Angela shares an apartment with her 6-year-old cat Andy. Andy has spent all his life indoors. Recently, Angela has noticed small amounts of blood in his stool. The stool is otherwise normal. It does not seem to show blood on every bowel movement but it has become increasingly prevalent. His diet consists of Science Diet Feline Maintenance in a dry form with occasional wet food of the same brand.
Visible blood in feces is usually the result of irritation to the colon. The colon is the large intestine at the end of the digestive tract and when it becomes irritated, it can bleed. There is a possibility that the stool can become bloody if there is a wound around the rectal area or a problem with one of the anal glands. I am betting on the colon as the source.
The colon has the primary job of resorbing water from the stool. This is one of many mechanisms in a cat’s body to keep from wasting water. There is really no digestion of food done in the colon. Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients occurs primarily in the small intestine. After the small intestine does its job, the leftover material is passed into the colon where water is resorbed and, finally, the stool is excreted.
When the colon becomes irritated, we term this condition colitis — inflammation of the colon. Colitis can be either primary, due to a problem with the colon itself or, secondary, due to a problem somewhere else in the body causing the colon to become irritated.
