Question:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.) She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . . cats are so wierd.
Chocolate is toxic to cats. http://maxshouse.com/Poisons.html#C Phil – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – —–= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =—– http://www.newsfeeds.com – The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! —–== Over 80,000 Newsgroups – 16 Different Servers! =—–
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual.
Our kitty usually doesn’t ‘clean up’ the milk all at once either. He returns a short time later and sometimes actually leaves a little. No problem though, we just put his cat food right on top of what milk remains. That should work for you kitty but if not, you could always mix the milk into the regular food. And the stool doesn’t immediately soften. It takes a couple of days unless you completely withdraw the solid food and feed milk exclusive until it’s potty time. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.)
Is it regular ‘vitamin D’ milk, and not 2%, 1%, or skim? I’ve found that cats generally like milk but don’t often ‘go nuts’ for it. See if your kitty will consume the dose in increments rather than all at once. Our kitty eats just about everything so while he has preferences, he also likes variety, including hand feeding. She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . .
I’ve heard all the excitement over chocolate being dangerous but I wish someone could come up with an amount. Our kitty has nibbled on very small bits of it (not from a chocloate bar) from ice cream cones. He really likes ice cream (a very little of the chocolate on the cone may get eaten) but he doesn’t get it as a staple, only a treat. cats are so wierd.
So individual – one of their many charms. Good luck with your ‘discriminating’ eater.
Response:
I tried my kitty on milk – just a small amount. He spent the next few hours wandering around spitting up white foam.
Has your kitty had milk before or is this entirely something new for him? Also, it’s very important to measure out the amount. 15cc is 1/2 ounce. Sometimes, just a small amount could be 1, 2, maybe 3 ounces, and kitty gobbles it up, then throws it up. Our kitty threw up his milk in the beginning when I was portioning it out by guessing. Careful measuring should solve the problem. At very least, there’ll be an actual value to work around. Our kitty’s regimen is working so well for him, he passes stool every day and does not get diarrhea. The age of your cat is also an important factor in that lactase production decreases with age, requiring less milk to do the job. Our kitty is at least 16 years old so at just under 8lbs of body weight, 15cc is all that’s needed.
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this? A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs.
Would it help at all if the mineral oil was flavoured?
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this? A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs. Would it help at all if the mineral oil was flavoured?
Mineral oil should probably be limited to rectal administration because of the risk of aspiration pneumonia with oral administration, especially in depressed, debilitated, or stressed cats. It doesn’t take much – less than a drop. I don’t think mineral oil works that great anyway. Phil.
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.) She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . . cats are so wierd. —–= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =—– http://www.newsfeeds.com – The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! —–== Over 80,000 Newsgroups – 16 Different Servers! =—–
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc.
I tried my kitty on milk – just a small amount. He spent the next few hours wandering around spitting up white foam. She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only),
Please DON’T let her have chocolate – it’s poisonous for cats and dogs.
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste;
Can you elaborate on this?
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this?
A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs. P
Response:
A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs.
Our first consideration of aspiration pneumonia was in regards to our kitty’s age-related diminished interest in drinking water, and the subsequent possibility of compensating for this by force feeding him water from a bottle, which we never tried in view of the risk of aspiration pneumonia. Instead, we obtained two of the older DrinkWell fountains from a surplus store and our kitty has been an avid ‘tippler’ from them ever since.
Response:
Milk is our first line treatment for constipation, and usually works like champ. Milk causes diarrhea in many cats – just the effect you want in a constipated cat!
We have the milk regimen down to where our kitty comfortably passes stool usually every day, sometimes every other day, without diarrhea. However, constipation is usually a *symptom*. Constipation can develop with any disease that impairs passage of feces through the colon.
Well, there’s always a cause, or more than one. But since I don’t personally have access to diagnostic equipment, I’m basically forced to be guided by what the vet said, which was that our kitty does not have megacolon, and only a very slightly elevated thyroid level, no kidney or liver problems, no mention of potassium or other minerals or electrolyte imbalance/defficiency, or metabolic dysfunction in general. In other words, our kitty is basically quite healthy and his problem has been ascribed to only an age-related decrease in bowel motility. In an older cat, you may want to speak to a vet about potassium supplementation. Potassium depletion impairs colonic smooth muscle function.
I’ll ask the vet as a blood test was recently done, and I’m sure if that is a problem (nothing mentioned about it though), our kitty won’t mind including bananas in his diet. He eats everything, particularly if he notices us eating it first. Don’t be misled by normal serum potassium levels – most of the body stores of potassium are contained in the tissue and not in the blood. Thus potassium depletion can occur well *before* the onset of hypokalemia.
I would think there would be some kind of correlation factor then. And hypokalemia should do more that limit its effects to the colon. I don’t suspect that but I’ll check with the vet and hope I get the information. A few words of caution: do not use Fleet Enema (or any sodium phosphate retention enemas) in cats, causes severe electrolyte imbalances in cats;
I’ve never personally given our kitty an enema and would never use such a preparation anyway if I did. oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste;
I thought that risk is only involved with force feeding. and your cat should be well hydrated before commencing fiber supplementation to maximize the therapeutic effect and to minimize the impaction of fiber in the constipated colon.
I had bought some natural (unflavored) psyllium but never got around to using it – the milk was and is so effective, there was no further need to consider it. Milk is good, but be aware of the high phosphorus levels which may be a concern in an older cat who may have subclinical or early stage renal failure.
No renal failure noticed or mentioned. However, in view of the excellent results from milk, I’d rather look for a way to mitigate any elevated P levels and stay with the milk, it works that well. Besides, our approximately eight pound kitty only gets on average, only 15cc of milk a day. I’d try to identify the cause rather than chronically treat the symptoms.
I’d love to, myself, so I wouldn’t have to trust some vet who’s apparently more concerned with how much money he can get out of us than whether our cat lives or dies. However, under the current circumstances, less than ideal as they are, the milk is working wonders, a small bowel movement yesterday, a medium sized one today – I never thought I’d ever see this kind of phenomenal success. Good luck!
Thanks. But for the first time, I no longer consider our cat’s bowel regularity a matter of luck, for we now have control of the situation.
