Best way to give a cat laxatone?

[Slurmp]

My cat's name is Baby, he's almost 4 now and has had to have two surgeries because of having a hairball stuck in his stomach that was the size of his stomach. The first surgery was in April of 2017 and now it's happened again just last month. The doctors told me to start giving him laxatone every other day, and that's what I've been doing but it's starting to strain our relationship and I hate it so much. He is everything to me and I hate that he's starting to avoid me. They told me to smear the laxatone on his paw so he has to clean it off and therefore gets his dose of medicine. I've been doing this, but as I said before as a result of this he is starting to avoid me. He'll run when I try to pet him and hide under the bed, and he's starting to do that more frequently. It makes me so sad as he's never done this before. I've tried mixing the laxatone in with wet food and even dry food but he just won't eat it that way. Smearing it on his paw seems to be the only way, and I know keeping him medicated matters more than me being sad over him avoiding me but it just feels like there has to be another way??

[fjm]

Which flavour are you using? Have you tried the chicken or tuna one? Perhaps mixing it into a really high value treat like Lick-e-lix would do the trick? And try offering it to her to lick from a spoon, rather than having to grab her to smear it on, which my cats have always hated. I would also find some treat she really likes and offer those to her regularly, so that she does not associate your calling her with something horrible happening.

I do sympathise - I was getting to a similar stage with Pippin when it seemed our only contact was me trying to get one medicine or another into him. Fortunately for him there was a one-off treatment available for the hyperthyroidism, and his regular pain killers can be presented as treats - once all that was sorted he deigned to sit on my lap again!

[Slurmp]

It's the tuna flavor but he still hates it. If he smells the stuff he runs off because he knows what it is and he hates it. I'll see about trying to find him treats he likes to maybe help with it but he isn't really crazy on treats which makes it harder

Which flavour are you using? Have you tried the chicken or tuna one? Perhaps mixing it into a really high value treat like Lick-e-lix would do the trick? And try offering it to her to lick from a spoon, rather than having to grab her to smear it on, which my cats have always hated. I would also find some treat she really likes and offer those to her regularly, so that she does not associate your calling her with something horrible happening.

I do sympathise - I was getting to a similar stage with Pippin when it seemed our only contact was me trying to get one medicine or another into him. Fortunately for him there was a one-off treatment available for the hyperthyroidism, and his regular pain killers can be presented as treats - once all that was sorted he deigned to sit on my lap again!

[Mollycat]

Is anybody looking into the cause of these hairballs? Because this is not normal. Hairballs should be vomited long before they get to that size and shouldn't be passed out the other end at all. To happen for the second time in a 4 year old, I'd be looking for the root cause. Digestive, liver and endocrine issues can interfere with normal hairball formation. If that was my 4 year old I'd want it investigated.

As for giving meds I don't have any answers. I have a cat that is not pillable and too clever to take anything disguised in any way, not even a sedative or ProKolin, and even my dozy Ragdoll got fed up of tablets after a month and had to switch to injection form. It's always a balance of quality of life and the bond you have against keeping them healthy if healthy means miserable.

There are alternatives to chemical preparations. You could look into olive oil once a week (my mum used to give our girl paraffin oil but no cat is ever going to take that) - maybe a weekly treat of tuna or mackerel in olive oil might go down better? Butter can also work. Or consider switching to a higher fibre diet and cut out dry food altogether as that stays in the stomach longer. Some say grain-free helps, Butchers cat food is decent and grain-free, a little on the high fat side but that's not a bad thing for helping transit through the digestive tract if he has problems - and very affordable.


Just to add - my unpillable girl was diagnosed hyperthyroid last November and put on a special diet to keep it under control until we could have her treated with radioactive iodine. Until she was ill she was a perfect hairball producer, regular, not too often and perfect size and texture. After treatment in March she continued with half-formed loose hairballs and it's only now this morning I proudly picked up a perfect one again. It takes time for the system to settle and now I know hers is well on the road to recovery. Hairballs are important.

[Kay]

There are dried cat foods formulated to help with hairballs - have you tried any of them? this is one https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry ... tion/14675 and there are others

if he'll eat them and they work, that would save the hassle and vet fees

[Slurmp]

They told me what you said that it's not normal and will probably be a chronic condition. For now all they've given me is the laxatone, but said I should set up an appointment with their internal medicine team to help figure out a better fix. I want to do this so badly, however it is extremely expensive. $225 just to be seen, he'll have to be sedated for them to check him out at all so that adds onto that, and then $600-$1000 for just one of possibly many tests that they'd have to do to try and figure out the cause. I'm trying to figure out a solution money wise and it's killing me that I haven't been able to take him to the appointment yet. Hopefully soon. I'm worried sick and hate doing nothing.
Thank you for your advice as well, I will look into those things.

