Poor Andrea! Whatta mess!! To make matters worse, she has a vet using drugs for emotional problems which are so inappropriate. A second opinion from a new vet — one to stay with, I’d hope — is essential Sally Bahner’s comments below give some idea of how wrong this vet’s advice has been and how much help the cat needs to get straightened out.
We have 2 cats (Mom – Alley and her son – Licorice) that my husband and I adopted from the SPCA a couple years ago. The little cat, Licorice is 2 years old and has been neutered. My problem is that I bought an electric litter box in December, and ever since then he has been defecating on my carpet floor in my basement. He was very curious at first to the electric litter box, but then everything went downhill from then.
We ended up taking him to the vet at the end of January because we noticed his poo was tiny and hard. We found out he was constipated and that his anal glands were very compacted. The vet said that he probably developed a fear of the litter box because he was constipated and made a negative connection with the litter box because it hurt to poo. We put the electric litter box away in a closet at this point! He suggested using Feliway spray first, to see if that would detract Licorice from using the carpet. It did, however Licorice just started finding new spots that were not sprayed. After we tried that for a couple weeks, He suggested putting Licorice in a small room (hardwood floor) with a litter box. We did that for a week and, at the end of the week, he started using the hardwood floor to poo.
We brought Licorice back to the vet to check his anal glands and they were 30% still compacted. This was the end of February. Our vet suggested Prozac, so we put Licorice on 0.5ml of Prozac for 3 weeks, (still didn’t work) increase it to 0.7 and then 0.8ml. By the end of March, Licorice had not defecated on our carpet 6 out of 34 days. So back to the vet we went the beginning of April. Our vet suggested something stronger – so he put Licorice on Clomicalm. We give it to him at night before we go to bed (because it seems he defecates while we are asleep). So far, it hasn’t worked. He’s been on it for 5 days now. The vet said it should work immediately.
My husband and I do not know what to do at this point. We could never put him down, but at the same time, we are quite frustrated that nothing is working. We have 3 litter boxes, we’ve placed them in spots that Licorice uses the carpet. We even have some in private spots. We’ve tried the spray, the drugs, the quarantining… nothing seems to be working. Can you help us please?
Here’s some really good advice from Dear Sally, who is the official cat behavior consultant on the show. You might want to contact her through her page on my website and get some personalized help.
First they should have the cat checked out by another vet ASAP. The pharmaceuticals mentioned will NOT help the problem! (Is the cat peeing in the box??) This does seem to be physical — perhaps the fear caused by the electric LB led to fear of pooping, hence the constipation and pain. And long-term constipation can lead to mega colon, which is very nasty. IMPACTED (the correct term) anal glands is a whole other matter. (Is he scooting?? Is he straining in the LB??) They can be expressed (also kinda nasty), and surgery can be done if it’s a chronic problem.
Have they considered a stool softener? It can be as simple as some plain pumpkin mixed with CANNED food — more moisture is definitely needed here! Consider having X-rays of the colon area to determine the degree of constipation. The links below (including one from Jean Hofve on www.LittleBigBCat.com) explain the behavior-constipating connection, options for stool softeners and more.
www.marvistavet.com/html/body_constipation_and_megacolon.html
www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=nlarchive&show=volume2no1112
