고양이 변비 – Jean Hofve 박사와 함께하는 변비의 원인, 증상 및 치료
2012년 7월 11일에 처음 게시됨 신은 고양이 변비에 대해 Floppycats와 이야기할 시간을 낸 Dr. Jean을 사랑합니다.Dr. Jean의 책인 The Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care:An Illustrated Handbook은 고양이 건강 및 관리에 대한 전체적인 접근 방식에 대해 자세히 알려줍니다. Jean은 또한 그녀의 사이트에서 고양이의 변비에 대해서도 다루고 있습니다. 이제 Jean 박사와 여러 인터뷰를 진행했습니다. 그 중 하나를 자유롭게 확인하십시오.
- 진 박사의 고양이 알레르기
- Jean Hofve 박사와 함께한 고양이의 음식 알레르기
- Dr. Jean과의 Litterbox 질문
- DVM의 Jean Hofve 박사와 함께한 고양이 비만
- DVM의 Jean Hofve 박사와 함께한 고양이의 신장 질환
- Jean Hofve 박사와 함께한 고양이 결막염 및 고양이 헤르페스
- 고양이 변비 – Jean Hofve 박사와 함께하는 변비의 원인, 증상 및 치료
- Little Big Cat의 Jean Hof 박사와 고양이 갑상선 기능 항진증 인터뷰
고양이 변비에 관한 Jean Hofve 박사와의 인터뷰 – Jean Hofve 박사와의 변비의 원인, 증상 및 치료:
Jean Hofve 박사와 함께하는 고양이 변비 - 변비의 원인, 증상 및 치료 팟캐스트를 듣거나 아래 인터뷰를 읽거나 YouTube에서 들을 수 있습니다.
Jenny:오늘은 5월 30일이며 오늘은 Dr. Jean Hofve와 고양이 변비에 대해 이야기하고 있습니다. Dr. Jean은 우리와 또 다른 팟캐스트 인터뷰를 해주셔서 다시 한 번 감사드립니다.Dr. 쟝:반갑습니다. 내가 가장 좋아하는 주제 고양이 똥에 관한 것입니다.Jenny:알아요. 모두가 고양이 똥을 좋아합니다.Dr. Jean:글쎄요, 모든 고양이는 어느 정도 가지고 있습니다.Jenny:네. 글쎄요, 인터뷰에 대한 아이디어를 얻기 위해 쓴 변비 고양이에 대한 Little Big Cat의 기사를 읽었고 Bristol Stool Chart.Dr.를 좋아했습니다. Jean:네, 저는 몇 년 전에 그것을 발견했고 그것이 얇게 썬 빵 이후로 가장 위대한 것이라고 생각했습니다. 오즈 박사를 본 적이 있습니까? 오즈 박사도 똑같은 말을 했습니다.제니:그게 내가 당신에게 말하려고 했던 것입니다. 그것은 나에게 Dr. Oz.Dr.를 생각나게 했다. 쟝:알겠습니다. 나와 Dr. Oz, 우리는 같은 페이지에 있습니다!Jenny:그래, Dr. Oz가 대변을 장처럼 보이기를 원하기 시작한 이후로 당신은 이제 S자 모양을 원하기 때문입니다. 내 말은 내가 먼저 Oz 박사가 Oprah에 있을 때 Oprah에서 그것에 대해 들었고 Dr. Oz에서 보았습니다. 그것이 지금 내 자신의 의자에 대한 나의 목표입니다. 누구보다 알고 싶었지만 그 브리스톨 스툴 차트가 그렇다.Dr. Jean:S자형 얘기를 하는데 변기가 S자형으로 변하기 때문에 S자형이 휘는 것뿐이에요. 따라서 Bristol Stool Chart의 Type 4는... 만약 당신의 애완동물이 그것을 쌓는다면 그것은 S자 모양이 아닐 수도 있지만 그것이 S자 모양의 용기에 들어갔다면 S자 모양으로 만들 수 있다는 것을 알 수 있습니다. 그래서 유연합니다. 고양이가 한 마리 있습니다. 요전날 우리가 컴퓨터 작업을 하던 중 친구가 있었는데 그녀의 상자인 퍼즐이 사무실에 있습니다. 그리고 그녀는 그녀의 발과 상자에서 내립니다. 그래서 그녀는 자신의 엉덩이가 상자 안에 있지 않을 거라고 기대하지 않고, 그녀의 엉덩이가 상자 가장자리에 매달려 있기 때문에 매트에 똥을 쌌습니다. 그리고 우리 둘 다 믿을 수 없다는 듯이 이 일을 바라보았습니다. 저먼 셰퍼드에서 튀어나온 것 같았다. 확실히 Type 3이지만 부드러웠습니다. 그것은 거대했다. 우리는 그것에 대해 30분 동안 웃었습니다.Jenny:재미있네요.Dr. Jean:그녀는 대부분 상자를 피합니다. 왜냐하면 남자들이 상자 안에서 그녀의 말을 들으면 그들이 들어와서 그녀를 괴롭히기 때문입니다. 그래서 그녀는 마지막 가능한 한 초까지 기다렸다가 일을 처리합니다.Jenny:알겠습니다. 그렇다면 고양이 변비의 주요 원인 중 하나는 무엇입니까? Jean:나는 건조 식품을 말하고 밀접하게 관련된 것은 운동 부족입니다. 앉아있는 고양이가 24시간 탈수 없는 음식을 원하는 만큼 먹는 사이에 조만간 문제가 생길 것입니다. 이제 나는 요전에 이것에 대해 다른 사람과 이야기했고 그는 이것이 나이든 고양이의 문제가 아닌가? 그리고 그렇습니다. 대부분 나이가 많은 고양이입니다. 하지만 나는 고양이, 귀여운 꼬마, 작은 얼룩무늬와 흰색을 본 것을 기억합니다. 우리가 6개월에 중성화 수술을 했을 때 그의 검사는 결장에 대변이 많은 것을 제외하고는 정상이었고, 의심할 이유가 없었습니다. 수술을 진행했습니다. 그는 잘했다. 그러나 나는 당신이 알고 있는 엄마에게 그가 거기에 엄청난 양의 변을 가지고 있다고 언급했고 나는 당신이 주의를 기울이기를 바랍니다. 그리고 확실히, 그는 평생 만성 변비로 판명되었습니다. 그의 신경이나 근육이나 무언가에 문제가 있었고 그것은 그가 6개월 때 나타났습니다. 따라서 나이가 많은 고양이뿐만 아니라 항상 건사료 고양이 만이 아닙니다. 약 10년 전에 이 기사를 게시한 이후로 정확히 세 사람에게서 고양이가 항상 습식사료를 먹어서 어쨌든 변비에 걸렸다는 이야기를 들었습니다. 그러나 그것은 천 명 중 3 명입니다. 그래서 고양이에게 제대로 먹이를 준다면 더 잘 먹게 될 것이라는 꽤 좋은 생각을 가지고 있다고 생각합니다.Jenny:알겠습니다. 고양이가 변비에 걸렸다는 것은 무엇을 의미합니까? 다른 말로 하면, 어떤 결과나 위험이 수반됩니까?Dr. Jean:글쎄요, 고양이는 불편해요. 그리고 고양이가 변비에 걸리면 식사를 중단합니다. 쓰레기 속에 쓰레기가 나온다는 옛말을 아실 겁니다. 쓰레기가 나오지 않으면 배가 부르고 속이 메스껍고 먹지 않습니다. 그래서 지금 당신은 진짜 위기에 처한 재료를 가지고 있습니다. 왜냐하면 그들이 먹지 않으면 그들은 간 지방증과 모든 종류의 다른 것들을 발전시킬 수 있기 때문입니다. 그리고 대변이 정말 꽉 차서 변비가 생기거나 더 심해지면 변비의 다음 단계인 변비가 생기면 결장에 손상을 주기 시작합니다. 실제로 근육 섬유가 찢어지기 시작할 수 있고 신경 말단이 손상되기 시작할 수 있으며, 결국에는 거대결장(거대결장)이라는 상태가 나타나게 되는데, 이는 심한 철회식 변비입니다. 그리고 이 녀석들, 믿을 수 없을 정도로 많은 양의 똥이 들어 있을 수 있습니다. 외과적 응급상황입니다. 메가콜론을 사용하면 해당 기능을 다시 얻지 못할 가능성이 큽니다. 이에 대한 유일한 해결책은 수술입니다. 다행히 수술은 잘 되는데… 변비를 관리하기가 쉽지는 않지만 관리할 수 있습니다. 그리고 결장 내부에 물리적 손상을 일으킬 지경에 이를 이유가 없습니다.Jenny:좋습니다.Dr. Jean:고통은 말할 것도 없고요. 내 여동생, 이제 그녀가 이 말을 듣지 않기를 바랍니다. 하지만 그녀는 큰 개처럼 우유를 마시기 때문에 만성 변비입니다. 내 생각으로는... 변비를 보장할 것입니다. 나는 완전히 반대의 문제가 있습니다. 그러나 그것은 정말로식이 요법과 관련이 있으며 그녀는 나에게 자신이 얼마나 비참하고 정말 끔찍하다고 말합니다. 그녀는 경련입니다. 그녀는 배가 불렀다. 그녀는 단지 끔찍하다고 느낀다. 그리고 당신은 무엇을 알고 있습니다; 당신은 고양이에게 그것을 원하고 싶지 않을 것입니다. 그리고 그들은 당신에게 말할 수 없습니다. 그들은 당신에게 이메일을 보내거나 내가 여기에서 멈춰있는 기분이라고 말할 수 없습니다. 그들은 무엇을 해야 할지 모릅니다. 그들은 행동의 제한된 레퍼토리만 가지고 있습니다. 그들은 상자에 들어가 긴장을 하고 아무 일도 일어나지 않고 포기하고 잠시 후에 다시 돌아갑니다. 따라서 조금이라도 주의를 기울이고 있어야 하는 것처럼 매일 상자를 퍼낸다면 문제가 있다는 것을 알아차리는 데 그리 오랜 시간이 걸리지 않을 것입니다. 상자에 대변이 부족하거나 상자에 들어 있는 대변이 돌처럼 단단하고 자그마하고 검고 말라 마른 것입니다. 그것들은 정상이 아닙니다. 오즈 박사를 생각해 보십시오. 소시지 먹으러 가자. 그가 우리 편이여서 정말 기쁘지, 그렇지?Jenny:네.Dr. Jean:이 고양이들 중 일부는 먹다가 음식이 갈 곳이 없어서 바로 돌아오기 때문에 구토만 하는 경우도 있습니다. 하지만 많은 사람들이 이 자동 고양이 상자에 들어가고 있습니다. 당신은 그것을 헹구는 Genie와 그것을 퍼내는 Littermaid 등을 알고 있습니다. 당신은 애완 동물 부모로서 당신이 할 일의 일부가 그것을 추적하는 것을 알고 있습니다. 당신은 매일 그것을보고 그것이 어떤지 확인해야합니다. 무엇이 정상인지 알아야 하고 무엇이 정상이 아닌지 말할 수 있어야 합니다. 변화, 식욕 변화, 대변의 질, 농도 또는 양 변화, 소변량 변화, 음주량 변화, 섭식 변화, 구토 변화, GI 시스템과 관련된 변화를 볼 때마다 이러한 변화는 기분을 나쁘게 할 수 있습니다. 도로 정말 빠릅니다. 이제 수의사에게 연락할 시간입니다.Jenny:알겠습니다. 그리고 당신은 Little Big Cat에 대한 당신의 기사에서 언급했고 누군가가 웹사이트에서 이것을 듣고 있다면 링크를 제공할 것입니다. 때때로 이것이 고양이가 일반적인 문제인 것처럼 보이는 쓰레기통 밖에서 배변하는 이유 중 하나입니다. 사람들과 함께 그들이 쓰레기통에 오줌을 누지만 그들은 항상 쓰레기통 밖 2번으로 간다는 것을 발견했습니다.Dr. Jean:네, 그래서 행동학자는 고양이당 1개의 상자에 1을 더한다고 말합니다. 따라서 고양이가 1마리라면 2개의 쓰레기통이 있어야 합니다. 왜냐하면 고양이는 한 쪽에는 오줌을 싸고 다른 쪽에는 똥을 놓는 것을 선호하기 때문입니다. 그것들은 고양이의 눈에서 일종의 다른 기능이며 소변이나 대변으로 영역 표시를 얻을 수 있습니다. 당신은 모든 종류의 소란을 피우거나 퍼즐과 같은 사람을 얻을 수 있습니다. 내 다른 나이 든 고양이 Spirit과 Schnook도 그렇게 하곤 했습니다. 그들은 상자에 들어가거나 그 근처에 가서 오 예, 충분히 좋습니다. 그래서 당신은 그 고양이들을 수용하고 싶어합니다. 가끔은 어떤 이유에서인지 상자 상태로 들고 있는 경우가 있습니다. 여름에 카터 레이크에 가면 그 집에 가지 않을 것 같아서 들고 있는 것처럼요. 