Cats, Constipation and Courgettes

Henry, our elderly cat who we brought with us when we moved to France, unfortunately has kidney failure.  He is doing well thanks to a special diet and daily medicine.  However, one side effect is that he easily gets constipated.  You can syringe liquid paraffin into cats' mouths to help but doing this comes with the risks of them accidentally breathing the paraffin in their lungs rather than drinking it into their stomach.  So the vet gave me some medicine to help get things moving and she also suggested adding vegetables, for the fibre, to his diet - courgettes and pumpkins being the best apparently.  She was not my normal vet who knows Henry better so I gave her my look of: "That's all very well but you don't know Henry or how fussy he is," and left, not all hopeful he would eat these vegetable additions.

But I had some a pumpkin in store that was starting to go a little mouldy so I cooked it up the good bits, puréed them and added some to his meat.

Did he eat it?

After a cursory sniff and very much to my surprise he scoffed the lot!  Cooked courgettes were eaten with equal amounts of relish.

And the outcome - much less constipation.  RESULT.

I now have cooked up all of my remaining pumpkins (roast or steam), puréed and then frozen them in large ice cube trays giving an ideal amount per meal.  I also found some of last years courgettes in the freezer and done the same with them.  A simple solution  to a medical problem using the most natural of remedies.

Have you any natural remedies you have used with your pets?