# After Effects Of a Feline Enema



## green1997 (Apr 26, 2017)

We have a 19 year-old cat named Peegs. Despite suffering some arthritis in her hind legs, she's been doing remarkably well.

On Monday, my wife and I noticed Peegs was not herself. She was lethargic, and had little appetite, and perhaps more alarming, she wasn't really drinking water (and this cat has always drank a lot of water dating back to when she was a kitten). She also was licking her lips a lot. When she had no interest in the kitty treats we feed her, we knew something was wrong.

We monitored her the rest of Monday and yesterday morning, and her condition hadn't really improved. Given her age, we decided to bring her into see the vet.

The vet wanted to run a senior blood panel, which we were expecting, and we authorized. When conducting the examination, the vet stated that Peegs felt a little constipated and had some fecal build up in her colon. She also said that Peegs was dehydrated, and recommended fluid treatment. We authorized the fluid treatment as well. I told the vet that Peegs had made a stool yesterday am, but the vet still felt the enema was a good idea, so we authorized that as well.

When we got home, and poor Peegs couldn't stand up at all. She still had some diarrhea, so we had to try to hold her up (otherwise she'd just lay down in her box) and hold up her tail and allow her to do her business. It was messy, but we got her cleaned up. We had to repeat that process a few other times.

It's now been almost 20 hours since we took Peegs to the vet. She still can't stand on her own. She's barely eating, she'd had no water, and she has not peed even though they pumped her full of fluids.

As I mentioned, Peegs has been suffering from arthritis in her hind legs. But she was still able to get around - she'd climb her kitty steps to get on the bed, she'd still go outside and roam around a bit, she just had a pretty stiff gait. Now she can't even stand. It's almost as though her hind legs are paralyzed or something.

Now we're concerned that she may not regain use of her hind legs, which is leading us to consider the possibility we may have to put her down - and she seemed fine as recently as Sunday.

My wife and I are kicking ourselves for allowing the vet to administer the enema. I'm not sure what happened in the back room when the vet techs were administering the treatment. Did they manhandle her? Did they need to bind her legs to administer the enema? I don't see how the enema could have led to her not even being able to stand up, but something happened when she was back there, and now I feel like we've accidentally hastened the end of the road for our beloved Peegs, and we strongly feel we would have been much better off not even taking her in - plus my wallet is $550 lighter. 

We're still waiting to get the blood work back from the lab. If we find out that she has renal failure, then I guess we can accept that this is probably it for Peegs. But if her blood work comes back clean, and Peegs is not able to regain use of her hind legs, I'll forever beat myself up for essentially putting my cat on the fast track to death by blindly following the vet's advice. Now the cynical part of me is wondering if the vet truly felt Peegs needed an enema (remember, she had a stool yesterday morning), or if this was just a tactic to separate us from more of our money

Has anybody in the forum either experienced or heard or any similar after effects from a feline enema? Just looking for any relatable content or info that can shed some more light on what's afflicting our poor, Peegsey. Any comments that may be helpful would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

David


----------



## cpr34 (Jun 1, 2015)

Hi. My cat Snowy had pretty bad constipation problem back in late 2015 (before I started to add Miralax to his food) and he had been administered enema twice. I didn't realize that he was constipated and I was worried it was something worse because he didn't want to eat or drink and was very lethargic. However, after the enema, Snowy was more energetic and actually gained his appetite back. He never displayed the symptoms Peegs did. Then again, my vet administered the enema in front of me, so I was able to make sure that they didn't do anything weird with him. 

A few months after we have solved the problem with Snowy's constipation, he began to get really sick from an overdose of ringworm medication. I won't go to the details (very long story) but he ended up losing control of his limbs somehow. He could barely walk and I had to force feed him everyday. This was when I found my current vet and she helped to cure Snowy back. It was a long process but what helped Snowy was Tramadol (for the pain), Transfer Factor (to boost his immune system) and biweekly acupuncture treatments. Then again Snowy was only 2 years old when this happened so it might be unfair to compare his case to Peegs who is 19 years old. But maybe you can give it a try and hopefully try to ease Peegs's pain.

Sorry I couldn't be of further help. 
Sending lots of love and prayers to you and Peegs from Indonesia.


----------



## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

Hi David,

How is Peegs doing? I don't know what might have happened, but I hope you've spoken to the vet and been able to figure out what's going on. My cat has had enemas several times, and she never displayed that kind of reaction. She's 16.5 years old, and she also has arthritis in one hip and knee. 

Please keep us updated - and don't beat yourself up about following the vet's recommendation. There's no way anyone can predict how any type of treatment will go, and an enema certainly isn't something that you'd consider potentially dangerous. But I am hoping that you have good news!


----------