따라서 상자가 충분히 깨끗하지 않으면 보관할 것입니다. 상자가 올바른 질감이나 배치 또는 구성의 일관성이 아니면 상자를 유지하고 내가 아는 만큼 당신도 알고 있습니다. 당신이 정말로 붙잡아야 한다면 그렇게 할 것입니다. 그리고 그들은 진짜 곤경에 빠질 때까지 그것을 유지할 것입니다. 당신은 그들이 매일 똥을 쌌으면 하고 비슷해야 하고 상당히 규칙적이어야 합니다. 때때로 당신은 하루에 두 번 키티를 얻거나 퍼즐처럼 이틀에 한 번 키티를 잡습니다. 그러나 그녀가 갈 때 그녀는 정말로 간다. 나는 그녀가 그것을 볼 때 그녀가 완전히 자신을 비웠다는 것을 전혀 의심하지 않습니다. 따라서 매우 부드러운 조직이기 때문에 일이 너무 오래 지속되기 전에 주의를 기울이고 조치를 취하는 것이 중요합니다. 결장의 근력은 경이롭지만 여전히 동일한 점막으로 입과 눈, 기타 모든 곳, 그리고 위장관을 둘러싸고 있습니다. 정말 쉽게 상처를 줄 수 있습니다.Jenny:그렇게 생각하십니까? 너무 많은 요인이 관련되어 있기 때문에 이것은 대답하기 어려운 질문이 될 것 같습니다. 하지만 고양이가 기본적으로 평생 동안 동일한 식단을 먹인다면, 그러면 새끼 고양이로서 배변 횟수가 다음과 어느 정도 일치할 것이라고 거의 보장할 수 있습니다... 즉, 1살 때 하루에 한 번이라면 5살에서는 하루에 한 번이어야 합니다. - 옛날 물건?닥터. Jean:음, 새끼 고양이는 더 작고 공간이 적기 때문에 더 자주 가는 것 같아요. 그리고 황소의 뿔을 바로 잡으려면 평생 같은 식단을 고양이에게 먹이지 마십시오. 왜냐하면 어느 날 그 식단이 부적절해지고 100% 중독된 고양이가 있다는 것을 인식하지 못하기 때문입니다. 음식으로 지구상의 다른 무엇이든, 그러면 당신은 진짜 문제가 있습니다.Jenny:나는 그 질문을 제대로 표현하지 못했습니다.Dr. Jean:내가 재택근무를 하고 대부분의 시간을 집에 있을 때 알게 된 사실은 그들의 식욕이 실제로 많이 다르다는 것을 알게 되었습니다. 어느 날 그들은 그 다음날보다 더 배고프다. 나는 그들이 1~2주 동안 매일 엄청난 양의 두 끼를 먹는 기간을 겪습니다. 그리고 갑자기 그들 중 누구도 아침 식사에 관심이 없었고 점심에는 거의 관심이 없었습니다. 마치 그들이 따라잡는 것과 같습니다. 그리고 고양이는 자신의 필요에 민감하고 언제 휴식을 취해야 하는지 알고 있습니다. 그래서 어느날... 불행히도 내 대부분은 같은 일정에, 비슷한 바이오 나는 두 쌍의 형제가 있는 것 같아요 .... 우리는 매일 같은 것을 먹지 않습니다. 우리는 매일 같은 양을 먹지 않습니다. 어떤 날은 멕시코 사람, 어떤 날은 이탈리아 사람, 어떤 날은 볼로냐 샌드위치가 세상에서 가장 맛있는 것 같아요. 다양합니다. 그리고 사람들이 가방이나 상자, 캔 등에 적힌 것이 무엇이든 그것이 추정치라는 것을 이해할 수 있기를 바랍니다. 이것은 일반적인 경험 법칙이며 모든 고양이가 그런 것은 아닙니다. 실제로 그 양으로 0이 되는 고양이는 거의 없습니다. 대부분의 동물은 조금 더 많거나 적게 필요합니다. 바람이 많이 불면 초조해서 더 많은 에너지를 소모하거나 지진이 나거나 옆집이 공사 중일 때 식욕이 날씨와 조건에 따라 달라집니다. 그래서 당신은 파티를 계획하고 있고 그들은 모두 불안하고 화가 나서 먹지 않습니다. 글쎄, 당신이 먹지 않으면 다른 쪽 끝에서 아무것도 나오지 않습니다. 따라서 당신은 일종의 소유자로서, 후견인으로서… 무엇이 들어가는지 추적하고 적절한 시간에 적절한 금액이 나오는지 확인하는 것이 당신의 일입니다. 그리고 그것을 알 수 있는 유일한 방법은 주의를 기울이는 것입니다. 당신이 ... 그리고 말 그대로 일기를 쓰는 고객이 있었다면. Mongo는 11:45에 2개의 사료를 먹었고 11:48에 6개의 사료를 먹었습니다.Jenny:Wow.Dr. Jean:꼭 그렇게 할 필요는 없지만, 무엇이 들어오고 무엇이 나올지에 대한 일반적인 아이디어가 있어야 하며, 상황이 변하더라도 수용할 수 있도록 정상적인 것에 대한 일반적인 아이디어가 있어야 합니다. 예, 어떤 날은 고양이가 배고프고, 어떤 날은 고양이가 배고프지 않을 것입니다. 지극히 정상입니다.Jenny:네. 그건 말이 됩니다... Charlie와 Trigg... 저는 다른 고양이 주인들이 고양이 사료 브랜드와 맛, 그리고 그런 모든 것들에 대해 애쓰는 것처럼 고군분투합니다. 왜냐하면 당신이 말했듯이 어떤 날은 멕시코인처럼 느껴지고 어떤 날은 중국인처럼 느껴지기 때문입니다. 그래서 나는 그것이 히트인지 아닌지 확인하기 위해 끊임없이 새로운 맛을 시도하고 있습니다. 결과적으로 나는 또한 설사를 하지 않는지 확인하기 위해 쓰레기통을 관찰하고 있습니다. 설사가 그들의 털에 달라붙어 내 침대나 그들이 누워 있는 곳이면 어디든지 묻기 때문입니다. 그런 물건. 그래서 나는 확실히 매처럼 그것을 보고 있습니다.Dr. 쟝:네. 하지만 정말 좋은 일입니다. 당신이 하는 일은 항상 다른 것을 시도하고 그것이 어떻게 작동하는지 주의를 기울이는 것입니다. 당신이 아는 누군가가 생각할 때마다 나에게 니켈이 있었다면 .... 기다려.... 누군가는 산책을 하고 싶어합니다. 당신이 다양한 종류를 먹이고 있다면, 일종의 모순이지만… 우리 고양이는 같은 식사를 두 번 하지 않는 것처럼 계속해서 다양한 먹이를 주고 있는지 봅시다. 그들은 날 음식을 먹고, 통조림을 먹고, 이것과 저것을 먹고, 다른 것을 얻습니다. 나는 그들을 위해 집에서 음식을 만듭니다. 통조림 식품을 먹더라도 보충제를 함께 먹습니다. 나는 다양한 맛과 브랜드를 사는 것을 좋아합니다. 고양이 구조를 하고 있는 친구에게서 전화가 왔고 그들은 Wellness에서 좋은 음식을 받고 있었습니다. 그래서 그들의 고양이 무리 전체, 모든 구조 고양이, 그리고 그들 중 많은 수가 있었습니다. 50마리 정도였습니다. 그들은 Wellness만 먹고 있었습니다. 그리고 티아민 결핍으로 인한 웰빙 리콜이 있었습니다. 그리고 많은 고양이들이 병에 걸렸고 많은 고양이들이 죽었습니다. 따라서 하나의 브랜드와 하나의 맛만 제공한다면 언제든지 리콜의 날카로운 가장자리를 걷고 있는 것입니다. 지난 달에 리콜된 음식을 보십시오. 수십가지의 음식이 있습니다. 따라서 이러한 종류의 과잉과 결핍으로부터 고양이를 보호하고, 까칠한 행동을 예방하고, 음식 중독을 예방하고, 염증성 장 질환을 예방하기 때문에 다양한 먹이를 주는 것이 좋습니다. 그들에게 다양성을 주는 것이 매우 중요하지만 그들이 어떻게 반응하는지 지켜봐야 합니다. 여기만으론 부족해 oh 맘에 들어? 여기 10캔 드립니다. 당신에게 편리한 것이 아니라 잘하는 패턴으로 먹이를주십시오. 나는 그것이 많은 사람들에게 정말 놀라운 생각이라는 것을 압니다. 사람들은 그들에게 편안하고 쉽고 편리하고 저렴한 것을 먹이기 때문입니다. 그러나 고양이가 정말로 건강하기를 원한다면 더 많은 노력이 필요합니다. 그들의 주기와 패턴에 주의를 기울여야 합니다. 그리고 그들이 어느 날 행복하게 먹는 것을 다음날 행복하게 먹지 않습니다. 글쎄, 같은 음식이 며칠 동안 남아 있으면 더 이상 원하지 않습니다. 주의를 기울이고 그들과 관계를 맺는다면 고양이를 키우는 것은 그리 어렵지 않습니다. 최소한의 정도라도 한다면 괜찮을 겁니다.Jenny:제 고양이 Rags가 만성 신부전을 겪고 있을 때 그 결과 중 하나는 변비였습니다. 분명히 그의 신장이 그를 돕지 않았기 때문입니다. .박사 쟝:맞아. 그들은 수분을 유지하지 않아 탈수되고 결장은 수분을 보충하려고 하지만 수분이 충분하지 않으면 일어나지 않을 것입니다. 체액이 너무 많이 빠져서 똥을 포함하여 모든 것이 말라버릴 것입니다.Jenny:네. 그래서 이번 인터뷰에서 제가 여러분에게 묻고 싶은 것 중 하나는 변비가 있는 고양이를 어떻게 대하는지였습니다. 그리고 우리는 그런 종류의 건강한 고양이에 대해 다루었지만 변비를 유발하는 만성 신부전과 같은 질병에 대해 이야기할 수 있습니까? 그런 의미에서 어떻게 대처해야 할까요?Dr. Jean:네, 수분을 공급하는 질병은 종종 구토와 설사를 유발하기 때문에 만성 신부전, 당뇨병, 갑상선 기능 항진증입니다. 그리고 그들이 음식 섭취량을 따라가지 못한다면 당신은 무언가를 시도하게 될 것입니다. 따라서 탈수를 유발하는 모든 종류의 일과 많은 일들이 있습니다. 물론 고양이가 아플 때 가장 먼저 일어나는 일은 식사를 중단하는 것이기 때문입니다. 그리고 그들이 젖은 음식을 얻지 못한다면, 그들은 또한 그 물을 얻지 못할 것입니다. 그래서 상황이 정말 빨리 나빠질 수 있습니다.Jenny:알겠습니다. 내 수의사가 Enulose를 추천한 것처럼 그것은 재앙이었습니다. 그래서 우리는 프로바이오틱스를 먹었고 효과가 있었습니다. 당신의 환자들에게 어떤 것들이 효과가 있었나요?Dr. Jean:글쎄, 당신이 일반 수의사에게 가보면... 당신의 평범한 수의사... 그리고 당신은 내 고양이가 변비에 걸린 것 같다고 말합니다. 그들은 고양이를 촉진합니다. 그들은 대장에 대변이 많이 있다고 말합니다. 섬유질이 대변을 통한 대변의 통과를 조절하기 때문에 고양이에게 고섬유질 식단을 제공할 것입니다. 