Hairballs in Cats

Everyone who has ever owned a cat knows about those special offerings that cats leave at selected spots around the house! Note that they are not leaving this offering of a tube of hair out of spite. Cats cannot help passing the odd hairball in a vomit.

Hairballs are natural at very low frequency.

Every day, a cat grooms the hair coat extensively and swallows large quantities of hair as a result. Normally, the hair mixes with the food, and passes out with the stool, mixed fairly evenly throughout the feces. Sometimes though, hair sits in their stomach and balls up. When it gets large, it is vomited up because it irritates the stomach. The usual shape of a hairball is a tube approximately 1 cm diameter and about 4 cm long. Some cats have an abnormal tendency to accumulate hair and to form balls. Most notably, the long-haired cat breeds are affected. This is strictly a volume issue. They swallow large amounts on an ongoing basis and some degree of buildup is inevitable.

Sometimes cats develop excessive hairballs when their stomach is irritated. Problems that result in stomach and gut inflammation or changes in normal motility (mixing movements) in the upper intestine and stomach can favor abnormal retention of hair. The frequency of vomiting and hairball passage can be significant in these cats. Finding more than one hairball every few weeks can indicate this sort of situation.

Hair buildup in the digestive system can be a worrisome problem in combination with chronic constipation. The presence of the hair in the stool can enhance the tendency towards very dry, hard stools that are tough to move along the intestine and pass. This makes it more likely the stool will get caught in the bowels, sometimes leading to trichobezoars, or hard, dry, obstructive hair-based masses. It is not unusual for the stool of cats with chronic constipation problems to contain a significant amount of dry hair in the stool ball. It is likely that weak gut motility contributes to this situation. It is important to effectively manage the constipation to prevent the risk of dry hair-based masses. Left unattended, the result can be permanent stretching of the gut wall around large impactions.

Low-grade hairballs can be effectively managed using gentle hairball medication that helps to lubricate the hairs in the stomach to help prevent hairs tangling together, and thus starting a hairball. These lubricants are usually formulated as a tasty paste administered once or twice weekly by mouth. They have added vitamins, and can be very effective if used regularly.

Never give mineral oil to cats by mouth as a hairball remedy.
There have been many cases where the cat does not taste the mineral oil, and thus inhales it into the lungfields. This is very dangerous, and sometimes leads to death of the cat. Always consult your veterinarian about the best choice for hairball management in your cat. Some owners like to administer Vaseline® as a home remedy for hairballs. This is also not a good solution because the oil-based material ties up the fat-soluble vitamins in the intestine, and if used on a long-term basis, can lead to fat-soluble vitamin deficiencies. Commercial preparations supply vitamins in the mixture to counteract this.