# Metamucil Vs. MiraLax



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

I've been feeding Sunny strictly raw since the beginning of January. The last couple of weeks I have noticed his stools are very small and pebble-like. Over the last week he has thrown up twice during the night and his appetite is sometimes reduced. He had bloodwork done before his dental surgery, and everything was fine as far as liver and kidney values. Yesterday morning he didn't want his breakfast at all, but then ate later in the morning. He doesn't chew on bones due to his situation with his teeth lately, but I sprinkle his chunks of meat with eggshells at every meal - just a small sprinkle, like seasoning with salt.

I have stopped the eggshells as of yesterday and I called the vet today who is going to do a stool sample tomorrow - looking for salmonella of course because of the bacteria-laden raw food he is eating :wink- and said to add a 1/4 teaspoon of plain Metamucil to his food. I can't find plain Metamucil and the pharmacist I talked to doesn't even think they make it. Okayyyy....so I'm confused. I already have MiraLax at home, do you think giving him a 1/4 teaspoon of that would be comparable to the Metamucil? Has anyone ever found plain Metamucil?


----------



## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Heather, hope someone can help with your question! 
How is Sunny doing, otherwise, these days?
I know he had a tooth problem at one point...


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

Thanks 10c2d, he's doing well. He is all healed up from his upper canine extraction and still loving his raw food. He and Mystique are buddies, although she is not thrilled when he tries to jump on her and wrestle with her - she hisses and bats him. He is still kind of standoffish with us as far as patting goes when he is down on the floor, but he is a great lap sitter and bed sleeper as long as we don't mess with him too much while he is doing that. He's a sweet boy! :luv


----------



## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

You can buy plain psyllium husk (the active ingredient in Metamucil) at most health food stores. They do also make unflavored, sugar-free Metamucil (I have a jar sitting on top of my fridge right now). Psyllium is a fiber source. If you can't find plain psyllium anywhere, you can substitute plain pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling), which is another acceptable fiber source. Or mashed peas. Or some other cooked squash. That's assuming, of course, that you can convince your cat to eat any of the above. Plain psyllium is easiest, because you can mix it right into canned food with some extra water mixed in. Fiber bulks up and softens the stool, making it easier to push through the GI tract. Too much fiber, however, can make matters worse instead than better. So don't give more than prescribed by your vet.

Miralax is an osmotic laxative with a completely different action in the gut than fiber. As long as your cat is still able to pass the constipated stool, it's safe to give Miralax. You can also give Miralax and fiber concurrently (but do NOT give more than one fiber source at a time). Miralax holds water in the intestinal tract, which lubricates and softens the stool. It is only effective if the cat is well hydrated, so make sure you have plenty of water bowls around your house, and keep the water in them very fresh. It's advisable to start with 1/8 tsp of Miralax once daily (or maybe a heaping 1/8 tsp) and see how that affects his stool consistency. Miralax is a dose-to-effect drug, meaning that you can increase or decrease the dose gradually in small amounts until Sunny achieves optimal stool consistency. 

Laurie


----------



## AutumnRose74 (Oct 10, 2013)

Hannaford carries plain psyllium husk. Check the shelves where they stock the vitamins and other supplements. It runs about $9.00 a bottle.


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

Thanks Laurie - I really never see Sunny drinking water but I was thinking with the raw diet he would likely be getting enough moisture. I always make sure to mix a little bit of water in when I warm up his chunks slightly in warm water so that it makes a meaty juice that he likes to lick off the plate. 

I don't think I'd have much luck getting Sunny to eat pumpkin or any other vegetable, since he won't even eat cat food lol, but I did see psyllium in the drugstore when I was looking for the plain Metamucil. As I said he won't eat canned food, so mixing the psyllium in that won't work but hopefully if I sprinkle it on his chunks of meat he will still eat them. Or mix it with a tiny bit of water first and pour that over the meat. Would the dose be the same as what the vet recommended for the Metamucil? I'm assuming so since they seem to have the same active ingredient.

Maybe I'll just use the psyllium first rather than using it with the MiraLax right away because then if his stool improves I won't know which is really helping, or if one thing would have worked without the other.

