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- Mar 8, 2015
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Hi members,
My 1 1/2 year old cat is starting to get hairballs. We think she's a Maine Coon mix, but have no real way of knowing, since she was born feral. She's got what I'd call a medium length coat, and I know it's important to brush them every day - she just hates it.
She's had two so far. The first one was about two or three months ago and the second was last night.
Both times she ended up vomiting four times total (only one pile contained any actual hairball on each occasion). Both her appetite and water intake do not seem to be affected at all before or after each incident. She does, however, seem to be a bit depressed afterward. Her attitude has gone back to normal in the next day or two, though.
My main concern is that she does not like to be brushed at all and it's extremely helpful to do so for this exact reason. Every time we try, she ends up playing with or just trying to chew on the brush itself. Thankfully, she doesn't really freak out or get violent, she just tries to play with it.
I've tried playing with her until she's exhausted herself before brushing her and rewarding her with positive feedback, but it doesn't seem to work. Even when she's practically passed out, if I start brushing her, she thinks it's playtime. I've gently told her "your brush is not a toy" each time she starts biting at it, but that hardly works either.
Do I keep doing these things? I know it can be a long process, but she's my first and I'm concerned about my fuzzball being in discomfort.
I've read that feeding a can of sardines each month, mixing a tablespoon or two of plain pumpkin puree in to her dry food each day, and pouring the contents of a capsule of fish oil on her food once/day can all help prevent them. (These seem like they might be good ideas.)
Conversely, I've also read that feeding her a bit of safflower, corn, or olive oil, putting some Vaseline on one of her paws, mixing Metamucil into her water, feeding her a little butter, pouring the oil from a can of tuna onto her dry food, rubbing her down with baby wipes, or brushing hair conditioner into her coat will all help with hairballs. (These all seem like either bad ideas, or very questionable ideas at best.)
We feed her Simply Nourish Source, which is the PetSmart version of Blue Buffalo. It's a high protein grain free formula. I've heard that switching to an anti-hairball formula helps, but I'm not sure it would in this case (because of her disdain for the hairbrush). I've checked, but was unable to find a hairball reducing formula in their brand.
My MIL just gave me a tube of Lax'aire, the second ingredient of which is cod liver oil. Dh and I take fermented skate liver oil (which fermented cod liver oil is recommended if skate can't be found) for its brain boosting power. Has anyone tried with this type of fish oil? Does it even matter what type of fish oil you use?
The gel also has soybean oil in it, which, because of her diet (to my knowledge, the only grain she has ever ingested was corn, and only because she stole a bit of plain tortilla chip off of my dinner plate), I don't know how she'd react to it. (She seemed fine, but cats aren't known for showing obvious signs of sickness/ discomfort. She once got a fish hook stuck in her lip and the only thing she did was shake her head. She only started meowing/ howling when we got her into the car on the way to the vet. The fishing poles have long since been moved to a place where she absolutely can't get to them.) I've also seen gels advertising that they're petrolatum-free, which is the first ingredient. It also has "peptonized iron in a palatable base" bringing up the rear, and I have no clue what that is, but it doesn't sound that palatable to me.
With myriad sources of contradicting information, I'm wondering if anyone here has any tips for helping to prevent hairballs in the meantime. I hope to be able to get her to enjoy (or at least tolerate) being brushed so we can help curb these pesky hairballs, but I'm unsure of what to do until we get her there.
This is Smokey, so you can get an idea of her level of fluffiness.
Thank you for taking the time to read my novel. I'm a cat noob, so I wanted to do some research before I came asking for help instead of sounding ignorant or neglectful. I love my furbaby and it saddens me to see her like this.
B. V. Fluffenstuff
My 1 1/2 year old cat is starting to get hairballs. We think she's a Maine Coon mix, but have no real way of knowing, since she was born feral. She's got what I'd call a medium length coat, and I know it's important to brush them every day - she just hates it.
She's had two so far. The first one was about two or three months ago and the second was last night.
Both times she ended up vomiting four times total (only one pile contained any actual hairball on each occasion). Both her appetite and water intake do not seem to be affected at all before or after each incident. She does, however, seem to be a bit depressed afterward. Her attitude has gone back to normal in the next day or two, though.
My main concern is that she does not like to be brushed at all and it's extremely helpful to do so for this exact reason. Every time we try, she ends up playing with or just trying to chew on the brush itself. Thankfully, she doesn't really freak out or get violent, she just tries to play with it.
I've tried playing with her until she's exhausted herself before brushing her and rewarding her with positive feedback, but it doesn't seem to work. Even when she's practically passed out, if I start brushing her, she thinks it's playtime. I've gently told her "your brush is not a toy" each time she starts biting at it, but that hardly works either.
Do I keep doing these things? I know it can be a long process, but she's my first and I'm concerned about my fuzzball being in discomfort.
I've read that feeding a can of sardines each month, mixing a tablespoon or two of plain pumpkin puree in to her dry food each day, and pouring the contents of a capsule of fish oil on her food once/day can all help prevent them. (These seem like they might be good ideas.)
Conversely, I've also read that feeding her a bit of safflower, corn, or olive oil, putting some Vaseline on one of her paws, mixing Metamucil into her water, feeding her a little butter, pouring the oil from a can of tuna onto her dry food, rubbing her down with baby wipes, or brushing hair conditioner into her coat will all help with hairballs. (These all seem like either bad ideas, or very questionable ideas at best.)
We feed her Simply Nourish Source, which is the PetSmart version of Blue Buffalo. It's a high protein grain free formula. I've heard that switching to an anti-hairball formula helps, but I'm not sure it would in this case (because of her disdain for the hairbrush). I've checked, but was unable to find a hairball reducing formula in their brand.
My MIL just gave me a tube of Lax'aire, the second ingredient of which is cod liver oil. Dh and I take fermented skate liver oil (which fermented cod liver oil is recommended if skate can't be found) for its brain boosting power. Has anyone tried with this type of fish oil? Does it even matter what type of fish oil you use?
The gel also has soybean oil in it, which, because of her diet (to my knowledge, the only grain she has ever ingested was corn, and only because she stole a bit of plain tortilla chip off of my dinner plate), I don't know how she'd react to it. (She seemed fine, but cats aren't known for showing obvious signs of sickness/ discomfort. She once got a fish hook stuck in her lip and the only thing she did was shake her head. She only started meowing/ howling when we got her into the car on the way to the vet. The fishing poles have long since been moved to a place where she absolutely can't get to them.) I've also seen gels advertising that they're petrolatum-free, which is the first ingredient. It also has "peptonized iron in a palatable base" bringing up the rear, and I have no clue what that is, but it doesn't sound that palatable to me.
With myriad sources of contradicting information, I'm wondering if anyone here has any tips for helping to prevent hairballs in the meantime. I hope to be able to get her to enjoy (or at least tolerate) being brushed so we can help curb these pesky hairballs, but I'm unsure of what to do until we get her there.
This is Smokey, so you can get an idea of her level of fluffiness.
Thank you for taking the time to read my novel. I'm a cat noob, so I wanted to do some research before I came asking for help instead of sounding ignorant or neglectful. I love my furbaby and it saddens me to see her like this.