Response:
I’m certainly going to try milk for my 15-year-old Patches, who’s had several awful episodes of obstipation & RotoRooter follow-up at the vet. She’s currently taking the following medications: thyroid supplement (because I-131 treatment for hyperthyroidism left her slightly hypothyroid), colace, propulsid, laculose syrup — now THERE’s a hint in the name! — and prednisone supposedly to ease inflammation. It would be great to be able to ditch most of those, since she HATES the syrup and barely tolerates the pills.
Holy (milk)COW! (pun definitely intended) IF your kitty responds to milk as ours have, there’s a good chance that you may very well be able to ditch ALL those medicines. Our cat’s tests revealed slightly elevated thyroid, and it was suggested that the prescribed medicine for it might help with the constipation, it didn’t, so we discontinued that too. Our Mufti’s diet is Friskies Senior canned cat food (and of course anything else we can hand feed him – he loves that and eats just about anything in small quantities). He really likes it, it doesn’t strain his liver, kidneys, etc., so we’re staying with that so long as it’s going so well. The trick will be to keep the other 3 cats away from the milk, particularly 26.5-pound Johnny, who is prone to (massive, given his size) diarrhea anyhow.
If your cat enjoys personal attention (and what cat doesn’t?), you might try putting the measured dose of milk in a small baby bottle and hand feeding it so that he is certain to get the right amount. Best of luck to Patches for his success with milk.
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
Milk is our first line treatment for constipation, and usually works like champ. Milk causes diarrhea in many cats – just the effect you want in a constipated cat! However, constipation is usually a *symptom*. Constipation can develop with any disease that impairs passage of feces through the colon. In an older cat, you may want to speak to a vet about potassium supplementation. Potassium depletion impairs colonic smooth muscle function. Don’t be misled by normal serum potassium levels – most of the body stores of potassium are contained in the tissue and not in the blood. Thus potassium depletion can occur well *before* the onset of hypokalemia. A few words of caution: do not use Fleet Enema (or any sodium phosphate retention enemas) in cats, causes severe … read more »
Response:
Congratulation on your good thinking! Your solution was excellent. Cow’s milk generally DOES cause the runs in adult cats.
There were a LOT of Prayers for such a Blessing, Thank God, He Answered them! You outsmarted the vets ( no great task in itself) and saved your old kitty in the process. Cheers!
Tragically, it’s no great task to outsmart many vets. When I’d desperately call our vet in the past to explain our cat’s latest difficulty passing stool and/or vomiting associated with it, I’d get told that kitty was "having a bad day"! It quickly occurred to me that if that continued, one of those ‘bad days’ would in the very near future, turn out to be his DYING DAY, but Thank God, milk changed all that! Our vet was also very secretive about the prescriptions, which I had to discover myself, to be docusate sodium. But I do understand the motive, a CONFLICT OF INTEREST – I’m concerned first and foremost with the Health of our kitty, while the vet is apparently concerned first and foremost with getting our Money.
Response:
I’m certainly going to try milk for my 15-year-old Patches, who’s had several awful episodes of obstipation & RotoRooter follow-up at the vet. She’s currently taking the following medications: thyroid supplement (because I-131 treatment for hyperthyroidism left her slightly hypothyroid), colace, propulsid, laculose syrup — now THERE’s a hint in the name! — and prednisone supposedly to ease inflammation. It would be great to be able to ditch most of those, since she HATES the syrup and barely tolerates the pills. The trick will be to keep the other 3 cats away from the milk, particularly 26.5-pound Johnny, who is prone to (massive, given his size) diarrhea anyhow.
Response:
Wow. Thanks. You have no idea how happy I am to have read your post. Thanks.
I very well know as our Grand "Mufti" and myself have wrestled with this challenge for the last three years. But it’s our kitties who will be happiest when their ‘medicine’ ends up being something that they actually enjoy and take willingly. My kitty gets constipated;it resolves w/the kitty lax stuff, but she doesn’t like it.
There are several varieties of the light mineral oil preparation besides the brand name Cat Lax, and they’re flavored differently to appeal to different cats’ tastes. But I’ve found that while this stuff helps, it really doesn’t do all that much. I know she’ll like milk.
To my experience, all cats love dairy, and bird. Not all of them are crazy about fish (ours really likes it), but dairy is one of the constants. Our kitty also loves to lick ice cream cones. I’ve been concerned because as she’s grown older, her constipation has gradually, slowly , been worsening.
Yep, their guts slow down, but unfortunately, the water absorbtion from the bowel’s contents doesn’t slow down, so the stool dries out and hardens, usually before kitty can pass it. And I have never ever had a vet suggest milk.
Of course not, they’d rather sell you medicine. Pardon my slight touch of bitterness/righteous indignation about that but I happen to believe that kitty’s life is supposed to come first, particularly for a vet, as a simple matter of integrity if nothing else! But it makes sense.
Lactose intolerance can be a wonderful thing, a powerful weapon against constipation. All mammals can be induced to experience lactose intolerance, which is neither a disease nor an allergy. It’s a simple matter of what happens when the level of lactose exceeds the body’s level of lactase to properly hydrolyze it. And lactase production decreases with age, so lactose intolerance increases, a good thing considering that the very condition jeopardizing kitty’s health also avails kitty of greater effectiveness of the CURE! Different creatures will obviously produce different levels of lactase, which is why I mentioned our cat as a particular case. It will be necessary to first locate your kitty’s lactose intolerance threshold and fine-tune the dose around that. If however, your cat has not been producing stool for, say, three days, then it’s basically a no-brainer. Simply discontinue all solid food and feed milk exclusively until it’s potty time. Then work backwards from there. From portioning out milk for your cat, you should get a good idea of where to cut back to for daily maintenance of bowel regularity. Glad you mentioned the 15cc amount. A tiny amount, really works that well? Wow. Thanks again. !
