“Can you have a bowel obstruction and still poop?”

Yes, it is possible to still poop with a bowel obstruction, especially if the obstruction is higher up in your intestines from your rectum. If you are truly obstructed, then this would cause severe pain and you would need to be in the hospital and likely need surgery.

The answer to your question is YES. Gastrointestinal tract, especially the one involving the small sized intestine and large sized colon, are predominantly involved in forming the poop. For the poop to form, digested food from the mouth, food pipe in the chest (esophagus), stomach pouch should enter the first part of the small gut. If there is blockage in any part downward in that tract, it’s called intestinal obstruction in medical terms. Organs in the order going down in a standing human are, small gut, large gut, rectum, and anus. If blockage is in the first part of the gut, other symptoms like belly pain, distention of the belly, feeling full from eating a little will start, but the person will still continue to pass poop from the tract below the blockage until there is no more in the tract. For zero poop or gas to be passing, the blockage has to be very very low near the rectum or anus. Another example of this discrepancy in something being blocked but still allowing things to go through is in bed bound patients with hard stool impaction in the lower tract. They get loose, small stools leaking, giving an illusion that the patient is having diarrhea and unless there rectal canal is examined or an X-ray of the belly is obtained, it is not possible to be sure whether it is diarrhea or a paradoxical constipation.

Dr. Azaz

It depends upon the severity of the obstruction. If complete obstruction, then you will not be able to pass stool, though initially you might pass some stool that was present distal to the obstruction. In severe cases of bowel obstruction, you will even not be able to pass gas, and your abdomen will be painful and distended, and you will be throwing up also. In partial or resolving bowel obstruction, you might be able to pass gas and stool.
Hope this helps.

It depends, because bowel obstructions differ in severity. Some are partial and some are complete obstructions. If it is complete, then bowel movements will cease until the obstruction clears. For partial obstructions, pain will happen but the bowels can still move.