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Mega Bowel/Colon in Cats

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lara4unow:
Hi,
I posted this in the euthanasia thread but after doing so, I felt it was not on topic.  Anyway, my cat Dust developed a condition the vet labeled "mega bowel". Does anyone have any suggestions?  I feed him very rare pieces of low sodium beef and I give him small amounts of dry kibble in his daily small bowel.  He has access to a big bowl of filtered water and a clean cat box.  My vet said a little half and half will help him pass stool.  Sometimes he drinks this and sometimes it just sits.   He is going on 14.  If it gets really bad, it requires him to have an enema flush.  I can do this because I have the equipment and a solution that has worked well it the past.  He is much more comfortable with me doing this.  Plus, it saves me $100 for the vet to do it.

I would really appreciate any input from members who have had experience with this problem.

Thanks

Radagast:
Hi laura4unow,
while enemas will relieve the cat  this condition is said to be irreversible. It is termed idiopathic, which means that there is no known cause, but some evidence definitely suggests impairment of colonic smooth muscle. It is very important to maintain the clean colon as I have seen  neglected cases which caused such severe impaction in the colon that it felt like a concrete slab in the intestine. These cases could be relived only with colonic resection which is extreme measure that usually results in constant diarrhea because of shortening of the colon. Colostomy is usually not the solution as the condition tends to return if the sections of dilated colon are not removed.

As with most of the pathological conditions it is my opinion megacolon is the result of inadequate diet.

There are two school of thoughts in veterinary medicine-  one that advises a lot of fiber  and the other that advises highly digestible diet which  will produce scant stools. I personally believe its the high content of fiber in the diet that causes this condition in the first place.
Therefore I would limit the diet to good quality animal protein and fat and stay away from any carbs whatsoever. According to the medical doctors who wrote Life Without Bread - similar condition in humans can be completely reversed by low carb diet.  Hope this helps.

added: later on when I have some more time I will post  Dr. Pitcairn's recipe for enemas.

SAO:
My girlfriend's cat was sick and unable to pass stool recently, and she was rather impacted as we saw in an xray. They gave her an enema and prescribed some meds for appetite (she wasn't eating much, but I wouldn't either if I couldn't do the deed) and some other meds I'm not clear about. So I did some research and discovered the same thing that Herr Eisenheim said - that the natural cat laxative crowd is split between the high-fiber and no-fiber camps. I'd go with low fiber because fiber is a menace!

After deciding that the vet is a scam artist that prescribes anything and everything just to get the most money out of you, we took matters into our own hands. Here is what seems to be helping the kitty pass stool and get better, which I found with a bit of research:

Make sure your kitty is getting plenty of liquids (not milk though, it's just as unnatural for cats to drink cow milk as it is for humans). So feed him only canned "wet" food, and you can even add water to his food. Low-carb, low-fiber, high in fat and proteins. Cats don't drink much water, so make sure they get it from their food and always has water available to drink. Dehydration is a big contributor to constipation.

Try mixing these into the kitty's food and watch for changes, and lower dose or stop when things are good, or bad:

- 1 teaspoon of canned plain pumpkin twice a day.
- 1 tablepoon of wheat bran, once per day.
- 1 teaspoon of rice bran, once per day

For humans a good natural laxative is higher dose of vitamin C and an increase dose of magnesium. Cats, like most animals, make their own vitamin C (unlike humans), and probably doesn't need extra - tho you may want to look into giving it anyway if it helps soften stools but doesn't harm cats. I also didn't find anything definitive on whether it is safe or useful to give magnesium to a cat, but feel free to look into that as well.

The above foods seem to have worked for our cat, but do your research and watch your kitty carefully for any signs of issues with the brans and pumpkin. It sounds like your kitty may have an issue with the way the gut processes food. I'd look into pro-biotics and anti-biotics with respect to the effect they have on stool. Anti-biotics can cause constipation OR diarrhea, and pro-biotics have been known to relieve constipation. If the cat has a bacterial infection, adding a teaspoon of colloidal silver mixed with a teaspoon of DMSO with water/food/soup might help, followed by pro-biotic formula. On the other hand, if she simply has low good gut bacteria, then some pro-biotics may do the trick.

Radagast:

--- Quote from: SAO on March 28, 2012, 11:47:50 PM ---
Try mixing these into the kitty's food and watch for changes, and lower dose or stop when things are good, or bad:

- 1 teaspoon of canned plain pumpkin twice a day.
- 1 tablepoon of wheat bran, once per day.
- 1 teaspoon of rice bran, once per day



--- End quote ---
IMO this is not a very  good idea, except perhaps for the pumpkin

Megan:
That didn't sound too good to me either. We have given organic pumpkin to our Cassie, and it appeared to help, but bran is abrasive and has caused me personally a lot of trouble in the past (I am still healing after eliminating it a year ago) and I wouldn't think of giving it to my cats!

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