Chaos’ Guide to Constipation

Bumpity bump bump for newbies!

my mother in law found Champa abandoned by it’s mother (along with a dead sibling), in the rain under our fig tree. we were out of town, so we told her to open the tool shed to allow momma cat, if she was still around, to bring her in out of the rain. my in-law also cleaned out the old dog house, but momma did not come back, and the next day, saturday, she heard Champa crying in the mud, so she brought her in to stay warm. the next day, my sister-in-law came by, fed her KMR powder mix and cleaned her, and we came home that night to the tiniest cutest kitten ever. the next day, Monday, Champa took a semi-hard, dark poop by herself right before we took her to vet. he said she seemed ok, other than blood and what could be ear mites in the right ear, and gave us a 10% chance of survival, as Champa was approx 1 week old, with a 20% chance the second week, and so on. we cleaned her ear, and the next day, we pooped her, a liquidy semi solid poop. since then, 7-8 days ago, no poop. we’ve followed every recommendation on this excellent forum, including 1) increasing water content in KMR powder mix to 3-4 part water 2) using infant anal thermometer with lube 3) adding tiny drops of mineral oil to KMR mix… my wife read a couple of bad things about mineral oil, so did not want to give her more than a couple tiny drops for a couple of feedings, so we stopped.. 4) switched yesterday to KMR liquid. still no poop. we call the vet almost every day for the past few days, he said if she’s only having liquid food, no need to worry.. yet. yesterday he seemed a bit more concerned, as we are frantic that she’s not pooping. she eats voraciously (we feed her every 3-4 hours), she burps, she pees a storm, but no poop. we have used warm cotton balls on the anal area, a warm washcloth, the triangle method, nothing. after her relatively peaceful pee, she gets very agitated as we attempt to poop her, but after 2-3 minutes, we give up… any suggestions?

Jean gave a wonderful link to kitten constipation. I have a recommendation also. Try getting some pasteurized goat’s milk found in the milk section of most groceries and Walmart or the baking aisle in the groceries and Walmart. In the baking aisle it will be in cans and is condensed, so you can add water 1 to 1, it’s much cheaper than KMR and is a good replacement. It’s full of good flora for their gut and contains L-Lysine for their immune system. It is non constipating too which is what you are concerned about at this time. Good luck with your beautiful calico girl and keep us posted!

Wow this is really helpful I did not know that powered formula with constipat them. I’ve had my kitten for a week now and since then she has had problems pooping. I have to go get more formula tomorrow so I will be getting the ready made kind and see if that helps. Thank u so much for the info

I just went to the store and got the last 5 cans they had. I hope it helps our little snowball poop like she should

Woo hoo – lookin’ for kitty poo! 😉

Thanks Chaos. I’ve been trying every kind of stimulation I could think of to get my two new babies to poop – I’ve bottle fed before but never had the constipation issue. I’m going to try the veg oil in the watered down formula and put some vaseline in their little booties. I’ve had them since they were a day old. They just haven’t pooped for a couple of days now. No unhappy kitties allowed in this house (and these two make 5) 🙂