My cat, Hamlet, who is 18.5 years old, whom I have I had for 18 years, has always had problems with constipation. Eight or ten years ago he was at the vets for xrays and a serious enema to get the poop out. After a few days at the vets, he was still hurting and the vet recommended that I bring him home to see if he would relax and pass the rest of the poop. Fortunately that did the trick. He passed a huge turd!
I have been regularly (no pun intended) giving him special food, laxatives, and fiber to keep him loose. That has generally done the trick but occasionally he has problems dropping a turd. On Monday, he was in the hurt locker. He was wandering around my apartment (read “not in the cat box”) trying to take a shit. I watched him do this for a bit. The poses he struck as he tried to do this were both humorous and painful to watch. At some points he looked like a turkey in mating season. Hard to describe but I wasn’t into taking pictures. Between trying to drop the massive gassive, he would lie down, breath heavily, and occasionally have spasms in his lower body. Plus he had a wicked hardon for whatever reason. I called the vets to ask for an urgent appointment and they were able to get Hamlet in within about 1.5 hours.
Come to find out, he has arthritis in his spine (I saw the xrays, did not look good) that is causing him pain getting around and particularly when getting in position to urinate or deficate. This makes me wonder if much of the problem he has had over the years pissing and shitting are related to arthritis that started years ago. It supposedly can set in in cats 8 to 10 years old… Once again, Hamlet is 18.5! Nonetheless, the vet gave him an enema and prescribed medication to reduce the swelling associated with the arthritis and pain killers should they be necessary.
So far Hamlet seems fine. He is not taking the huge pisses he used to take that soaked a good 25% of the cat box but still hasn’t dropped a turd. That bothers me a bit. I had planned to go down to Suffolk, VA, to hang out with my sister Kim, her husband Don, my brother Reid, and his family but decided I’d best stick around to be sure that Hamlet is okay. I also did not want to leave my sister Julie responsible for Hamlet after the incident and the new medicinal regime.