Cat With Stomach Issues

[USMCSS]

He's a little on the older side at 8 and has been having stomach issues the past year or so. He seems to be getting constipated all the time to where it hurts him and he has alot of trouble crapping. I feed him the top of the line cat foods and have even been giving him wet foods daily as well as a form of cat laxative a couple times of week and neither have worked. Ended up getting his anal glads expressed last month to try that on top of the wet foods and laxative and the problem continues. When a cat is having stomach issues they tend to not want to use their litter box when they are able to go and when we came home the other day he had crapped on the bathroom rug. Grabbed some paper towels to pick it up and it was rock hard and quite large for a cat turd but it was followed by some loose stool. Took him to the vet today to get his glads expressed again to see if that was the problem and they said they weren't very full but thinks I should get bloodwork done. Well that's gonna cost me $50 for the visit plus $100-150 for the bloodwork alone.

I'm wondering if he's not getting enough actual water in his diet. I frequently see him at the food bowl but never at the water fountain. Yes, they actually have their own fountain. lol We have two cats and the other is perfectly fine. I'm just hoping to get a vets advice without having to drop a bunch of money and was wondering if anyone in here had any recommendations.

 

[Wailua Boy]

I would try to get some blood work done, just to rule out any more serious problems but dehydration or lack of fiber could do it. Try to break up feeding into two meals and add a couple ounces of water to dry food but be sure not to soak the food for an extended period of time. So, small feeding that will be consumed right away and watch for changes in bowel movements.

 

[USMCSS]

I would try to get some blood work done, just to rule out any more serious problems but dehydration or lack of fiber could do it. Try to break up feeding into two meals and add a couple ounces of water to dry food but be sure not to soak the food for an extended period of time. So, small feeding that will be consumed right away and watch for changes in bowel movements.

I was trying to do everything I could to rule out regular issues like dehydration or simple constipation. I give him a regular dose of laxatone, a cat laxative. I've now tried to start adding tuna water to regular water to entice him to drink more. I'll try your advice but the problem is I have two cats so a specific individual diet is a little difficult and I don't want it to affect the other cat as he's already on the slender side. It's a healthy slender because of his breed being a seal point siamese. Guess we'll see what happens.

Thank you for responding

 

[Charney]

I would try to get some blood work done, just to rule out any more serious problems but dehydration or lack of fiber could do it. Try to break up feeding into two meals and add a couple ounces of water to dry food but be sure not to soak the food for an extended period of time. So, small feeding that will be consumed right away and watch for changes in bowel movements.

Wailua has the right idea. I would go visit your vet for an exam and some blood work. With constipation it can be primarily GI or derived from other factors such as hyperthyroid or renal. If the blood work is normal there are many options out there for diets and supplements

 

[USMCSS]

Wailua has the right idea. I would go visit your vet for an exam and some blood work. With constipation it can be primarily GI or derived from other factors such as hyperthyroid or renal. If the blood work is normal there are many options out there for diets and supplements

Actually took him yesterday and the vet wanted to hold off on bloodwork and wanted me to add miralax to wet food for him and see how that goes for a few days as I only think the cat has been pooping maybe once or twice a week. He also wants be to start supplementing his diet with fiber such as benefiber or metamucil. He too recommended saturating the current dry food as well. I'll keep you guys posted on his progress or lack there of.

 

[deeda]

Just saw this but I had a similar problem with an older cat with multiple health problems. My vet suggested the laxatone but it didn't work for him and was expensive long term. My niece worked for a vet and she suggested adding a small amount of pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) to his canned food.

I bought the smallest can I could find and started adding 1/8 teaspoon to the canned food, mixing it well. He ate it with no problems. I slowly increased the amount of pumpkin over the next week or so to a bit less than 1/4 teaspoon daily. It worked great, his stools became more normal. Of course there were still occasional hard stools, with some loose stools behind them.

If you find that the pumpkin works over time, just buy a large can of pure pumpkin and divide it up in 1/2 pint mason jars and freeze it. A small jar lasted me about a week in the refrigerator and it's more economical to purchase.

I definitely recommend getting the blood work done. Over the years my male cat developed diabetes, managed with a quality canned Wellness brand food instead of insulin shots, and hyper thyroid disease. He just died in November at 18 years old.

I have a multiple cat household and use separate food dishes. My male was fed multiple small meals daily so there wasn't really an issue with the other cats eating the pumpkin laced food but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt them.

 

[USMCSS]

Oh wow, thank you for the detailed response. He is still having issues and not going to lie, we haven't been tending to the issue properly due to being out of town so much over the holidays. We have been giving him 1/4 teaspoon of miralax once to twice a week as per doctor's orders and it has helped but I do not care to be giving him an actual medicine and would prefer to go the natural route. We're going grocery shopping today and will pick up some pumpkin and see how that goes.

 

[deeda]

No problem, keep us posted. There are other medical reasons that could be causing his problems so I highly suggest getting any medical work done by your vet.

Older cats, especially males, seem to experience more health issues and it can get expensive with extensive blood work monitoring, X-rays, scans, etc.

 

[USMCSS]

Ya next on the list is bloodwork.

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Poor kitty I hope you can find out what's wrong. Try to keep him hydrated, cats have very low thirst drives compared to most mammals, so it is very easy for them to get dehydrated. Pumpkin (as suggested above) is also not a bad idea as it acts as a stool softener. One of my cats has a mild form of a condition known as 'manx syndrome', he has a lot of trouble going to the toilet unless fed the right foods, raw chicken hearts seemed to help, once or twice a week he gets x2 small chicken hearts - this was recommended by our vet, who suggested switching him to a full raw diet, but he refused to eat it, no matter what recipe we tried. So now he gets his canned wellness and wellness 'core' with added fish oil and his chicken hearts. Your kitty might be different but with mine hydration seems to be the key to comfort.