One of my cats (Jamie) is staying at the vet's tonight as he's having an op under general anaesthetic to unblock some pretty nasty constipation tomorrow, poor little guy.

Took him in on Monday as he was off-colour, off his food and generally lethargic. I suspected constipation, as I hadn't seen him poo since Saturday. He had to have an enema, which didn't shift anything, and the vet confirmed he had a "blockage". She sent me home with some liquid paraffin and instructions, and told me to keep an eye on him, in the hope it'd soften enough for him to pass.

He seemed a lot brighter yesterday, and again today, but he still wasn't pooing.

So, he went back this afternoon, and I had to come home without him - totally horrible. I know he needs to have it sorted, as he'll feel so much better and I don't want him to have any long-term health issues like megacolon or anything, but I hate him not being here!

My other mog is wandering around and calling for him, which is heartbreaking. I'm just so hoping everything is straightforward, and he comes home as soon as he can.

If you have cats (or any animals!), make sure they drink enough, especially in this hotter weather, and doubly so if they're on a dry diet. Use a needleless syringe to get it into them if you're not sure. I'd never taken much notice of his drinking habits before, but I will be watching like a hawk from now on!

If you're a cat person, keep your fingers crossed for me and Jamie.

Thank you

We all get constipated. I am sure your pussy cat will be fine. Sometimes it can get impacted much like it does in humans.

Some cats don't drink much at all. Mine will only drink milk. She doesn't like the standard of the tap water here.

When he comes home make sure you rub your hands all over your other cat particularly around its facial scent glands and then throughly rub your hospitalised cat so it doesn't smell strange and of the vet's when they are reintroduced to each other. It can also be helpful to feed them together when reintroduced.

I read somewhere that adding a couple of drops of Aloe Vera juice into a cats food has beneficial effects including helping digestion (but the real thing from Holland and Barrett) - it also helps with general conditioning.

Many cats who eat dry food and don't drink enough water have the probs you describe. My brother has 2 male cats who both were rushed to the vets for ops for the self same thing and they now both have to eat tinned food (cos of the moisture content).

Yeah, I was intending to go through the whole reintroduction process again. I do rehoming for my local animal rescue centre, so am quite good at advising people how to handle cat intros

Feeding them together might pose a problem, as Jamie is almost twice the size of Smartie, and has had a tendency to steal food from her in the past - will see how it goes.

One of my cats was at the vet's from Monday to Friday following surgery, and the others were delighted to see him when he got back, no problems. They had a sniff around, but otherwise everything was fine. Mind you, he's always been boss cat, so perhaps they were scared to argue!

If your cat is fed mainly dry food but doesn't appear to drink much, you can try the following ways to encourage drinking water:

Collect rain water for the cats to drink ~ sometimes our tap water contains too many chemicals & the smell/taste will put the cat off.

Don't use plastic or tupperware water bowls ~ sometimes the plastics give off chemials as well, especially if left in the sun.

Put lots of water containers around the house & in the garden of varying sizes, depth & material ~ this will allow the cats to choose which type they prefer & you can remove the less used ones.

Don't put water bowls next to the food bowls ~ cats rarely find food & water in the same place in the wild so will happily accept that they go to one place for food & another place for water.

If your cat is interested in running water (playing with taps!) try investing in an indoor drinking fountain ~ but be warned ~ they can sometimes splash the water around too enthusiastically so you might need to put a towel under the water fountain.

I found several of my cats preferred to drink out of pint mugs ~ possibly because they're made of glass, or because a full pint mug is at a comfortable height for drinking?

Finally, if your cat likes milk, try the Whiskas/Felix etc cat milks ~ at least they provide fluid & aren't harmful to cats as cows milk is.

Cats have an aversion to strong smells and so long as they don't pick up any strong smells like flea treatments they're usually ok towards each other.

I took one of my cats to the vets and she received a strong smelling treatment for fleas. After I took her home, my other cat thought I brought home another cat due to the unfamiliar strong smell and began hissing and growling at the one that I took to the vets.
Thankfully, as the smell wore off gradually the hissing and growling stopped and they're now close as they were before. They only recognise each through scent.