Megacolon can be congenital but I think it sometimes just develops later in life with some kitties. There may be a genetic predisposition to it. Topping off the water bowl is fascinating for cats. They'll drink more that way. Many kitties are attracted to moving water like dripping from a tap or one of those store bought kitty water fountains that keeps the water flowing. Get one of those little laser lights to get him to run and chase after the light dot. Our cats **LOVE** when that little red dot appears on the wall. Rani and Daisy love it too! LOL! If the colon is stretched because it is full of poop that causes pain and that may trigger a stress response of increased blood glucose. There may be a weakness of the nerves that tell the intestines to move or perhaps just a weakness of the intestines themselves and the peristaltic waves don't occur or they are not coordinated as they should be to move the intestinal contents farther down the tube. The colon doesn't release fluid. It draws fluid out so the final product is a formed poop. If the contents sit there longer than needed ... there's more fluid drawn out and the poop can become hard as gravel from a parking lot. There's NO WAY that can be passed without help from the outside, as it were. :-) Once all that hard huge impacted stuff is removed, if the colon is still kinda OK, the diameter may reduce to near normal and poop will be able to come out. If the disease is more advanced, the diameter of the colon will remain as though stretched and whatever contents enter will just accumulate like they did before. Kinda like the difference between splicing a hose with a slightly larger diameter between sections of your normal garden hose or splicing the ends of a lawn garbage bag between. Stuff will flow through the different sized hoses but tend to pool in the huge garbage bag section. If the colon is huge, then there needs to be either surgery to remove the dilated section or scheduled de-pooping under anesthesia every month. Some kitties will eat pumpkin. Some won't. It isn't a guarantee that it would work either.

No, it is a tall, wide desk he was going under to pee in the corner anyway, so we put the large litter pan in there...I have been corrected by my husband, who uses that desk and has witnessed him using that pan since we switched to it (larger, 2 feet by 1 1/2 feet and 8 inches deep) and put it where he had taken to peeing (after properly cleaning the carpet, walls, desk, etc). He squats in the middle, but stays his pee with such force it spatters over the end, and as he is 15 + lbs and LOOOONNNNGGGG..... I may try turning it lengthwise so the long end sticks out, perhaps he will move more to the outside end when peeing, then maybe his spray (he IS fixed, BTW) will stay more contained. So on talking it out, as I write this, perhaps you are right, I just wasn't thinking it all the way through...I will try re-orienting the box long way in and . Also had the thought of putting the inside end inside a sideways rubbermaid container to protect the wall and carpet, too....can just wash that off when cleaning the litter pan. :)

