Hairballs In Cats. Those Pesky Trichobezoars.

Nothing matches the early hours experience of getting out of bed in the middle of the night and stepping barefooted onto a squishy, slimy, freshly hacked up hairball, left by your cat so conveniently close to your bed! Cats groom themselves, and during the course of all this licking, they swallow quite a bit of hair. Normally, the hair passes through the stomach and intestines and exits with the stools. Hair though can become trapped in the folds of the stomach and form into a cigar shaped mass that irritates the stomach lining to the point where it triggers vomiting.
A very odd symptom of hairballs is that they make your cat "cough." The Hairball Hack it is called and it appears as a combination cough/vomiting wretch that is often described by a person thinking their cat is very ill. A physical exam by a veterinarian is always indicated as he or she will need to rule out other diseases like asthma, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, and stomach infections. If a cat appears perfectly healthy otherwise, a diagnosis of hairballs can be made from the description of the hacking.
Prevention of trichobezoars, the scientific term for hairballs, can be made mostly by brushing your cat. A good combing is better because brushes tend to ride over the top of the fur. After daily or at least frequent combing, you can offer your cat a hairball diet if the hairballs persist. The fiber in these diets binds to the hair in the stomach and intestines and it drags the hair along with it out with the stools. If combing and a hairball control diet aren't enough, then a petroleum product like Vaseline, Laxatone, Petrolatum, or Katalax (for those of you who drive a luxury car) can be used to slide the hairballs through.
The Laxatone type products come in savory flavors too that cats like. You can offer kitty malt, tuna, or liver flavors. Or just regular Vaseline, the taste of which a lot of cats like too. It somehow amazed me early in my veterinary career that you can eat Vaseline, but I guess it is used as a lip balm, and is not toxic even with continuous use.
Cats eat grass to self-medicate when they feel the irritation of a hairball in their stomach. It is most likely an instinctual behavior and adds a nice green color to the vomited up hairball. For persistent hairball vomiters, I have often given them a shot of a long acting anti-inflammatory drug called Depo-Medrol which lasts over a month and stops the vomiting in cats that have particularly sensitive stomachs.
My last piece of advice is do not use a vacuum cleaner to vacuum hair off of your cat. The suction can do instant and irreparable harm to a cat's ears and eyes in a moment of inattention.
Hairballs can only be treated and not cured. The hairball control diets do work well though, and your cat will enjoy the combing!
Dr. Doug Ikeler www.drdougikeler.com