hairballs and an ultrasound decision..?

At what point is it prudent to have a cat ultrasounded for hairballs?  at what frequency of hairball vomiting do you think it makes sense to have this done?  Need help with this SOOON, thank you all in advance. 

I would say if the cat is having hairballs more than once a month in a regular basis it would be worth doing further investigation. Having frequent hairballs can be a sign of IBD or other gastrointestinal issue.

Several of my cats had hairballs and vomitjng issues frequently. For them, eliminating grains and increasing the amount of wet food in their diet had helped greatly. I try to do at minimum a 50-50 diet of wet and dry, more wet when the budget allows.

Does your cat produce hair every time he vomits or does is there just frequent vomiting? How frequent is he vomiting?

What is his diet (brand/flavor, dry/canned)?

Gastrointestinal issues can also be linked go food allergies/intolerances.

The ultrasound can help rule things out and give you a direction to go.

Mittens only vomits hair. She is on canned Nature's Variety Instinct. She gets EYL a probiotic and recently, Vets Best Hairball Remedy. I brush her daily. She is a medium long haired cat. Hairballs look like stool, and have occurred as frequently as once a week to very infrequent. HTH.

Ok. In her situation, it may very well be very beneficial to do the ultrasound. I would be awfully suspicious of a gastrointestinal issue for her.

With that, an ultrasound isn't 100% in the diagnostic department, but I would do this before doing in for biopsy surgery/exploratory surgery. Just my two cents.

She is scheduled for an US in mid April but I am hesitating...not sure she needs it...and I wish they did nor have to shave her belly.  I know this is not a good reason to not have it done, but the fur on Obi's belly has never grown back completely from his Ultrasound shave, and that was a year ago.  OTOH, it may cut down on the hairballs...  

Ah, yes. I TOTALLY sympathize with the belly shave. My Max is a Maine Coon mix with long hair (especially on his belly) and he basically had a Mohawk two Christmases ago. I was prepared for the belly to be shaved, but they also had to go up the sides [emoji]128576[/emoji] as they needed to check his kidneys, pancreas, gallbladder, etc...The techs knew we very well and trimmed his hair so that the top portion would fall over the sides when he was in a loaf position.

I think it took about 6 months for his hair to fully regrow.

Have you tried any digestive aids or Slippery Elm Bark with her? I don't have experience with the SEB, but there are members here that use it. You can search the forums to find out more.

Also, Green Lipped Muscle powder is suppose to help with inflammation. I've considered adding this and a good probiotic in to my kitties's food, especially Max.

 I haven t tried SLB with Mittens, but it did nor work with OBI...although I believe there is SLB in the Vets Best Hairball remedy pills.  she likes them and gobbles them down, no problem.  I wonder how long I should try her on this remedy before I draw a conclusion one way or another...and both cats are on a probiotic, which I feel good about.