Question about hairballs

We've had our long-haired male cat, Sultan, for about 3 years now and he's never had any hairballs until lately. The first time was a couple of weeks ago, it was some light brown liquid with some hair. I had brushed him every now and then before, but because of this, I started to brush him everyday, then I slacked off to every other day. Then I forgot to brush him for the past week and today he threw up a huge poop-looking hairball, yikes!

My question is: is it unusual for a cat to throw up a hairball all of a sudden when he never did before, even when I didn't brush him at all?

Its not unusual. Mine was like that too, all of a sudden I was noticing poop like things on the floor until I released what it was. From my experience it seems that as they get a little older they start to shed more.

My Turtle is a short-haired cat (9-1/2 years old), and about five years ago, I had to start feeding her cat food for hairball control. If I don't, no matter how much I brush her, she still throws up at least every other day. With this food, it's only about once a month or less that she throws up a hairball.

Turtle is about 2 or 3 pounds overweight and even though her food is Light/Hairball Control, I can't seen to get her weight down. And I've only found that light/hairball control combo in one brand---Science Diet. Last week when I took her in for her shots, I mentioned this, and the vet suggested pumpkin! She said that a lot of cats LOVE canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, but plain canned pumpkin), and a lot of times that helps with hairball problems. If that worked for Turtle, then I'd have a larger variety of light food that I could try that might work better at reducing her weight. (And if not, staying on what she's on is fine.)

Pam

Thanks for all your feedback. Interesting to know that with some cats, even though they get brushed regularly, that they'd still have a frequent hairball problem. I guess I'll try brushing daily first before resorting to an anti-hairball type of food.

As far as weight goes, does the food you give have a lot of grains like rice, corn, potatoes? Have you considered canned food like Wellness or Nature's Variety or Merrick? It's mainly meat with about 5% vegetables, and no grains at all, meaning no carbs.

As the seasons change, shedding also picks up.

Don't they tend to shed more in the summer when it's hot?