너무 빠르면 속도가 느려지고 너무 느리면 이론상 속도가 빨라지며 일반적으로 잠시 동안 작동합니다. And then they stop working and then you are worse off than you were before because now your cat is really dehydrated and he’s got buckets of fiber now stuck in the colon. And you’re going to be way worse off than you would have been had you gone in another direction. When the high fiber diet stops working, vets tend to put them on a low residue diet which means virtually no fiber. Well, come on people. This is a shades of gray kind of world. What I do for constipated cats is immediately… I give them fluids. And if it’s been a chronic problem, I teach the parents how to give fluids at home because that’s the easiest thing and they need the fluids at that point. Now if they’re very constipated, they’re obstipated, they’re going to need more than fluids. One of my favorite tricks, believe it or not, is Vaseline. Vaseline is just grand for this sort of thing and everybody is going to go oh my God, you’re feeding petroleum to the cat, oh my God. Well let me tell you the story of my cat Spirit who loved Vaseline, and she ate Vaseline 2, or 3, or 4 or more times a day every day for 20 and 1/2 years. Apparently it did not cause her a problem. The thing about a petroleum product like petroleum jelly, it’s a very, very big molecule and it’s basically inert in the body. The body can’t break it down. You don’t have any Vaseline enzymes sitting in your pancreas. It’s not possible to break it down. Now people say well if all you want is to grease up the food, why can’t we give vegetable oil or butter or something. Because they’ll get digested and they will not complete the job. What you want is for whatever you’re giving to grease up the food… the ball of food that’s in there… and slide it all the way. Well if the coating gets digested, now you’re left with a big wad of food two-thirds of the way down the GI tract with nothing to escort it anymore. So that’s why I like Vaseline, it’s because it escorts it all the way out. It’s a grand thing. And Petromalt, Cat Lax and Laxatol, those are all basically Vaseline or mineral oil with flavor. You know I don’t like those flavors. My cats have never liked those flavors. I give them plain Vaseline. Some of them like it. Some of them don’t. But it works real good.Jenny:In what amount?Dr. Jean:If they have problems, then I just give them a big wad of Vaseline in the corner of their mouth, and that will usually take care of hairballs and most other things pretty quickly.Jenny:Yeah, I’ve heard about Vaseline for hairballs but not for constipation, but it makes sense.Dr. Jean:Well especially because it warms up inside the cat and it’s nice and gooey and it flows and it’ll just slide right on out to the colon and it’ll coat what’s in there and help to get it out. You know it doesn’t work all the time if a cat is real obstipated; it’s not going to be enough. But it’s a great thing to try and first and it’s not going to hurt your cat.Jenny:Right.Dr. Jean:The other things you want, you want more moisture in the cat because if the stool stays moist enough, you’re never going to have this problem. So canned food, raw food, homemade food, something high moisture. I really like water fountains to get the cats to drink more. My cats all abandoned the sink which you know when you go in the bathroom and you turn on the water, and you have 4 or 5 cats immediately trying to get to the faucet, it’s really annoying. So I got them a fountain and it totally took care of the problem. They quit bugging me and I could control and see how much they were drinking and all that. So fountains are great. You know then you get into the tougher stuff. Now slippery elm is really nice. A lot of cats do well with slippery elm because it also forms like a mucilaginous gel that will make this poop slipperier and it’s also got a lot of fiber in it. So it’s pretty good for not severe constipation. It’s a nice thing to try. If you’re going to put slippery elm bark in your cat’s food, you must add water and usually cold water, because slippery elm itself is like a sponge and it’ll absorb the water out of the food, and then you have a food ball going through the GI tract that’s actually drier than it would have been to begin with because it’s slippery elm. So you have to make up for the water that that’s going to take. It’s water balance and what kind of food and fiber to some extent. The other couple of non-medical solutions are exercise and weight loss, because 90% of these cats are obese. Our guts don’t work too good if we’re not exercising. So it just stands to reason, cats normally in the real world would be very active. They would be getting a lot of exercise as they’re trying to get to their food, and they’re hunting, and they’re doing all their cat things, and patrolling and climbing and checking things out. Cats are moving around all the time. So if your cat is a couch potato, you want to exercise them. For that I recommend play therapy. You know we have an article about it on LittleBigCat.com, and play therapy is a very specific, ritualized, structured play session, and it’s really, really good for your cat. Stress management in case you have a cat like Puzzle that avoids the box because of territorial issues, then stress management. They get box flower remedies, they get homeopathic remedies, they get a product call acai, they get all kinds of things that I feel are relieving stress and creating better health for them. The other thing we have to remember is sometimes constipation isn’t due to a GI problem at all but it’s due to pain. So making sure that your cat is not in pain, doesn’t have a disc out, or hasn’t had some kind of injury or something. A short course of some kind of pain killer, non-opioid pain killer, because of course opioids cause constipation. So there’s Medacam or something low dose for a few days just to make sure that that isn’t a factor. Then we go… the rest of the treatments