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| Hairballs |
Hairballs are hair that is ingested in the self-grooming process, mixed with saliva and mucus from the mouth and intestinal tract. Shaped like a normal fecal roll, hairballs can become large enough to cause gagging and vomiting, or a blockage in the intestinal tract.
Over-the-counter hairball remedies are petroleum jelly-based pastes that “grease” the hairball so it can move more freely through the intestinal tract. We don’t recommend these products. Even though they are effective, they do not cleanse the intestinal tract; rather, they tend to coat it with a greasy film, which can interfere with normal gut functioning and impair the absorption of vital nutrients. Most commercial hair ball type of food contains cellulose a non nutritive fiber source not containing much nutrition. Our opinion is that many of these commercially available hair ball preventing type of foods are already seriously devoid in nutrition so adding addition cellulose just further dilutes an already diluted, nutritionally void food.
Instead of grabbing the first commercial remedy on the shelf, consider hairballs from an “as it happens in nature” point of view. Wild cats eat their prey whole—hair, nails, bones, everything. These ground-up pieces of undigested material act as an “intestinal broom” to help sweep the cat’s intestinal tract clean of any residues, including the excess mucus that may line the tract. This is good! It’s a chance to “wipe the slate clean” once in a while. You’ve probably seen cats go outside and eat grass and then regurgitate—the fibrous material in grass helps purge and clean the esophagus and stomach.
So, what to do for hairballs? For starters, regularly groom your cat to remove excess fur that your friend might otherwise ingest. Then, don’t fight them, help them do their job. How? Add fiber to the diet. Soak a bit of psyllium or rice bran in warm water for five minutes and add to the food. This supplies not only fiber but also essential vitamins and minerals. Dosage is 1 teaspoon with each meal as a preventive. For cats that are prone to hairballs, you can double the dose. |
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| Healthy Breath for Cats |
| Psyllium Husks |
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