No bowel movement after dentistry.

Dear Dr Marie,
Thank you for creating this website.
I have a 12 year old male abyssinian cat with a constipation problem. He lives indoors, with no other animal, and eats cat tins. He has dry food as well but eats very little of it.

Two weeks ago he was given a teeth cleaning (I don’t know the engligh word, I am french) along with a gum gingivectomy, and a shot of antibiotics Convenia supposed to last 14 days, as well as regular vaccines that I hadn’t done in a long time.

Returning home, for the first two days he ate less than usual, which I put on the account of the pain of the operation with his teeth and gums. After a few days he became very picky with his food and would only eat raw meat that I bought him to try to make him better, as he loves it. Then after another few days he started eating fine again. But I noticed that he had stopped drinking water and was peeing less often and way less, like only once every 24h, where before he used to drink a lot and therefore pee a lot (I figured that may be this was normal, that may be it was before that he was drinking too much because of his teeth problems and that now that this has been fixed, he simply drinks less in a normal way - am I wrong ?). I noticed that he wouldn’t jump on furniture anymore like if it was painful or too much effort, he would sleep a lot and look not well, and he didn’t spend much time around me. And then I noticed that he was constipated. He only did stools once in 4 or 5 days, and it was like a short ribbon, not looking very normal (but no blood in it). I waited another couple of days to see if he got better, then I went to the vet.

The vet said the cat was not deshydrated. He did an x-ray, saw something long and weird looking and he gave him an enema to get it out. What came out what the same as what the cat had done at home, except longer, like 30cm, all attached, and not hard, with a dark brown color (but no foreign object in it). The vet then did a second x-ray, and all had come out, nothing showed on the x-ray anymore. The vet then said that if all was well, I should expect the cat to do stools again after 24h.

The enema was done on monday afternoon, the stools were expected around tuesday evening, we are now wednesday afternoon and still nothing... I called the vet, he said to wait another day or two then come back if nothing has happened and he will do another enema to prepare for a colonoscopy.

The cat’s blood tests results done before the thing on his teeth were entirely normal except for the red cells that were high.
GR : 11,13x10^12L instead of between 5.00 and 10.00
HCT : 52,6% instead of between 30.0 and 45.0
HGB : 15,3 g/dL instead of between 9.0 and 15.1

The cat looked way better after returning from the vet, he ate better and was jumping on furnitures again, spending time with me again, he really looked relieved, himself again. Then today, 3 days later, I’m getting the feeling he’s already slowly begining to look like he did before I took him for the enema.

My question is : does the fact that my cat still hasn’t done stools since the enema 3 days ago mean that this is very bad news, and if yes, what kind of bad news can I expect after the colonoscopy ? Also, is my vet right to tell me to wait another two days, or is it more urgent ?

Like any other cat owner I guess, I’m very close to him and devastated at the thought that he might have a cancer or something, as well as feeling helpless at the thought that he is in pain.
Any thoughts ?
Thank you very much in advance if you have time to answer me.
Ann

Hi,
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer.
I just realize that I had forgotten to mention that he has been eating normally since the enema on monday. He is not drinking though. He pees once a day but is still not pooping. Not straining to, just not even trying.

I have noticed that his anus seems to be in pain... I tried to clean a little stain that remained on his fur after the enema and the way he tried to escape my hands gave the feeling that it was hurting him. I know he hates to be touched there, it's happened before that I have had to clean off something he hadn't, but this time he strongly reacted against it. Or may be it just brought back the souvenir of the enema that he seemed to have hated. I don't know... But this can't be the reason why he is not going, as last week this pain didn't exist and he was already not going...

Apart from not having had a bowel movement since the enema on monday, the rest seems all normal, he east normally, sleeps no more or no less than usual, spend time on the bed with me and cleans himself after eating. At this point, yes I'm getting the feeling too that it's something else than constipation, because what came out with the enema didn't look constipated, and if he felt that eating was constipating him and therefore hurting him, he wouldn't eat, right ?

Is there something I can do myself to help him have a bowel movement ?
Thank you in advance if you have the time to answer again.

Hi again,
Yes finally a bowel movement yesterday !
No I wasn't considering over the counter products, I know one should never do that, I meant add something natural to his food like olive oil or find a way to make him drink a bit more, things like that that I read all over the internet but as these answers are given by owners and not vets, I wanted your take on that.
But all is well now, so I thank you very much for your help !