How to Treat Hairballs in Cats

Hairballs can be irritating to your cat's digestive tract and an irritation to you when you have to clean up the mess from your flooring. They can even become a serious danger to the cat's health. Here are some suggestions on how to treat, reduce and maybe even get rid of them altogether.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Buy hairball formula cat foods. They do help.

2. Groom your cat frequently. This not only removes much of the loose hair the cat will otherwise swallow, but it will keep your floors and furniture cleaner, too. And as a bonus, it is a good healthy stimulant for the cat's skin.

3. If your cat is already having problems with fur balls, try one of the gentle preventatives like 'Laxitone', 'Lax’aire™', 'Petromalt' or one of the many other products available from pet stores or your veterinarian.
   
   'FurBall Dr.' from PetAlive or the 'CatSu® Herbal Furball' are a couple of brands of holistic/homeopathic treatments.

4. The best and easiest form of prevention I have found dealing with this problem over the years with a number of cats, is to switch them to a top quality diet. Although this may seem to cost more, when you factor in veterinary bills, the cost of medicines and all the anxiety, it is also the most cost-efficient solution. The two brands I would recommend are 'Innova Evo' and 'Blue Buffalo'. Both of these have top quality ingredients. For some reason, that seems enough to slow down or eliminate the fur ball problem entirely. As a bonus, your cat's general health and longevity is likely to improve, too.

Tips & Warnings

• Cats that vomit fur regularly are taking in more fur than they can process. Fur balls can actually turn into an emergency situation if they become stuck in the esophagus and keep your cat from being able to swallow food or block the breathing airways. So it's a really good idea to prevent them.

Resources

• How to groom a cat
• How to grow catnip and catmint
• How to make a simple cat toy
• Cat claw protection
• Teach your cat tricks

[MidniteWriter]

on 9/4/2008 Good to know! She loves when we groom her. Great article. So far we haven't had a lot of problems but I will keep this if we do.