How long before kitty enema works?

[shiloh]

IBack story: Jack had been throwing up off and on for a little over a week. No pattern and seemingly no reason. He was still cheerful and playful and eating well so I was not terribly concerned but I did decide that he really should see the vet as he is not a barfer. He had been still pooping but not a whole bunch but I knew that the food he is on tends to constipate him a bit. LSS, the vet took an xray and lo and behold he is so full of stool that he is backed up to his stomach. The minute I saw the xray and she confirmed what I was looking at was stool I knew immediately what was going on. They gave him an enema. That was at 4:30pm. I decided not to wait at vet office for him to go but elected to take him home, feeling that he might actually feel more like doing his biz at home rather than in strange surroundings.

Well, it is 9:15pm and still nothing. He ate his dinner, I gave him some fluids (per vet instruction) and …NOTHING.

Really? arrgggghhh…

Anyone else have this (lovely) experience? How long does it take for an enema to work? What else can I give him and when? I will call vet tomorrow - he should have gone by then, I hope, but still…He needs to move quite a bit of stuff - so where is it? I would say this was a crappy situation but clearly not.

[DrBeckett]

If there is a very large amount, it may not work at all. He may need to be manually deobstipated. I’ve done this with far too many cats. Most of them have a history of this and it becomes an off and on problem for life. I usually put the pet on lactulose to help keep the stool softer.

If your cat was given an enema at 4 and produced nothing within 2 hours, I would have repeated the enema. But without actually seeing the x-ray and how bad he is constipated, couldn’t really tell you.

[shiloh]

The xray showed that really literally he was so full of stool that it was up to the back of the actual stomach. Seen many cases like this in my human ER so I understood what was going on. Will have to get vet to burn me a copy of his xray onto a CD. Now THERE’S a memento.:lol::lol: He got pretty uncomfortable after 10pm (just did not want to be touched esp around his lower abdomen and his backside) and slept on my bed til about 4 or 5 am. He must have pooped then because I cleaned a LOT of poop out of box today and he seems happier.

How much lactulose for a 12 lb cat? Are there other things I can do? He loveslovesloves CatLax. I think giving him bran or psyllium might be a problem but we could work on that if it was what was best for him. My vet said something about MiraLax? Any thoughts?

[Justmyluck]

We use Miralax all the time for constipated cats.

[shiloh]

How much for a 12 lb cat? And how often? I think he needs something to help things along.

[Gestalt]

I give a 1/4 teaspoon of miralax with his morning breakfast to my 18 lb boy.

[Kyrabee]

I give my 12lb boy 1/8 tsp Miralax once a day. He has never been backed up like your cat though. He usually gets things ‘stuck’ 1/2 way out then goes blasting out of the litter box rubbing his butt on the carpet:disgust:. The Miralax seems to give him the moisture where it needs to be.

Jingles you can get things moving normally.

Susan

[macmtn]

King Kamehameha had several serious constipation episodes just like yours. Backed up sssoooo badly…and often. This went on for 4 years.
Cannot tell you how much time we spent waiting…and waiting…and going back to the vets ad nauseum. When he got THAT backed up the only remedy was to have the vet sleepy time him and do a thorough clean out. That cat went through hell. Diet changes, miralax, all the other crap, we tried everything. DAYS at the vet, multiple enemas…poor guy had a mortal fear of anyone even looking at his butt. And I do not blame him at all.

He finally had one more bad impaction and The vet said the muscles in his large colon were just…gone. I asked for him to be put down as I WAS DONE with the torture. Then the vet said…There was one more chance…(ain’t there always?)
we ended up at a cat specialist, one who specializes in…surgically repairing cat colons. Who knew? Da King…other than a failed large colon and a weight issue was really healthy. And a fighter with an awesome attitude. So they sliced him open and removed his entire large colon. Reconnected his plumbing, and sent us home.

18 months later he has dropped his jelly roll belly and is a very happy healthy boy…a size 6 cat in a size 10 cat suit. His diet is supposed to be strictly dry food-he gets whatever dry he will eat. It changes frequently. He does have ‘soft serve’ loose stools, and if he eats wet he will have skid mark issues. And stinky boy butt…which he is not shy about telling me when he needs his butt washed.

He now likes having a personal attendant with warm wet paper towels to clean his royal butt. After all the butt torture he endured…I guess I am honored he lets me near it.

[RPM]

This may be a dumb question, but since his food tends to constipate him, can you change his food? Sounds like his current food is constipating him a lot more than “just a bit”.

[shiloh]

Macmtn - your poor kitty! I am glad that he is much better, but (no pun, really) - yikes!

RPM - I would change his food in a hot second if I could but he is on this “special” diet because he also has bladder issues. He gets both crystals and stones (aren’t I lucky - not). He has been cut off from dry food and hopefully things will move along.

He has CatLax on board and MIraLax and he gets 100ml of fluids every day. He is still not pooping nearly enough so I have to talk again to my vet. I guess things are moving along just not fast enough for me…or him, but he has been able to keep the last 3 days of meals down.

arrrggghhh…cats