The amount we use here was initially determined by simply giving our Mufti what ‘looked’ about right. Next, the amount was measured. 15cc is 1/2 ounce, it’s not very much. Our kitty weighs in at just under eight pounds, so to get an idea of how much milk it would take for a larger creature, such as a 200# human for instance, by proportion (assuming an 8# cat), the amount would come to only 12.5 ounces of milk. Imagine someone of that weight being kept regular by consuming only 12.5 ounces of milk a day! Pretty powerful stuff! And when the lactose intolerance threshold is determined and the proper dose worked out around it, you’ll literally have complete control of your cat’s bowel, rather than leaving it to old age and subsequent decreased motility. With the right milk regimen, your kitty will be regular without diarrhea, but even if there was to be an occasional touch of it, it’s still a no-brainer to choose that over constipation, or an impacted bowel (obstipation). Best wishes for your kitty’s success with milk.
Response:
Wow. Thanks. You have no idea how happy I am to have read your post. Thanks. My kitty gets constipated;it resolves w/the kitty lax stuff, but she doesn’t like it. I know she’ll like milk. I’ve been concerned because as she’s grown older, her constipation has gradually, slowly , been worsening. And I have never ever had a vet suggest milk. But it makes sense. Glad you mentioned the 15cc amount. A tiny amount, really works that well? Wow. Thanks again. !
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
—–= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =—– http://www.newsfeeds.com – The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! —–== Over 80,000 Newsgroups – 16 Different Servers! =—–
Response:
Congratulation on your good thinking! Your solution was excellent. Cow’s milk generally DOES cause the runs in adult cats. You outsmarted the vets ( no great task in itself) and saved your old kitty in the process. Cheers!
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
Response:
I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.) She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . . cats are so wierd.
Chocolate is toxic to cats. http://maxshouse.com/Poisons.html#C Phil – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – —–= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =—– http://www.newsfeeds.com – The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! —–== Over 80,000 Newsgroups – 16 Different Servers! =—–
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual.
Our kitty usually doesn’t ‘clean up’ the milk all at once either. He returns a short time later and sometimes actually leaves a little. No problem though, we just put his cat food right on top of what milk remains. That should work for you kitty but if not, you could always mix the milk into the regular food. And the stool doesn’t immediately soften. It takes a couple of days unless you completely withdraw the solid food and feed milk exclusive until it’s potty time. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.)
Is it regular ‘vitamin D’ milk, and not 2%, 1%, or skim? I’ve found that cats generally like milk but don’t often ‘go nuts’ for it. See if your kitty will consume the dose in increments rather than all at once. Our kitty eats just about everything so while he has preferences, he also likes variety, including hand feeding. She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . .
I’ve heard all the excitement over chocolate being dangerous but I wish someone could come up with an amount. Our kitty has nibbled on very small bits of it (not from a chocloate bar) from ice cream cones. He really likes ice cream (a very little of the chocolate on the cone may get eaten) but he doesn’t get it as a staple, only a treat. cats are so wierd.
So individual – one of their many charms. Good luck with your ‘discriminating’ eater.
Response:
I tried my kitty on milk – just a small amount. He spent the next few hours wandering around spitting up white foam.
Has your kitty had milk before or is this entirely something new for him? Also, it’s very important to measure out the amount. 15cc is 1/2 ounce. Sometimes, just a small amount could be 1, 2, maybe 3 ounces, and kitty gobbles it up, then throws it up. Our kitty threw up his milk in the beginning when I was portioning it out by guessing. Careful measuring should solve the problem. At very least, there’ll be an actual value to work around. Our kitty’s regimen is working so well for him, he passes stool every day and does not get diarrhea. The age of your cat is also an important factor in that lactase production decreases with age, requiring less milk to do the job. Our kitty is at least 16 years old so at just under 8lbs of body weight, 15cc is all that’s needed.
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this? A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs.
Would it help at all if the mineral oil was flavoured?
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this? A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs. Would it help at all if the mineral oil was flavoured?
Mineral oil should probably be limited to rectal administration because of the risk of aspiration pneumonia with oral administration, especially in depressed, debilitated, or stressed cats. It doesn’t take much – less than a drop. I don’t think mineral oil works that great anyway. Phil.
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.) She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . . cats are so wierd. —–= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =—– http://www.newsfeeds.com – The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! —–== Over 80,000 Newsgroups – 16 Different Servers! =—–
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc.
I tried my kitty on milk – just a small amount. He spent the next few hours wandering around spitting up white foam. She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only),
Please DON’T let her have chocolate – it’s poisonous for cats and dogs.
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste;
Can you elaborate on this?
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this?
A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs. P
Response:
A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs.
Our first consideration of aspiration pneumonia was in regards to our kitty’s age-related diminished interest in drinking water, and the subsequent possibility of compensating for this by force feeding him water from a bottle, which we never tried in view of the risk of aspiration pneumonia. Instead, we obtained two of the older DrinkWell fountains from a surplus store and our kitty has been an avid ‘tippler’ from them ever since.
Response:
Milk is our first line treatment for constipation, and usually works like champ. Milk causes diarrhea in many cats – just the effect you want in a constipated cat!
We have the milk regimen down to where our kitty comfortably passes stool usually every day, sometimes every other day, without diarrhea. However, constipation is usually a *symptom*. Constipation can develop with any disease that impairs passage of feces through the colon.
Well, there’s always a cause, or more than one. But since I don’t personally have access to diagnostic equipment, I’m basically forced to be guided by what the vet said, which was that our kitty does not have megacolon, and only a very slightly elevated thyroid level, no kidney or liver problems, no mention of potassium or other minerals or electrolyte imbalance/defficiency, or metabolic dysfunction in general. In other words, our kitty is basically quite healthy and his problem has been ascribed to only an age-related decrease in bowel motility. In an older cat, you may want to speak to a vet about potassium supplementation. Potassium depletion impairs colonic smooth muscle function.
I’ll ask the vet as a blood test was recently done, and I’m sure if that is a problem (nothing mentioned about it though), our kitty won’t mind including bananas in his diet. He eats everything, particularly if he notices us eating it first. Don’t be misled by normal serum potassium levels – most of the body stores of potassium are contained in the tissue and not in the blood. Thus potassium depletion can occur well *before* the onset of hypokalemia.