I will be going to Thailand for a month in the July/Aug time frame, and am still undecided how to leave my two cats Prescilla and Max. Max is 3.5 yrs old male persian cat with dog paws that still eats out of my hand every day. He is the main concern, as he has taught me over and over that he will starve himself to dehydration otherwise. But the last 3 months have been better for him in the sense that I recognized the need (as someone mentioned above) to have a daily routine when at home. Like having a set time when leaving for work and coming home. Like not studying or spending too much time on the computer while at home. Don't know why other than it's complicated. So it is Max who joined "the family" of Prescilla and I at just 6 weeks of age, and ever since has been intimidated from eating by Prescilla who hisses at him. So the last 3 months, since moving into a B&B with a view, and about 1500 sq ft of play space, and 5 litter boxes, that my cats can be seen playing and sleeping together often. And lots of windows too. But Max soon figured out that he didn't have to let me off the hook so soon, and was starving himself every day while I was at work so that I would have to hand feed him when I got home. So I realized that what he needed and wanted, was for me to show Prescilla that he was important. So I decided that I would hand feed Max with Prescilla present. And wha la! Max feels important in "the family" structure, and now wants to cooperate. Another thing I found helpful is leaving for work at the crack of dawn (here in Vermont it's 6am), and not spending too much time in the morning getting out the door (prepare the night before). Also not spending too much time at home. Also putting the feeding bowl back in its central location in the kitchen after feeding him in my bed (which is just placing the bowl next to me, instead of having him eat directly out of my cupped hand). As far as spending time studying or on the computer, I think it's a problem because (a) I'm their sole provider and am single, and (b) they take it as being selfish (they expect attention). On the other side, they do fine when I am away during the daylight hours. Don't know why. Leave for work at crack of dawn, and return just before dusk. If I need to study, I leave and either go back to work or find a book store. I return and go to bed immediately. It is an intermediate step until Max and Prescilla get to "re-know" each other. Prescilla has never seen a healthy Max, and neither have I. Except one time when I went away for 2 weeks when Max was one yrs old and I placed him and Prescilla in a vet/boarding place. Max came back all healthy looking and confident around Prescilla. His coat was healthy and not dehydrated-looking. I eventually concluded, after a lot of thought, that Max was eating in front of Prescilla, either in the same cage, or in a cage nearby, and with the constant protection of nearby humans, was freewilled to eat as he pleased. On another note, this whole thing of mess Max found himself in, could most likely be due partly to having been taken from a breeder's house, run by a couple (ie TWO providers), and taken from his remaining sibling sister cat. He was from a litter of 4 and had probably seen his other siblings taken just days before. All just to go into a home where the sole provider was not home much, and the other "kitten" was a large mature spoiled street-smart female (I got found her in the streets of San Diego). Well, you get the idea. I started the hand-feeding the next day, as soon as I saw the dueling between them. And promised to myself I'd do it for a year max(imum). Oh well. Anyways, I can't bet that I will have 3 years of neglect fixed in 6 months. I put an ad up on craigslist for free room and board for free petsitting services, and have gotten a dozen or so responses. Just not sure if Max will go into hiding from seeing strangers in the house, thus increasing his chances for not eating. Boarding for a month seems long. The landlord lives next door, and has pet-sit before, so it might be doable to have her pet-sit again. Taking the cats with me to Thailand is scary, especially with the hot weather there and the plane-sitting-on-the-tarmac thing. And the H5N1 thing. Vermont is much cooler weather. And yes, I paid $$$ for Max from a breeder, and yes his coat is off white with hints of grays browns and golden browns. Why are the cats you pay money for so difficult? Prescilla was free, but she's the plain nothing-fancy black and gray tabby. Standard stray cat formula there. Any thoughts/ideas would be most appreciated. I'm pretty sure that a paid petsitter for an hour a day would do just fine, but was hoping for something cheaper. Even then, I don't think a petsitter would be able to hand feed twice a day, or if Max would let a stranger do it. Probably not an issue, since (a) Max now knows he's important, (b) Prescilla knows to respect him or else, and (c) Max knows the handfeeding thing is a control gig, that won't work if I'm not around (I know he eats out of the bowl when I'm not around for like more than 14 hours or so). I know, it's complicated! Stephanie

Okay, I've just got to know... criticalmass, are either of your splashers orange tabbies? Calliope mentioned her orange tabby being a splasher. My orange tabby was the party guilty of this offense, and DH grew up with an orange tabby who also did this. I personally don't think this is about being cleanly, I think it is about something in the bowl that is fun to play with as you try to fish it out. When orange tabby Gus was an old guy, he had great kidney function. I don't know if it was because he was always playing with or drinking the water, but I didn't consider it the worst thing in the world because of that. We put the bowl on a towel, on hard floor, and just refilled the bowl and replaced the towel daily. We often threw ice cubes in the bowl for that cat, because he especially loved that. We still do it for the cats we have now, and they enjoy it, though not as much as Gus did. You could always put the bowl in the bathtub or shower and show the cats where it is- no muss, no fuss that way. All mine seem to spend a lot of time in the bathtubs anyway for some reason. I would not recommend a circulating bowl though. We have one now and the two, non-splashers, still like to stick their paws in it. This bowl gets more particles in it than the regular bowl ever did- but it does encourage our sick kitty to drink extra water. I have no doubt that if we had had the circulating bowl when the orange tabby was around, we would not have been able to pry him away from it!