The $200 Hairball

I've been so busy I never had a chance to post about this -- about 2 weeks ago both cats were vomiting -- not alot -- maybe 1X, 2X a day. At least I thought so!

Background -- Kitty does vomit for no reason every once in awhile, simba doesn't.

I took them to the vet immediately, he could find absolutely nothing wrong with them. He recommended taking away food for 24 hours and slowly reintroducing, assuming they had some kind of gastric virus or something.

We did that, and I was Girl Scout camping for the weekend and my husband was supposed to keep track of any vomiting. Well, he said there was some vomit Sat morning and sun night, and he 'thought' it was Kitty. He didn't see the actual event, though!

So, I returned from camping and Simba vomited Sun night and Mon morning immediately after eating. I suspected Simba was the culprit.

Back to the vet on Mon. He agreed about Simba, (although both cats were examined again -- no problems he could see). He Xrayed Simba and he was totally empty -- had eaten no foreign objects and still was producing stool fine.

He gave me some stool softener for Simba and some Amoxy just as an extra precaution. If this didn't work, he said the next step would be a steroid shot, which he doesn't necessarily like to do. He said it was still possibly gastritis, or a hairball he was trying to get up.

He was on the meds a day, still vomiting, and LOW AND BEHOLD, I found a clump of hair (not huge, but definitely hair), in one batch of vomit. He STOPPED VOMITING After that!!!

Thank goodness! So, $200+ vet bills later, he had a hairball.

Around the time he started vomiting, I had done a major zoom groom session with him -- he let me do it for like 15 minutes. I'm wondering if I loosened up a ton of hair or something??

All's well that ends well!

Boy that was a expencive Haiball threadment .

I belive that can pumpken (sp) helps also with hairball , if you mix a little in their food .

I can definately relate...my cat had the same problem.. by the time they x-rayed her to make sure she didn't have a blockage, sedation, exam, food, etc.. etc.. it was almost $500. Of course, she comes home and she acts all fine afterwards... ugh. Vets in my area are very expensive!

$500 -- wow! I guess I should consider myself lucky!

LOL, well $200 isn't cheap either especially during the holidays. I'm glad that your cat only had a hairball

At least it was just a hairball. I had to go through the same thing with my Simon. He would throw up all the time. More than once a day. After a trip or two to the vet, we figured out that he has a very sensitive stomach. He also will gag up a hairball occasionally. We just call him the Barfmeister! Luckily, now that we changed his food, he only throws up maybe once a week.

Glad to here your kitty is OK.

It's probably a good thing you took the poor kitty in though. Hairballs can be deadly if they can't get them out and it sounds like the poor thing was having trouble getting it out! I don't know about the grooming thing or if that was possibly just a coincidence. I groom mine all the time and they don't have a problem.

Might want to consider giving canned pumpkin daily to prevent that again. I started using it when I read a post or an article by Hissy about it. Just a teaspoon a day will do it!

I guess I can consider myself lucky. Awhile back Fred seemed to be having some gastric distress, so I planned to take him to the vet the following day. I got out of bed to make coffee, and stepped on the biggest hairball I have ever seen. It looked like a 6 inch, hairy cigar! EWWWWWW!!!!!!

Darnit! Simba is vomiting again.

I guess I will finish out this dose of medicine but it sounded like the vet's next step was a steroid shot, which he said he 'doesn't like to do, but will work'.

Does anyone have experience with a steroid shot for this purpose? What are the risks/disadvantages? Did it work?

Later that same morning.....I really am starting to think this guy vomits because he is a piggle and just eats way too fast. I took hissy's suggestion from another thread and elevated his bowl on a phone book and he did eat this time, no vomiting.

Also, I think maybe by morning he is really hungry. By the end of the day their food bowls are empty. Maybe I will provide more food late in the day to avoid the morning hungries....?

Catsplay.com how often do you feed ? Only once in the morning ?
Maybe you need to feed twice a day , mornings and evenings . I feed the outsite cats twice a day . The insite cats I feed 3 times a day .

I put their food out in the morning and there is enough to last all day long. It seems to 'empty' after supper time.

I think you might be right!

Mabel is the same way, pigs it down, then pukes it up. Feeding 2 times a day helps her, plus I give her 1/3 can wet food in the afternoon. This has helped with her a lot. Sometimes she seems to get sick for no reason, I've found that using laxatone helps her stop vomiting when she can't seem to stop herself. You might want to keep some around for "hairball" days You might want to check to see if your cat seems to have any allergies (sometimes they have a lot of dandruff). Sometimes cats develop allergies to things in their food and eating it will bring on sudden stomach upsets out of the blue. Mabel can't eat any fish or felidae as both of those trigger allergic problems.