I would think there would be some kind of correlation factor then. And hypokalemia should do more that limit its effects to the colon. I don’t suspect that but I’ll check with the vet and hope I get the information. A few words of caution: do not use Fleet Enema (or any sodium phosphate retention enemas) in cats, causes severe electrolyte imbalances in cats;
I’ve never personally given our kitty an enema and would never use such a preparation anyway if I did. oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste;
I thought that risk is only involved with force feeding. and your cat should be well hydrated before commencing fiber supplementation to maximize the therapeutic effect and to minimize the impaction of fiber in the constipated colon.
I had bought some natural (unflavored) psyllium but never got around to using it – the milk was and is so effective, there was no further need to consider it. Milk is good, but be aware of the high phosphorus levels which may be a concern in an older cat who may have subclinical or early stage renal failure.
No renal failure noticed or mentioned. However, in view of the excellent results from milk, I’d rather look for a way to mitigate any elevated P levels and stay with the milk, it works that well. Besides, our approximately eight pound kitty only gets on average, only 15cc of milk a day. I’d try to identify the cause rather than chronically treat the symptoms.
I’d love to, myself, so I wouldn’t have to trust some vet who’s apparently more concerned with how much money he can get out of us than whether our cat lives or dies. However, under the current circumstances, less than ideal as they are, the milk is working wonders, a small bowel movement yesterday, a medium sized one today – I never thought I’d ever see this kind of phenomenal success. Good luck!
Thanks. But for the first time, I no longer consider our cat’s bowel regularity a matter of luck, for we now have control of the situation.
Response:
I’m certainly going to try milk for my 15-year-old Patches, who’s had several awful episodes of obstipation & RotoRooter follow-up at the vet. She’s currently taking the following medications: thyroid supplement (because I-131 treatment for hyperthyroidism left her slightly hypothyroid), colace, propulsid, laculose syrup — now THERE’s a hint in the name! — and prednisone supposedly to ease inflammation. It would be great to be able to ditch most of those, since she HATES the syrup and barely tolerates the pills.
Holy (milk)COW! (pun definitely intended) IF your kitty responds to milk as ours have, there’s a good chance that you may very well be able to ditch ALL those medicines. Our cat’s tests revealed slightly elevated thyroid, and it was suggested that the prescribed medicine for it might help with the constipation, it didn’t, so we discontinued that too. Our Mufti’s diet is Friskies Senior canned cat food (and of course anything else we can hand feed him – he loves that and eats just about anything in small quantities). He really likes it, it doesn’t strain his liver, kidneys, etc., so we’re staying with that so long as it’s going so well. The trick will be to keep the other 3 cats away from the milk, particularly 26.5-pound Johnny, who is prone to (massive, given his size) diarrhea anyhow.
If your cat enjoys personal attention (and what cat doesn’t?), you might try putting the measured dose of milk in a small baby bottle and hand feeding it so that he is certain to get the right amount. Best of luck to Patches for his success with milk.
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
Milk is our first line treatment for constipation, and usually works like champ. Milk causes diarrhea in many cats – just the effect you want in a constipated cat! However, constipation is usually a *symptom*. Constipation can develop with any disease that impairs passage of feces through the colon. In an older cat, you may want to speak to a vet about potassium supplementation. Potassium depletion impairs colonic smooth muscle function. Don’t be misled by normal serum potassium levels – most of the body stores of potassium are contained in the tissue and not in the blood. Thus potassium depletion can occur well *before* the onset of hypokalemia. A few words of caution: do not use Fleet Enema (or any sodium phosphate retention enemas) in cats, causes severe … read more »
Response:
Congratulation on your good thinking! Your solution was excellent. Cow’s milk generally DOES cause the runs in adult cats.
There were a LOT of Prayers for such a Blessing, Thank God, He Answered them! You outsmarted the vets ( no great task in itself) and saved your old kitty in the process. Cheers!
Tragically, it’s no great task to outsmart many vets. When I’d desperately call our vet in the past to explain our cat’s latest difficulty passing stool and/or vomiting associated with it, I’d get told that kitty was "having a bad day"! It quickly occurred to me that if that continued, one of those ‘bad days’ would in the very near future, turn out to be his DYING DAY, but Thank God, milk changed all that! Our vet was also very secretive about the prescriptions, which I had to discover myself, to be docusate sodium. But I do understand the motive, a CONFLICT OF INTEREST – I’m concerned first and foremost with the Health of our kitty, while the vet is apparently concerned first and foremost with getting our Money.
Response:
I’m certainly going to try milk for my 15-year-old Patches, who’s had several awful episodes of obstipation & RotoRooter follow-up at the vet. She’s currently taking the following medications: thyroid supplement (because I-131 treatment for hyperthyroidism left her slightly hypothyroid), colace, propulsid, laculose syrup — now THERE’s a hint in the name! — and prednisone supposedly to ease inflammation. It would be great to be able to ditch most of those, since she HATES the syrup and barely tolerates the pills. The trick will be to keep the other 3 cats away from the milk, particularly 26.5-pound Johnny, who is prone to (massive, given his size) diarrhea anyhow.
Response:
Wow. Thanks. You have no idea how happy I am to have read your post. Thanks.
I very well know as our Grand "Mufti" and myself have wrestled with this challenge for the last three years. But it’s our kitties who will be happiest when their ‘medicine’ ends up being something that they actually enjoy and take willingly. My kitty gets constipated;it resolves w/the kitty lax stuff, but she doesn’t like it.
There are several varieties of the light mineral oil preparation besides the brand name Cat Lax, and they’re flavored differently to appeal to different cats’ tastes. But I’ve found that while this stuff helps, it really doesn’t do all that much. I know she’ll like milk.
To my experience, all cats love dairy, and bird. Not all of them are crazy about fish (ours really likes it), but dairy is one of the constants. Our kitty also loves to lick ice cream cones. I’ve been concerned because as she’s grown older, her constipation has gradually, slowly , been worsening.
Yep, their guts slow down, but unfortunately, the water absorbtion from the bowel’s contents doesn’t slow down, so the stool dries out and hardens, usually before kitty can pass it. And I have never ever had a vet suggest milk.
