Short answer
Output from a stoma or urine draining through a catheter breaks wudu. If it flows so often that you cannot keep wudu long enough to pray, you are ma'dhur (excused) in the Hanafi school: make wudu once each prayer time, and pray with the bag on. Empty it before prayer when you can. Ask a mufti about your own case.
Stool or urine that leaves through a stoma or catheter breaks wudu. If it continues through a whole prayer time without a gap long enough for wudu and the fard prayer, the person is ma'dhur: wudu is made after each prayer time begins and lasts until it ends. Praying with the sealed bag attached is excused because of necessity.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
A woman with constant bleeding was told by the Prophet ﷺ to make wudu for every prayer and to keep praying. Scholars apply this to every lasting condition that keeps breaking wudu (ablution), and modern stomas and catheters are the same case. Allah asks you to fear Him as much as you are able.
The Hanafi steps:
- Check whether you are ma'dhur. If within one whole prayer time there is no gap long enough to make wudu and pray the fard, you are. Many people with an ileostomy or a long-term catheter are.
- Wudu: make it after the prayer time starts. Pray the fard, sunnah, nafl, qada and read the Quran as you like.
- When it ends: your wudu lasts until that prayer time ends, or something other than your condition breaks it, such as sleep.
- The bag: empty or change it before prayer if you easily can. Praying with it attached is excused.
- Clothes: if a leak soils them and they would be soiled again before you finish, you need not keep changing for each prayer.
If your stoma is quiet for long stretches, as with many colostomies, you are not ma'dhur. Make wudu in a quiet period and pray; if output comes, make wudu again. Ghusl and wudu are made in the normal way around the bag: water does not need to go under a sealed flange.
Allah rewards patience in illness. Prayer is never dropped while you are conscious, so pray sitting or lying if you need to. See praying with urine leakage for the full rules of the excused person. Because cases differ, a mufti who knows your condition can confirm the details.
Ask a mufti about your own case. This answer explains the general ruling. When the details of your situation matter, as they do here, ask a qualified mufti and give them the full facts. Where to ask a scholar.
The evidence
Quran, Surah At-Taghaabun 64:16
فَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مَا ٱسْتَطَعْتُمْ وَٱسْمَعُوا۟ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ وَأَنفِقُوا۟ خَيْرًۭا لِّأَنفُسِكُمْ ۗ وَمَن يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِۦ فَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ ﴿١٦﴾
So fear Allah as much as you are able and listen and obey and spend [in the way of Allah]; it is better for your selves. And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his soul - it is those who will be the successful.
You are asked to do what you can; the excused person's rules rest on this.
Jami' at-Tirmidhi 125
Graded sahih... توضئي لكل صلاة ...
"Make wudu for every prayer."
The basis for the rules of the excused person whose condition keeps breaking wudu.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Durr al-Mukhtar with Radd al-Muhtar, Kitab al-Taharah, chapter on haid, section on the ma'dhur. Conditions for becoming and remaining ma'dhur.
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Taharat, chapter on istihadah. The excused person makes wudu for each prayer time.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.