Vomiting hairballs is a common problem in cats. They spend 25% of their time grooming. Seeing the amount of time they spend licking themselves, it is normal for that hair to be eliminated in the feces. Generally, cats have no problem defecating this content in feces.
The problem comes when the cat’s digestive system is not able to make the hair excreted through feces. In this case , vomiting of hairballs and even obstructions due to trichobezoars may appear.
Why does a cat vomit hair?
There are several causes that can make the cat’s intestine unable to eliminate these hairballs.
We can divide them into:
- Increased hair intake. Grooming is a natural behavior in the cat, and we should not prevent them from doing it. The problem comes when this grooming is greater than usual, because they ingest more hair. This increased grooming may be due to:
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- Due to itching problems . If, for example, he has fleas or there are areas of the skin that itch due to an allergy, for example, he will use his tongue and the spicules to scratch and try to eliminate the fleas with it.
- For pain. When cats feel pain, they lick the painful area. We could compare it to when something hurts and we put our hand to try to relieve the pain. For this reason, sometimes we see bald spots on the hind legs or on the belly
- Because of stress. Stress can cause a cat to start compulsively licking itself. In this case, it is important to consult a veterinary ethologist to improve their quality of life and reduce their level of anxiety.
- Disposal problems . Generally associated with digestive disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease or alimentary lymphoma. To rule out suffering from any of these diseases, at least one abdominal ultrasound should be performed.
When to worry about cat vomiting?
- When they vomit more than 2 times a month
- When they do it more and more frequently
- When we see that he is apathetic, listless
- When you have a swollen abdomen
- When it is difficult for him to defecate, or he goes to the litter box and meows a lot
- When we see, in addition to vomiting, other symptoms, such as bald spots, loss of appetite, lameness, etc.
And beware! There are times that an attempt to vomit hair can be confused with a cough. If we see our cat “trying to expel” hairballs without success, it may be coughing. The best thing in that case is to make a video and show it to the vet.
How to prevent hairballs?
Sometimes there are people who believe that it is a natural behavior of cats, even going so far as to think that it is normal for a cat to vomit hairballs every day. This is so because in nature there are animals that regurgitate remains of the prey they ingest, but in the case of the cat, whether domestic or feral, this is not normal physiological behavior in them.
Although you may think it’s unimportant, a cat can die if hairballs cause an intestinal obstruction.
The first thing is to rule out, at the vet, any of the causes described above, and in the meantime you can
- Brush your cat daily. The more hair we remove when brushing, the less hair it will ingest when grooming.
- Use malt. It is important to know that malt will improve hairball vomiting by being a laxative that will “wrap” the hair and make it easier to remove. Of course, if the cat has a digestive problem, for example, at first it will improve, but it will not be the solution. Or if you are ingesting more hair due to stress, we will improve the symptom that is vomiting, but not the cause. So we must keep in mind that malt can mask and be a patch, not the solution to the problem.
- Avoid diets high in carbohydrates. The cat is a strict carnivore, so we must feed it, mainly, with proteins. To do this, we must take advantage of a complete wet diet and above all that it is healthy and balanced.
References:
Cannon, M. 2013. Hair balls in cats: a normal nuisance or a sign that something is wrong?. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 15(1), 21-29.
Squires, R. A. 1989. Oesophageal obstruction by a hairball in a cat. Journal of Small Animal Practice, 30(5), 311-314.
