Many things can cause a cat to become constipated such as an intestinal blockage, stress, not enough exercise, not enough water, arthritis, a tumour, or something else entirely. Constipated cats are often older and the intestinal tract seems to be slowing down with age. Often they have small, hard, large, clay-like or sticky stools. Any of these can make it difficult for anything to pass naturally. Affected cats are usually straining to pass stools, not eating well and often are drooling or vomiting. They usually come in to see us dehydrated, which makes constipation worse. Poor Sarah!

So how can we help Sarah? Treating constipation is a long road in severe cases it is not a quick fix. We had to administer multiple enemas over a series of days to help soften and clean out the colon lucky for us cats tolerate this quite well. Sarah also had some medications including pain relief and a laxative called lactulose twice daily (commonly used in people). It’s a syrupy liquid that attracts and pulls water into the colon and therefore helps to rehydrate the stool making it easier to pass. Sarah was fed Hills I/D moist food as it is a food that is easy to digest and can pass through the body gently.