House Cats and Furballs

When you own a house cat (or they own you), one of the really annoying downsides is the constant vomiting of furballs and anything else that they have ingested after the formation of the furball. The result can be explosive to say the least.

As a general rule, a purely furball situation is an every two to three week event made worse in molting season like just before the onset of the cold season or when they are shedding their under coat in advance of the warm or hot season. Your cat's tongue is barbed so as to help it grab the looser hairs and take them in. They form a ball in the stomach which, when it gets too large will come back up along with whatever else has been blocked during and after the blockage developed.

Now, there are several furball-focused foods available on the market. However, while they may have some positive impact on the furball formation, they also may contain either ingredients and taste that your cat just doesn't like or which may irritate that cat's stomach lining. They may even be allergic to that food or what's in it. An irritated cat's stomach lining can result in a separate cause of vomiting but which will be almost any time instead of the expected vomiting that results from furball generation. When you have both problems going at the same time, it can be very tough on pet and family.

I know some people will encourage their cat to eat special cat grass which is touted to sooth their stomachs and help with the passage of new-forming furballs. While there is evidence that cat grass will help sooth their stomachs, the first question is why do they need to sooth their stomachs in the first place. And, there is little or no evidence to support that the grass actually helps diminish or help flow through the furball.

It should also be noted that a housecat doesn't get the opportunity to ingest the vegetables it gets from eating herbivorous animals that are its staple in the wild. Maybe the house-grown cat grass is a necessary substitute to an insufficiency of veggies in their canned or bagged commercial foods.

Two things that you should do both for your own peace of mind and for the good of your pet:

When the vomiting is for more than just furballs, get your cat checked out for allergies particularizing on the foods you give him/her and possible resultant irritation of the stomach lining. This is quite common and is too often caused by the food itself.

When you are satisfied that the vomiting is every two or three weeks and more often in molting season, seek vet help in determining an appropriate treatment. While there are many remedies in your local pet store, they are generally ineffective and may seem to make a slight improvement while, at the same time, be masking a more serious problem.

Certainly, while house cat vomiting is common, continuous explosive vomiting is not. Something's wrong. And, usually with one simple professional intervention, the appropriate treatment can last a lifetime.

If money is tight, you can ask our experts over at Little Souls Pet Care.

John W David

http://littlesoulspetcare.com

Read more at my Little Souls Pet Care blog:

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