constipation/urination

[MF-boy]

Hi,

our 8 mo.o. F4 male has been like this since we got him at 10 weeks of age: liquid waste -- twice a day, solids -- every other day or even less frequently. He acts, eats, grows fine though. I add to his food water, salt, psylium -- very little effect on frequency, but at least, he stopped crying in the box and the solids are not hard as rock, as it was before. When he doesn't go for three days, we give mineral oil or a suppository. He never urinated more than twice a day, but the amount is huge each time, he just holds. The vet says -- if he had a UTD/UTI, he would be going too frequently -- she did not have much to say except that maybe this is a part of the breed habit...

for the last several weeks since he started to go outside into an enclosure, I never had a chance to clean any of his litter boxes. Unless there is a huge deposit somewhere in the house, he must be taking everything outside, there is a thick layer of mulch right under the window with his door... And no way to see how often he goes, unless I lock him in which w0uld make him very unhappy -- he even goes there when it rains!

He is on totally raw diet (well, i give some tuna maybe once or twice a week), eats a whole day-old chicken for breakfast, then a few bites of ground chicken with supplements and pumpkin throughout the day (not his favorite), sits with the dog for dinner demanding to be hand-fed the same food -- chciken/beef, organs, pancreas, bones included.

Yes, he does gets probiotics, and adding olive oil did not help much....

Anybody -- similar observations? any advice? Thanks!

 

[Lori Greer]

Did the vet do a fecal? Have you had a fecal PCR done? First things first you need to rule out any nasties lurking in his bowels.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Cats that eat a totally raw diet make less waste... and the poops are concentrated. So I can see the less frequently. I see the problem though when the cat is crying in the litterbox..I just went through six months with a kitten with constipation issues that progressed to megacolon before we got them resolved. I think adding the psyllium as a good idea, also baby oatmeal worked for my boy. He hated pumpkin so I just couldn't use that with him.

You can try adding a little Miralax to his food when he seems to be having an issue, miralax draws fluid into the stool... we used 1/8 tspn twice a day with Babbage and that is a good starting point. Or maybe just 1/8 tspn once a day and see what happens. I would not add salt, I cannot see that helping.

You mention litterboxes as a plural...how many other cats? And then where are the boxes located and what litter are you using? Are they covered at all? I am a little concerned by the peeing, it sounds like he is not comfortable peeing and so kinda delays it until he can't NOT pee?

 

[MF-boy]

Thanks for the input! fecal PCR -- for parasites? Thank you, I will talk to my vet.

Litterboxes: no other cats, started with one, in the bedroom where he lived for the first weeks -- covered, "self-cleaning" rolling one (LOVE it!). Then added the second one in the bathroom -- covered with the top entry. He seems to be liking one or another more and alternates. He would not poop until his liquids are cleaned, except very rarely: I clean every time he goes with rare exception (because it is always morning and evening when we are around), I use World's Best litter with a bit of Kitten Attract. He seems to dislike when the box was not washed longer than usual -- we had several "accidents" on the bed, and all of them happened when I skipped washing it, although it is always clean.

I thought about him not being comfortable until he could not hold anymore... But sometimes I would grab the scooper and scratch/throw the litter, making the same sound as he would after peeing, and he would come right in and do it -- as if he is simply forgetting...

He was like that -- 2x and 1/2x -- since I got him at 10 weeks of age, the difference is that he was crying in the box every time he would go, pee or poop. His solids were almost his own size -- that long and hard as rock. his liquids form a litter clump of maybe 4" in diameter, and he NEVER did it in the middle of the day... When he goes outside, though, even on a leash, he quickly finds a sot and pees... As I said -- no idea what is going on now because he spends several hours outside and goes there in the morning for a few minutes even when it is pouring... The litter boxes are pristine clean --unless litter can go bad from just sitting there

I wonder if I can tell if he is constipated by his behavior: he eats better or worse depending on the day and hours, he is not losing weight, the hair is shiny.

I noticed that Miralax labels says not to use for more than 2 weeks, so would you add it occasionally, like mineral oil? How much Psylium to give? I am sprinkling all his food with psylium/taurine mix because he hates his ground chicken with all the supplements -- maybe because it also has pumpkin(!), but this may be not enough. while he still was using the litter box, I noticed that after psylium he would still go every other day -- but it was not as hard as before.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Because of my kitten, I have subscribed to the feline megacolon yahoogroup and there are cats that have been taking miralax for years now. So saying that, I would only use it when you think he needs a little help. It's just a better laxative than Lactulose which is what most vets will suggest (mine were so interested to learn that miralax got better results across the entire yahoogroup of owners of constipated cats).

It's hard for me to know what the appropriate amount of psyllium is, the specialist formulated a raw diet for Baggage as a baby but that was a very high fiber diet because of his issues. The pysllium will not make him go more often as much as it will work to draw fluid into the stool. So make it less hard like you've noticed. I'd try measuring out what you are adding to his meals and observing what works for your cat.

I would also suggest adding an uncovered litterbox and see if that helps. If both are covered types of boxes he truly may hate pooping in it! It is one of the more common cat dislikes to poop in a confined space. I have talked a lot over the years with Marilyn the Cat Coach (www.thecatcoach.com) and the first thing she asks is how large is the litterbox and uncover it now. I know with my first Savannah he started peeing outside the box, we took the cover off the litterbox and he was perfect ever since. He'd been fine as a baby but as he grew that space became more and more cramped.