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Pumpkin is okay (if cat will eat it) but needs quite a bit, about a tablespoon a day, on a regular basis, to be effective, and does of course provide more carbs and sugar than you really want a cat to have on a daily basis.
Cats generally shed most heavily in spring and fall, when the new coats grow in.
If your cats have hairball problem, which means your cats are shedding hairs, which means you are not feeding them right. Giving them these kind of things is nothing more than treating symptoms. You need to fix the cause which is you are feeding them bad food.
Um...I'm pretty sure that cats will shed hairs regardless of what they are fed. I've never read or heard anywhere that bad food causes shedding. Maybe shedding to the point of looking bedraggled might be a sign of poor health, but some shedding especially seasonally is normal, I would think.
It's throwing up and getting excessive hairballs that isn't really normal on a good wet diet. Because they aren't passing the hair in the poop, as they should.
At least that's been my understanding from all the reading I have done.
Anyways, Nimbus only had just a few, over the course of about a week he had maybe 3 small hairballs, and then it stopped. I was just concerned of what to do about it if it got continued or got worse. His asthma has been really bad though...I'm about to start using my son's Flovent on him no matter what my weird cheapskate country vet thinks. I talked to a friend from high school who is a vet and he said the dosage on those Flovent inhalers is pretty standard and you can use a human one on a cat. Ordered an AeroKat mask too, because if I'm gonna give him Flovent, I can't risk wasting it messing around with a toilet paper tube. Poor kitty. He doesn't like all this medication business.
Hairballs: the cat's curse? All cats get hair balls. They eat grass to upset the stomach and empy contents. A little bit of mayo smeared on top of the front paws works for us. Like a "pinch of salt" a little big goes a very long way. .
Hairballs: the cat's curse? All cats get hair balls. They eat grass to upset the stomach and empy contents. A little bit of mayo smeared on top of the front paws works for us. Like a "pinch of salt" a little big goes a very long way. .
It's not true that "all cats get hairballs". I have two who don't, ever. They've been fed a canned and raw diet since they entered this house, and pass the fur through the digestive tract like they were meant to.
No one really knows why cats eat grass. Some do, some don't. Some puke it back up, some don't. There is no positive factual evidence they do it to bring up hairballs.
Anyway, all this, and more, has already been said in this thread. You are welcome to read the whole thread.
If your cats have hairball problem, which means your cats are shedding hairs, which means you are not feeding them right. Giving them these kind of things is nothing more than treating symptoms. You need to fix the cause which is you are feeding them bad food.
One of the more ridiculous claims I've ever seen. Where there is hair there is shedding and sometimes hairballs.
Oscar and Langley are Ragdolls and have very long hair. they not only groom themselves but each other. Both shed a great deal in summer. We brush them about every other day and the Zoom Groom is full of fur. I can count on one hand how many hairballs langley has had in his 12 years. Oscar however has IBD and his tummy is more sensitive. he was barfing up hairballs about once a week but with this new Vet's Best it is about once every 3 weeks and so much smaller.
Anybody who thinks s/he has a cat who doesn't shed (except for those furless kitties) is fooling themselves.
catsmom, you made me laugh with the "some do, some don't" (eat grass) thing..
I remembered the one time I bought one of those pots of "cat grass" from Petsmart, looked like something Nimbus might like, so what the heck right? Well, I'm not a plant person, but I figure they need sun and water. Put it on the windowsill to get sun. Nimbus comes along and I can't wait to see if he'll do anything with it... Well, it was immediately apparent that he didn't appreciate me putting silly vegetation on the valuable real estate of HIS window ledge. He grabbed it and tossed it on the floor and then proceeded to ignore it completely while gazing out the window. Another attempt to place it back up there, and the same result. Grab and toss. Dirt on the floor.
Oh, and to the topic of hairballs, Nimbus hasn't had another one since that one week where I cleaned up a few...like maybe a total of 4 or 5.
Has anyone here ever had such a severe cough that you threw up? Had nothing to do with a stomach thing, just the spasms of coughing caused it?
I think that his frequent asthma attacks caused the hairballs, that they otherwise would have passed on through, but his insides were fatigued from the coughing, wheezing attacks and one of those spasms just caused it to happen. Now that we have him using the Flovent and his attacks have stopped, I'm not seeing any more of hairballs either.
His appetite is up though. Wonder if that's a side effect...?
Oh, and to the topic of hairballs, Nimbus hasn't had another one since that one week where I cleaned up a few...like maybe a total of 4 or 5.
Has anyone here ever had such a severe cough that you threw up? Had nothing to do with a stomach thing, just the spasms of coughing caused it?
I think that his frequent asthma attacks caused the hairballs, that they otherwise would have passed on through, but his insides were fatigued from the coughing, wheezing attacks and one of those spasms just caused it to happen. Now that we have him using the Flovent and his attacks have stopped, I'm not seeing any more of hairballs either.
His appetite is up though. Wonder if that's a side effect...?
Yes, that's happened to me a few times. Don't know about it as far as cats are concerned, but I know it's possible with humans. I actually coughed so violently one time that I threw my lower back out of place, believe it or not.
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He doesn't like all this medication business.
