http://www.care2.com/greenliving/help-your-cat-overcome-hairballs.html
Help Your Cat Overcome Hairballs
By Vicky Uhland, Natural Solutions
Cat lovers know the sound–that hacking, coughing, retching noise that means Fluffy is about to heave up a hairball. For many kitty caretakers, this purging ritual is simply a necessary evil of having cats. But it needn’t be. With a few simple changes to your cat’s diet and lifestyle, you can minimize or even prevent Fluffy’s hairballs.
Hairballs develop when cats lick themselves as part of their grooming ritual. According to Carol Osborne, DVM, with the American Pet Institute in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and author of Dr. Carol’s Naturally Healthy Cats (Marshall Editors, 2006), most of the hair passes through the cat’s digestive tract and ends up as part of its litter box offerings. But some of that hair can also mix with mucus, causing a gooey ball too big to exit a cat’s body through the back door. Either Fluffy coughs it up, or–in the worst-case scenario–the hairball continues to grow and eventually obstructs his intestines.
Conventional hairball remedies contain petroleum jelly, which lubes up the whole hairy mess and helps it pass through a cat’s digestive system. But Osborne says petroleum-based products can keep a cat from absorbing vital nutrients, particularly the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.
Natural pet care experts prefer the following ways to prevent hairballs:
- Brush your cat every day with a wire bristle brush to remove excess hair.
- Feed your cat a balanced diet. Osborne prefers a raw diet of meat products mixed with veggies and fresh greens for fiber; you can find some recipes at holisticat.com. If you do buy prepared cat food, Osborne suggests looking for one with natural or organic meat.According to a 2003 study conducted by scientists from the University of Wisconsin and Nestlé Purina, hairballs consist of 15 to 30 percent fat, and lecithin can effectively break up that fat–and the hairball. However, Sandy Arora, founder of holisticat.com and coauthor of Whole Health for Happy Cats (Quarry Books, 2006), says most lecithin is made from soy, which can cause thyroid problems in cats. She gives her Persians lecithin from egg yolks.
- Increase fiber and help move the hair down and out by mixing a teaspoon of pumpkin, pureed prunes, or baby food vegetables into his food. If Fluffy turns up his nose at these offerings, Osborne advises soaking them in juice from tuna packed in water.
- For a homemade fiber booster, Osborne recommends adding a teaspoon per meal of a gel made from 1/4 cup of psyllium husks mixed with 3/4 cup of hot water. Or try a teaspoon of slippery elm mixed with 1/2 cup of cold water (simmer until it thickens).
- Try the homeopathic digestive remedy nux vomica. Osborne recommends one pellet every four hours for up to five days.
- And don’t forget regular visits to your vet. “A healthy cat on a good, balanced, natural diet should really only have an issue with hairballs a few times a year at most,” Osborne says.
Natural Solutions: Vibrant Health, Balanced Living offers its readers the latest news on health conditions, herbs and supplements, natural beauty products, healing foods and conscious living. Click here for a free sample issue.
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38 comments
add your comment »I feed my putty wheat grass every day! My little guy loves it.. I also feed him all natural natures best foods and filtered water... Gota love um.......
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its better to pay for the food i guess
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Pamela, thanks for the advice. I've just never had a cat that threw up so many hairballs before! (we have seven at present - cats, that is, not hairballs....!) I did pick up Sentry's Natural Defense and will let you know the results.
They all eat a quality diet, and I try to make sure they have adequate water intake by mixing their canned food with additional water.
And Nikki, the main concern about hairballs here is the health risk to the cat, not necessarily just the "mess", as your post appeared to indicate. (and I did have a chihuahua, but he really wasn't all that "barky" for a chihuahua! : )
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Oh please...it's natural for a furry cat or not so furry to have hairballs and coughed them up, yes a good idea is to brush them but some don't like it either. Get "Hot Shot" to clean the mess, if you love cats. Cat is a cat. No worse than baby's poop. Get real or don't get a cat, get a barking chiwawa!
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thanks these are good ideas for those dratted hairballs. Poor kitties. I massage mine when she is having a coughing fit and she starts purring and the spasm passes.
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One other homeopathic remedy that could be used 3-4 daily, for 2-3 days if nothing else works, (and the feline is choking), wpu;d be a small 6x or 6c of Arsenicun Album. If you don't have that dose try one dose of 30c until the choking subsides.
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They eat what they want to, but then again I am taking care of feral cats. I get furballs all over because of the about 20 cats out there.
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Patty, if your cat gets hairballs she can't throw up, some of the signs are hacking, coughing, and retching without producing a hairball, straining in the cat box (again, little to no production), rolling on the floor and crying. If you are paying attention at all and it sure sounds like you do, you'll know something is wrong.
If there is, immediately feed her a petroleum-free product like Sentry's Natural Defense (more than a dab on her nose, you need to get about an inch in her mouth) and call her veterinarian.
Congrats on the Furminator; wish I had one!
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The pumpkin is a good idea and something my vet told me about, but I would like to know if the author has tried these methods.
I would never give pysllium. Ever tried it? Have you felt what it does in your intestines? I would not give that to someone who can't verbalize what too much of it feels like. The nux vomica is a great idea, but every 4 hours? My cat would FrEaK. We do homepathics but in order to do it correctly and without traumatizing the cat, you can't do it every 4 hours for (up to) 5 days.
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I agree with the person who said that a tiny amount of olive oil in the cats' food helps. Please do not give them any butter as it is a dairy product and those are difficult for cats to digest. For the same reason, we don't give cream or milk. Goat milk is much easier for them to digest but even that must be very limited. The hairball formula treats are made form horrible ingredients and are basically junk food for cats. Those companies put fish in everything to get cats to eat it; the same goes for cheap cat food. High quality, grain-free food is the way to go for cats but don't give them tuna (Mercury! It's not good for people either.) and do don't give them a lot of the tuna water. Much of it is high in sodium. I agree that there are ways to help limit hairball issues but it is also a fact of life for a cat and its people. They sometimes have them, they sometimes vomit them and they sometimes expel them out the other way. Don't punish a cat for throwing up or stress out about it. The poor cat will not understand why you're so upset and it will stress him or her out. When my cat throws up, I try to get her to relax and bring her the water bowl or put a little water in her food so she can hydrate.
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