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Hairballs are inevitable when you live with cats or rabbits. All cats will eventually vomit up hairballs, also known as tricobezoars. Cats groom themselves with their tongues and swallow the loosened fur. Cats can't digest fur very well. Eventually, this fur compacts into a elongated tube or a ball-like mass which is regurgitated by... more »
Hack...Hack...Hack...Retch. Have you heard these lovely sounds coming from your cat on a regular basis? Does your cat seem to always act like this when guests are visiting? Cats have perfect timing in vomiting up those disgusting hairballs! While annoying, hairballs can cause serious dangers to cats by blocking the flow of food to... more »
Hairballs are a fact of life for cat owners. Every time your feline friend fastidiously grooms his fur, his tongue is picking up hair. Cats often leave these disgusting little presents on the floor for their owners to clean up. It’s a nasty chore despite the actions of the cat being a wholly natural body response to an... more »
Anyone with a cat having a hairball problem knows that sound; that awful retching sound cats make before they cough up a hairball. Long-haired cats are especially prone to this problem as they lick themselves to get clean and, in the process, end up swallowing excess fur. The fur doesn't process in their system and will eventually... more »
Because cats groom themselves with their tongues, they sometimes end up with hairballs in their stomachs. Hairballs can cause indigestion, constipation and discomfort, which can irritate your cat when the hair doesn't pass through the bowel as nature planned. It is a little annoying when you find a patch of regurgitated hair on your... more »
Nothing can be done to completely eliminate cat hairballs, but there you can take care of them once they have emerged. Follow these steps. more »
Intestinal hairballs in cats occur because cats lick themselves to keep clean. Hair can accumulate into balls in the intestines and this can... more »
Hairballs--they are gross, a little smelly and completely embarrassing if delivered by your cat in the middle of a party. Plus, they can be really... more »
One of the best ways to treat hairballs is to do what you can to prevent them in the first place. A number of cat foods and treats have... more »
Hairballs occur naturally in most cats. They are a result of a cat's propensity to clean himself with his tongue. Most cat owners are more than a... more »
A hairball is a small collection of hair or fur formed in the stomach of animals that is occasionally vomited up when it becomes too big. Hairballs are primarily a tight elongated cylinder of packed fur, but may include bits of other elements such as swallowed food. Cats are especially prone to hairball formation since they groom themselves by licking their fur, and thereby ingest it. Rabbits are also prone to hairballs because they groom themselves in the same fashion as cats, but hairballs are especially dangerous for rabbits because they cannot regurgitate them. Because the digestive system of a rabbit is very fragile, rabbit hairballs must be treated immediately or they may cause the animal to stop feeding and ultimately die due to dehydration. Cattle are also known to accumulate hairballs, but as they do not vomit, these are found usually after death and can be found to be quite large.
cat hairball.
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| alt2 Hariball
| caption2 A cat hairball.
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Although uncommon in humans, some hairballs have been reported, often in young girls as a result of trichophagia, trichotillomania and pica. In 2003, a 3-year old girl in Red Deer, Canada had a grapefruit-sized hairball surgically removed from her stomach; and in 2004, an 18-year old woman from McAdam, Canada, had a hairball surgically removed from her lower intestine. Hairballs can be quite hazardous in humans, since hair cannot be digested or passed by the human gastrointestinal system, and (assuming it is identified) even vomiting may be ineffective at removing the hair mass. This can result in the general impairment of the digestive system.
See also
* Trichobezoar
* Rapunzel syndrome
Category:Animal hair
Category:Cat health
Category:Articles lacking sources (Erik9bot)
it:Borra (biologia)
pl:Zakłaczenie read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairball
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