First, how urgent is this?
Go now
- Repeated trips to the litter box with effort and no urine at all.
- Vomiting or a swollen belly after straining, or refusing food completely.
- Open-mouth breathing, or obvious effort to breathe.
- Sudden collapse, weak back legs, or unable to stand.
Contact your vet today
- Several days with no stool, and straining the whole time.
- Hard, dry, pellet-like stool.
- Crying while passing stool, or blood or mucus in it.
- Falling appetite, with weight down 5% or more within two weeks.
Record and observe
- A short gap with no stool, then a normal-shaped stool.
- Brief constipation after a food change, too little water or a change at home, now settled.
- Already under vet care: record the date and shape of each stool, and bring the record to the next visit.
Before you set off
- The date, shape and amount of each stool, with photos.
- How much the cat drinks, and what it eats, including the dry-to-wet ratio.
- Any vomiting, falling appetite or weight change.
- Any swelling, sore or stuck stool around the anus.
- A list of medicines and the time of the last dose.
- Do not use human laxatives, suppositories or enemas.
What your vet may ask and do
- Ask: how long since the last stool, and whether there is straining or no urge at all.
- Ask: any vomiting, falling appetite or weight change.
- Ask: drinking, food, and any recent food change.
- Do: abdominal palpation for the amount of stool in the colon.
- Do: X-rays for stool, a foreign object, the pelvis and the spine.
- Do: blood tests (electrolytes, kidney values, thyroid, calcium).
- Do: severe cases need hospital treatment, and repeats need a cause found.
Where to go in Hong Kong
- Hong Kong 24-hour vet list
- 24-hour emergency, Hong Kong Island
- 24-hour emergency, Kowloon
- 24-hour emergency, New Territories
- Clinics with ultrasound
- Clinics with inpatient care
- What emergency and test fees look like
Call the clinic before you drive over, to confirm tonight's arrangements and the location.