Thanks everyone! It's been a day and so far so good. She seems alert and content to sit on moist paper towels for the time being. I'm holding off feeding as long as I think I can, the more time it has to heal before she has to defecate again the better.

K-Y jelly is water based instead of petroleum, so seems like a good choice and I'd seen it suggested a few places. I didn't tell the folks at the pharmacy what I was going to use ity for, I figured what I had planned was probably a stranger thing than they could have imagined on their own.

I could absolutely never do this sort of thing on a regular basis. Just thinking about it makes me feel a little ill.