On Jan 9, 5:28*am, jmc wrote:
Suddenly, without warning, LauraM exclaimed (1/8/2009 4:57 PM):

My Hobbes has megacolon. *He's been having a hard time defacating in
the last few months which has lead the vet to giving him enemas,
xrays, stool softener, etc. *(Poor baby.) *He's now on two medicines
indefinitely. *One is a stool softener (lactulose) and the other is to
help his muscles push (cisapride). *Also, no more dry food. *He has to
be on Science Diet I/D wet food.

My poor boy's been through the wringer! *Yesterday he kept trying to
go in his litter box. *I noticed his frequent trips to the litterbox
with no results, so I called the vet to get an appointment and while I
was on the phone, Hobbes threw up and then took the hugest dump I've
ever seen....right in front of me! * The nerve. *

Hopefully we'll get this under control and he'll live with it okay.

As an alternative or perhaps complementary treatment, you might ask your
vet about Benefiber (yea, the people laxative). *Has no taste, easy to
mix in a tiny bit of water and pour over food.

Meep, according to the vet, doesn't have megacolon (her problem is that
she rarely throws hairballs, everything goes out the other end), but she
did have chronic constipation before the Benefiber (poo every 3 or 4
days). *She gets 1/8 tsp in her evening food (along with her
glucosamine/chonodroitin powder). *This keeps her a lot more regular,
and her poos are more, well poo-ey rather than rocks.

Good luck with Hobbes, poor boy.

jmc

I did purchase some Benefiber....for myself! *snicker* I go back to
the vet in two weeks for a recheck. I'll ask him then. I'm leaning
toward following the vet's recommendations to the letter so we know
what's going on for sure. At least for now.