Hair balls

Almost every cat owner knows them; those dark blobs of about 2-7 cm. Cats can produce a hairball about once per month, even if you have never seen one. Other cats digest the swallowed hairs unnoticed through the faeces. But hairs and hair balls can also cause an irritation of the gastrointestinal tract.

How do these hair balls arise?
Since the cat is very clean he pays a lot of attention to fur care. During fur care many loose hairs are swallowed and licked. These hairs will become entangled in the stomach and will form a “ball”. Only when the ball is vomited it will get an elongated shape by the gullet.

Vomiting hair balls.
After some time the gastric wall irritates and the cat will try to vomit the hair ball. Probably, cats eat grass instinctively and if not available other green in the house (also check the list of poisonous plants on this site). This “cat grass” irritates the stomach due to which vomiting is caused.

Very rarely these hair balls become so hard that they need to be removed from the intestine by means of a surgery.

Symptoms of a hairball which is stuck are: chronic vomiting, eating food more often and eating smaller quantities and gradually weight loss.

What can you do to prevent this?
You must regularly brush your cat when it is moulting. Long-haired cats require at least 1 brush turn per week. Thanks to brushing you remove the largest part of the dead hairs which the cat would otherwise have licked during fur care. Brushing also ensures a good skin massage which improves the skin- and hair quality and causes less loose hairs. You can further administer, during the moulting time, a special hair ball paste. This paste weakens present hair balls and has a bit of a purging function, without causing diarrhoea. We also advise to have cat grass available always, especially during moulting time. This is available at most florists and garden centres.