Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / May 2007

I'm fostering an 8 week old kitten, who I've had since he was about 2
weeks old.  Ever since he learned to poop on his own, he's been visibly
and audibly (he cries) straining in the litterbox when he poops.  When
he finally gets poop out, it's so skinny it looks like thin spaghetti.
It's not worms!  He's been dewormed several times, and the poops have
been examined at the vet.  

Today he had to be sedated in order for the vet to scope his
anus/rectum/colon.  The vet said he found mild to moderate inflamation
to the "distal rectum" and was prescribed 5 days of .5 mls of flagyl
twice a day.  My question is, would mild inflamation really cause a
kitten to have this much trouble pushing poops out, and cause it to be
so thin?  I am so doubtful, because another problem the kitten has is
after he poops non diarreah, he drips diarreah for a couple of hours
afterwards.  So he has to stay in the bathroom.  Would mild inflammation
cause this too?  I don't like to second guess the vet, but maybe this is
just something he's never run across before.  Three years ago I had a
foster kitten who cried in the litterbox.  I had a different vet back
then, and this other vet said the kitten's anus (or rectum, I don't know
the difference) was too small and needed to be stretched.  He did this
under sedation, the kitten was better for a few weeks, he re-did the
procedure one more time, and the kitten was fine after that.  My second
question is, can a kitten have a muscle spasm, like a permanent muscle
spasm, which would make him not physically capable of opening his anus
(or rectum, which one is right? I just don't know) wide enough to poop
comfortably?  A vet wouldn't have known this by doing a sedated exam,
because during a sedated exam the kittens muscles would be relaxed from
the medication.  Thanks everyone.