My cat threw up a hairball with black specks. Should I worry?

This could just be digested materials mixed in with the hair. I wouldn't be too concerned. I would however get him started on hairball medicine regimen a few times per week. I like laxatone. You can give it 2-3 times per week long term. If the vomiting continues or if you ever see blood, I would have your vet take a look at him. I hope this helps!

Thanks for the images. It doesn't appear to be blood. Blood in vomitus is usually much darker. That appears to be a mix of chewed or partially digested food, bile and hair. Monitor for continued vomiting, lethargy or loss of appetite. These are symptoms that should be addressed by your veterinarian. Consider a short fast, maybe 12 hours, then offer a bland diet in small, frequent amounts for a day or two. Transition slowly to the regular diet afterwards. If Luna will allow, increase brushing or grooming to decrease the amount of hair ingested. You can also use Laxatone or PetroMalt paste to help her pass hairballs.Find either in the local Petco.

She is obviously grooming a lot and therefore ingesting a lot of hairs. It is good for her to either poop out the hair or even regurgitate the hair balls. I think you are doing everything right and I would not change her food regimen. You can help her a bit by combing or brushing her coat and removing loose hair. This would reduce hair ingested. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. With what you are describing I would be concerned about a hairball causing a foreign body obstruction. There may also be a systemic cause or infection. I would recommend having a veterinarian take a look at her and run some tests such as bloodwork and abdominal x-rays. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Some times cats pass hair in the feces and often that hair/poop will be large and gray colored. This can be normal. I recommend Hills hairball prevention diet, using cat laxative weekly and brushing or combing your cat daily to remove as much loos hair as possible. If the hairballs continue then you may want to consider allergy medication from your veterinarian to reduce her licking and overgrooming. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Chloe.

Yes you always have to be worried with potential foreign body ingestions. Hair ties are pretty small so the chance that they can cause blockages are slim, but they can still get stuck in the intestines and cause problems There are two possibilities at this point: 1) There is another hair tie still in there ( this will take some deductive reasoning in your part) that is stuck. 2) All hair ties have been expelled and your pet now just has an upset stomach due to dietary indiscretion. The odds are good because it is very small and had no sharp edges. With small foreign bodies it is recommended feed the pet a bulking agent like 1/2-1 loaf of bread or canned food that will help bind any additional objects within the GI tract and potentially help expel them out of the system. Good luck with your kitty and I hope that things will progress uneventful in the next couple of days. - Dr.H

Hello, You may have gotten very lucky and that was all that was in there. If not watch for any continued vomiting, difficulty/pain when pooping and any behavior changes (sleeping more, not wanting to eat, etc) those would indicate a need to got to the vet. They may want to do xrays at that point to see if there is evidence of any string caught in the intestine.