Clogged anal sacs - two cats

[Cat.mama]

Is it common to have two , maybe three cats in a household with clogged anal glands ?
Two of the cats that have confirmed clogs are litter mates.
Two of my cats just turned 10. I have had some issues in the past with yellow poo that has started again several months ago when we started seeing changes with Purina wet food. Switching to Purina initially was the remedy to this issue about 3 years ago. This may or may not be relevant. Third cat just turned 18. She only gets mixed yellow poo when she eats their food.


Fast forward to anal gland issue. One of the 10 yr old . I started seeing her booty not look too great. Very red and pushed out. Seemed like she had poo stuck all around. She has always raced out of the potty room like it’s painful. But she started becoming vocal. She started flinching her back and didn’t want to be pet. The vet thought it was arthritis at first. I fought this diagnosis and we did X-ray which showed none. Her little plugs at that point became super plugged, I thought it was poo stuck on her. Or scabs on her butt. Brought her back and they expressed. They said it was chunky but not infection.

some time goes by and her sister starts showing the same signs .. howling at night after the bathroom , not wanting to be touched.
Took her in and they expressed her glands. They were full of chunky stuff, no infection


since then the first cat has gone back again about two weeks ago( this is months later from her first squeeze) she is already starting to flench and her butt looks super thickly plugged. It’s also puffing out some which I haven’t seen before.

meanwhile my third 18 year cat is starting to cry like mad when she comes out of the potty room. Her bum doesn’t look as thickly plugged as her sister but many of the creases are clogged and the two dots on the sides are lightly plugged.

On a side note . My 18 yr old had an unprovoked seizure last week. I’m noticing today and have noticed this over the last couple of weeks , one of the other cats has some jerks with her flinching. Not sure if that means anything.


why is this happening? I’ve read it’s very rare for cats to have clogged anal glands. Why would I have two and maybe three cats having this happen? The vet doesn’t give any insight at all . My two cats are black, i honestly think she thinks it’s the same cat. She made mention of how soon it had been between visits.

How can I keep this from happening? The one cat is already clogged after two weeks.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. No, IMO, it would not be considered norma. If they are related, genetics could be playing role. However, soft stools will also attribute to anal gland clogging, as it is defecation with normal stools that help empty the anal glands. If their poo is soft, it sounds like they might benefit from a higher fiber diet. And, yellow poo is not really normal, so there could be a contributing health issues related to that.
If they go outside and get into things that they shouldn't or eat inappropriate things, both could also cause problems.

You need to play investigator and look at the overall picture of what they are doing, eating, where they go, etc. to get a better understanding of possible causes.

 

[Cat.mama]

Hi. No, IMO, it would not be considered norma. If they are related, genetics could be playing role. However, soft stools will also attribute to anal gland clogging, as it is defecation with normal stools that help empty the anal glands. If their poo is soft, it sounds like they might benefit from a higher fiber diet. And, yellow poo is not really normal, so there could be a contributing health issues related to that.
If they go outside and get into things that they shouldn't or eat inappropriate things, both could also cause problems.

You need to play investigator and look at the overall picture of what they are doing, eating, where they go, etc. to get a better understanding of possible causes.

Hello. They are inside cats.
the mixed yellow poo is from the cat food . I know this because there are times when the third cat eats it and she gets the same thing.
I have been desperately trying to switch them from Purina but can not find anything else they will eat. I had this same issue in 2021 when they were eating Fancy feast. We stared finding rotted /moldy meat in the food. As soon as I switched to Purina , it stopped.

As for the poo. There has been a change with the formula in their current food. Some cases smell bad , they won’t eat. It’s been at least 6 months we’ve seen a change. I’ve started trying to get it only at petsmart vs chewys as of recent to see if there is a change. With this formula change one cat is having very dry poo, the other is semi dry / normal. These two cats do not drink water.
I have no plants and there is nothing in the house for them to get in to.
one of the cats is large. That is the only insight I got from the vet, she said her size might hinder the release. But that doesn’t explain the other cats

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

What EXACTLY are you feeding them? I understand it's Purina, but that encompasses a LOT of different foods. Is it dry food, or wet food? And have you tried different varieties of Purina with the same issues?

When you say their stools are dry, does that mean they are pooping little marbles, or are you seeing what would be a normal size stool. To naturally express the anal glands, I would expect it would require normal sized stools to regularly pass by the anal glands. Little marbles probably wouldn't do it. If they don't drink water, are you adding some to their food?

 

[Cat.mama]

What EXACTLY are you feeding them? I understand it's Purina, but that encompasses a LOT of different foods. Is it dry food, or wet food? And have you tried different varieties of Purina with the same issues?

When you say their stools are dry, does that mean they are pooping little marbles, or are you seeing what would be a normal size stool. To naturally express the anal glands, I would expect it would require normal sized stools to regularly pass by the anal glands. Little marbles probably wouldn't do it. If they don't drink water, are you adding some to their food?

Hello
It’s Purina complete wet chicken and rice.
at one point they were also eating another flavor in this line but after the formula change , they refused to eat. This was maybe last October.
I have tried nearly every brand / type of food, they will not take to anything, I even went back to fancy feast medley several months ago when this started , but after two days , they would not eat.
the liter mates poo is very dehydrated and hard sometimes. It’s normal sized just hard. One is worse than the other and it’s not all the time.
On one of their X-rays it showed balls of poo (cat that’s not so dry) , the vet suggested miralax 1/4. I did that for both for over a week and they got very runny soft stools so I stopped.
For a time I was mixing water in.
The older cat does have very tiny poo, but she eats much less.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I am not saying that Miralax is the answer, but 1/4 tsp may have just been too much, or maybe it is not needed daily. There can be some experimenting to find the right balance when using Miralax, so you could try it again and just give them 1/8 tsp daily, or perhaps 1/4 tsp every other day, or even less often.

Maybe the rice is too binding for them, but then you will need to continue to try other foods that don't contain rice. There are Purina versions that don't have rice in them. So, maybe a place to start looking for ones that are close in terms of the ingredients, but without the rice.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Since you WERE adding water, is there any reason why you stopped? I would say since there stools are hard and dry, at the very minimum start adding water to their food again, as that could help soften the stools some. And experimenting with dosing the Miralax is worth a try too, as mentioned above.