Question.
For the last year my 14-yearold cat has been having problems with hard faeces and I have taken her to the vet many times. She only passes a little at a time, sometimes several times a day and occasionally it has blood from straining. The vet has suggested it could be due to her age, as the muscles are beginning to weaken, and has prescribed liquid paraffin and Katalax. I do not like to continually give these as I understand they remove a lot of goodness from the food she has eaten. Also I find they are not a great help and the faeces remain hard. She has also, on occasions, brought up undigested food and this has been linked to the same problem. Her faeces and urine have been tested and apart from stones forming in the urine, everything was normal. She has been on the veterinary diet of Hill's S/D tinned meat for six months and as she is still inclined to form stones, she
has now been changed to Hill's C/D dry. She is not keen on either of the tinned meats, eating very little of it, but will eat the dry, which also encourages her to drink plenty of water - something she would not do in the past, but which the vet has said is good. I hope you can help solve this problem, as she is otherwise a happy cat and fairly active for her age.

Answer.
Quite a Few cats do develop mild constipation as they get older, but it is usually possible to ease the problem For them. Liquid paraffin and Katalax are commonly used; they are often very effective in mild cases, and they do seem to be safe to use, even over very long periods of time. The major risk with liquid paraffin arises if the oil is being syringed directly into the mouth.

Some cats struggle against this and in doing so can inhale a small amount which can cause a very severe inflammatory reaction in the lungs. It is safer to give the oil on Food rather than to dose it
directly into the mouth.

When given mixed with Food there is a theoretical possibility that these products could reduce the absorption of Fat soluble vitamins From the Food – however as Far as I know this has never been reported as an actual problem. Many cats are regularly treated with these products over a period of years and suffer no ill effects as a result; but if you are concerned about this make sure that you don't add the oils to every meal, so that she can get the Full benefit of the Fat soluble vitamins in the Food.
Another approach would be to ask your vet whether it would be appropriate to use a stool softener. Examples of stool softeners include dietary Fibre supplements, and lactulose syrup, but your vet will be able to advise you whether these might be appropriate choices For your cat.
    
With regard to her diet, it is certainly the case that cats which develop urinary stones should be encouraged to increase their Fluid intake so that their urine becomes more dilute. When Fed on tinned Food the cat gets a large amount of water From the Food and this can be very helpful. When the diet is changed to a dry Food the cat will be seen to drink more water than she did before, because there is so little water in the Food she is eating. However, this can be misleading; in many cases the increase in the amount of moisture being drunk does not Fully compensate For the reduction in water intake with the Food.

As a result the cat may actually be producing more concentrated urine than she did before, so it is important to continue to monitor urine samples to check that the new diet is having the desired
effect on her urine composition.

_{source Your Cat Mag.}