Pet Haven

There’s a wide variety of signs that your cat could be suffering from constipation, and many of them are also a symptom of something else being amiss with your cat’s health, but having a number of these signs together is a good indication that constipation could be at the root of your cat’s litter box misery.  If your cat seems to be spending longer than usual with his toilet visits, then you should be alert for any, or a combination, of the following:

Crying whilst on litter box
Straining whilst on litter box
No (or infrequent) bowel movements
Runny diarrhoea (this could be tinged with blood)
Vomiting
Signs of stomach pain or discomfort
Less, or no, appetite
Bad grooming habits but constantly licking anal area
Lack of energy

Having identified that your cat is constipated you need to contact your veterinary so that they can examine the cat and see how big of a problem it is.  It could be that it’s a one-off occurrence that can be cleared up with some form of medication and then adjusting his diet if necessary to ensure it doesn’t happen again.  Or it could that the bowel is so packed up that the veterinary much do a procedure to help clear the obstruction.  Once clear you will be given advice on a diet plan that will help ensure that this doesn’t reoccur. 

Occasionally however it happens that the constipation isn’t the diagnosis.  It could be that the cat is suffering from a much more serious condition such as feline urinary tract disease (FLUTD), and this is why it’s important that you have the veterinary look at your cat rather than try to handle the constipation yourself.  Other problems that would give similar symptoms as those related to constipation include: abscesses (especially around the anal area), tumours, injuries – as well as weight related ones such as lack of fibre in the cat’s diet and not getting enough exercise.  Hair balls can also create problems if the hair is ingested as this can become matted and create an obstruction.

As in humans constipation can start off as an annoyance but quickly escalates to a painful crisis which requires some form of treatment to release.  As your cat’s guardian you need to be on the look out for the signs that create this problem, and then get veterinary attention for your cat as soon as you can.

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