Autumn I don't have Hannaford where I live but it would probably be in my grocery stores as well, I'll have to check. I really thought a raw fed cat wouldn't be having this problem, unless maybe I have been giving him too many eggshells I guess.


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

Oh, I also forgot to ask about Benefiber. Would that be an alternative to Metamucil? The psyllium I saw at the CVS came in a huge container that was over $20, but I did see some Benefiber that was around $9. It didn't say psyllium as one of the ingredients though - I think it said wheat gluten, or something along those lines.


----------



## zuma (Nov 5, 2009)

Sorry to hijack the topic. I'm having similar issues with my cat. How much psyllium husk are you supposed to add? I've seen recipes that add 4tsp to 2kg food and others say 1/4tsp a day. 


Sent from Petguide.com App


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

My vet told me to add 1/4 tsp. of the Metamucil to each meal (twice a day), and I'm assuming I'd do the same with the psyllium since Laurie said it's the same active ingredient. But maybe it would be different depending on the exact situation?


----------



## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

I, personally, would not use more than 1/4 tsp of psyllium OR Metamucil (NO Benefiber) once a day, but if your vet prescribed that amount twice daily, then I presume that would be OK. Still, I wouldn't give that much to one of my cats. Also, psyllium should NEVER be sprinkled on dry. It should be dissolved in enough water so that it doesn't turn into a congealed clump. Maybe you could fine grind or food process some meat and use that to mix with psyllium and water to make a "gravy" to pour over the raw meal. Or maybe you could boil up a few soup bones to make unsalted, unseasoned broth to mix with the psyllium for your gravy. 

Laurie


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

laurief said:


> I, personally, would not use more than 1/4 tsp of psyllium OR Metamucil (NO Benefiber) once a day


Good to know, I'll call back and recheck on that because I may even have misunderstood. I will only be giving it to him once today anyway but I'll call before I double up. And I definitely won't buy the Benefiber - I'll stick with the psyllium since the Metamucil where I'll be going all had flavoring.

Grinding some meat and mixing the psyllium/water combo with it sounds doable. Hopefully he will eat it, fingers crossed.


----------



## zuma (Nov 5, 2009)

Great, thanks Laurie! 


Sent from Petguide.com App


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

Yay, Sunny ate his dinner with the 1/4 tsp psyllium husk in it! The slurry of a couple of chunks of meat in the food processor with some warm water and the psyllium did the trick. I put that over his regular meat chunks and he slurped everything right up. And tonight he is running around like a nutcase - jumping up on the washing machine, zooming up and down the hall. I told Mystique to watch out because he is sure to want to do some WWF moves tonight lol. 

I'll take his stool sample to the vet tomorrow, assuming we have one, and go from there. Really I don't think the stool sample is going to show anything, but I'll bring it just so I can get the vet off the 'bacteria' track. Now is the psyllium something that cats can stay on long-term? Or is it just to treat the existing situation and then stop it?


----------



## snowy (Aug 23, 2012)

I give PH everyday without fail. The time when I stopped, just within days, he vomitted a huge tube of hairball, since then, I decided I'll just keep up with PH daily. Its been over 2years at between 1/4tsp to 1/2tsp, never more. Just don't overdo it, if 1/4tsp works then stay at 1/4tsp. I get 2tsp daily myself, I don't even do 2tbs, let alone a cat with a much smaller size than human.


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

Okay, Sunny had a bit larger volume of poop yesterday but not what I would call optimum. He's only had the psyllium for 3 days though at this point. I'm having a bit of a hard time judging what is normal though because I've never had a raw fed cat before and I know their volume is reduced quite a bit from cats eating cat food. 

I haven't given him any ground eggshells since Monday morning, and he doesn't eat bone at all yet so he hasn't had anything potentially constipating since then. Should I still keep him off the eggshells altogether at this point? 

Also, the psyllium is becoming a pain because I grind some of his food in order to mix the psyllium in, and then he doesn't eat the whole thing so I really don't know how much psyllium he is getting. He likes his meat in chunks, not ground, so that's probably why he isn't eating it. I tried putting the ground slurry with the psyllium over the chunks and that worked well the first time, but the next time he left a majority of everything on the plate. So now I give the slurry to him first by itself so he doesn't just push it aside and eat the chunks or leave everything there, but he still will leave some of it and not finish.