are more medical in nature… the Mirilax or Lactulose or stool softeners or Cisapride, which has been taken off of the human market because it has dangerous side effects, but cats aren’t prone to those side effects; they do real well with it. The drug name when it was available was Propulsid but now it’s called Cisapride, it’s the generic, and you can get it from a compounding pharmacy that can call it in from anywhere. Pediatric suppositories, those sometimes work. If you can get your cat to tolerate it. Enemas for when you’re, when it’s too late for all the minor interventions. Some people give enemas at home. I’ve given plenty of enemas to cats in the clinic. If the enema doesn’t work then you may have to have what we politely call a dig out which is under anesthesia. The tech, usually not the vet, this is usually going to be your favorite techs who’ll bring them cookies, will go in there with their fingers and pull the poop out. And they have to basically milk it down the colon, out into the pelvic area where they can hook it with the finger and pull it out. A very unpleasant procedure for everyone concerned. Really try to get it solved before you have to go there. And for the cats that are too far gone, there’s surgery. They do what they call a subtotal colectomy. Colectomy means removing the colon. And they don’t remove the whole thing, but they remove the damaged part which is often a great portion of it. And then your problem will be diarrhea. But the cat will be more comfortable, and eventually the small intestines will start to take on some of the functions of the colon, and it will make it…. the cat will regain control and it will be a much better situation all together. But the recovery is not fun and it’s dangerous. But people are very, very happy with the results overall, because the cats that need this, they really need it. They’re in such terrible trouble and it’s so hard to watch a cat go through that. 공정하지 않습니다. But there’s a lot of things to do before it comes to that and prevention is way better than treatment of course.Jenny:Yes. I mean I assume if it goes untreated then the cat will die.Dr. Jean:Yeah. And it will be a really ugly, painful and unpleasant death. It’s kind of related to the urinary thing when a white cat gets blocked. It turns out that most people… it you’re not monitoring the box and you don’t see that there’s a problem and the cat goes far enough, then the chances of it dying on the operating table are very high. And I think a fair amount of cats just disappear and never come home and you think oh, they got eaten by a coyote or got locked in a garage or something. They could have died from the toxins in the stool or the pee that get backed up into the blood and they die of sepsis, and that is a very ugly way to die also. You want your cat to be indoors with a box that you can see what’s going on because they can’t talk; they can’t say I’ve got a tummy ache, dagnabbit. They can’t email you, they can’t leave you a post it note… you have to be paying attention to their behavior because their behavior is the only thing that’s going to tell you how they feel.Jenny:I agree. In preparation for this interview, I asked on Facebook again if anybody had any questions. So one of the questions kind of correlates to what you just said, you have to be paying attention. The reader asked, “In a multi-cat household, how do you know if one of the cats is constipated?”Dr. Jean:You’ll know from the behavior of that cat because if it goes on for more than a couple of days, that cat will stop eating, or it will start behaving… it will be lethargic or act painful, or if you try to pet his tummy he’ll bite you. I have 4 cats and I have 4 litter boxes, and I know who uses which ones. I have a pretty general good idea about it, and if I see something unusual I start watching the cats really closely, I start paying more attention. It’s not that hard to learn how to palpate your cat unless it’s tremendously obese. I think vets and techs should be teaching people to palpate the belly because a full bladder… a normal full bladder… feels different from a blocked bladder and a stool full of crap feels different from one that’s normal. Normal stool feels different than abnormal stool, and these are all things we can be teaching people how to feel themselves. It would save so many trips to the vet, and it would save animals so much trouble and pain and distress if people were more aware of how to feel them up so you can catch those problems early. You see something suspicious… I see something suspicious; I go straight to Sundance and palpate his bladder. He’s the one that just has a history. If I see horrible dry little stool, I go for Flynn because he’s the one that’ll do that. Because I’ve had these cats 10, 15 years and I know what their patterns of behavior are. I know that Puzzle never uses the box in the bathroom, so if it’s the box in the bathroom then it must be one of the other three. And if it’s the box in the living room it could be any of them. If it’s the box in the office, it won’t be Sundance because he doesn’t use that box. So, it’s like if you have kids. If you have 4 kids, you know the traits of those