My cat is pooping and vomiting hairballs. How can I prevent them?

Hello. You can try feeding Leo 1/4 teaspoon of Miralax twice a day & forget about the cat laxative. Many veterinarians do not recommend giving this anymore because it rarely helps. The Miralax works much better. If Leo is not doing better after a day or so of the Miralax, please consider seeing your veterinarian to make sure nothing else is going on. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

It is pretty normal to regurgitate hair balls once in two weeks. Keep feeding the Hairball prevention formula. It actually helps with eliminating most of the hair via the feces, but a long haired cat, especially if she is a meticulate groomer, just may ingest too many hairs for this to solely happen and therefore she has hair balls to get rid off also.You can also get some hairball remedy (a malt and oil paste) from your vet or a petshop, which also helps with the elimination of hairballs. If you brush your kitty often , she will ingest less hair as well.

The hairball oral treatment is about the best you can do at home. If he doesn't go after say 24-48 hrs and continues to vomit then he will require an enema to remove the hardened feces in his colon, poor guy. I would caution about using over the counter enema's, because if they contain phosphate they are extremely toxic to cats, so it is best to have you vet perform this if needed. For long term maintenance you may want to consider keeping Blazer on a fiber supplement and/or a hairball formula food.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Lilly. A longhaired cat should only produce 3-4 hairballs per year. Any more than that is considered abnormal. If her initial blood panel came back normal, I typically recommend a secondary panel that checks for pancreatitis, a disease known as pancreatic exocrine insufficiency as well as cobalamin and folate levels. This can reveal the cause of the vomiting or give some treatment options for her. Inflammatory bowel disease is common cause of chronic vomiting. This will typically result in a low cobalamin levels. It can not be diagnosed without intestinal biopsies, but those are very invasive. An abdominal ultrasound can give a lot of information and rule out other causes of vomiting. If I suspect this to be the case, I will treat the patient with a prescription hydrolyzed diet to help decrease inflammation and sometimes medication as well. I hope this information helps!

Comb him regularly as you are doing. This will remove a lot of the dead hair which otherwise your kitty would have to remove and then regurgitate as a hairball.Feed good quality food. Get some hairball remedy from a petshop and feed that according to the instructions. This should reduce the hair balls significantly. It is normal for cats to regurgitate hairballs when they are good groomers..

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!

I would recommend having Masha evaluated by her veterinarian. Long haired cats should only have 3-4 hairballs per year. Any more than that can actually indicate gastrointestinal disease. She will likely need bloodwork and possibly an abdominal ultrasound. If there is a problem such as inflammatory bowel disease for example, she can be managed with medications and perhaps a prescription diet. I hope this information helps you and Masha!