Hairballs in Cats: Normal, or a Problem?

Cats swallow hair constantly, because a tongue covered in backward-facing barbs is essentially a comb that cannot spit. Most of it passes straight through and leaves in the stool. Occasionally some of it forms a mass in the stomach and comes back up.

That much is normal. What is not normal is how often many owners have quietly come to expect it, and that is the part worth looking at.

How often is normal

An occasional hairball, perhaps every few weeks in a long-haired cat and less in a short-haired one, is unremarkable.

Weekly hairballs, or several a week, are not a hairball problem. They are usually a grooming problem, and the question becomes why the cat is grooming so much.

Why a cat over-grooms

• Itchy skin, from fleas, allergies or infection. Even a single flea can set off a sensitive cat
• Pain. Cats groom over a painful area, so over-grooming one flank or a hip can mark arthritis or bladder discomfort underneath
• Stress, which produces genuine compulsive grooming, often to the point of bald patches
• Shedding heavily, from poor coat condition, diet or an underlying illness
• Matting in long-haired cats, where the cat works at a mat and swallows the result

Look at the coat as well as the hairballs. Thinning fur, bald patches, or an area the cat licks obsessively points at the cause.

When retching is an emergency

This is the part worth knowing precisely, because it looks like a hairball and is not.

A cat retching repeatedly and producing nothing needs seeing the same day. Possible causes include a hair mass that has become an obstruction, a swallowed foreign body such as thread or ribbon, or something unrelated to hair entirely.

Go now for:

• Repeated unproductive retching or gagging
• Vomiting several times in a day, or vomiting food rather than hair
• Not eating, or lethargy
• Constipation, straining, or no stool for a day or more
• A swollen or painful abdomen
• Any thread, string, ribbon or tinsel you suspect was swallowed

If you can see thread hanging from the mouth or the anus, do not pull it. Linear foreign bodies anchor at one end and saw through the intestine when pulled. That is a surgical emergency and pulling makes it dramatically worse.

Reducing hairballs

• Brush regularly. The single most effective measure, because hair on a brush is hair not in a stomach. Daily for long coats, a few times a week for short ones
• Address matting before the cat tries to
• Treat fleas and parasites properly and on schedule
• Improve hydration. A better-hydrated gut moves hair through more readily, which is another argument for wet food
• Hairball diets and pastes can help, but they manage the symptom. If the cat is over-grooming, they do not address why

The mistake worth avoiding

Treating frequent hairballs as a hairball problem and buying a remedy. It is comfortable, cheap and stops you asking the more useful question, which is what has changed about this cat's skin, comfort or stress that has it grooming this much.

A cat producing hairballs weekly and a cat with a flea allergy are frequently the same cat.

Long-haired cats

Persians, Maine Coons and similar coats need daily brushing, not weekly. They swallow more hair, mat more readily, and often need professional grooming as well. Getting a kitten used to brushing early is far easier than persuading an adult cat that has decided otherwise.

Hairballs are dismissed because they are so ordinary, which is exactly what makes them useful: a change in how often they happen is one of the few early signals cats give, and cats give very few.

Consultations and diagnostics are covered on Skeepy Pet HMO plans at any vet clinic in Nigeria, so asking why the grooming changed costs you a visit rather than a decision about whether it is worth one.