CATDOLL : What are the symptoms of hairballs in cats? How should they be treated?

Symptoms of hairballs in cats:

1. Cats frequently vomit or dry heave and there is hair in the vomit. When hair balls are in the stomach or esophagus, they will constantly irritate the mucous membrane and cause the cat to frequently dry heave. If the hair ball is stuck too far forward, the cat may also have symptoms of coughing.

2. When hairball disease is severe, cats will experience symptoms of loss of appetite and depression. Hairballs are stuck in the digestive tract, reducing gastrointestinal motility, and cats will naturally suffer from indigestion and a decreased appetite.

3. The hair of cats with hairball disease will appear dry and frizzy. The hair that cats eat when licking their hair accumulates to form hairballs that block the digestive tract or entangle food. The food cannot be digested and absorbed, and the cat is prone to malnutrition. At this time, the hair will appear dry and dull.

4. The cat's abdominal circumference has increased significantly. Because some cats eat too much hair, their abdominal circumference will increase significantly.

5. When cats suffer from hairball disease, they will experience symptoms such as constipation, dry and hard stools, and hair mixed in the stool.

Treatment for cat hairballs:

1. Comb your hair more often

Cats have hairballs because they lick their fur, which causes them to eat a lot of hair. The owner can try combing the cat's hair with a fine-tooth comb on a daily basis, helping the cat comb its body hair and clean up some of the fallen hair, so that the cat can eat less. Combing the hair for more than ten minutes every day can also stimulate the hair follicles and accelerate the growth of hair, which is very beneficial to the growth of hair.

2. Feed cat grass

When a cat has hairballs, if the condition is mild, you can feed it some cat grass. The so-called cat grass is actually wheat grass, barley grass, oat grass, or ordinary grass outside. These cat grasses can induce vomiting, and cats can vomit hairballs after eating them. However, be careful not to feed too much, as repeated vomiting may cause physical discomfort to the cat.

3. Feeding hair removal cream

Some cats don’t like to eat cat grass, and they will not be interested in it even if it is planted well. At this time, the owner cannot ignore it and must do a good job of prevention. In addition to cat grass, you can also prepare some hairball-removing paste such as Meow Fun Balls for cats to eat. Cats like the taste of hairball-removing paste. Squeeze out a little bit of it and feed it to the cat in daily life, which can help prevent the problem of hairballs.

4. Surgical removal

If the cat's hairball disease is already in the late stage, the above methods are unlikely to help it expel the hairballs, and the hairballs may even block the cat's intestines, causing constipation, lethargy, loss of appetite, etc. The cat needs to be sent to a pet hospital and have the doctor remove the hairballs through abdominal surgery, and then provide care in the later stages.