Critical Care for Megacolon Buns?

[Jenk]

Has anyone had success feeding Critical Care regularly to a megacolon bun?

I once heard of a megacolon bun who doeswell on daily diet of hay and a Critical Care patty. (Like it sounds, it's Critical Care with just enough water added to form it into a small patty.)

Our Zoe's been on a hay-only diet since early July. (If you recall, she ate some of her litter box in late April and had serious gas/stasis issues by early-to-mid May.) Prior to eating plastic, she was doing well on a small amount of Italian parsley and a tiny amount of Oxbow BB/T pellets.

The vet has suggested that we slowly introduce Critical Care patties to Zoe and try feeding them 2-3 times per week. The goal would be to offer her additional nutrients, fiber and fluids.

Any thoughts? (Yeah, I'm scared to try anything new; everything in the past has led to a vet visit, and we're long past the point of being able to afford repetitive vet visits.)

Jenk

 

[Amy27]

I don't have much experience. But my concern with the patty would be that it didn't absorb enough water since it is in patty form and would take water from the body. Does it have to be in patty form? If it were me, I would feel most comfortable making the critical care with plenty of water so I was sure it wouldn't take any water from the body. Could you do critical care slushies? lol or something more watery?

 

[Maureen Las]

Beau doesn't have megacolon but his entire diet is critical care and BBT ; he has too many cecals probably because he doesn't eat hay or greens but otherwise he is very healthy and does fine on it and this has been going on for years.I make it very wet and then let it sit. it will dry out some so you could still make a patty from it ifshe will eat it. It has probiotics in it and would be worth a shot Jen

you could try a little at a time ; most of them like apple/banana better than anise flavor

 

[Jenk]

Amy27 wrote:

If it were me, I would feel most comfortable making the critical care with plenty of water so I was sure it wouldn't take any water from the body. Could you do critical care slushies? lol or something more watery?

I think that the vet suggested the patty form because she wants to ensure that Zoe actually ingests a decent amount of nutrients from the Critical Care. Obviously, the higher the water volume, the less Critical Care she'd be ingesting. But on the other hand, her system does have trouble properly diresting/usingfluid.

To answer your question, Zoe would definitely eat a Critical Care slushie. (In the past, I've given her a crock dish filled with 30 cc's of water and a small amount of CC to taste. And she's always sucked it down quickly.)

 

[Jenk]

angieluv wrote:

Beau doesn't have megacolon but his entire diet is critical care and BBT; he has too many cecals probably because he doesn't eat hay or greens but otherwise he is very healthy and does fine on it and this has been going on for years.

My stressor is that Zoe'sgut doesn't properly digest things. If she'sexperiencing arough patch (i.e., general digestive discomfortdue to megacolon issues), evenjust 3-4Italian parsley leavescan seem to add to her discomfort.

Butover the past several days, I've noticed that she's noteaten as much hay or drank as much water overnight.And this morning, I'm rattled by the small fecals that I find in her box. (For her, small--"normal-sized" fecals--indicate that she's not passing as much material as she ought to be.) So now I don't know if this is a good time to introduce the Critical Care (again) to her diet, or not.

I make it very wet and then let it sit. it will dry out some so you could still make a patty from it ifshe will eat it. It has probiotics in it and would be worth a shot Jen

That sounds more like Amy's suggestion: make it with a slushie consistency. As you've pointed out, the Critical Care will dry somewhat as it sits anyway.

Oh, funny thing about the probiotics in Critical Care....I have two brand new packages of it, one of anise flavor, one of apple-banana flavor. I got the anise flavor for Zoe because she actually likes it (well, she likes both flavors). And I figured that the apple-banana flavor may contain more sugar, which I try to avoid feeding Zoe. But what puzzles me is that the anise-flavor bag doesn't mention probiotics on the ingredients list; the apple-banana-flavor bag does. :? I've sent a question to Oxbow about this issue.

you could try a little at a time ; most of them like apple/banana better than anise flavor

Considering that it's Zoe we're talking about, I'd have to start with a miniscule amount. It sounds silly, but if I don't start her with a speck of it, I feel like I'd compromise her gut that much sooner. And now, I'm uncertain if she should even get a speck of CC, or if her system needs a boost from sub-Qs.