children. You know their habits. You know who’s the one that’s more likely to be caught with their hand in the cookie jar. You know which one is the one that likes to climb things, is going to break his arm when he falls. You’re going to know what their habits are and you’re going to be able to… if you come home and you find broken glass all over the place, you’re going to have a pretty good idea which kids out of all 4 is going to be more likely to be involved. So it’s playing the odds, and it’s knowing your animals. And the only way you get to know your animals is to pay attention and to really be involved in their lives. Unlike kids, you don’t have to drive them to soccer practice. But you should be playing with them every day. You should be petting them every day. You should be kind of feeling them every day. Make the abdominal palpation a part of a massage. I get cats in the clinic and I need to palpate their tummy and I just tell them, I’m going to give you a massage honey, and dogs same thing. You can rub around in that abdomen and you find out right away if their sensitive. If they’re painful they’re going to pull away, they’re going to react unpleasantly. They’re going to look at you like you’re out of your freakin mind. It’s just being involved in your cat’s life in the same way that you’re involved with your family or your friends. You know what they’re like normally and so if they don’t look right you’re going to know. This is not a problem that develops overnight. This is something that you are going to have plenty of warning about. Because they don’t go from normal stool on Tuesday to obstipated on Wednesday. That doesn’t happen. First you’re going to see that the stools are going to progress on the Bristol Stool Chart to drier, lumpier, and when they get into sheep pellets or elk pellets, it depends on where you live. In my yard it’s more likely to be deer pellets than sheep. But you’re going to have plenty of warning. This is not something that doesn’t tell you it’s coming. So it’s just paying attention. Do the things that you know will prevent this problem as well as a host of other problems. Play therapy every day, that’s going to eliminate almost every behavior problem you could imagine. It’s going to reduce inter-cat aggression. It’s going to get them exercise which is going to reduce obesity, and make all their systems, their urinary system, their respiratory system, their cardiac system, and their GI system; those are all going to work better. Their immune system’s going to work better. Everything’s going to work better if they’re getting exercise and if they’re getting an appropriate diet. These problems, pardon me while I climb upon my high horse, are mostly veterinarian caused because veterinarians don’t educate people correctly and they have not educated people that dry food is not appropriate for cats, and the longer you feed dry food the more problems you’re going to have because then you’re signing your cat up for obesity, arthritis, diabetes, constipation, kidney problems, urinary problems, bladder stones. That’s what you sign up for when you feed your cat dry food. Those are just some of the things, of course arthritis, skin allergies, every kind of thing. So we have created this problem by not educating people, by promoting crap foods, and in crap I include all these fancy veterinarian diets. If they’re dry, they’re no good. Just ask your cat. I recently put an article up on my website called 10 Reasons Why Dry Food is Bad for Your Cat or Dog. I didn’t have any trouble at all coming up with 10 reasons and I could have gone on. So we need to feed our animals a species specific, species appropriate diet, and with cats that means wet food. Because you know, they don’t eat mummified mice. They eat fresh prey that are full of water, and they’re full of blood too so all the nutrients that are in the blood that are absent in the meat that we buy because animals that get slaughtered are bled out immediately, because the blood they can sell it for a bigger price somewhere else. So our animals are missing out on that. So what we need to do is try and build a better [INAUDIBLE-43:51], it’s not easy to do that. So wet food, raw food, homemade food, as long as you’ve got a good recipe and you’ve got a reputable manufacturer, a high moisture diet is what cats are supposed to eat and if they eat that they will be less prone to every heath problem. You’re not going to 100% eliminate it. I’ve had cats eat a 100% wet diet that have developed urinary problems and blocked. It happens, but it doesn’t happen nearly as often as cats eating dry food. So, the dry food thing just makes me nuts, and it’s saddens me to see dry food spreading around the world. Japan is starting to feed their pets dry food, and China and Argentina and Brazil and South Africa. We’re just not doing good by our cats. But those are very lucrative markets for the pet food makers. And you know pet food makers always promote dry food over wet food because they make a boatload more money. The ingredients are much cheaper, the processing is much cheaper, the storage is much cheaper, transportation is much cheaper, they would rather everybody feed