Feline constipation?

[Habibi]

Anyone have experience with this? We recently had to take our middle-aged guy Ramzi in for it. They had to give him 2 enemas (!!) to get the situation under control--to the tune of $400 (which included an x-ray and blood work to rule out underlying disease). This morning, he threw up his breakfast and I was braced for another constipation episode. Wanting to know if there was anything I could do to head it off, I called the vet to ask advice. They would have someone get back to me.

Almost as soon as I hung up the phone, Ramzi barfed up a hairball. (I had given him some Petromalt about an hour earlier, having read that constipation is often caused by hairballs.) He seems just fine now.

But--the vet tech who called back said we should consider putting him on lactulose. After talking it over with my husband we decided not to jump to the conclusion that constipation will be a chronic problem for Ramzi, although I am a little nervous about waiting to see what happens over the next couple of days.

Ugh, sorry, this is a disjointed post--guess I'd just like to know what experiences any of you might have had with this, and whether anyone gives their cat lactulose and what you think of it. Apparently once we start he'll have to be on it forever.

[emilyg]

1. I give my cats a bit of

Vaseline every week.

[Habibi]

2. I'm going to try sticking with a regular Petromalt regimen

and see if that works. (Vaseline--with malt flavor!)

[emilyg]

3. Ok. I'm just cheap LOL

[Princess Turandot]

4. I give one of my cats lactulose from time to time...

it's a sugar, prescribed in the case of humans for either constipation or some liver condition caused by over-imbibing alcohol. People can take it indefinitely, so I don't think that a cat would become dependent upon it. Mine was put on it after two bouts with bad constipation. This particular cat has a sweet tooth, so he really doesn't mind taking it.

My vet really overcharged me for it however, not overly uncommon with medications. He charged more for 3 ounces than a 16 ounce bottle costs at a people pharmacy or pet web site. The ones in the US require a script to sell it, because it is not over the counter here.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. A little bit of canned pumpkin in their food.

Posters here gave me that advice when I asked and my vet totally concurred.

[MzNov]

6. Pumpkin is excellent.

and my cat actually loved it.

Yogurt too.