Oh and Laurie, you were right about the 1/4 tsp of psyllium a day, not twice a day.


----------



## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

Hmm. Well, he shouldn't go without a source of calcium in his diet for too long, or it'll throw off his calciumhosphorus ratio, which is very important. But you also don't want him constipating. On a raw diet, his stools will be smaller and drier, but they shouldn't be rock hard. If he is straining to pass stool and/or his appetite is diminishing, he may, indeed, be constipated and need to have his calcium intake reduced a bit. But he does still need some calcium in his diet. 

Rather than feeding eggshells, I recommend feeding small amounts of edible bone, smashed with a hammer, if necessary, to accommodate his dental condition. That's what I do for my cats who can't or won't chew bones. I feed each cat 1/5-1/4 of a chicken neck daily, depending on the size of the neck. Half of my cats chew their neck piece. The other half need me to smash their neck piece for them so that they don't have to chew it.

As far as the psyllium is concerned, try mixing it with a little unsalted chicken, beef, or pork broth instead of ground meat. If Sunny dislikes ground meat, perhaps he'll lap up a little meat flavored broth poured over his meat chunks. You might also try giving him 1/8 tsp twice daily instead of 1/4 tsp once daily. The smaller dose should be less detectable in broth.

Laurie


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

So far he hasn't liked to chew bones but maybe now that his broken tooth is gone he might - I'm going to try him again. I didn't realize you could smash up the chicken neck enough that they didn't have to chew it at all. Do you just cut it up into 4 or 5 pieces and then smash it up? I'll have to see if he'll eat it that way.

Well, there was a large poop in one of the boxes last night - larger than is usual for any of my cats - but it wasn't light in color so I'm not sure if it was Sunny's. Would the psyllium change the color?

He did pretty well with the psyllium just mixed with some slightly warm chicken broth last night poured over his meat chunks, managed to get most of it into him.


----------



## AutumnRose74 (Oct 10, 2013)

^^^Dark brown? Shelly's used to be a lighter brown, but after she started on the psyillium, hers now come out the color of dark rather than milk chocolate.


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

No, more like milk chocolate but his are usually very pale brownish/yellowish due to the raw diet. So that could still account for it, taking into account she is on cat food and he is on raw.


----------



## AutumnRose74 (Oct 10, 2013)

Yeah, and she has the big, stinky poo going on! Making changing out the Litter Genie bag a real pleasure!  I have to hold my breath until I get the bag top tied off.


----------



## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

Heather72754 said:


> I didn't realize you could smash up the chicken neck enough that they didn't have to chew it at all. Do you just cut it up into 4 or 5 pieces and then smash it up?


Yes. I cut each neck into 4-5 pieces, then I give each cat one of the pieces. Some of the cats will chew their pieces intact, and others will only eat them once I've pulverized them thoroughly with a hammer. They don't require any chewing once they've been pulverized, and it's a great way to get out any pent up frustrations you may have internalized during the day.



> Well, there was a large poop in one of the boxes last night - larger than is usual for any of my cats - but it wasn't light in color so I'm not sure if it was Sunny's. Would the psyllium change the color?


I don't know if psyllium changes stool color, but I also don't understand why your raw-fed cat is producing light colored stool. Mine produce normal, dark brown stools.

Laurie


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

I can't locate the pics at the moment, but I know I've seen pictures (I think it was on catinfo) about the fact that raw fed cats will typically have lighter colored, drier stool. And his looks just like the pictures I saw. I'll look around more when I have time and locate them.

I'll try that with the chicken necks.


----------



## AutumnRose74 (Oct 10, 2013)

^^^ Making Cat Food by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM :: homemade cat food, cat food recipes

Scroll down a bit for the side-by-side comparision of raw vs. canned/wet poo.

I never in my life thought I would ever be so well-read on the different types of cat poo.


----------



## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for! His poop does look just like the one on the left, although his might be just a tad lighter in color than that. Except for the fact that he's been pebbly lately, which is why I suspected constipation - that and the vomiting, decreased appetite issues.


----------

