Home remedies can help kitty with hairball trouble
BY SUE MANNING July 19, 2011 1:38PM
This Tuesday, June 21, 2011 photo shows Lynea Lattanzio as she pets some of the cats at The Cat House on the Kings sanctuary in Parlier, Calif. As founder of the sanctuary where about 1,000 cats live, Lattanzio has a lot of experience with hairballs. (AP Photo/Tracie Cone)
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Updated: July 22, 2011 8:02PM
Hairballs are normal in cats, but they’re a nuisance for cat owners to deal with. There are a few things you can do, though, to reduce hairballs and other feline dietary upsets.
Cats ingest a lot of hair because their tongues have tiny tentacles (papillae) that act like brushes when they clean, explained Dr. Karen Halligan, author, TV consultant and director of veterinary services for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles.
When hair builds up in a cat’s stomach, it turns into balls or wads, causing the cat to vomit. Once a week is normal and nothing to worry about, “but more than once a week is too much,” Halligan said.
A number of over-the-counter dietary supplements such as Petromalt can be given to cats to help prevent hairballs, but Halligan uses a simple home remedy. She puts a dab of petroleum jelly on her fingertip and lets her cats, Kinky and Nathan, lick it off.
Lynea Lattanzio has a lot of experience with hairballs as founder of a sanctuary where 1,000 cats live called Cat House on the Kings. “I give people a lot of advice on hairballs,” she said. “You can put mineral oil on their food to help them slide it out, or Vaseline on their shoulder so they can lick it.”
Just “don’t put it on their paws,” she added. “They shake and it gets all over the walls. Put it where they can’t shake it off.”
Halligan and Lattanzio agree brushing probably is the best remedy.
“I brush mine every day. It pulls out all the dead hair so they don’t ingest it when they groom,” Halligan said.
If your cat doesn’t like being brushed, you might be pressing too hard or using the wrong type of brush, she said.
If a cat is vomiting and there is no hair in it, hairballs probably aren’t the problem.
AP
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