dry food. Cans food is a pain in the butt for me. You have to pay for the metal can, you have to pay for the liners for the cans, it’s heavier to ship and it’s mostly water so you’re paying to ship water. You know and it’s expensive for people to buy. But you know do you want to invest in your cat’s health now by feeding what it should eat with the right kind of foods, or do you want pay for a dig out procedure or a subtotal colectomy or a bladder stone removal or insulin for the rest of the cat’s life. Is that what you’d rather do? You want to pay for cheap food now but you’re going to pay thousands in vet bills later? No. Please, please, please invest in your cat now with a good diet and head these problems off. That’s my big thing I’ve got to say.Jenny:I posted something on Facebook yesterday that Ingrid at the Conscious Cat had written about dry food or the importance of wet food, something like that. And one of the Floppy Cats readers said like this is such BS. I worked at a vet and all we saw with cats who were on wet food was rotten teeth, rotten teeth.Dr. Jean:I’ve seen tens of thousands of cats with rotten teeth that never saw wet food. The rotten teeth thing, that is such BS, and it is genetic. It’s all genetic. It has very little to do with diet.Jenny:That’s good to know about genetic because yeah, my two cats are obviously on the same thing but Charlie has 10 times the amount of tartar than Trigg does, so I figured it was genetic, and I want Charlie to get Trigg’s genes for that.Dr. Jean:And it can be environmental, and then I had one family of cats, I don’t know they were lovely people, I loved them to death. But they had like 16 cats and I took all teeth out of most of their cats. But I think they had an endemic calicivirus that the cats had just passed around and so it was an environmental trigger but, you know, I was amazed when I realized that red-headed cats had less tartar and more gingivitis. Well, red-heads tend to have more inflammation and that includes your red tabbies, your Abyssinians, very few of whom have any teeth at all by the time they’re 4 years old. Your calicos, your torties, any cat with red is more likely to have a genetic propensity to create inflammation as opposed to other kinds of physical reactions.Jenny:That’s interesting. Okay so another question was… and I don’t know if you can answer this but… what does it mean when your cat’s litter box smells like moth balls?Dr. Jean:That would not be good. First I would clean the litter box. And if you’re using moth balls to fill the litter box, you might want to stop that. You know they’re little pellets but they’re not really suitable because they’re incredibly toxic. That could be diabetes because the acetone in the urine could smell vaguely like moth balls. I’d have that checked out.Jenny:Okay. Somebody asked is it true that if you feed them grain-free food their poop doesn’t smell as bad as it’s supposed to?Dr. Jean:No. Grain-free food if it’s dry is worse on every count for your cat. It is more dehydrating because protein is a diuretic. So I think the grain-free foods are stupid. Grains are very rare allergens and the grain-free the foods typically simply substitute sugary starchy vegetables, green peas or white potatoes or sweet potatoes; it’s not like there are less carbs and the point is we want less carbs. Some of the grain-free foods are higher protein; there’s still some carbs in there but they just pull the water right out of your cat. I’m really not happy about that. Grain free canned food, if you want to go there that’s fine. But there’s really not that much carb in any canned food. The cat food with the lowest… the lowest amount of carbs is Fancy Feast. 자, 갑니다. Fancy Feast, a good diet for diabetic cats because it’s got about…most of their flavors are about 8% carbohydrates which is very low and that’s what you want.Jenny:What about getting rid of your cat’s runs so like the opposite of constipation? What could that be?Dr. Jean:Well there are about 4,000 different causes for diarrhea. One of them, interestingly enough, is constipation. And I proved this to myself once. I got obstipated but I had diarrhea because the only thing that was getting past the blockage was the liquid stuff. So you know I swear, I promise, I am working on a book. I have said for the last couple of years, the next book I write is going to be about cat poop. And I really have to do it because there’s so much people don’t understand about cat poop. And every time you get a group of cat people together, eventually your conversation is going to devolve to cat poop. I’ve seen it a million times, so you know, and especially if you get a group of veterinarians, then the talk will always turn to cat poop and abscesses because those will clear a restaurant out faster than anything else. And we have it all to ourselves.Jenny:Yes. Okay, somebody asked this but we kind of already covered it with the Bristol Stool Chart, but what’s a normal ideal one supposed to look like. Can you describe it in case someone can’t see it visually while listening to this please?Dr. Jean:Yes. It should be about the consistency of like silly putty or play dough, soft, moist, moldable… like