Constipation in cats can come on slowly and be hard to identify. Cats are not very public about their bathroom habits in some ways, and they can also tend to hide that they are not feeling well until they are very ill. If your cat is displaying signs that they are constipated, you might at first think that something else is going on.
Cleaning your cat’s litterbox daily is also really important so that you can identify early signs that they might be constipated. If you are not keeping up with this process on a daily basis, you might not realize that your cat is constipated until the problem has been going on for a while. If you have decided that your cat can’t poop, you might be wondering what you should do next.
Changing to a fiber-rich diet, a hypo allergenic diet, adding probiotics or trying a laxative are a few things to help your cat when they can’t poop. Read on to learn more!
1. Change to Fiber-Rich Foods
Increasing the fiber in your cat’s diet can be all that is needed to get your cat’s GI tract moving again. Pureed pumpkin is a great choice for this need, and you can add a little bit of it to your cat’s food for a few days to see if this helps your cat start pooping again.
Some cats do not like pumpkin, but many cats are willing to eat it. You can mix this food into some soft cat food to help disguise its flavor if necessary. Try to avoid making too many changes to your cat’s diet all at once, however, and avoid taking this step unless you absolutely have to do so.
2. Try a Hypo Allergenic Diet
If you have been feeding traditional kibble, you might want to try changing to a more allergy-friendly diet. This can reduce inflammation and help your cat’s GI tract to feel better and start working better. There are various quality allergy-friendly foods on the market, and your veterinarian can help you to get access to an allergy-friendly pet food as well if you need some help tracking down the right feeding program for your cat.
3. Add Probiotics
Sometimes a reduction in the healthy bacteria in your pet’s GI tract can lead to cat constipation. It can take a couple of weeks to see improvements in your cat’s GI tract function after adding antibiotics to their diet, so be patient. There are various probiotic products on the market. You will want to look for the products that offer the most strains of bacteria to get the maximum benefit from adding this supplement to your cat’s diet.
4. Help Your Cat Lose Weight
Cats that are overweight are not active enough to keep their GI tract moving. Sometimes fatty deposits can be an issue related to your cat’s gut function as well. Making your cat lose some weight can help a lot with constipation. You can decrease your cat’s food intake, and you can try to get them to be active by playing with them every day. Cats can be stubborn about exercising when they don’t want to do so, but you should at least try to encourage them to be more playful in order to bring their weight down.
5. Laxatives
This is not a solution that you should use without consulting your veterinarian first. In some cases, your cat’s GI tract might have slowed down enough that a simple change of food or adding some probiotics are not enough to get things going again. Your vet can give you safe laxatives to give to your cat with instructions on how to use them properly. If your cat is otherwise healthy, this can sometimes be the easiest solution to get your cat’s digestion back on track.
6. Worm Your Cat
In some cases, your cat might be having issues with constipation due to worms or parasites. You will want to head to your vet so that the parasite or worm can be properly identified. Worming with the wrong products can be ineffective. In addition, if your cat has a large load of parasites, worming can also be risky and can lead to toxicity that could make your cat very sick. You should always get the help of your vet when worming is needed to deal with your cat’s constipation.
7. Stress or Anxiety
Changes in your cat’s environment, a move, or the addition of another pet to your home can sometimes cause your cat to hide out and refuse to drink or eat. This can lead to constipation that cannot be resolved if your cat does not get back to their normal eating or drinking habits. When stress or anxiety are the root cause of your cat’s constipation, you might need to change their environment to help them to get easier access to water and food. Once they have gotten used to their new environment, their constipation will probably resolve itself.
Cat Constipation Can be Caused by Various Problems
If your cat has become constipated, you will need to start working on the root cause of the problem. If you have not moved recently or added a new pet to your home, your cat’s constipation might be caused by something else. Don’t be afraid to take your cat to the vet if you think that there is something more serious going on. You can also help yourself to identify cat constipation early if you are cleaning your litterbox daily.
While it might seem like cat constipation isn’t that serious, you should always consider any problem with your cat’s digestion as a potential sign of a more serious issue. Constipation can lead to all kinds of other problems with your cat’s health, so you will want to handle this issue right away. Any upset to your cat’s GI tract can lead to dehydration and other more serious problems, so it is wise to handle cat constipation right away.
Call Gray Animal Hospital at (224) 304-0668 or book an appointment online to talk with a vet about your cat’s constipation!