Constipation in a cat vegetable oil. Constipation in a cat: what to do at home? How to use Vaseline oil

Constipation is a prolonged retention of feces in the intestines. It is important to remember that difficult bowel movements are not a disease, but a symptom of it. Therefore, it is necessary to treat not the symptoms of constipation in a cat, but the cause of the problem. In most cases, changing the pet’s diet and lifestyle is sufficient. If other symptoms are added to constipation, the animal should be taken to a veterinarian for a full examination and treatment.

You can’t take such a “minor” symptom lightly. Long-term constipation is not only painful. They affect the functioning of the entire gastrointestinal tract. And through it - to the whole body. The accumulation of feces leads to intoxication and inflammatory bowel diseases. In advanced cases, complete blockage of the intestine is possible, followed by death.

Signs of constipation

Before treating constipation in a cat, you need to know for sure whether there is a bowel movement pathology. What is considered normal:

• The normal period of defecation is once a day.
• Young kittens can walk 2 times a day, due to their increased metabolism this is normal for them.
• Aging cats, on the contrary, walk once every two days.

Thus, we can talk about constipation when the pet does not go potty for 2-3 days. At the same time, the animal loses its appetite and may become restless.

In this case, you need to pay attention to feces:

• In a healthy cat, it is usually clearly defined, oblong, soft and dark brown.
• Deviations - excessively dry and cracked feces or, on the contrary, liquid and unformed.
• The color may also change to shades of gray, yellow, or red.
• It may contain foreign objects, suspicious inclusions that differ sharply in color, consistency, and texture.

Classification of constipation

Before you think about what to do if your cat is constipated, you need to determine the cause of the problem. For example, there is no point in prescribing a cat a drug or diet that stimulates the intestines if there is a blockage and obstruction.

By mechanism of action

First of all, they are divided into organic and functional:

Functional constipation includes two rare types of constipation - spastic and proctogenic. The first occur with convulsive contractions of the intestines. And the latter are caused by a violation of the normal rectal reflex.

By cross-country ability

There is complete (obstipation) and partial (constipation) retention of stool. With partial retention, feces are released during defecation, but there are few of them, since most of them remain in the intestines. With complete retention, no feces are excreted. Because of this, the animal feels much worse, intoxication is observed, the cat feels pain, and behaves restlessly.

According to additional characteristics

In some cases, other symptoms are added to constipation; they are very important and indirectly indicate possible causes of the problem.

• Pain - with a painful bowel movement, the cat meows, stops defecating, but then gets back into position. Painful bowel movements occur when:
  • gastroenteritis,
  • for diseases of the lumbar muscles,
  • diseases of the abdominal organs,
  • injuries of the pelvic bones and joints.
• Strained bowel movement characterized by frequent and painful urges, often feces are not excreted or are excreted in small quantities. This symptom often occurs with a combination of diarrhea and constipation. With such constipation, feces are often unformed and liquid. Strained bowel movements can lead to rectal prolapse.

Symptoms, causes and treatment

Before you treat constipation yourself and then feed your cat, you need to find out the disease and analyze whether self-medication is acceptable. Usually, the owners themselves can help their pet when overeating or after eating too rough food.

It is always preferable to take your cat to the vet rather than self-medicate, even if the problem seems simple at first glance.

Constipation in cats is one of the most common phenomena. This occurs especially often in cats that are inactive, like to eat bones or small insects, as well as in cats whose intestines accumulate a large amount of ingested hair (Siberian, Persian, Angora and other long-haired breeds).

In older cats, the likelihood of constipation increases due to deterioration of the liver and metabolic disorders.

Constipation- this is the absence or difficulty of defecation, that is, bowel movement, resulting in the accumulation and hardening of feces in the colon, which can have a negative effect on the body as a whole.

Constipation or stool retention causes discomfort and sometimes pain to the cat.

Remember: A healthy cat should have bowel movements 1-2 times a day, therefore constipation is difficult to miss.

A cat suffering from constipation becomes lethargic and may experience vomiting, anorexia (lack of appetite) and nausea.

The consequences can be the most tragic. Accumulated feces can lead to the formation of harmful substances that will poison the animal's body. Consequently:

• hair problems;
• renal dysfunction;
• liver dysfunction.

If your cat is not treated promptly, constipation can cause death. To cope with the disease, it is necessary to understand its causes.

Causes of constipation in cats

Cats that suffer from diseases of the liver, anus, rectum, kidneys and orthopedic and neurological disorders are susceptible to constipation. The age of the animal can also be a cause of constipation, as older cats are more susceptible to this disease.

