A poop of a problem

[Farruska]

I don't know i it' me being over protective but here goes.

Farrusko goes to the littler box twice a day to poop, more or less at the same hour (one go in the morning, one go in the night).

He's eating only Hill's prescription diet r/d to loose some weight, since August, and every since his stool became always with the same consistency, hard and mostly dry. (sorry for the graphical description)

What I have noticed for some time (and now it's driving me crazy since Tico died and I'm noticing every detail) is that he seems to be having a bit discomfort while pooping. I see that he has to make a bit of a push, which would be normal with hard-rock stool right?
But I was thinking that has to be something I can do to help him.
Rigt before going to the litter to poop he's looking for his grass so e know that eating grass will help him but anything else?
Giving him malt paste helps ? I know it's for hairballs but would help in this?

Some considerations:
- he never stopped doing the normal 2 goes to the litter to poop
- he never tried to poop outside the litter (never in his life poor thing)
- when he goes to the litter to poop he will poop, that is, not going there wanting to go and not being able to
- he also pees normally
- he drinks water normally, sometimes from his fresh fountain others from the tap
- he is overweighted and a couch-potato, although likes to play once or twice a day and likes to run around the house at it like a horse :D

:confused:

[columbine]

Smudge tends to constipation too - and he won't eat any of the petroleum-based hairball remedies (even Temptations!) But he does enjoy Cat Lube (http://www.vetamerica.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2329) digestive treats. They're made with chicken, enzymes, and herbs like papaya, slippery elm, and marsh mallow to keep everything moving. I just crumble them over his kibble and he eats them right up.

Love, Columbine

[Farruska]

than you!

I forgot to say, I'm in Germany ... any reference to european products would be great but also on what sort of product to look for. So Digestive Snacks would be it ?

[Catty1]

Also - how about a dose of wet food mixed with a little warm water every day? If the diet food comes in wet, so much the better.

I think just a little more moisture in Farrusko's food would help a lot! JMO

[Freedom]

If he will take the hair ball remedies, then yes, that will help. I use Petromalt, but there are many brands. Allt he cats get it once per week, except Chestnut. He tends to be a littel constipated, so he gets it twice per week and he is fine. This has been almost 9 years, no problem except if I forget his mid week dose we BOTH notice it!

If your kitty won't take the remedy, then start looking for other items.

By the way, I never had any luck putting a smear on the paw and letting the cats lick it off. They'd just flick the paw and the goop went flying off. I always had to give it like a pill: hold the cat, and the put in along the upper lip so the cat HAS to lick it off. Don't let go of those front paws, or the cat will just wipe it off. I have 2 cats who actually LIKE the stuff and lick it right off the tube. Maybe your boy will like it!

[Catlady711]

A little pure pumpkin (canned) mixed in with some wet food once a day might help.

That's what I have to give to Jack every day (among) other things because he has Megacolon (a serious issue which can cause horrible constipation).

You should be able to pick up some canned pumpkin at most any grocery store. Just make sure it's pure pumpkin and doesn't have sugar or other ingredients in it like you might use with pie fililngs.

[columbine]

than you!

I forgot to say, I'm in Germany ... any reference to european products would be great but also on what sort of product to look for. So Digestive Snacks would be it ?Yes, Digestive and Hairball Remedy are good things to look for. I think the main ingredient is psyllium, which is a human laxative as well. If you find laxative capsules that are just psyllium and nothing else, you can just open the capsule (or cut it with scissors) and mix it into canned cat food. It has no flavor to humans or to cats.

Another big ingredient in it is papaya pulp. That's got fiber and enzymes in it.

Canned pumpkin gets good ratings from a lot of people - some cats like it just plain, but my cat didn't even like it mixed in his food (probably because he's a grey cat and not a black Halloween cat?)