if the cat poops in the corner of the box, it’s going to stack up and tip over. It’s pliable, it’s not rock hard. It should look fairly moist all over and be a nice long string of it, and it should be round in diameter, but not too thin. I’m thinking of… sometimes I’ve seen stool that are this shape… the correct shape, but they are a quarter of an inch wide and just be a long string of this really soft gooey stuff. It should be able to hold its shape like if you’re going to scoop it with the scooper. Just nudge the end of it and see how easily it moves. Can you fold it in half with your scooper thing? You should be able to. It’ll break if you fold it over completely but you should be able to manipulate it and it shouldn’t fall apart right away or melt or anything like that. The Bristol Stool Chart, I was so thrilled. I wish I had had this when I was in practice.Jenny:Yeah. You could put it next to that chart how to tell if your cat is fat or skinny too.Dr. Jean:Exactly. 정확히. Because they are very closely related.Jenny:Yes. That’s funny.Dr. Jean:If you watch Dr. Oz, your cat’s stool should look the same as what Dr. Oz discusses. And it should… you know when your cat pushes it out… this is another really important point is the anal glands on either side of the anus… the correct consistency of stool that’s good size around so the anus has to expand, it has to stretch out for the stool to pass through, that is supposed to naturally empty the anal glands on the surface of the poop. That is the marking behavior. Anal gland juice is what makes poop smell so good, and it tells the story for other animals who then come and sniff it. It’s a marking behavior. So if the stool is too thin and soft or too big and hard or it’s pellets or something, the anal glands are not going to empty correctly and then you can get an anal gland impaction, and get an anal gland abscess. And those are really disgusting and tough to deal with. So, there are so many reasons to make sure that your cat is having a pretty normal poop. If he has diarrhea one day, as long they’re not acting like they’re at death’s door I don’t worry about that. But abnormal stool plus another symptom like lethargy or vomiting or fever, that is a veterinary visit right there. If it’s just the stools, you’ve been changing the food and the stool consistency has been kind of wandering around, well yeah. If you change foods too abruptly you will get diarrhea, and definitely probiotics will take care of that.Jenny:OkayDr. Jean:So now I have another article on Little Big Cat called Switching Foods. And for the people who have cats with this type of problem you don’t want to switch to diet too fast. If they’re not used to eating a variety of things already then you want to introduce the new food very gradually. And cats of course are notorious about not wanting to change foods. So the Switching Foods article tells all why you should switch and how you should switch, and it has in it every tip and trick that I’ve ever heard of for getting a cat to eat a new food.Jenny:Okay. I just found it so I’ll include a link to that as well.Dr. Jean:Okay, that’s good. Because I’ve known cats and cats are stubborn. Oh Lord they are stubborn and if they’ve only ever eaten dry food, they won’t understand that wet food is food. They won’t recognize it as food and they won’t touch it. You know there are tricks that you have to go through, and the problem that most people run into is just like the same problem when you introduce new cats and stuff, you go too fast. It’s up to the cat to determine how fast it goes, and I have literally seen it take two years to convert a cat to a wet diet.Jenny:Oh, that’s good to know.Dr. Jean:If you’ve been working on it for two weeks, get a grip because it could be a lot longer. It’s the cat’s choice how fast to change, not you. You’re not going to tell the cat what to eat. Because cats will starve themselves to death. If you put food down that they don’t want, they won’t eat it, and they will not eat it until they’re at death’s door. They really will. I have seen cats literally try to starve themselves to death. They are that stubborn. And they are that set in their ways, and they are that into this is food and nothing else is food. Or this is the food that I like and I don’t like anything else. I’ve known kids like that. My niece once decreed that she wasn’t going to eat any green food. Well, there are a lot of foods that are green, she just didn’t happen to like any of them. Well you know I don’t like vegetables either but I eat them.Jenny:Now see the smart ass in me, if I were her mom, would get green food coloring and put it in everything. That’s good to know it could take up to two years because I just got had a reader in Australia tell me today on Facebook that she can’t get her cat to switch and I’m like keep trying. Don’t keep her on that dry food. So I’ll tell her that.Dr. Jean:If you want your cat to be healthy, you have to be persistent. If you don’t care, then don’t do it, and there are people that don’t care that much. The cat is just sort of an accessory, it’s no better than a lamp or a stool. And those are not the people that are listening to us and