Of course not, they’d rather sell you medicine. Pardon my slight touch of bitterness/righteous indignation about that but I happen to believe that kitty’s life is supposed to come first, particularly for a vet, as a simple matter of integrity if nothing else! But it makes sense.
Lactose intolerance can be a wonderful thing, a powerful weapon against constipation. All mammals can be induced to experience lactose intolerance, which is neither a disease nor an allergy. It’s a simple matter of what happens when the level of lactose exceeds the body’s level of lactase to properly hydrolyze it. And lactase production decreases with age, so lactose intolerance increases, a good thing considering that the very condition jeopardizing kitty’s health also avails kitty of greater effectiveness of the CURE! Different creatures will obviously produce different levels of lactase, which is why I mentioned our cat as a particular case. It will be necessary to first locate your kitty’s lactose intolerance threshold and fine-tune the dose around that. If however, your cat has not been producing stool for, say, three days, then it’s basically a no-brainer. Simply discontinue all solid food and feed milk exclusively until it’s potty time. Then work backwards from there. From portioning out milk for your cat, you should get a good idea of where to cut back to for daily maintenance of bowel regularity. Glad you mentioned the 15cc amount. A tiny amount, really works that well? Wow. Thanks again. !
The amount we use here was initially determined by simply giving our Mufti what ‘looked’ about right. Next, the amount was measured. 15cc is 1/2 ounce, it’s not very much. Our kitty weighs in at just under eight pounds, so to get an idea of how much milk it would take for a larger creature, such as a 200# human for instance, by proportion (assuming an 8# cat), the amount would come to only 12.5 ounces of milk. Imagine someone of that weight being kept regular by consuming only 12.5 ounces of milk a day! Pretty powerful stuff! And when the lactose intolerance threshold is determined and the proper dose worked out around it, you’ll literally have complete control of your cat’s bowel, rather than leaving it to old age and subsequent decreased motility. With the right milk regimen, your kitty will be regular without diarrhea, but even if there was to be an occasional touch of it, it’s still a no-brainer to choose that over constipation, or an impacted bowel (obstipation). Best wishes for your kitty’s success with milk.
Response:
Wow. Thanks. You have no idea how happy I am to have read your post. Thanks. My kitty gets constipated;it resolves w/the kitty lax stuff, but she doesn’t like it. I know she’ll like milk. I’ve been concerned because as she’s grown older, her constipation has gradually, slowly , been worsening. And I have never ever had a vet suggest milk. But it makes sense. Glad you mentioned the 15cc amount. A tiny amount, really works that well? Wow. Thanks again. !
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
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Response:
Congratulation on your good thinking! Your solution was excellent. Cow’s milk generally DOES cause the runs in adult cats. You outsmarted the vets ( no great task in itself) and saved your old kitty in the process. Cheers!
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
Response:
I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.) She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . . cats are so wierd.
Chocolate is toxic to cats. http://maxshouse.com/Poisons.html#C Phil – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – —–= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =—– http://www.newsfeeds.com – The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! —–== Over 80,000 Newsgroups – 16 Different Servers! =—–
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual.
Our kitty usually doesn’t ‘clean up’ the milk all at once either. He returns a short time later and sometimes actually leaves a little. No problem though, we just put his cat food right on top of what milk remains. That should work for you kitty but if not, you could always mix the milk into the regular food. And the stool doesn’t immediately soften. It takes a couple of days unless you completely withdraw the solid food and feed milk exclusive until it’s potty time. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.)
Is it regular ‘vitamin D’ milk, and not 2%, 1%, or skim? I’ve found that cats generally like milk but don’t often ‘go nuts’ for it. See if your kitty will consume the dose in increments rather than all at once. Our kitty eats just about everything so while he has preferences, he also likes variety, including hand feeding. She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . .
I’ve heard all the excitement over chocolate being dangerous but I wish someone could come up with an amount. Our kitty has nibbled on very small bits of it (not from a chocloate bar) from ice cream cones. He really likes ice cream (a very little of the chocolate on the cone may get eaten) but he doesn’t get it as a staple, only a treat. cats are so wierd.
So individual – one of their many charms. Good luck with your ‘discriminating’ eater.
Response:
I tried my kitty on milk – just a small amount. He spent the next few hours wandering around spitting up white foam.
Has your kitty had milk before or is this entirely something new for him? Also, it’s very important to measure out the amount. 15cc is 1/2 ounce. Sometimes, just a small amount could be 1, 2, maybe 3 ounces, and kitty gobbles it up, then throws it up. Our kitty threw up his milk in the beginning when I was portioning it out by guessing. Careful measuring should solve the problem. At very least, there’ll be an actual value to work around. Our kitty’s regimen is working so well for him, he passes stool every day and does not get diarrhea. The age of your cat is also an important factor in that lactase production decreases with age, requiring less milk to do the job. Our kitty is at least 16 years old so at just under 8lbs of body weight, 15cc is all that’s needed.
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this? A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs.
Would it help at all if the mineral oil was flavoured?
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this? A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs. Would it help at all if the mineral oil was flavoured?
Mineral oil should probably be limited to rectal administration because of the risk of aspiration pneumonia with oral administration, especially in depressed, debilitated, or stressed cats. It doesn’t take much – less than a drop. I don’t think mineral oil works that great anyway. Phil.
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc. Stools still hard. Gave her 22 cc today. She left half of it in the bowl. I can not believe that a cat would leave milk in a bowl. She ate her food w/the same relish as usual. So, how do I make milk taste good to a cat? (and why would my kitty be the one kitty who doesn’t go nuts over milk?) (yes, it’s fresh milk, tastes fine to me.) She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only), an occasional potatoe chip . . . cats are so wierd. —–= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =—– http://www.newsfeeds.com – The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! —–== Over 80,000 Newsgroups – 16 Different Servers! =—–
Response:
Ok, I tried my kitty on milk. She lapped it up yesterday, gave her 15cc.
I tried my kitty on milk – just a small amount. He spent the next few hours wandering around spitting up white foam. She does, however, like: wheat thins (in tiny pieces) and soy milk ice cream (chocolate only),
Please DON’T let her have chocolate – it’s poisonous for cats and dogs.
