My 7 year old moggie cat has just recently started doing very hard and dry stools. Her diet is the same, what could be wrong?
Hard and dry stools point to constipation. In this case, we really need to find the cause of the constipation so that we can treat your cat’s problem (not just the symptom). This will help us reach the best treatment plan too.
Some of the underlying causes of constipation might be:
- Poor motility of the gut
- Dehydration (Reduced access to fresh water, a medical condition, a medication)
- Change in diet
- Megacolon
- Litter tray aversion
- Stress
- Painful defaecation
and more, sometimes we don’t know why it occurs.
A hands-on examination from your local vet would be a great place to start. In the interim make sure she has plenty of access to fresh water, and that there’s a higher water content in her food as well. (even if she eats dry food, you can add water by soaking in fresh chicken stock or similar).
When untreated, cases of dry stool can progress to full blown constipation, which may require an enema (with a general anaesthetic) to solve.
If you’d like to chat in person, you can get a vet on a live video call or start a chat to discuss in more detail now.
We’re here to help!
Chat soon,
Dr Claire