Hair Balls

Well, you can give a little bit of vasoline (2 hrs before he eats, because if sooner it will interfere with nutrients being absorbed), OR you can give him some butter, which he'll probably just eat from your finger.   Just a dollop...not too much.  And you can do this daily, as needed.

OR, you can do what lots of are doing lately, and give him egg yolk lecithin (purchased from Amazon.com).  Give him 1/2 capsule daily either with his food or whenever.  Most cats really like it.  It's the consistency (and probably flavor)  of a cooked egg yolk.  That's probably your healthiest solution. 

My experience in looking for a solution to a severe hair ball problem:

Laxatone and all petroleum or mineral oil based hair ball remedies should always be given on an empty stomach, at least two hours before a meal. Petroleum products (petrolatum) and mineral oil interfere with nutrient absorption.

The other problem with these types is that they can become habit forming if given too often. Meaning, the body will develop a dependence on the product, and she won't be able to poop or pass the fur at all without it. Once or twice a week might be okay, but if you are having to use it more than that, speak with your vet.

The thing is, I used these products for years, and I believe they did cause a lot of trouble with my cats' health. This is why I have stopped all petroleum based products.

Other things I tried, and what I found out:

Coconut oil- I found out shortly after I started using the coconut oil that medium chain fatty acids (which is what coconut oil mostly is) are dangerous to cats and should not be given to cats in any form, including coconut oil.

Butter - butter is not really helpful for hair ball for a few reasons. It is dairy, and many cats cannot tolerate dairy. The other two reasons are because it is pure fat. Fat is what is in the hair ball that causes the problem. The fur binds with the fat and gets too big to move. More fat will not make the hairball pass through easier, it may make the problem worse. In addition, fat is digestible, so if it doesn't glom onto the fur, it will just get digested and pass through on it's own.

Chicken fat - same issues as butter, except for the dairy part.

Psyllium - psyllium is a bulk forming fiber. Bulk forming fibers are very bad for cats with any sort of long term use. They work by drawing water to the colon. Not only does this create a stool that is much larger than a cat's body is designed to handle, (which will eventually lead to megacolon) it can cause the cat to be dehydrated. Also, if it is not given with enough liquid, it can lodge in the esophagus, swell, and cause the cat to choke/asphyxiate to death.

Slippery elm - I have not used this on it's own. I was told it has a very bad odor, and I did not think it would work for me (ultra sensitive to smells) or the cats.

Having said that about psyllium and slippery elm: I have used, in very small amounts a product called Vet's-Best hairball relief. It has other things in it too, so there is not an over abundance of either psyllium or slippery elm, but even so I don't use it at the doses suggested on the bottle. Instead I am using it as an "incentive dust" for raw feeding transition. I do know someone who uses this for their long haired cat and is very happy with the results.

And finally, the product that seems to be working, much to my joy, is egg yolk lecithin. This product breaks down the fat that the hairball is made up of, allowing the fur to be passed through the digestive tract and intestine and colon, as it is meant to be.

Mazy is my cat who has suffered with terrible hair ball trouble all her life. She was taking mass quantities of petroleum hair ball remedies. In the shedding months (March through October) she had to take it almost every day, then after October I would gradually reduce it to every 2-3 days. Tolly too had to take mass quantities of this stuff. I'm not sure how much good it ever did them, and I lost Tolly to cancer when he was only 12. It took over his whole body within 19 days, from first symptom until he was gone. I don't know that it was all the years of petroleum, but I don't know that it wasn't, either. So I will not, ever, give my own cats this stuff again.

And now, Mazy, who has suffered from hair balls so badly all her life, is doing GREAT on the egg yolk lecithin. 1/2 capsule twice a week is what she is getting. In the shedding months she may need it 3 times a week, but I won't know until next year.