Cat constipation
 

Hello,

I have a female cat that gets constipated and has fur balls every few weeks. She has long hair. Also if she eats too much kibble she pukes it up whole.

She is not overweight and is 8 years old. Her previous owners said she always has done this and vet just gave some type of Vaseline type stuff.

I am wondering if anyone has experienced this before with their cat?

I do feed her small amounts of wet several times a day which helps a lot. But I have kibble out for free feeding for my other cat.

Also any natural suggestions to keep her more regular?

Feed her canned pumpkin. It has lots of fiber, it's all natural, and my cats absolutely love it.

she's dehydrated.

you could switch to a semi-wet food, soak the kibble before you give it to her, or just feed her a BARF diet - it's way cheaper and nowhere *near* the health complications of commercial food.

canned pumpkin should not be part of a regular diet for cats - dogs, yes, because they're not carnivores, they're omnivores like us (as well as carrion eaters, insectivore, and coprophage).

cats, on the other hand, are obligate carnivore - they MUST eat meat as the majority of their diet. without really expert management, a cat on a vegetarian diet will have all kinds of health problems (blindness, for a start) and a shorter lifespan.

Barring medical conditions, this is correct, but do talk to your vet. Our cat actually has to be on a low protein diet due to medical issues. Your vet should have good diet recommendations for you.

She drinks lots of water and urinates regularly. I tried her on the barf diet and she refused food. I was worried because I read cats need to eat regularly or will get liver disease. I am familiar with the barf diet as I had two dogs on it for years. The dogs did really well on it.
I feed them wellness.

My experience with traditional vets is not great, they often want to medicate for everything. I had a great holistic vet for my dogs but he retired. I will keep researching.

she has enough water for her bodily functioning, but once her stomach is full of dry kibble, her body has to pull water from her bloodstream in order to moisten it.

on the BARF diet, she would've come around eventually. it's typical for cats to refuse at first - the meat has to be VERY fresh - they cannot eat carrion the way dogs can - and it helps to warm it up.

try moistening the kibble then.

My old cat has recently had this too. She now gets high fibre canned food mixed with warm water a couple times a week and gets the gross hairball stuff a couple times a week too (although somehow I seem to end up with more of it on me than on her!). She hasn't had trouble since and she loves the high fibre food.

Thanks for all your help. I will try some tips and let you know how it goes.

Threenornswhat do you feed your cats? Maybe I gave up too quickly. With my dogs they loved raw chicken backs and so forth. They thrived. But some things even they refused like rabbit and fish and I tried everything. I ground glop for them too.

So an update on my kitty. She is doing much better thanks to advice from here. I do add water to the kibble. I also give wet food several times per day in small amounts. I have to watch her that she does not gorge on kibble (she swallows and does not chew so the wetting helps alot). If I let her gorge she will voimit. So I wait half an hour to put kibble down after having wet. My other cat will glare at me but oh well. lol Then I will lift kibble if she is gorging. So far so good. She is having bm's almost daily and rarely vomits. And the hairballs have lessened as well. I brush her more often now, she has long hair.
Thanks again.

Seeing this thread a little late. Glad to hear she is doing better. If you wanted to switch her to a more natural diet, and she won't do barf, You could try homecooked. There is a book that I absolutely LOVE and have recommended over and over to my dog friends. Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets: the Healthful Alternative by Donald R. Strombeck The book is a little dry and technical in places, but he gives a TON of really great information!

I used to cook for my dogs then moved to the barf diet. I still have the book br Dr. Pitcairn. Not sure why I forgot this? Thanks for the info. Was not sure it would work with cats. I will read up on it.