.

The little lady has had a reasonable amount of food today, but of course it isn't going anywhere. I made a good broth for her from freshly cooked lamb which she drank all of. That was a good 40ml in her in one go. Then she had some more broth made from warm water and hills pate food. Now she's eying up some chicken broth. I also managed to get a further 5ml of fresh water into her with a syringe.

Lots of fluid but no solid stuff from her back end yet. We will persevere.

dandelionclock30

I feel sorry for you how awful for the cat. If it was me I would be asking the vet what they thought was the best for her.It may be kinder to let her go. Sorry that you have to go through all this, it sounds very upsetting.

gardengull

My cat is a continuous groomer, so he gets clogged up with fur balls, and we can tell because he sits/cowers on all fours, and doesn't let his tummy touch the floor (and generally looks a bit sorry for himself).

The vet prescribed Liquid paraffin (of course, he didn't tell me it was Liquid Parrafin until after he'd dosed him, and I'd paid £23 for 20mls). However you live and learn. Now I buy it from the (human) chemist. I reuse the same liquid syringe the vet gave me. My cat weighs 5kg exactly, and the prescribed dose for him is 2mls (which is usually enough to get things going).

Following Paddpaws comment below, I have removed part of this post for puddycat safety reasons. I do not want to give what might be duff or dangerous advice as I am not an expert.

The thing to remember is that you're doing it for his good, only he doesn't know that and will fight you harder the longer it goes on. Better to be nasty quickly than slowly.

I wish you the best of luck.

paddypaws101

Please NEVER syringe liquid paraffin into your cat by force. LP is safe as long as the cat swallows it....best with food....but can cause deadly inhalation pneumonia if forced upon the cat in the way described above

Cottage_Economy

Well, she went in this afternoon and the vet was of the opinion that really she hasn't got long for this world. After feeling her abdomen for a good long while she offered to keep her in over night, put her in an IV, do a blood test, a urinalysis and then an abdomen x-ray to check for megacolon if we wanted, but really she didn't seem that keen.

However, hubby said he would rather know all the info before he made the decision to have her out to sleep, so the vet agreed.

Three hours later the vet rang up and had changed her mind.

The blood test and urine test showed the kidneys were shot, which we knew, but that can be managed. Until a cat's kidneys are about 65% shot the effects don't show up anyway so this is not exactly shocking news to us.

Her bowels were not that full apparently, despite what she's been eating, and the vet thinks she hasn't been eating nearly enough food due to nausea and may account for how little poo she was producing. So megacolon looks like an outside possibility, and they are waiting for the results if the detailed urinalysis before doing an x-ray as it might not be needed.

She was visibly brighter apparently, but then that's being rehydrated for you. They believe she still has a urine infection.

As we were speaking they were having a devil of a job getting food into her, even though she'd had an anti-nausea injection. Well yes! Welcome to our world of grovelling with a 2ml syringe constantly. She said that she must be on the renal food all the time, and we told her what the hell were we supposed to do with a stick thin cat that won't eat it? What do you do? You try anything and everything, by hand, syringe, spoon and soup. We went through everything we have tried over the last week, renal food and not. Then to illustrate our point, the vet said they had her on a special recovery food at the time rather than renal as that was all she would eat and that they would try to switch her over and wean her off. So in other words, exactly what we've been doing!

The simple fact is we have a nervy tiny little cat that has always picked at her food like a little bird and drunk far too little water, and in an animal with renal disease that is a disaster. However she is a sweet little demented thing who love a good cuddle and has plenty of fight in her.

So, we don't know what to do. We do know that when we pick her up tomorrow she will be bright and alert and pleased to see us, almost back to her old self, and that without the facilities to continue to give her fluids and anti-nausea injections she will simply deteriorate.

The vet believes adhering to a treatment plan will work for quite a while. I have to persuade the vet to let me give her anti-nausea medication and extra fluids at home or there is no point continuing with any treatment plan they may devise. The cat will scupper it by just being herself.