Kitten with Megacolon

[CattersonsMom]

Hi everyone,

We recently adopted an about 10 month old kitten who seems to have megacolon based on his last visit with his Vet.

We got this kitten 3-4 weeks ago, we were told he had been abandoned by his previous owners for diarrhea, once at the shelter, he was dewormed and put on antibiotics and panacur. These treatments made him constipated and this was when we got him. From the start he's been on wet food (which I add some pumpkin to and mix in a little water, I also give him broth on the side which he drinks and pees normally so I don't think he's dehydrated - both vets agree and say he's not) and we had been giving him a constipation supplement (petsafe smooth bm) and he was pooping every 2-3 days. Took him to the vet and turns out his poop had coccidia (but was not having diarrhea??) so he was put on albon. Once done with the albon, it had been 4 days since he pooped so we took him back and they took an xray - they gave him lactulose and said if he doesn't poop in a day, to take him for an enema.

We decided to take him to another vet, the first vet seemed to not care about the constipation (could this have caused the megacolon?). The new vet now say he has megacolon according to the xray. They gave him an enema and said he had soft poop but the colon was very full. He was told to be put on the royal canin moderate calorie wet food and mix miralax 1/4 tsp twice a day and cisapril 2.5 mg twice a day. I asked if I should continue to put pumpkin in and give him probiotics and the constipation supplement and the vet said it was fine. Now 2 days later, he's having diarrhea everywhere - in his sleep. He seems to not know when he's emptying his bowels, yesterday he was eating and leaking poop at the same time and seemed to have no idea.

I'm a little confused as to how to deal with this. Called the vet and they said cut the dose of miralax and cisapril in half. I've had to give him multiple half baths and sponge-baths (wipe down with wet towel) and still seem to be surrounded by poop 24/7. I want to do whats best for him but also don't want him licking poop off himself (I think its unsafe but maybe not?) but I don't want to keep bathing him and stressing him out too.

At this point I've stopped all supplements, just give him his regular food with some pumpkin half the dose of cisapril. Will add in miralax slowly if he doesn't poop (I know I'm not listening to the vet but his poop has always been soft, never hard so maybe he just has motility issues). He has an appointment for an ultrasound in 2 days so maybe we will get some answers?

Has anyone else dealt with mega-colon in kittens and what does it look like long term? I don't want to keep switching him from diarrhea to constipation. Just had this guy 3 weeks but giving him up is not an option as he's already stolen our hearts and he's our baby. But just trying to do what's best for him and confused as to what that is. Any advice would be appreciated!

[Kay]

Have you seen this https://www.vetfolio.com/learn/article/ ... on-in-cats

there was a poster on here who had considerable success with the Royal Canin Fibre Response mentioned in this article