Hairballs
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Hairballs may be the most overrated problem in the history of veterinary medicine. That is a quote borrowed from Dr. Colin Burrows at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine. I need to first figure out if owners are truly talking about a hairball or a chronic vomiter . A true hairball has to be hair wrapped in saliva and should only be at a maximum frequency of once monthly . I would not recommend treatment intervention in the case of a true hair ball. Hairballs are almost never a source of illness in pet cats. Even if the vomitus is always hair, frequent vomiting should be evaluated by the veterinarian.
We must also discuss coughing since cats cough in a unique way, with a hunched down posture, all four paws on the ground and will often extend their neck forward to “wheeze” a couple of times in a row. That is often a coughing cat and if the symptom is frequent, the patient should get chest films and possibly a heartworm test at the veterinarian. Hopefully no hair goes down the trachea into the lungs, which would be strikingly unusual. Therefore, cats should never “cough” up a hairball. If the cat coughs, they are also unique in that they only cough with lung pathology. An upper airway irritation will not induce a cough, and neither will heart disease. So no blaming chronic coughing on a hairball, let’s get some chest films. Also worth mentioning that heartworm disease is completely preventable with monthly medicine, see KnowHeartwoms.org to get more information.
Now we can discuss the most common symptom that often inadvertently places the blame on hairballs. If the vomitus is not hair, it’s not a hairball! If the vomiting is often or makes them eat poorly, they should be seen by a cat veterinarian. We already have a blog about Chronic Vomiting, so I will refer further explanation to that earlier blog. Oddly enough, not all vomiting cats feel poorly but all should be seen to work on minimizing the symptom. We might work with a diet change, or use over the counter meds such as Famotidine or Prilosec. Very few veterinarians incorporate laxatone or some other “hairball” medicine into their effort to slow down the frequent (chronic just means long-term in medicine!) vomitier. Cats should eat frequently, so one single day of poor appetite is significant. Also worth mentioning that cats often manifest their nausea by eating poorly. So try to follow food intake objectively if your kitty has been struggling with a vomiting problem.
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