Love, Columbine

[Barbara]

Tigris sometimes also has very hard poop (and if it is too hard he sings songs in the litter box :rolleyes: ) and he loves dry food. So Farrusko may need to drink more. You may put a teaspoon of warm water to the dry food- and offer plenty of water so that he can drink.
Most treats are very high in calories - malt paste (like in Germany Gimpet malt paste and multivitamin paste) are high in fat and carbs- so he may risk to get diabetes if he eats too much of it.
There are some new wet foods like Sheba Essence that are high in proteine and very low in fat- so he might like that and it might be good for his weight as well as his poop.

[Randi]

When Fister had a bit of blood in his stool, I was recomended to mix Hills S/D with W/D - that helped. S/D is quite fat, but W/D is high in fiber and good if your cat needs slimming.

Try to get him to drink more too. :)

[krazyaboutkatz]

I also noticed that this was happening with my Storm when he was on Royal Canin Urinary S/O dry food. I would also give him some wet but it still didn't help him.:(

Now all of my cats are on a grain free diet and some of them were having the opposite problem and were having runny stools. They needed more fiber so I found a wet food that has butternut squash in it and it's helped a lot. My holistic vet said that cats don't need grains in their diet but they do need fiber.

Some foods that she recommended are canned pumpkin, squash, and sweet potatos/yams. Some cats will eat these plain and some you'll have to try to mix it in with some wet food. I also add extra water to the wet food that I feed my cats and I make Storm's more of a soupy consistency so he gets plenty of water. Good luck.:)

I forgot to add that when I still had Pepper, he kept on becoming extremely constipated and he needed a kitty enema. He ended up having to take lactulose daily and this cured his problem.

[Farruska]

thank you all for the comments.
I've started added a bit of water to his dry food, but it does constitute only 21% of his diet... that's what I find strange, since he eats mostly wet food. The wet food is high on fiber (or so it says on the label)
And he does drink watter....
I've replaced part of those 21% with hairball dry food and yesterday I gave him malt paste and today as well.
Today I've noticed that his feces in spite of still dry, have hair/fur mixed. Could this be he has some hairball? He doesn't vomit, never has vomited hairballs in his life, but he does groom himself so he has to be swallowing fur right?

Also I've read that a little bit of milk cow can help soften it up; should I try it ?

Should I also try another food just to see the effect ? I have low calorie Kattovit and low calorie integra animonda at home. Shoul I try it ?

:confused:

[Farruska]

ok, so I finally managed to talk with the vet, poop included, and she said that if he goes to the litter and actually poops, that's good, the dryness is actually from the food he's eating but no harm in adding watter to the dry food in spite of being minimum on his diet. But since he's having to make an effort to poop, has to be corrected.

The malt paste is actually a big no no because has a lot of calories and he's trying to lose weight.

2 mm of Lactulose per day or 1 table spoon of Michzucker powder mixed in his food and should resolve in a couple of days. So we'll see.
Good thing he's a gentle giant, he licked the Lactulose himself ...

[Farruska]

Lactulose, has anyone used this on the kitty yet?
how long until results start showing (that is softer stool) ?

also I read about carrot juice might help, is it carrot juice that we bouught (organic) or can it be homemade (and how to do it ? coke the carrots and squash it ?)

:(

[Catty1]

Try pumpkin instead, if you can get it. If not, any squash would do, I would think.

[Catlady711]

I use both Lactulose and pumpkin on Jack's wet food every day for his megacolon problem.

Lactulose is VERY sticky so don't get it on ANYTHING you can't SCRAPE off. I found this out the hard way believe me it's NOT fun to get it off of rugs or clothes! Here I had been trying to squirt the dose in Jack's mouth which is a real PITA, then I find out the silly cat actually LIKES the stuff, so it's much easier now. I'm giving Jack about 1 tsp of it a day. I'm supposed to give more but Jack won't eat quite that much of it in his wet food, and won't eat wet food but in the mornings. *sigh*

I think it was about a week before we noticed a difference in the stools, and it only takes a few days of NOT giving it before the stools get hard again. So Jack has to be on this for the rest of his life.

The pumpkin also helps with the stools too but not as much as the Lactulose does.