WHAT NATURAL CURE DO YOU RECOMMEND FOR FURBALLS

#1 Groom your cat daily. The more hair you brush off your cat, the less hair he will ingest while grooming therefore making for less hair balls.

#2 Improve his diet with a high quality canned food which will lessen his shedding therefore lessoning the amount you have to brush, and lessoning the amount that he will ingest while grooming. Remember, fur is just a waste disposal system for the cat, just as a humans hair is a way to rid the body of things it can’t use. What goes in must come out. So improving what goes in will improve what comes out. If you are putting in a bunch of low quality ingredients to start with, the lowest of the low comes out and leaves the cat with poor coat condition which leads to massive shedding.

A high quality diet is a sure fire way to cut down on shedding. Feeding wet food will also aid in the passing of the hairballs making it less likely that they will collect into one large ball that your cat has to painfully hurk up.

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Thanks Kat! Your answer helped me too! :)

By: kittykatluv123   126

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The only thing I can add to Kat’s answer is to try adding some fish oil. Per my vet this can help with hairballs. I *think* it’s due to the anti-inflammatory effect or it might just be what you’d suspect - a nice oily digestive tract!

Since I was born in the Stone age, I found that the less fluid the kitty has available (water, wet food, and small amounts of “cat-friendly” milk) sometimes aren’t enough. If your furbaby is a long-haired breed, then regular brushing and grooming will help slow the problem, as well as get rid of painful tangles that restrict activity. Short-haired breeds also benefit from regular grooming. Besides, grooming your furbaby has a calming effect on both of you! You might also try offering a small amount of cooked, unsalted, preservative-free animal fat. This should be less than 1 oz. a day, spread out in her normal diet for only 2 - 3 days. Sometimes your finicky furbaby will turn her nose up at pure fat, so you may need to grind or chop into very fine pieces and hide it in a small amount of her favorite wet food. I dislike giving a cat (or dog!) a petroleum product for hairballs - a cat will never lap up the oil that sometimes leaks from cars, nor of their own free will eat petroleum jelly if you forget to put the lid back on. You might need to amp up the ‘kitty grasses’ that can be grown inside. They also keep Kitty out of your houseplants,as well. lol! Grasses such as wheat grass, barley, oats, and rye will give natural fiber (along with minor vitamins and minerals) to help break up hairballs and let Kitty’s body cope with, and pass, the hair that she swallows during coat maintainance. If only dry food is offered, you may need to mix in small amount of wet food with a small amount (less than a full meal-more like a treat) of dry food together. Note that these treatments won’t instantly cure Kitty’s hair balls. So if this doesn’t clear the problem up after a few days, then take Kitty to a vet. There may be an underlying medical problem. If her normal appetite, activity, and general appearance has deteriorated, then Kitty definitely needs medical attention asap! That’s my 2 cents.

WELL I’VE HEARD THAT PETROLEUM JELLY IS GOOD FOR FURBALLS OR MAYBE A TEASPOON OF MINERAL OIL BECAUSE I WAS WONDERING THE SAME THING AND MY STEPMOM TOLD ME ABOUT THE PETROLEUM JELLY I’VE TRIED THE MINERAL OIL AND IT HELPED.HOW OLD IS YOUR CAT MAYBE U COULD TRY IT AND SEE HOW THAT DO.GOOD LUCK.AND IF U USE THE PETROLEUM JUST USE A LITTLE BIT JUST A DROP ON YOUR FINGER.

What’s up with all the caps lock, folks?? Chat ettiquette says that is shouting. No need.

What constitutes as natural for you? Because most in-store hairball relief contains petroleum jelly, and most people would not classify that as natural. I’ve used Laxatone, but my cat hates the feeling of the petroleum jelly in her mouth and will only ever give the spoon a lick or two.

You may also want to try a different food - Royal Canin makes a prescription blend that has a degree of hairball prevention to it, and I believe their blend for longhaired cats (or maybe for skin care??) also has that as well.

I’ve also had people suggest catnip or some other fiberous grass. That helps with the digestion so that your cat might pass the hairballs instead of cough them up.

More frequent brushing can also help to take a lot of the excess hair off so that they don’t ingest quite so much during self-grooming.

Hope that helps!