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A little background. Katie is our first cat-we were always dog people. She was our daughter's and we inherited her because my daughter's husband is very allergic to cats. (She did make sure before she pursued the relationship that we would take Katie so she would still be in her life.) And Katie had always been part of our lives.
She came to live with us just as we were making a our move from South Florida to North Carolina. We worked very hard with her to let her know she was loved. And she had her best buddy, our dog Ben so she adjusted.
She is a medium hair cat. 9 years old and has sometimes had issues with hairballs. Very rarely. She is on a hairball diet and seems to have done well with it. She loves to groom herself and hates to be brushed. She tolerates it only because I bribe her and she only lets me brush her back. No rear end, head, sides, tummy, legs. Just the top of her back.
A week ago I was at home one evening and I heard gagging. It was so loud I thought it was one of the dogs. But it was Katie. She had just thrown up a little food with some hair in it. It was about a half hour after she ate. I cleaned it up and she directed me to the laundry room where the was a huge pile of vomit. All her food and a few hairballs. I cleaned that up and she started yelling for some more food. She's a yeller at feeding time. I waited a bit and gave her a small handfull of food and she was fine. A few days later I was upstairs where her litter box is and I found a small dried pile of vomit. Some hair was there and I believe she had gone back and ate the food.
We talked about it and our only concern was that this now seemed to be happening after she ate. No other hairballs issues unless there was food in it. I checked with my daughter and since Katie seemed herself, was eating and drinking her water and everything in the litter box was normal, she wasn't too concerned and we decided to give it time and watch her.
Everything was fine until this morning at about 6:00 am. I have been home sick all week and between my medications and coughing I am not sleeping. So right around 6 I gave her a small handfull of food to hold her over until breakfast. Then I tried to get some sleep. 10 minutes later she vomited the food with a small amount of hair in it.
My question is this. Should I be more concerned about this because it is now involving not just hairballs but seems to happen only after she eats? Again, everything else seems to be normal except for the fact her clock is as out of whach as mine is with me being up all night. But that has just been this week. Normal stool. Normal peeballs. She's getting plenty of fluids. She is playing with her toys and she and Charlie have been doing their thing. Going in the car and the vet's office is right up with brushing. She hates it. I don't want to put her through any stress unless of course it is necessary.
The only difference this year regarding her shedding is that we had an unusually cold winter for us and I noticed her coat was thicker. Then we went from having a snow day to jumping up into the 70's. I was getting about 8-10 brushfulls of hair just off her back. We were gone over Easter and she didn't get her brushings and since we've been home it's been tough to get her cooperation.
Am I over-reacting? Under-reacting?
Any and all advice and thoughts on this would be appreciated.
you can get a kitty lubricant sort of stuff at petsmart..... comes in a small tube, sort of like a toothpaste tube and is flavored in a way that is supposed to be appealing to cats, although neither of mine cares for it.... so i just dab some on their noses and/or paws and they will lick it off..... this might help if she is having difficulty with a particularly stubborn or large hairball.....
I think you are being a concerned "parent" and I commend you for it.
Your own words answered your questions. More fur over the winter months, then with grooming, will evidently produce more hairballs in some cats. Yours seems to be one of them. Just keep up with the brushing, and latetotheparty gave you some good advice about hairball remover. Best of luck!
This is my beautiful Giz and as you can see, she has a lot of lovely fur. She throws up a lot, sometimes doing what I call "projectile vomiting", meaning it FLYS out of her and covers a lot of area. She has always done this and it don't seem to hurt her or involve anything being wrong except that she has a LOT of fur. I have changed her to the Science Diet Original to the sensitive stomach and it hasn't helped.
Giz LOVES to be brushed, she loves it so much that if I pick up the brush, she comes running and starts grabbing the brush. Brushing does not help with the throwing up, there is just to much fur!
The only time I got alarmed was one night I realized she had been running through the house howling for about 30 minutes so I started watching her. She would run, howel and squat and try to "go" on the floor, over and over she did this and it scared the heck out of me so I called the vet and made arrangements to meet him at his office. In the time it took me to get the kennel set up to put her in and grab her, she had "went" on the kitchen floor. She has NEVER went outside the box, NEVER.... so I got a zip lock bag and scooped it up and took it with us to the vet. You could see it was a very long terd and covered in fur so it was super dry. THAT was her problem, trying to pass that. I still took her in and had her checked that night. Now I give her a lubricant and it has helped. I don't have so many fur balls to pick up anymore although she still throws some up now and then but she hasn't had anymore problem passing them the other way.
She is on heart medication so I have to give her medication anyway and I use canned food as a way to do that (crush up her pill and mix it in) so now I just ad some petroleum jelly to that can food (warm up the jelly) and that is what I do. I give her about 1/4 a teaspoon every other day...
OR you can get the stuff at the pet store as someone suggested. If you have a problem getting your baby to eat that, I suggest just rubbing it into one of the front paws and she will lick it off. I just haven't been to the pet store yet to pick some up so I am using the jelly until I get some.
If she doesn't like being brushed, then don't do it. There are so many other solutions that can control the vomiting without irritating the cat.
I second the paste. My vet recs Laxatone. You can also try cat grass. I buy the seeds at PetSmart and grow them in a small terracotta pot. My cat loves her cat grass, and you can replant in the same pot when necessary.
The only difference this year regarding her shedding is that we had an unusually cold winter for us and I noticed her coat was thicker.
I noticed that with our cats, their coats and now their shedding is at least ten times more in volume than it was last year. I combed FattyPants yesterday and could have made a new cat from what I got off him. He hates being brushed and it's a battle.
It sounds as if her body's reacting to quantity - the amount of fur mixed with the food just makes her stomach go and call it quits. I agree with LTTP recommendation of the "grease it through the system" stuff to get rid of what's there while at the same time trying the grooming glove or another method of brushing/combing to stop it happening again.
(I found the best way to get them used to being groomed was to do it while they were eating. It makes it a more pleasureable association.)
Our previous hellcat (RIP) had a hairball problem, and we'd dab a bit of butter on his nose every couple of days or so. He'd freak out and lick it off, and glare at me for a few hours, but it did the trick.
Thanks Ohiogirl! I personally love being glared at by Katie. Its her life's mission to glare and stare at me!!!!!!!Lol.
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and call it quits. I agree with LTTP recommendation of the "grease it through the system" stuff to get rid of what's there while at the same time trying the grooming glove or another method of brushing/combing to stop it happening again.