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste;
Can you elaborate on this?
Response:
oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste; Can you elaborate on this?
A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs. P
Response:
A cat can inhale mineral oil into the lungs.
Our first consideration of aspiration pneumonia was in regards to our kitty’s age-related diminished interest in drinking water, and the subsequent possibility of compensating for this by force feeding him water from a bottle, which we never tried in view of the risk of aspiration pneumonia. Instead, we obtained two of the older DrinkWell fountains from a surplus store and our kitty has been an avid ‘tippler’ from them ever since.
Response:
Milk is our first line treatment for constipation, and usually works like champ. Milk causes diarrhea in many cats – just the effect you want in a constipated cat!
We have the milk regimen down to where our kitty comfortably passes stool usually every day, sometimes every other day, without diarrhea. However, constipation is usually a *symptom*. Constipation can develop with any disease that impairs passage of feces through the colon.
Well, there’s always a cause, or more than one. But since I don’t personally have access to diagnostic equipment, I’m basically forced to be guided by what the vet said, which was that our kitty does not have megacolon, and only a very slightly elevated thyroid level, no kidney or liver problems, no mention of potassium or other minerals or electrolyte imbalance/defficiency, or metabolic dysfunction in general. In other words, our kitty is basically quite healthy and his problem has been ascribed to only an age-related decrease in bowel motility. In an older cat, you may want to speak to a vet about potassium supplementation. Potassium depletion impairs colonic smooth muscle function.
I’ll ask the vet as a blood test was recently done, and I’m sure if that is a problem (nothing mentioned about it though), our kitty won’t mind including bananas in his diet. He eats everything, particularly if he notices us eating it first. Don’t be misled by normal serum potassium levels – most of the body stores of potassium are contained in the tissue and not in the blood. Thus potassium depletion can occur well *before* the onset of hypokalemia.
I would think there would be some kind of correlation factor then. And hypokalemia should do more that limit its effects to the colon. I don’t suspect that but I’ll check with the vet and hope I get the information. A few words of caution: do not use Fleet Enema (or any sodium phosphate retention enemas) in cats, causes severe electrolyte imbalances in cats;
I’ve never personally given our kitty an enema and would never use such a preparation anyway if I did. oral mineral oil and white petrolatum should not be used because of the danger of lipoid aspiration pneumonia due to lack of taste;
I thought that risk is only involved with force feeding. and your cat should be well hydrated before commencing fiber supplementation to maximize the therapeutic effect and to minimize the impaction of fiber in the constipated colon.
I had bought some natural (unflavored) psyllium but never got around to using it – the milk was and is so effective, there was no further need to consider it. Milk is good, but be aware of the high phosphorus levels which may be a concern in an older cat who may have subclinical or early stage renal failure.
No renal failure noticed or mentioned. However, in view of the excellent results from milk, I’d rather look for a way to mitigate any elevated P levels and stay with the milk, it works that well. Besides, our approximately eight pound kitty only gets on average, only 15cc of milk a day. I’d try to identify the cause rather than chronically treat the symptoms.
I’d love to, myself, so I wouldn’t have to trust some vet who’s apparently more concerned with how much money he can get out of us than whether our cat lives or dies. However, under the current circumstances, less than ideal as they are, the milk is working wonders, a small bowel movement yesterday, a medium sized one today – I never thought I’d ever see this kind of phenomenal success. Good luck!
Thanks. But for the first time, I no longer consider our cat’s bowel regularity a matter of luck, for we now have control of the situation.
Response:
I’m certainly going to try milk for my 15-year-old Patches, who’s had several awful episodes of obstipation & RotoRooter follow-up at the vet. She’s currently taking the following medications: thyroid supplement (because I-131 treatment for hyperthyroidism left her slightly hypothyroid), colace, propulsid, laculose syrup — now THERE’s a hint in the name! — and prednisone supposedly to ease inflammation. It would be great to be able to ditch most of those, since she HATES the syrup and barely tolerates the pills.
Holy (milk)COW! (pun definitely intended) IF your kitty responds to milk as ours have, there’s a good chance that you may very well be able to ditch ALL those medicines. Our cat’s tests revealed slightly elevated thyroid, and it was suggested that the prescribed medicine for it might help with the constipation, it didn’t, so we discontinued that too. Our Mufti’s diet is Friskies Senior canned cat food (and of course anything else we can hand feed him – he loves that and eats just about anything in small quantities). He really likes it, it doesn’t strain his liver, kidneys, etc., so we’re staying with that so long as it’s going so well. The trick will be to keep the other 3 cats away from the milk, particularly 26.5-pound Johnny, who is prone to (massive, given his size) diarrhea anyhow.
If your cat enjoys personal attention (and what cat doesn’t?), you might try putting the measured dose of milk in a small baby bottle and hand feeding it so that he is certain to get the right amount. Best of luck to Patches for his success with milk.
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
Milk is our first line treatment for constipation, and usually works like champ. Milk causes diarrhea in many cats – just the effect you want in a constipated cat! However, constipation is usually a *symptom*. Constipation can develop with any disease that impairs passage of feces through the colon. In an older cat, you may want to speak to a vet about potassium supplementation. Potassium depletion impairs colonic smooth muscle function. Don’t be misled by normal serum potassium levels – most of the body stores of potassium are contained in the tissue and not in the blood. Thus potassium depletion can occur well *before* the onset of hypokalemia. A few words of caution: do not use Fleet Enema (or any sodium phosphate retention enemas) in cats, causes severe … read more »
Response:
Congratulation on your good thinking! Your solution was excellent. Cow’s milk generally DOES cause the runs in adult cats.
There were a LOT of Prayers for such a Blessing, Thank God, He Answered them! You outsmarted the vets ( no great task in itself) and saved your old kitty in the process. Cheers!