The main causes of rare difficult bowel movements or complete absence of stool:

• improper feeding;
• tumors in the anus or rectum;
• stress;
• accumulation of fur;
• perineal hernia;
• foreign body;
• diseases of the paranal glands;
• disruption of the innervation of the large intestine;
• hyperplasia;
• orthopedic problems;
• megacolon;
• cicatricial narrowing of the anus.

If you are unable to determine the cause on your own, you should contact your veterinarian.

Treatment of constipation in a cat

Cats suffering from constipation need to be fed foods high in fiber - they are easily digestible, improve bowel function, and the stool becomes softer. Oat bran is very useful. In addition, various laxatives or a cleansing enema can help with constipation. Physical activity in the first hour after eating also contributes to good bowel movements.

A side effect of eating foods high in fiber can be the formation of gas, which, for example, Boxer and Bull Terrier dogs are especially prone to. If your cat develops gas, then avoid this diet, do not give her vegetables, milk or foods containing soy or wheat, and do not play with her before feeding.

Mild constipation can be cured with a laxative; if the disease is advanced, the veterinarian may resort to surgery to eliminate massive fecal accumulations and only then an enema is given.

There are many methods to treat constipation at home:

• Add 1-2 drops of vegetable oil to the cat's diet. This method copes well with the disease, but can have a negative effect on the liver.
• Give the animal Vaseline oil several times a day, 5-50 ml. Before starting treatment with this method, you should consult with your veterinarian, as the dose is selected individually. Vaseline oil lubricates the intestinal walls, softens stool and ensures painless bowel movements. It is practically harmless to the animal’s body, but its use in combination with vegetable oil is prohibited so as not to harm the liver.
• Give your cat medications and laxatives to soften stool and normalize intestinal microflora. Here it is necessary to consult a veterinarian. As a rule, lactulose preparations such as Lactusan and Duphalac are prescribed. The dose is selected depending on the physiological characteristics of the animal and the instructions for use of the medicine.
• A mixture of raw water and condensed milk is a common folk method for treating constipation in cats. The drink will normalize the intestines and soften the stool.

If home treatment does not help, you must contact a veterinary clinic to perform a cleansing enema, which is very difficult to do at home.

Preventing constipation in cats

There are several rules that you can follow to avoid constipation in your cat.

• A balanced diet that contains all the necessary microelements. This approach to nutrition will save the animal from many problems, including constipation. Be sure to give your cat cereals, carrots and cabbage.
• The cat must lead an active lifestyle. Many pets have limited movement. Let your cat go outside as often as possible, buy her toys or special exercise equipment, with the help of which your pet can develop physically.
• Daily cat grooming. When a cat licks itself, hair gets into the body, which can cause constipation.

Add a little olive oil to your food. Olive oil acts as an intestinal lubricant and helps move food through the gastrointestinal tract. Add ¼ - ½ teaspoon of olive oil to your cat's food.

Make sure your cat is drinking enough. Place a bowl of clean water within your cat's reach, preferably next to his food bowl. Change the water daily.

• Some cats prefer to drink running water, so leave the tap slightly open to ensure your cat always has access to water.

Many owners do not pay attention to the delay in defecation for three to five days, believing that the situation will resolve itself: “Just think, the cat is constipated. It’s not even a disease; if you want it, it’ll go away.” However, bowel retention is not as harmless as it might seem at first glance. Constipation can lead to chronic disease and even death of your pet. It is important to know how to treat constipation in a cat and in what cases a doctor's help is required.

In order to notice the disease in time, you need to know how often a cat should poop. Stool frequency is an individual indicator, so you should monitor your pet in its normal state. Kittens have bowel movements several times a day, since the metabolism of a growing baby is accelerated compared to an adult animal. – once every two to three days. Young healthy cat – once a day. Cats eating high-quality commercial food have bowel movements more often than cats eating natural foods (high-quality industrial food contains easily digestible ingredients that take less time to process).

Since it is important to help your cat with constipation in a timely manner, you should monitor not only the frequency of stool, but also the consistency of the stool. Feces should not be dried out, cracked, and should not come out in layers, lumps or separate rounds. If the consistency has changed towards dryness (a small amount of liquid in the stool), constipation may soon develop.

Constipation is said to occur when a cat does not poop for more than three days. From a veterinarian's point of view, defecation retention has two types: constipation and obstipation.

Constipation– partial stool retention, in which feces are excreted, but in insufficient quantities (some remains in the intestines).

Obstipation– a serious condition in which it is almost impossible to empty the intestines naturally (stool clogs the intestines, loses moisture and hardens).

