Cat Question

T

tessa_s212

Guest
#1
So, today during stretching in cheelreading practice I was talking to my coach about dog food. And then she brought up her cat food.. her cat has bad hairballs.

What causes hairballs?

What gets rid of them?

Right now her cat is on a Walmart brand cat food. They've tried hairball formulas, but nothing is working..
 

RD

Are you dead yet?
Joined
Aug 1, 2004
Messages
15,572
Likes
0
Points
0
Age
34
Location
Ohio
#2
When cats groom themselves and swallow hair, it usually will pass through the intestinal tract and wind up in the litter box . . . Sometimes the cat swallows too much hair and it clumps up in the stomach.

I have heard that there are hairball remedies out there, but know nothing about them. Google may be your friend here. I've never had to research it because my cats don't get hairballs often (I brush them quite often and they don't have that much hair)

I'm not sure if food has anything to do with it or not, but getting the cat off walmart brand food is a good idea, regardless.
 
Joined
May 29, 2006
Messages
1,610
Likes
0
Points
36
Age
37
Location
Illinois
#3
Have they tried brushing their cat? That'll help take out some of the hair the cat would swallow while grooming themselves. That and a hairball control cat food should take care of it. If they're feeding low quality food, that's going to affect their cats coat too though.
 
T

tessa_s212

Guest
#4
Okay.. so, I'm going to tell them to brush their cat.. and to give it some fiber supplement. Probably Metamucil Psyllium capsule thingies or something like that.
 

Buddy'sParents

*Finding My Inner Fila*
Joined
Dec 26, 2005
Messages
25,377
Likes
0
Points
36
#5
Brushing their cat will help.

Royal Canin makes a hairball remedy food that our customers used to rave about.

Also, there is OTC hairball treatment stuff that we used to give our himilayan/siamese cat and it worked well for her (even brushing never seemed to help all that much with her). I can't remember the name, but it can be found at any petstore I would assume. Comes in a tube or tablets...
 

ToscasMom

Harumph™©®
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
Messages
6,211
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Mother Ship
#7
Cat Lady here. Tell her to buy a tube of Laxitone at the pet store. Tell her to follow the instructions because too much laxitone will mean the "lax" part will kick in. It breaks up hairballs. She can give some to the cat a few times a week. Tell her also to be glad the cat hacks them up. A hairball can cause a blockage. Cats are fastidious groomers, so the hair has to go someplace, better they bezoar it.

It's my two cents that foods touted as hairball remedies aren't worth the powder to blow them up with. And please suggest that she ditch the walmart food and buy something that is actually good for her cat, such as Eagle Pack.
 

mrose_s

BusterLove
Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Messages
12,169
Likes
0
Points
36
Age
34
Location
QLD, Australia
#8
how often do they brush their cat?
i don't brush panda (not in 9 yers) but i thin i might strat just because he'd enjoy it.
but he's never had a problem with hair balls
 
T

tessa_s212

Guest
#9
I imagine they don't brush their cat at all. But, hopefully they'll do it a bit now after I tell her that it will help.

They won't feed an expensive food. It is "just a cat" afterall.
 

RD

Are you dead yet?
Joined
Aug 1, 2004
Messages
15,572
Likes
0
Points
0
Age
34
Location
Ohio
#10
A high quality food could mean a healthier coat, less shedding and therefore less hairballs. Bummer they won't consider that, I hope their cat never gets a blockage from those hairballs.
 

vanillasugar

just call me Nilly
Joined
Nov 27, 2005
Messages
6,829
Likes
0
Points
0
Age
40
Location
Peterborough, Ontario
#11
I imagine they don't brush their cat at all. But, hopefully they'll do it a bit now after I tell her that it will help.

They won't feed an expensive food. It is "just a cat" afterall.
Honestly, this doesn't sound promising.

Hairballs are most often the result of a poor quality diet and lack of care overall. So I'm not surprised that this cat is suffereing from them badly.

Many things that we cat owners shrug off as "normal" are infact not normal in the least, but the first signs of poor health caused by poor quality food. You see, foods full of fillers, low quality proteins, etc, are going to cause poor health in the skin and coat (since they're barely nourishing the body, the coat's getting pretty much nothing), meaning the cat is shedding in access to what it should, and is consuming more hair when it grooms itself. Causing hairballs.

If they have this attitude towards their cat, it's not going to be any better plain and simple. They can put a bandaid on it in the form of a hairball remedy, but that's not actually adressing the issue.
 

Members online

No members online now.
Top