1036. Follow up: Constipated cat on Jun 19, 12

On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 4:13 PM, Mr Dong Liu <dong.liu@uqconnect.edu.au> wrote:

Dear Dr Sing,

I was reading your blog post 1033 Fecal impaction of the cat, I was just wondering how did you manage to pass the catheter into the cat? Did you use general anesthesia or Domitor on the patient?

Regards,
XXX

E-MAIL REPLY FROM DR SING DATE JUN 20, 12

This case was performed by Dr Daniel Sing. The cat wxxxas not aggressive and so no sedation and anaesthetic was used when the urethral catheter was inserted gently. The cat was very timid and did not mind.

In this case, there was a tube of enema given a few days earlier and two hard stools had passed out. Also, the oral laxative oil had been given and the cat had passed into the colon but no stools were passed.

The cat was X-rayed before the urethral catheterisation (2 images). They showed faecal impaction of the whole colon.

After the urethral catheter enema using normal saline of 70 ml by Dr Daniel, the cat passed another hard faecal tablet the next day.

June 20, 2012 TODAY
10.30 am. The owner phoned to say 5 hard faecal pellets had been passed out. He was quite happy. "My cat vomited as he pooped," he said. "Quite a lot of stools." That was good news. He will come with the cat tomorrow.   

MY DISCUSSION WITH A SENIOR VET ON JUN 18, 12

1. He said digital extraction of the stools. I clarified as this seemed to be drastic and traumatic.
He said to use forceps to pull out the stools.

2. I had done colonstomy to remove all the hard stools in one old cat with similar impacted stools in the whole large intestine. The cat was OK. In this case, the senior vet said no need to do such surgery. Use forceps to pull out the impacted faeces will do.

3. Such impacted faecal cases are not common compared to difficulty in passing urine.