Read also: Periodontal disease in cats: signs, main stages and prevention

Causes of constipation in cats

Most often, older cats suffer from constipation, which is associated with insufficient peristalsis - wave-like contractions of the intestines that push feces to the outlet. If a young cat does not poop for the same reason, they speak of chronic or situational dysfunction, which arose, for example, after putting the pet into a narcotic sleep. The drugs used for this purpose deeply relax all muscles, including the intestinal ones. Therefore, constipation in a cat after sterilization is a common, albeit undesirable, phenomenon.

In some cases, due to a violation of the integrity of the abdominal cavity, adhesions are formed (gluing of intestinal loops as a result of surgery or injury). If your cat is constipated after surgery, be sure to contact your veterinarian. The adhesions will not go away on their own and the cat will need to be treated or re-operated. In this case, the use of laxatives or an enema to a cat for constipation will only aggravate the situation and can cause irreparable harm to the pet’s health. During the postoperative period, it is important to find out as soon as possible why the cat is constipated - do not waste precious time by postponing a trip to the clinic until tomorrow.

Other common causes of constipation:

If your pet suffers from periodic stool retention, it is necessary to undergo a full examination, because giving a cat a pill for constipation is a half-measure. Many chronic diseases lead to suppression of intestinal functions: one should fight not with constant constipation, but with the root cause.

Symptoms of constipation in cats

When the owner discovers a lack of feces while cleaning the litter box, he begins to suspect that the cat is constipated. The first thing to do is to carefully inspect the apartment for “unauthorized” piles. Situations when owners start calling veterinarians, trying to find out what to give their cat for constipation, but in fact there is no constipation, are not uncommon.

If the environment is clean, but the tray is still empty, you need to pay attention to the general condition and behavior of your pet. As a rule, constipation causes severe pain in a cat after surgery: the pet takes a characteristic pose, the hind legs and tail are shaking, the cat meows pitifully. A hairball or foreign object stuck in the intestines, as well as a large accumulation of dried feces can also cause severe pain.

Other symptoms:

• the cat visits the litter box several times a day, but the litter is clean;

• the stomach feels hard, swollen, painful;

• the pet refuses food, avoids communication and touching, hides in a corner, lies down all the time, but does not fall asleep;

• the cat bites the stomach and anus. If after sterilization the cat does not poop and starts biting and licking the belly, it can damage the suture or introduce an infection into the wound;

• intoxication of the body with decay products (general weakness, vomiting, depression, matted fur, possible fever).

Read also: Glaucoma - increased intraocular pressure in cats

First aid

In order not to harm your pet, it is important to know exactly why the cat is not pooping. Example: a cat swallowed a bone - constipation began - the owner gives the pet a laxative, usually lactulose, Diflucan, etc. Under the influence of the drug, feces are saturated with moisture, softening and increasing in size. But feces cannot come out naturally, since the intestinal lumen is blocked by a foreign object. As a result, the intestines stretch to accommodate the increasing volume of waste products: the cat begins to experience severe pain, strains, and the intestines are damaged until the walls rupture.

Laxatives should not be used without consulting a veterinarian. You can help your pet by giving her a tablespoon of Vaseline oil (it is not absorbed by the body and does not harm health in any way). Vaseline oil is given three times a day, injected into the cheek from a syringe without a needle. If there is no relief after a day, contact your veterinarian.

Treatment of constipation in cats

Based on the results of a general examination and hardware studies (x-rays, ultrasound), the veterinarian will decide how to treat constipation in a cat. Sometimes a simple laxative is enough; in severe cases, surgical intervention is necessary (for example, to remove a stuck object or fossilized feces). A simple enema for a cat with constipation is sometimes more effective than the best laxative, but only a veterinarian should carry out this manipulation (without experience, you can seriously harm your pet).

A fair number of cats have problems with constipation (abnormal accumulation of feces and difficulty defecating), as well as more serious conditions such as intestinal obstruction (complete obstruction of the colon by feces) and megacolon (damaged nerves and muscles of the colon, causing leads to the inability to defecate). Constipation makes your cat anxious. even pain syndrome. A constipated cat may defecate (or attempt to defecate) outside the litter box or toilet because the cat's mind associates pain with being in the litter box. Therefore, do not scold the cat in this case: a cat with constipation needs help. Other signs of constipation include: a restless cat, a painful abdomen, bloated intestines, poor appetite or complete loss of appetite.

Cat feces are formed in the last part of the gastrointestinal tract in the large intestine and rectum. The large intestine contains the smallest amount of intestinal bacteria found in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). These bacteria help complete protein digestion. Byproducts of this process include the formation of short-chain fatty acids, which nourish the cells lining the large intestine. Some of these cells absorb water from the stool, while others secrete mucus to lubricate the stool and facilitate its passage and evacuation from the cat's body.