those are not the people that are going to have healthy cats, I’m sorry. But the people that are paying attention, the people that want to do the best for their cat, those are the people that are listening to you and me, and we want to give them all the tools they can get to make sure that these things work out.Jenny:I agree. One of my consistent readers on Floppy Cats, when I asked does anyone have any questions about constipation she was like not any more, thanks to your wonderful advice and switching to all wet food. Her cat has no pooping issues any more. So that made me feel really good because sometimes it’s hard to push something so hard. Especially when it seems to be of an inconvenience. But I keep saying it’s prevention.Dr. Jean:Yeah, and you know what they say about prevention. I would much rather start… all my cats I started as kittens… 2 of them were 8 weeks old and 2 of them were 2 weeks old. I really had a good shot with the very young kittens. They were orphans from a feral mother. I started them on raw food when they were 3 weeks old. I did everything from the get go that I knew how to do. And I expect them to live very long healthy lives, because I set them up from the time they were tiny to do as good as they could possibly do. I still have vet bills. I still have to get the long hair shaved. I still have to clean their teeth every year. I still have to do kind of preventive maintenance. Like today I need to take my car in for an oil change. If I don’t, what kind of prevention is that? If I don’t change the oil in my car, my engine is going to cease and I won’t have a car. That would be a bad lesson to learn. So don’t learn the lesson and harm your cat with it.Jenny:And most people can relate that somebody along the lines has had one of the issues that you’ve talked about here that is a warning sign that they are subject to constipation. It makes sense to me.Dr. Jean:Yeah. It’s like anything. Having a cat is a responsibility. If you choose to bring a cat into your life, you are assuming responsibility for it. So it’s not okay to treat it like a lamp. Oh, the light bulb is burned out, I’ll put in a new light bulb. That’s not enough. This is a living, breathing animal that is 100% dependent. It’s your responsibility to do the best by that cat.Jenny:I agree. Well those are all the questions that I had. Is there anything that I should have asked you that I didn’t?Dr. Jean:Let me look here to see if I see any other… In this article I really put in everything I could think of.Jenny:Your constipated cats article?Dr. Jean:Yeah. You know it’s the number one searched article on our… it’s our number one search term on Little Big Cats.Jenny:Is it really?Dr. Jean:More people find Little Big Cat through this article than anything else, and you know we have 250 some articles on this website. That is the number one searched term. So that tells me that there are a lot of people that are having this problem with their cats. And the things that the veterinarians are doing are not working, because they’re just putting them on a high fiber diet. If they put them on a high fiber diet, and that stops working, then they’re kind of out of ideas already. Then you start getting into some pretty heavy drugs and surgery. And it’s not… you should never have to get to that point really. If you’re paying attention and you catch it early, this is a very solvable problem. I’m not going to say it’s easy to solve, because sometimes it isn’t, but boy oh boy, this is really the place where you could make a huge difference in your cat’s health and wellbeing and comfort, and your annoyance levels as well.Jenny:Yeah, I mean as a human, if you’ve ever been constipated then you know how uncomfortable it is, and I agree.Dr. Jean:Yeah, and you know the stress management, the flower emphasis, those can really help because if there are emotional issues around pooping for the cat that’s ever been ambushed by another cat… and then you have to think of the whole litter box thing because if the cat doesn’t like the litter box they’re going to hold their poop longer and will become more likely constipated. So you want to look at your configuration and what type of litter and all those things around it. There are a lot of complicating factors that can play into this, but it’s pretty straight forward to resolve it early. There’s just you do this, you do that, you do the other thing. You keep the box real clean, take the lid off if the cat doesn’t like the lid, take the liner out if the cat doesn’t like the liner, put multiple boxes if there’s a conflict between cats, and don’t line them all up in the basement. There needs to be a box on every level of the house because the choice of box and location is up to the cat, and it’s not going to work if you put it where you want it. Some cats will go along with you and many more will not. It’s a whole thing… this is part of a whole environmental management and health and wellness program. Stop it before it goes too far. That’s the best advice I could give you. Take care of it right away.Jenny:Yes, I agree. Well thank you so much again for another great interview. I love that we’re helping the kitties by educating.