Tragically, it’s no great task to outsmart many vets. When I’d desperately call our vet in the past to explain our cat’s latest difficulty passing stool and/or vomiting associated with it, I’d get told that kitty was "having a bad day"! It quickly occurred to me that if that continued, one of those ‘bad days’ would in the very near future, turn out to be his DYING DAY, but Thank God, milk changed all that! Our vet was also very secretive about the prescriptions, which I had to discover myself, to be docusate sodium. But I do understand the motive, a CONFLICT OF INTEREST – I’m concerned first and foremost with the Health of our kitty, while the vet is apparently concerned first and foremost with getting our Money.
Response:
I’m certainly going to try milk for my 15-year-old Patches, who’s had several awful episodes of obstipation & RotoRooter follow-up at the vet. She’s currently taking the following medications: thyroid supplement (because I-131 treatment for hyperthyroidism left her slightly hypothyroid), colace, propulsid, laculose syrup — now THERE’s a hint in the name! — and prednisone supposedly to ease inflammation. It would be great to be able to ditch most of those, since she HATES the syrup and barely tolerates the pills. The trick will be to keep the other 3 cats away from the milk, particularly 26.5-pound Johnny, who is prone to (massive, given his size) diarrhea anyhow.
Response:
Wow. Thanks. You have no idea how happy I am to have read your post. Thanks.
I very well know as our Grand "Mufti" and myself have wrestled with this challenge for the last three years. But it’s our kitties who will be happiest when their ‘medicine’ ends up being something that they actually enjoy and take willingly. My kitty gets constipated;it resolves w/the kitty lax stuff, but she doesn’t like it.
There are several varieties of the light mineral oil preparation besides the brand name Cat Lax, and they’re flavored differently to appeal to different cats’ tastes. But I’ve found that while this stuff helps, it really doesn’t do all that much. I know she’ll like milk.
To my experience, all cats love dairy, and bird. Not all of them are crazy about fish (ours really likes it), but dairy is one of the constants. Our kitty also loves to lick ice cream cones. I’ve been concerned because as she’s grown older, her constipation has gradually, slowly , been worsening.
Yep, their guts slow down, but unfortunately, the water absorbtion from the bowel’s contents doesn’t slow down, so the stool dries out and hardens, usually before kitty can pass it. And I have never ever had a vet suggest milk.
Of course not, they’d rather sell you medicine. Pardon my slight touch of bitterness/righteous indignation about that but I happen to believe that kitty’s life is supposed to come first, particularly for a vet, as a simple matter of integrity if nothing else! But it makes sense.
Lactose intolerance can be a wonderful thing, a powerful weapon against constipation. All mammals can be induced to experience lactose intolerance, which is neither a disease nor an allergy. It’s a simple matter of what happens when the level of lactose exceeds the body’s level of lactase to properly hydrolyze it. And lactase production decreases with age, so lactose intolerance increases, a good thing considering that the very condition jeopardizing kitty’s health also avails kitty of greater effectiveness of the CURE! Different creatures will obviously produce different levels of lactase, which is why I mentioned our cat as a particular case. It will be necessary to first locate your kitty’s lactose intolerance threshold and fine-tune the dose around that. If however, your cat has not been producing stool for, say, three days, then it’s basically a no-brainer. Simply discontinue all solid food and feed milk exclusively until it’s potty time. Then work backwards from there. From portioning out milk for your cat, you should get a good idea of where to cut back to for daily maintenance of bowel regularity. Glad you mentioned the 15cc amount. A tiny amount, really works that well? Wow. Thanks again. !
The amount we use here was initially determined by simply giving our Mufti what ‘looked’ about right. Next, the amount was measured. 15cc is 1/2 ounce, it’s not very much. Our kitty weighs in at just under eight pounds, so to get an idea of how much milk it would take for a larger creature, such as a 200# human for instance, by proportion (assuming an 8# cat), the amount would come to only 12.5 ounces of milk. Imagine someone of that weight being kept regular by consuming only 12.5 ounces of milk a day! Pretty powerful stuff! And when the lactose intolerance threshold is determined and the proper dose worked out around it, you’ll literally have complete control of your cat’s bowel, rather than leaving it to old age and subsequent decreased motility. With the right milk regimen, your kitty will be regular without diarrhea, but even if there was to be an occasional touch of it, it’s still a no-brainer to choose that over constipation, or an impacted bowel (obstipation). Best wishes for your kitty’s success with milk.
Response:
Wow. Thanks. You have no idea how happy I am to have read your post. Thanks. My kitty gets constipated;it resolves w/the kitty lax stuff, but she doesn’t like it. I know she’ll like milk. I’ve been concerned because as she’s grown older, her constipation has gradually, slowly , been worsening. And I have never ever had a vet suggest milk. But it makes sense. Glad you mentioned the 15cc amount. A tiny amount, really works that well? Wow. Thanks again. !
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
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Response:
Congratulation on your good thinking! Your solution was excellent. Cow’s milk generally DOES cause the runs in adult cats. You outsmarted the vets ( no great task in itself) and saved your old kitty in the process. Cheers!
