Hairballs

doeydo

One of my cats is a longhair and she vomits/get hairballs pretty much everyday.  She has also always been very thin.  I have her on hairball control food but it hasn't helped.  She also hates being brushed.  Does anybody else's pets have these issues?  Ideas on what to do?

amorrison340

You can also get a gel that helps with hair balls in addition to formulated food.  There are a lot of brands, but the idea is you put a little on their paw or nose, and they clean it off.  As for brushing you can either brush a little bit everyday to help her get used to it, or get one of those gloves that help brush out pet hair, so it's more like you're petting them than brushing. 

queenofhearts1728

I've used the hairball gel in the past.. It usually makes them throw up a hairball, but I think it gets it out of their system in one big chunk rather than triggering their gag reflex and vomiting all over the house until they actually get it up. I still use it every so often to keep the hair from building up in their tummies.

If you haven't already tried it, get a FURminator. It's the ONLY brush my cats will let me use on them. It pulls up the undercoat do you can get a lot of hair out pretty quickly. My cats love it.

Edited for link: http://www.amazon.com/FURminator-Long-Hair-deShedding-Large/dp/B0040QS3PO/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1377893046&sr=8-6&keywords=cat+brush Also, if you want to give it a go, definitely buy it through Amazon. I think it starts around $35+ in stores.

moonprincessd

I second the FURminator, our cats LOVE it!

LuckyAngel07

Long-haired cats definitely need to be brushed. I'd work on giving her a few passes with the brush and then treating her for being good. She'll learn brushing is an awesome thing and not hate it so much.

The Laxatone gel is also very helpful, it can be hard getting some cats to take it though. Mine hate the stuff and won't take more than a few licks.

Allgaier

Canned pumpkin also works. My cat loves it! He was having problems for a bit, and at that moment I couldn't afford the hairball gel until the week after. So I went online looked up what else I could use and tried it. Worked wonders. I was working at a vet hospital at the time too and asked if that was ok. Just to make sure. 

Janessadawn

Not sure exactly how you'd combine this with food if you only feed dry food, but this has worked wonders for us. Our male cats (Ragdolls, super long hair) are on a partially wet food diet for urinary crystals, so I mix it in with their wet food. Hairballs have drastically decreased and I have noticed the hair that they used to throw up is coming out the other end instead. It's expensive but you don't use much at a time and I'm very impressed.

http://www.petco.com/product/15188/In-Clover-Fresh-Digest-Daily-Digestive-Enzymes-And-PreBiotics-for-Cats.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch