Another Mancat Monday with Megacolon

It's Mancat Monday, and my poor orange boy Evan is having another rough time with his megacolon and resulting constipation. He goes through cycles. He'll get his system all cleared out, whether or not an enema is involved, and then for 2-4 weeks he'll do okay on all of his usual medications. And then the constipation starts up again. Right now, we're indeed in the constipation stage of the cycle.

It exhausts poor Evan when he can't get his stool out, understandably. I'm giving him a chance to evacuate things with the maxed out doses of his meds, which almost always results in diarrhea. That said, sometimes the medication-induced diarrhea doesn't amount to enough stool to actually clear his colon of the backlog. If he doesn't manage to sufficiently evacuate his system after a day or two on these hefty doses of meds, I'll be giving him another at-home enema. We'll get this stool out of Evan one way or another.

Now, on to a drastic subject change. The kitties and pup here want to wish their grandma a very happy birthday!

The kitties' and pup Astrid's grandma, that being their Gammy, is one of their all-time favorite people. And for good reason.

Given that this is Mancat Monday, Evan wants to specifically express how amazing his Gammy is. After all, she's the one who often rescues Evan and takes him home from his grooming appointments after I've dropped him off and headed to work. So, from Evan, all the kitties, and pup Astrid...Happy Birthday, Gammy!

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Tip of the Day

Today's pet parenting hack of a tip is one to help you sleep better at night. Does your kitty or pup ever wake you up during the night, perhaps seemingly bored or hungry? The first step in a case such as this is of course to make sure there is no medical explanation. If your furbaby is indeed healthy, though, and they simply wake you in the middle of the night for some playtime or a midnight snack, then there are a couple of simple things you can do to try to combat this.

First, you can do a bit of a pre-bedtime play session with them. One of the last things you do before you go to bed can be a game of fetch, perhaps a little fun with a wand toy, or anything that your furbaby finds fun and that expends their energy. This will help tire your furbaby out, and will hopefully help satisfy their desire to play so that they can sleep through the night.

Second, in the case that your furbaby wakes you up in the middle of the night out of hunger, perhaps save their last meal of the day for right before bed. Fill their bowl just before you go to bed, so that they will go to bed with a full stomach. If needed and possible, you can also make this nighttime meal their largest of the day, to even further satisfy them and their stomach. In some cases, this is all it takes to help keep those hungry furbabies satiated until their breakfast.

Just like us, our furbabies are not immune to restless nights or a desire for a midnight snack. If a medical concern has been ruled out, then try to find a way to help both you and your furbaby sleep through the night. Satisfying the play or hunger drive just before bed may be all that is needed.