My cat has Hair Balls

Question

My cat keeps throwing up is there anything I can do besides taking her to the vet that will help her stop throwing up. Please anything will help

Thanks

Answer 1

A cat that keeps throwing up NOT normal. There is a reason his body is trying to remove something. The longer he throws up, regardless of how chunky he looks, he will become dehydrated which can be fatal.

Hairballs are always a first line of thought with cats vomiting and what they vomit may not show hair. sometimes therwe is hair you don't see in the vomit. Sometimes hairballs can become lodged in their intestines where they can't eject it by throwing up. This requires a vet exam and possibly an xray to diagnose.

Sometimes cats get a foreign object caught in their stomach/intestine area and keep trying to throw up to remove it. I had one cat that used to love to play with shoe strings. After a few days of sporatic vomiting, I took her to the vet and in an xray discoverd she had swallowed a shoestring and it was balled up blocking the passage from her stomach to her intestines. She required surgery to save her life.

Another one of my cats regularly vomited, and after an ultrasound, we discovered he had a tumor pressing against his stomach.

In both of these cases, hairball medicine and changing diet wouldn't have helped. Getting them to a vet was what saved their life.

Answer 2

You can buy hairball treatment that comes in a tube like toothpaste. Just let her l**k it off your finger or her paw. Also, there are hairball control foods you can feed her. If they are persistant after trying these solutions, see the vet. Hairballs can become serious if left untreated.

Answer 3

I think it's Hartz that makes a hairball medicine in a tube.  If it's not Hartz, it's someone else, but I know they sell it in pet stores and even in supermarkets in the pet food department.  I've bought it.  My cat used to love it so much that I would just push it out of the tube, maybe an inch of it (the medicine) and the cat would l**k it right out of the tube.  They also sell dry food that contains hairball help to reduce the occurrance of hair balls.

If all else fails, you can probably get some good information by asking someone who works in a local pet store like PetSmart or any of those stores.  They are usually very helpful about things like that and maybe can direct you to the best product to buy.  

Cats throwing up from hairballs is normal.

I do have to say though, I have a domestic long haired cat now and, believe me, she gets hair balls.  Not much I can do about it with her because she won't even come near the tube of medicine I told you about (every cat is different, I guess).  So, she throws up hair balls.  Then I clean up the carpet, after removing what she threw up, with this thing that's great.  It's called Spot Shot and they sell it in a squeeze bottle that looks like Windex.  It does a fantastic job of getting rid of the stain and cleans it up great.

Answer 4

i reccomend giving it baths more often and brushing the loose fur off once in a while

Answer 5

Are you sure it is hairballs?  just wondering because if she is throwing up and you aren't sure it is hairballs, it could be something else...like worms.  Cats throw up when they have worms.  Try de-worming her (it can't hurt either way)  and as far as hairballs, there are treatments -- you can get medicine almost anywhere (Petco...Petsmart...etc.) and to prevent it, you can buy cat food specifically designed to keep your cat from getting hairballs.

     + if all else fails, call the vet.

       good luck.

Answer 6

If it's actually hairballs you're dealing with, there are many over the counter hairball remedies you can buy at your local pet store.  Check Petsmart or Petco or even Wal-Mart or your grocery store.  You can also try adding a very small amount of unflavored Metamucil fiber powder to your cat's canned food, mixing it in thoroughly.  I also recommend if you're not already feeding canned food, you replace one meal a day with it and add extra water to it.  This will help keep things moving in your cat.  You should also brush your cat every day to get as much of the shedding hair off her.  It makes sense if you're brushing the hair off her, there's less hair she'll be injesting when she's grooming herself.