Constipations at cats are rather widespread occurrence, first of all it is connected to the hair swallowing while licking their fur, and to the wrong diet as well.

Constipation is a hindered, seldom or absent defecation (bowel emptying), accompanied by accumulation and hardening of the fecal masses. To put it in simpler words, it is delay of stool, making the animal suffer from painful feelings and discomfort. Normally healthy cats should have stool once per 24-48 hours.

The constipation is well noticeable, as the suffering cat is dull, it doesn’t want to eat, but might feel sick and even vomit. With that animal’s belly is swollen up, and attempts of the bowel emptying are painful, hardly successful (or unsuccessful at all).

Consequences of constipation could be the most disagreeable. Process in the large intestine is accompanied by the secretion of harmful substances that should be eliminated from the body timely. In case of constipation they stay inside and poison the body, intoxicating by decay products. As result, it negatively reflects on all organs, leading to liver and kidneys dysfunction, to increase of the heart load, to problems with skin and fur. In the most difficult cases the constipation can even bring to the death of the animal if it wasn’t assisted opportunely.

First of all, you need to clear up reasons of the constipation, they can be very different.

What Are Reasons Of Constipation?

Constipations can occur at animals having disorders of rectum, intestines, anus, liver and kidneys, as well as due to some neurological and orthopedic malfunctions. This problem is more frequent at elderly cats than at young ones, it is more common at tomcats.

There could be the following reasons of the irregular painful bowel emptying:

• Ingress of some foreign body (for example, swallowing of bones and other things);
• Hair, gathered while licking the fur (trichobezoar);
• Non-balanced food;
• Hernia of perineum;
• Inflammatory processes in the rectum and anus;
• Difficulties with taking some comfortable position for bowel emptying due to some orthopedic problems;
• Narrowed anus due to some scars (strictures);
• Circumanal glands disorders;
• Intestines diseases (mega colon or big volume-gaining and decrease of movements);
• Inflammations, tumors, hyperplasia, etc.

In case soft methods of treatment at home do not help and the pet continues suffering from constipations, you should bring it to the veterinary. He or she will find out the reasons of the disorders. The vet will examine the cat, will make an enema, and will prescribe blood analysis if needed, X-ray picture with some contrast substance or ultrasound examination of the abdominal cavity.

How Can You Control Constipation At Cat At Home?

If your pet has problems with defecation from time to time, you should give the cat medicines, helping to soften the bulk. As a rule those are medicines containing lactulose, as Duphalac, and pertolatum.

• You can give the cat the pertolatum two or three times per day by 5-50 ml (the dose is chosen individually) until the stool gets normal. The pertolatum softens the bulk and oils the walls of intestine that helps the animal to empty. It is practically harmless for the body and it is hardly adsorbed. We do not recommend you to use other oils in stead of the petrolatum, as they are well adsorbed by intestines, not having time to reach the fecal masses, and if they are taken in large quantities they could negatively influence the liver.
• Duphalac should be given twice a day by 2 – 2.5 ml. The dose should be calculated from 0.5 ml at 2.5 pounds of the animal weight (average cats’ weight makes 7 – 12 pounds).
• The mix of thickened milk and raw water is a well-known popular method to control constipations at cats. This drink helps to soften the bulk and to normalize the defecation.
• If you give any purgatives you should do it strictly following instructions. It is better to use medicines only according to your veterinary prescription. The castor oil is not recommended as it can bring the cat to sharp pain, without giving any good result about defecation.
• All medicines helping to normalize the intestine micro flora are prescribed by a course or are used constantly.

If the constipation does not pass away, and the animal state gets worse, it is necessary to make a deep cleaning enema. It is not a simple procedure (5-8 liters of water are needed for the colon lavage), that’s why only a veterinary should do it. It is necessary to add lactulose, Lactusan, Duphalac in the solution for micro enema in order to help the pet to empty the bowels by itself.

How To Prevent Constipations At Cats?

If the pet is susceptible to constipations, you should think about the preventing measures. The principal prophylaxis of such kind of intestinal problems at cats is following:

• Comb out (groom) regularly your furry pet, helping it to get rid of the excesses of the hair.
• Give periodically special pastes in order to help the cat to extract the hairballs from the intestine. These are so-called cleaning phytomins needed for driving the hair out the intestines, you can purchase them in veterinary drug stores or in pet shops. These medicines are used as for prophylaxis as for elimination of consequences of the coprostasis, when hair, herbs, other foreign bodies and bulk are gathered in the colon.

• Cat should have a well-balanced diet with sufficient quantity of vegetable cellulose. You can use steamed bran as a source of additional cellulose in the cat’s diet. Daily quote of bran makes 1 table-spoon. Besides meat and fish the diet should contain enough vegetables (for example, boiled carrot, cauliflower and others), cereals from the whole grains are also useful.
• It is desirable for a cat to move a lot. It positively affects the intestinal peristalsis, improving the work of intestines and preventing the problems of untimely defecations.

Frequently it is enough to follow these simple rules to keep your pets from serious problems. Let your cats be healthy!

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