Hi Krista,

I discovered your YouTube videos yesterday and found your advice on cat care incredibly helpful. My wife and I are caring for our 18-year-old Birman cat, who is in stage 4 kidney disease with significant muscle loss. She’s also struggling with constipation and has other health issues, including high blood pressure and a heart murmur.

Currently, we’re feeding her a mix of wet food (chicken broth, chicken, pumpkin, and egg yolk), and providing SubCut fluids (50ml/day), along with the following supplements:

– Epakitin (0.5g/day)
– Pet-Tinic (2ml/day)
– Lactulose (3ml/day)
– Phos-Bind (0.2g/day)
– Potassium chloride (0.19g/day mixed in the broth – though we’re concerned she’s not getting the full amount since she’s unable to finish the broth).
– In addition, she’s on Amlodipine (0.25ml/day) to manage her high blood pressure.

Despite this, her weight has decreased significantly over the past year. She was once 3.3kg, but a year ago dropped to 2.5kg, and three weeks ago, it dropped again to 1.8kg, despite our best efforts to feed her.

A week ago, we had an enema done at the vet, which relieved some diarrhea, but there was still hardened stool near her anus. We’ve been massaging her abdomen and anus daily to stimulate defecation, and were able to help her pass a large, hard stool last Wednesday. Since then, she’s only passed small amounts of stool – mostly liquid or dark – and has had a lot of difficulty.

Today, we used a Pedia-Lax suppository (1ml), and after about 30 minutes, she passed a larger stool with dark liquid diarrhea. The stool was slightly hard, dark, and very smelly. She’s now very exhausted and resting, but did purr a bit before falling asleep.

For hydration, I gave her 10ml of SubCut fluids before the suppository to prevent dehydration. We’ve seen three different vets, but none have been able to provide lasting relief.

We’re reaching out for advice on whether we’re on the right track and if there’s anything else we can do to help her feel better and poop more easily. Any suggestions, given the circumstances, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your time and any guidance you can offer.

Warm regards,

Joel and Sonia

8 week old female kitten not defecting properly….several days. My 21 year old daughter (away at college) just got a kitten last Tuesday. She noticed the kitten wasn’t pooping but the kitten was trying but either nothing was coming out or a piece was stuck in and hanging of her rectum. Sometimes my daughter returns to the room where the kitten is and finds smears of poop. he took her to the ER and they gave the kitten an enema… which sort of worked a bit and the kitten did go on Friday (the day after). They wanted to do more such as an X-ray and give fluids but the cost was so high my daughter didn’t want to do that. Since then, the kitten is trying to go anywhere and everywhere but nothing coming out. Occasionally some poop smears are found. Thus far the kitten has been in decent spirits…. playful a bit and eating wet food (with a little aded water). Of course, I’m sure this will change fast. Last night the kitten tried to poop while sitting on my daughters lap. 🙁
We have an appt. on Tuesday afternoon at a local vet whom I use for my cats and I trust….. I’m worried we can’t wait til then to get her checked. Any suggestions on what could be going on? I’m worried its something more serious. Thank you so much for your consideration!!!

how can i best extract bowels from my injured cat? she is not using the litter box, but there is some leakage. she has no tone in her anus and most likely is healing from nerve damage. i have figured out how to extract her bladder. she is still eating and lively. more details of her condition and our process to support her below.

moonstone is about a year old and showed up at our house 4 months ago brave and spirited. she disappeared for a week and came back with a serious injury. we took her to the er because she was leaking urine and had a limp tail and left hind leg. we learned that her bladder needed to be urgently expressed and that her bowels were backed up. we also learned that she had a tail avulsion and a fracture in her left femoral joint. they expressed her bladder and bowels and sent us home with pain meds and anti-inflammatory medication. we went to aspca the next day hoping to get treatment for her fractured bones, but they suggested nursing her at home and learning how to express her bladder and bowels to see if she could regain control and tone in her anus. they said that maybe in a few weeks she could regain feeling and be able to use the bathroom on her own, and then they would consider amputating her tail and treating her leg. we have quickly learned how to express her bladder, but are struggling to get her to poop. please help us keep moonstone alive!

My female sealpoint siamese cat, Lika, has been constipated. She is 16 years old and has historically eated Science Diet dry cat food. She turns her nose up at canned foid; I have tried many. I have tried putting mineral oil on her treats and she would sometimes eat them but now will not, at all. She is still eating and she drinks a lot of water. She is active, bright, and seems to usually be in no distress. Her abdomen does not feel hard or distended. She vomits on occasion after which she sometimes poops. For the past two weeks she has been straining as if to poop but nothing comes out. I gave her an enema 4 days ago and it was successful. She had not pooped since, so I gave her another enema today, with success but with not as much poop obtained as there should have been after 4 days. Her stool is very hard. I would like to know if I can give her liquid docusate sodium , which I can buy in the grocery store and if so, how much can I give to my 5 lb. cat. How do I administer it? I would not want her to aspirate any medicine I’d give her. I am trying to avoid large vet bills because of my financial situation and bevause Lika is an old cat and I prefer to avoid any major costly intervention(s).

My cat just started yowling. He had a soft stool this morning, and tonight he is in pain. He has soft stools slowly oozing out, there is some blood. He vomited a few times. He is drinking when I bring him water. It seems like anal gland inflammation or intestinal?

My 9 yr. old Megacolon cat Eli wasn’t able to poop. It happens sometimes. He’s on Cisapride and Merilax daily, but he still get’s backed up. When he started vomiting after not being able to BM and jumping out of the litter box I took him to the vet. They did an enema on June 20th. He’s still backed up! I can’t afford 1k plus to have a vet manually extract the feces (this is Washington, DC area – everything is very expensive!). He hasn’t started throwing up again, but he’s not eating much and I need to find out if there is something I can do more at home to get him through this emergent time. I can’t just watch my cat suffer. I have Pedi lax, but don’t know if that would help or hinder at this point. I watch videos on palpitating the colon to try and break up the feces. I know there are specific enemas to give cats at home. Is it too late to try this? My vet is frankly bad and too busy to bother, so she said to just go to the emergency. It sure seems like there are other steps that can be taken ,,,at least I hope so becuase I just don’t have that kind of money left with the cost for caring for my hospice Husky, Loki. Help!

My dog is having soft stool. Giving her Forti Flora in her food with chicken and dry food. Was wondering if I can give her Pepto Bismol

Anyone know what could cause horribly smelly cat poop? I know what normal cat poop smells like, and this is not it! Buford has always had this condition. To make matters worse, he doesn’t cover it, so the smell quickly permeates through the whole house. OMG!!

When I first got him about two years ago (he was a feral adult), I had his poop tested for all parasites including giardia, and it all came up negative. He seems healthy otherwise.

Thanks.

I just recently changed my 14 month old cat’s dry food but she hasn’t been eating as she used to. Then yesterday i saw there was smear in her bottom and it was brownish orangy i was not sure if there’s blood. Her poops are formed and brown though as usual. This morning poop is the same. But this afternoon she was on my lap and checked her bottom and a small dot of water came out. I wonder if she has diarrhea. She’s been having brownish discharge for about two weeks now too. Also, she’s been shedding since two months ago not sure if thats normal when cat age. What could be wrong? She doesn’t look sick.