hairballs

My cat has been having constant attempts to dry cough or retching without getting out a hairball. She's almost 9 years and long hair. I used to give her hairball medicine, but she would throw up her own food so I thought it was making her sick. I have a visit scheduled with the vet, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do for her until then. I'm scared it's serious. I started her on that Purina Special Care Hairball Formula, but it's only been a few days and she's still coughing. I noticed this a few months ago, but I just thought it was regular cat hairball stuff. Until she coughed up a very large hairball, that I realized she's having hard time. I feel so bad for her.

Probably she's trying to throw up that nasty Purina. You do not want to know what they make that out of, or you would never ever feed that to your kitty. Go for a natural cat food brand and groom her with a brush or grooming mitt. I don't have hairball problems, or rather, my cats don't, but I have also heard about oil supplements helping. I'm sure someone will know about those and post.

Maybe you should give the new food a bit longer to work? I'm not sure My kitties eat Iams which has fish oil in it and they don't have a furballs. One of them has extremely dense, long fur too. Maybe you could try adding a few drops of fish oil to the food to help the problem. Good luck

Thanks for all the responses. I'm not so concerned about the hairballs. I know that's natural. But what seems unnatural is when she coughs and coughs and there is nothing that she throws up. She's having a hard time getting the hairballs to come out.

Try Nature's Recipe Hairball Treatment. It's a crunchy treat for cats. Snuggles was having trouble with hairballs also. We give him about 3-4 of these only once a week and it seems to be helping. We also have him on a quality dry food...Eukanuba. Let us know what happens.

Well I took her to the vet and they gave me hairball medicine. Hopefully it will work. I don't know how long it takes to work for her because she's still gagging. The vet didn't seem too concerned though. He was more concerned about me getting her teeth cleaned.

If your cat has bad teeth, bacteria from these teeth could get into her bloodstream and cause damage to vital organs such as the liver and kidneys. This is why your vet seemed more concerned about getting her teeth cleaned.

I feed Sophie IAMS kitten formula and give her a supplement of hairball preventative called Felaxin a couple of times a week. It's a little expensive (in Canada at least), but she likes the taste and it's stopped all that dry retching.

I give my persian mix, Lucy, petromalt hairball remedy. You could pick up some at the vet or pet store.
Anyways, it is a dark brown goo that you wipe on their paw and they are supposed to lick it off. Lucy hates the stuff, but I have a great trick.
I wipe the hairball medicine on her paw and rub it in. You need to rub it in or they will shake it off. Then I sprinkle some catnip on the floor. She lays down and then I put a little catnip on the paw with the hairball medicine. Lucy licks it off.
Give your cat the medicine until the hairball goes away. I give Lucy the medicine about twice a week. Lucy also eats Iams hairball remedy cat food and I brush her everyday. I hope your cat feels better soon.