Diva and Jazz: Both full of shit?!?!?! AGAIN?!?!?

Yep. The log book doesn't lie. As of this morning Jazz hadn't gone poo for fiveish days (last was on the 29th) and Diva had only very small amounts of output over the last few days. Not A Good Thing for either girl...

Talked to Dr. D--he suggested bringing both of them in, particularly Jazz because it had been so long since her last known poo.

Palpation noted some back-up in both girls, but he decided he wanted to be sure by taking xrays. He only charged me for one for each girl. Sure enough, Jazz was fully packed and Diva was about halfway packed in her colon. Godsdammit. We've been giving them their Lactulose religiously and they've been keeping it down, too. It's simply not working, it seems.

Pre-xray, Dr. D mentioned perhaps putting Jazz on a med called Cisapride to help out with gut motility, which would, in turn, help with the poo situation. Post-xray it will be so--new med for Jazz. :/

In the past I used a concoction of Miralax and Benefiber for Diva to keep her regular and it worked a wonder when she actually ate it. I've been slowly reintroducing it into her diet over the last couple of days. So far so good as far as eating it, but no poo action as of yet, obviously. Dr. D wants me to try it with Jazz as well. She's so small I don't know how much to use! I'll have to very gradually introduce it as to not have a buttsplosion.

So anyway, both girls are still at the vet getting their second enemas in just about a week. This is costing me a small fortune. This cannot abide. The girls and I shouldn't have to take this stress and I can't afford this regularity of high vet bills for very long. Something's gotta give...

I simply don't know what set this off! Jazz never had a problem and Diva's seemed to be under control pretty well. No real change in diet outside the normal switches between wet and dry food as they decide to eat whichever one they're craving--now it's wet which I think would be easier to digest. About the only thing I can think of we switched from Enulose brand of laxative to Lactulose brand of laxative. Allegedly it's the same thing, just different names, but I swear it doesn't work as well, or, it seems, at all judging by how plugged they both were despite being on the right respective doses every day.

Diva's had problems dating back several years with constipation. Jazz has had gut motility issues but not constipation issues. Both Dr. B and Dr. D are chalking up the new problem with constipation up to her advanced age. Hopefully the new pill will help things, and perhaps I can get her on the right dose of miralax if she'll eat the food with it mixed in...I'm at a loss. So stressed out and worried about my girls...

Jazz and Diva: back from the vet.

All cleaned out and ready to start over. :/ Here's to hoping they don't get all plugged up again...

Dr. D. thinks Jazz has the beginnings of megacolon, a condition wherein the colon expands after one too many bouts of being over stuffed with poo. This is likely related to her advanced age as well--she's only had two bouts of being extremely plugged (in the last week and a half, UGH) since I've had her so it's not because I've been remiss and let her linger too long all plugged up. There's a pill he wants to try for gut motility called cisapride, but damn! It's 56 bucks for a month's supply!! HOLY HANNAH!! :( He's decided to hold off for the current time, though because he knows I'm on a limited income and that I've put out for a ton of medical bills right now. If Jazz plugs up again, she's on it regardless, though.

Thankfully, though, Diva's showing no signs of megacolon. Dr. D. showed me what to look for in each of their xrays and Diva's colon is much tighter shaped than Jazz's is. Not that Jazz's is really huge or anything, but it's definitely stretched and different looking than Diva's.

He wants me to start introducing Miralax and baby food squash into Jazz's food in particular and Diva's secondarily. The Lactulose just isn't strong enough to cut it on its own right now. The Miralax is a stool softener I used to give Diva last year until she started rejecting her food when it was mixed in. I've been slowly reintroducing it, though and up until she barfed her dinner after she got back home she was tolerating it just fine. I put some in Jazz's food tonight and she only ate about half of what she normally eats. :/ Could be rejecting the Miralax, but I think she's still so stressed out from her day today that played more of a hand in things. We shall see.

So that's that. I am SO STRESSED out right now about my girls. They go from being relatively okay to all sorts of fucked up in like sixty seconds. I'm hoping I can get them both regulated on the new food concoction as soon as possible, but I'm not going to push my limits with either one of them for fear of them totally rejecting the food entirely. Diva did that with her wet food for awhile--she decided she didn't like it with the stuff in it so I started feeding it to her straight up and she eventually rejected that, too. Frustrating, and there's not a whole helluva lot of kidney failure friendly foods out there to offer up if they reject something.

Le sigh. Calgon, take me away!!