Cat Hairballs

[MynameisLuca]

How often do cats spit up hairball?
My cat is spitting/vomiting up all day, is this normal?

[Buenchico]

Start reading at "How Many Hairballs Are Normal for a Cat?" here:
https://www.animalbiome.com/blog/your-cat-has-hairballs-should-you-worry

[calmck]

Is your cat long or short haired? What is she spitting/vomiting? A fur ball is usually a solid mass. Is she eating? Is she eating grass this can cause spitting up of liquid.

[calmck]

Is she pooping normally? If she has diarrhoea and not eating and lethargic I would suggest a visit to the vet

[wolf63]

◄◄ Frankie eats/inhales his food as if he has been starved for months. This often results in him being sick and any ingested hair gets thrown up with the food.

[MynameisLuca]

She hasn't got long hair an I do brush her daily.. Here's an image of what it looks like...

https://i.imgur.com/8vYOs72.jpg

[MynameisLuca]

That's not hers, but it looks like that.

[calmck]

Looks like a hairball but if more than one every week or so then vets opinion would be best

[MynameisLuca]

It doesn't happen weekly, the same thing happened about 3 months ago, she's only 11 months old.

[Barmaid]

That's not fur balls altho it may contain some fur. It is mainly undigested food. It looks like perfectly normal cat puke to me.

But if she is puking ALL the time that is not normal. It may be that she has a sensitivity or the food is too rich for her. What is her diet?

You need to get to the bottom of this and quickly because constant puking will dehydrate her. I'd suggest vets asap. There's probably nothing to worry about that a change of diet won't sort.

My cat pukes like that after eating mice. Or if he pigs out on meat.

But all day is not normal.

[Barmaid]

3 months ago? Ignore my last answer I reckon that's fine. I thought you meant all day every day.

I wouldn't worry.

[MynameisLuca]

I feed her Kitten food normally, but occasionally I'd give her adult food, I didn't think it would do her any harm.

Another thing is, when I rub her stomach (gently) she'll cry out, she normally never cries /meows, unless she's hungry.

[Barmaid]

I'd get her checked out. At 11 months old you probably won't have got that instinct as to what's normal and what isn't since you can't have had her for much more than 9 months and every cat is different. Plus she's growing and working out how best to manipulate you.

Quick check at the vets should put your mind at rest.

It took me a while to suss when my cat was poorly and needing vet, just a bit off colour, or just being an attention seeking tart. After 14 years with him I am still learning.

[Buenchico]

Kitten food can often be too rich for young cats. The vet said that my young nursing mother cat should be fed kitten food (as well as her kittens once they were weaned) in order to provide her all the nutrients that she (and her kittens) needed. It was an absolute disaster, with Mum having a permanently upset stomach.

Then the lady who runs a local burger van told me that, over the years, she'd had loads of cats and loads of kittens. She'd only ever fed them normal (canned) adult cat food, simply mashing it up into small pieces for the youngsters, with every one of them thriving.

So, since the vet's advice simply didn't seem to be working, I followed the totally unqualified (but very experienced) advice of the burger van lady instead and fed both he adult cat and her kittens on adult cat food. The problem was solved straight away, with Mum being a much happier cat and her kittens thriving too.

So my suggestion is to stop using the kitten food altogether and see if it helps.

[Barmaid]

Good advice Chris but they are all different. Giving mine adult cat food when he was young didn't work. He mainly had biscuits and poached chicken (he still has very good teeth which my vet thinks is due to the lack of wet diet - Plus he catches stuff and crunches their bones).

The crying when her tummy is touched concerns me plus puking all day.

The crying could just be a bonding reaction but I would still have her looked at.

[Buenchico]

There certainly can't be any argument against "If in doubt, check her out" advice, Barmaid.

[Toorak]

My cat has problems with fur balls - he is frequently sick but nothing much comes up until the fur ball itself gets ejected. Otherwise he is, according to the vet, in good health. He is getting older and can no longer tolerate dry food so we feed him pouches. If the problem is fur balls, brush him daily to get rid of loose hair.

I should add that he tends to get them a couple of times a year (and is mightily relived when he gets them out - they must be very uncomfortable).

[MynameisLuca]

She seems to be back t her normal self this morning. Thanks for all the advice.

[Naheed]

The taken hair eventually moves through the animal's digestive tract and gets excreted intact in the feces; however, some remain in the stomach. It slowly accumulates into a damp clump — the hairball. It's common for a cat to vomit a hairball once every week or two.