Can't Go

We had a brisk Saturday at work today. I had an emergency work-in -- an elderly lady brought in her beloved cat.

"She vomited three times this morning, and she's been in and out of the litter box, like she's trying to poop. She peed, but I think she's constipated." Sometimes cats will vomit from constipation, but when I palpated this girl she didn't have any stool in her colon.

Often owners will mistake straining for constipation when in fact their pet is straining because of diarrhea, the opposite problem. This lady was sure there was no diarrhea. Also, straining sometimes happens from a bladder infection, but again, she said the cat was posturing for defecation.

My client was so sweet, so concerned about her feline companion, and polite and friendly in that old-fashioned way. The cat was short and stocky. "Maybe I just can't feel the stool. Let me take a lateral Xray to make sure she's not constipated," I said. Meanwhile the poor cat vomited again.

Her colon was truly empty on the Xray, but there was a large clump of stool in her rectum, between the pelvic inlet and the poop outlet. So we were both right- she was constipated, but it wasn't in her colon. I took the cat to the back, put on a glove, and quickly helped the cat get rid of the two wide compacted turds in her rectum. Whew!

I gave her an antinausea injection when I returned her to the owner. "I just knew something was wrong," she said, "and I was worried about coming up on the weekend. Thank you; I am so glad to have met you!" So kind! She seemed as relieved as her cat.