My senior cat has nightly hairballs. What's the best treatment?

Laxatone or PetroMalt are recommended. If he will allow, try to brush him daily to reduce shedding. https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/tomlyn-natural-laxatone-cat-hairball-eliminator https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/sentry-petromalt-malt-flavored-hairball-relief

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!

This could indeed be hairballs but unfortunately, since your cat is an older kitty, she could also be suffering from a congestive heart condition which causes pulmonary edema and would make her try coughing out fluid. Regularly use hair ball remedy (available at your vet or a pet shop). And I suggest you have her examined by your vet soon, as coughing at night is very suspicious for heart problems.

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Hairballs are a very complex problem and are not normal despite them being accepted by a lot of people in the veterinary profession and many cat owners. Hairballs are caused by abnormal digestive tract motility or by increased grooming due to skin diseases, psychological distress, and pain. Pain anywhere can cause increased grooming. It's important to discuss this with your veterinarian and set up an appointment to have Faith evaluated for potential problems that may contribute to their formation. Your veterinarian can perform a good physical exam, take a thorough history, and then advise some diagnostics to help sort this out. Good luck with Faith

HI, thanks for using Petcoch! Poor Molly! Due to Molly's age I want to be sure that you have had your Vet do a physical and had full blood work done to check her for kidney disease and an overactive thyroid. If you haven't that should be done. The most common reason if the blood work is normal for chronic vomiting with or with out hairballs is inflammatory bowel disease. Molly could have her belly ultrasounded to take a look at the thickness of her intestines and how big her lymph nodes are. Treatment consists of steroids and a prescription hydrolyzed diet. Another option is to have a groomer perform a lion cut! That cuts down on the hair she can ingest and plus she will look super cute! I hope this helps and good luck!

A high quality food of science diet, royal canin, iams, or purina are great brands. Iams makes a hairball control. You can also purchase hairball medications/supplements and use your favorite food.

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..