Most cats have bowel movements about once a day. With constipation, a cat will defecate once every two to four days or less. The condition of a cat's stool can be assessed using the Bristol scale. The normal state of stool is Type 4 stool - a soft, smooth "sausage". Feces types from 3 to 1 indicate varying degrees of severity of predisposition to constipation. With constipation, the stool is hard and dry because stool remains in the colon for a long time and large amounts of water are reabsorbed from it. However, with constipation, loose stools can also be observed - with obstruction of the intestinal lumen, only liquid can overcome the fecal blockage. Remember that intestinal obstruction is a serious disease that can lead to the death of an animal.

Constipation may indicate neurological problems, injuries, obstruction of the intestinal lumen by hair or bones, pain, or inflammatory bowel diseases. Clean cats may also refuse to go into a dirty litter box. For example, my Brit has two trays, in case one of them gets dirty.

Constipation is most common in cats that are fed dry food. When eating dry food, even with access to water, the cat does not receive at least 50% of the required daily fluid volume. Chronic hyperglycemia, which occurs when consuming excess amounts of carbohydrates from dry food, leads to increased stress on the kidneys and increased loss of fluid through urination to lower blood sugar levels - this is another factor in dehydration when a cat eats dry food. Constipation can also be caused by a diet low in fiber (homemade food, some types of canned wet food). To prevent constipation, it makes sense to add a pinch of flax seed to canned wet food.

Most often, in the absence of serious illness, constipation can be treated by changing your cat's diet. Dietary fiber (fiber) added to the food will help solve the problem of constipation in your cat. Fiber is contained in so-called light foods, foods for older cats, hairball foods and special foods with a high fiber content.

As a rule, adding fiber (dietary fiber) to your cat's food helps in the initial stages of treating constipation. However, over time, a fiber diet becomes less effective. To enhance the effect, you can add canned pumpkin to the food. However, this may not be enough to treat constipation.

In this case, the food should contain more proteins and fats that are easily digestible by the cat. Also, such food should contain a lot of moisture. However, even special foods for reducing fecal production, such as Eukanuba, still contain a high amount of fiber (4% fiber). Therefore, carefully read the labels of all feeds!

Maintaining hydration is critical in treating constipation in cats. To increase body hydration, cats are injected with fluid subcutaneously or intravenously.

Treatment for constipation depends on the severity of the problem. In mild cases, if the diet does not help, you will have to use an enema. In severe conditions, manual removal of the stool under anesthesia or surgery may be required.

After constipation has been eliminated by any means, measures should be taken to prevent recurrence of constipation in the cat. This can be achieved using one of the following methods or the combined use of several methods to combat constipation in cats:

Canned or homemade food. It is worth giving up dry food. Feed your cat wet cannedfeed or raw natural food. These types of diets for cats are characterized by high digestibility of nutrients and low moderate fecal formation compared to feeding dry food. However, wet canned food and natural food do not contain enough fiber, so flax seed or ground dried plantain leaf can be added to the food.
Drinking fountain . Many cats will drink much more water from a special cat fountain compared to water from a regular bowl. (My cat drinks water from a flower vase, which he likes better than the bowl.)
Miralax. Laxative Start giving Miralax starting with 1/8 teaspoon twice a day, adding it to food. If necessary, the dose can be increased to 1/4 teaspoon twice a day.The drug is safe for cats.
Lactulose. This is a sweet syrup that retains water in the stool and makes the stool soft. Powdered lactulose can be mixed into wet canned food.
Petrolatum(petrolatum).Vaseline or mineral oil can be squirted into the cat's mouth with a syringe without a needle.
Children's glycerin suppository. If you can make your cat happy by placing a candle in the anus, and the cat does not tear you apart, then you can try this method of treating constipation.
Enemas. You can use a mineral oil enema. soapy water or just warm water.
Elm bark. Cats love the taste of elm bark powder. It can be mixed with cat food. Infusion therapy. In case of insufficient hydration, daily subcutaneous injections of saline solution in cats can help. Ask your veterinarian about the injection technique.

If your cat suffers from chronic constipation, then the most important thing for you is to be attentive in order to provide your cat with timely help. Watch for early signs of constipation: abdominal tension. decreased appetite, decreased frequency of bowel movements. dry stool. If the cat does not have stool for 3 days, take it to the veterinarian or start treating constipation at home if you know what and how to do. Constipation is much easier to treat in its early stages. Delays in providing assistance can lead to serious consequences and much more significant material and moral costs.