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
Response:
I have been hesitant in posting this, and for a very good reason. I needed enough time to determine whether this is a consistent condition, or a mere fluke. First, some background on the patient. He’s a quite elderly (we estimate his age conservatively at 16 years but he could as easily be 26 for all we know) ‘neutered’ (we didn’t do it, he showed up that way) male seal point Balinese (longer haired fluffy Siamese) kitty who is more spoiled than any cat I’ve ever known. He’s indeed royalty and he knows it, and demands the proper respect from his ’subjects’, often quite vocally. He’s been known by many names, often simple terms of endearment like "Fleaowmeow" (even though he’s never had fleas), "Ker-Thunk" (for how he flops down to stretch out or avail himself for a petting/attention session), his ‘original’ name of "Buffy" (for his color) and his most common name, "Mufti", supposedly because of the way he curls up, so that you can stick your hand in like a muffler, but it’s more likely that true to his royalty, it stands for Grand Mufti, which the vet commented on as being the reason why it was so easy to remember this kitty. Needless to say, this cat is a very special member of our family, and for many years, so naturally, any problems with his health is cause for the utmost of worry and stress. The problem, apparently directly related to his old age, is a more or less natural slowing down of peristalsis of the bowel. About three years ago, we were first introduced to this condition in a horrifying display around four in the morning. He wailed in the most frightening and distressful tone, then wretched and vomited while simultaneously passing stool. That was the beginning of a problem which would steadily escalate over the coming years. During that time, before that, and up until about two years ago, our cat always did his duty outside no matter what the weather. No doubt, this could get very stressful for him and as his difficulty increased, and just in time for a winter, I got him an enclosed litterpan, which he took to immediately. For awhile, his bowel movement difficulties appeared to subside somewhat. Then they returned, growing steadily worse again. Finally, he became obstipated and totally unable to pass stool. He vomited several times and tried in vain, squatting and straining with all his strength, to unblock his impacted bowel. It was time to get him to a vet and FAST, but while I waited for transportation, he flopped on his side, his mouth agape, leaking fluid. It was a pathetic sight. In horror, I beheld a very special kitty dying right before my eyes. We got him to the vet and he was given an enema, which worked quite well. He was then prescribed what turned out to be docusate sodium pills (Colace), and the syrup version with some vitamin syrup added to improve the taste, which cats (and even humans) are known to find nauseating. I hated to force him to swallow the pills, it was a real fight, and giving him the alternate, the syrup, wasn’t much better. It was a two person job – one to hold kitty like a baby, head up, the other (me) to pry his jaws open and ‘blast’ the bitter syrup down his throat with a medicine dropper, and hope he wouldn’t throw it up shortly thereafter. A full .5cc of concentrated syrup (or a pill) every other day. What a challenge. We got to look forward to ’strong- arming the cat’ (because he’d usually fight) to ‘dose’ him. I felt really bad about it but his life was at stake so ’strong-arm’ him we did, every other day, religiously. Additionally, we got two of the older "DrinkWell" fountains and our kitty took to them quickly. Our vet had told us that his bowel did not have enough moisture and that it’s common for older cats to neglect drinking as much water as they should, so we addressed that problem immediately. Yet, although he was regularly drinking from the fountains, his constipation slowly but surely grew worse – even though he was drinking enough water AND being ‘dosed’ with stool softener, and even ‘grease’, mineral oil based "Cat Lax" type paste. He would end up at the vet for two more emergency enemas before we decided to try him on uncooked raw pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to work but not only did it not work all that well (we were actually giving him a 50/50, 1 to 1 mix of pumpkin with his canned cat food), after a few weeks of that, he ended up having convulsions, which the vet described as a ’stroke’. Happily, kitty recovered from that in about two days but his constipation problem was still going strong, and the vet was of no help after a point. The vet claimed that all that could be done was being done, and that it was the right way to go, BUT IT SIMPLY WASN’T ENOUGH! Our kitty was not doing very well, and I began to see the loss of a dear member of our family in the near future, something I simply could not and therefore would not accept without at least one hell of a good fight first. Obviously, the vet was satisfied with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach but I knew that EXTRA EFFORT ABOVE AND BEYOND was what was needed, literally as a matter of life and death. !!!THEN CAME A BLESSING!!! I had began logging our kitty’s potty (and vomiting) habits using a program called "Task Plus", an appointment organizating utility which I originally intended to keep up with kitty’s stool softener doses since November of 2000. Around Christmas, things were getting scary. It had been three days since any stool from kitty. He had already been ‘dosed’ TWICE with docusate sodium stool softener, and on the third day, NOTHING! We knew disaster was virtually guaranteed, so we planned on getting him to the vet the next day for yet another emergency clean-out. It was getting late and bedtime was near, which we did not want puncuated with vain straining, vomiting, and/or wails of agony – so we took him completely off all solid food and fed him exclusively MILK, PLAIN OLD VITAMIN D MILK, in an attempt to forestall what was apparently the inevitable. The next day, we observed our kitty. Surprisingly, he didn’t wretch, and he didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable. Then we checked around the house for hardened stool of the variety he’d make after being constipated for so long, which he’d dump anywhere since in his discomfort, he wouldn’t care all that much about being certain to confine his efforts to the litterpan. But alas, we couldn’t find any, so we checked the litterpan just to rule that out but when we looked, WOW! three days worth of constipation IN the litterpan, obviously without difficulty, and quietly – from MILK? What a horror it was to then see kitty apparently straining a short time later, and he even threw up, what was wrong? He just took an enormous dump, so how could he still be constipated? The answer of course, was that he no longer was constipated. I had told the vet that just once, I’d like to see our cat have a little diarrhea, just enough to see if he actually could, rather than making his hardened stool which was the usual. Well, I had gotten my wish. Kitty was having a touch of diarrhea from the extra milk he had consumed and ‘naturally’, because he felt like ‘going’, and at first, couldn’t all that much, he ‘automatically’ threw up, then went through all the motions of straining to pass stool until he ended up passing the thoroughly disgustingly horridly gross smelling runny poop more common in younger cats. He could and did do it, and almost as quickly recovered! We had just witnessed nothing short of a Miracle. But could it be Consistently Repeated? If it could, I had planned to post the GREAT NEWS right here – well it can, did, and IS, and here it is! What mineral oil (Cat Lax), docusate sodium and pumpkin (which we had tried) and perhaps even psyllium, lactulose, and propulsid (which we hadn’t tried but were preparing to) may have failed to do, simple MILK came through in this particular case, LIKE A CHAMP! Our Grand "Mufti" has been COMPLETELY OFF mineral oil, docusate sodium, and any other medication since Christmas, and HE’S DOING GREAT! We have since fine-tuned his dose of Milk as well. He gets 15cc of it every day and for the most part, the result is a small stool output EVERY DAY. If he skips a day on stool output, we up his dose to 20cc the next day and NO PROBLEM! It’s simply amazing what simple lactose intolerance can do when properly availed of! Where we once had a pathetic, dying cat, we now have once again, a healthy, happy kitty – and at this point in time, I can confidently and Joyously proclaim our Grand "Mufti’s" problem CURED!!!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! I hope this helps those kitties out there with constipation/obstipation problems of any age, but particularly the older ones. Give it a try starting with the above dose, and see if your kitty doesn’t improve by leaps and bounds, and may even ask; GOT MILK?
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