Is anybody looking into the cause of these hairballs? Because this is not normal. Hairballs should be vomited long before they get to that size and shouldn't be passed out the other end at all. To happen for the second time in a 4 year old, I'd be looking for the root cause. Digestive, liver and endocrine issues can interfere with normal hairball formation. If that was my 4 year old I'd want it investigated.

As for giving meds I don't have any answers. I have a cat that is not pillable and too clever to take anything disguised in any way, not even a sedative or ProKolin, and even my dozy Ragdoll got fed up of tablets after a month and had to switch to injection form. It's always a balance of quality of life and the bond you have against keeping them healthy if healthy means miserable.

There are alternatives to chemical preparations. You could look into olive oil once a week (my mum used to give our girl paraffin oil but no cat is ever going to take that) - maybe a weekly treat of tuna or mackerel in olive oil might go down better? Butter can also work. Or consider switching to a higher fibre diet and cut out dry food altogether as that stays in the stomach longer. Some say grain-free helps, Butchers cat food is decent and grain-free, a little on the high fat side but that's not a bad thing for helping transit through the digestive tract if he has problems - and very affordable.


Just to add - my unpillable girl was diagnosed hyperthyroid last November and put on a special diet to keep it under control until we could have her treated with radioactive iodine. Until she was ill she was a perfect hairball producer, regular, not too often and perfect size and texture. After treatment in March she continued with half-formed loose hairballs and it's only now this morning I proudly picked up a perfect one again. It takes time for the system to settle and now I know hers is well on the road to recovery. Hairballs are important.

[Slurmp]

I've had him on Purina one hairball control food since the first time this happened, but apparently it didn't help. I haven't tried any other hairball foods, is there one in particular that works better than others?

There are dried cat foods formulated to help with hairballs - have you tried any of them? this is one https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry ... tion/14675 and there are others

if he'll eat them and they work, that would save the hassle and vet fees

[Mollycat]

Internal medicine? $225 just to be seen? I'm in the UK maybe things are a little different.

Has Baby had any blood tests? My vet does a general blood screen for £70 with results in 20 minutes for liver kidney thyroid diabetes and a few other things to give a clean bill of health or point to an area that needs looking at, that's what I had in mind when I asked if this was being looked at.

Is Baby an indoor cat? Does he groom himself more than normal? Boredom and skin conditions can cause excessive grooming and swallowing more hair than they can cope with. Some parasites can also cause these problems.

Investigating a problem doesn't mean going straight for the most expensive option right away.

[Slurmp]

Yes he is an indoor cat. He doesn't really groom himself more than normal or anything like that but he does actively seek out hair to swallow. Like little fuzzies on things and stuff. I've been doing my best to keep clear of them but he always manages to find some.

I haven't really been given any other options on investigating the problem except for this. He's had bloodwork done but I can't say if it was for this specific issue or not.

I have an appointment set up with the internal medicine team tomorrow and hopefully I'll get some answers. No idea what I'm going to do about the cost yet but I have to do something. I'm scared about what they'll tell me but I think I'm just being paranoid because I love him so much. I hope there's a fix.

He's still being really cautious and avoiding me some because of the laxatone and it's breaking my heart. I hope there's something different I can use for him instead.

Internal medicine? $225 just to be seen? I'm in the UK maybe things are a little different.

Has Baby had any blood tests? My vet does a general blood screen for £70 with results in 20 minutes for liver kidney thyroid diabetes and a few other things to give a clean bill of health or point to an area that needs looking at, that's what I had in mind when I asked if this was being looked at.

Is Baby an indoor cat? Does he groom himself more than normal? Boredom and skin conditions can cause excessive grooming and swallowing more hair than they can cope with. Some parasites can also cause these problems.

Investigating a problem doesn't mean going straight for the most expensive option right away.

[Mollycat]

Actively seeking out furry or hairy stuff to swallow sounds more like pica to me than a straight hairball issue. Pica can be a sign of nutritional deficiencies, some physical illnesses, or have a psychological root.