Cat Won’t Eat Grass To Cough Up Hairballs

[bugmankeith]

My cat I recently adopted has trouble getting up hairballs, his stools are wrapped in hair and very hard.
He gets lots of canned food and water which I thought would help loosen the hair internally. I offer fresh cat nip and cat grass daily I grew but he won’t eat them. I’ve tried hairballs treats, gel wrapped in tuna, even hairballs dry food and treats, but he won’t eat anything for it.

I know he has a hairballs because he tries to eat plastic bags and cords and string ( I stop him) and he coughs after but nothing comes up and he eats less those days. I don’t know his past living situation but he never seemed to learn to eat grass like my other cats did and the shelter confirmed his odd habits.

I’m clueless what to do. I even tried growing the grass really long and slowly pulling it in front of him to trigger him to “catch” it hoping he will try to eat it like he would with string, but he won’t fall for it.

 

[LTS3]

Some cat just have no interest in eating grass or cat nip

Egg yolk lecithin is supposed to help with hairballs. Here are some threads on using it:

A Big Hairball! :(
Egg Lecithin Vs Egg Yolks Powder?
Good Sources Of Choline For Hairball Control For Kitty Who May Be Allergic To Eggs?
Hairball, Egg Yolk, Slippery Elm, Petromalt - Confused.....

 

[vince]

I know it's old-fashioned, but try buttering one of his feet. He'll lick it off and the butter helps the hair move on.

 

[bugmankeith]

I know it's old-fashioned, but try buttering one of his feet. He'll lick it off and the butter helps the hair move on.

But isn’t milk bad and makes cats sick?

He does like hard boiled egg yolks I might give that a try.

 

[darg]

It seems like you are suggesting that you have tried a commercial hairball remedy but the cat won't eat it. If you are leary about butter, you can do the same thing with a commercial hairball remedy. Try to smear some on his paw and he'll likely clean it off.

 

[MissClouseau]

Which hairball pastes have you tried? Some brands have double-working ones with different flavors.

When mine doesn't want to eat the malt paste I put it on a piece of freshly boiled chicken. That works like charm.

 

[Rhall]

I have one cat that also struggles. I bought some hairball paste from the vet I have been giving her and I just read something about giving pumpkin and will try that. She doesn't do the regular hack that most cats do, it's more of a cough with a spit.

 

[vince]

But isn’t milk bad and makes cats sick?

He does like hard boiled egg yolks I might give that a try.

You don't have to put a huge amount of butter on the paw. Also, cats will tolerate a lot more dairy than you might think.

 

[lisahe]

My cat I recently adopted has trouble getting up hairballs, his stools are wrapped in hair and very hard.
He gets lots of canned food and water which I thought would help loosen the hair internally. I offer fresh cat nip and cat grass daily I grew but he won’t eat them. I’ve tried hairballs treats, gel wrapped in tuna, even hairballs dry food and treats, but he won’t eat anything for it.

I know he has a hairballs because he tries to eat plastic bags and cords and string ( I stop him) and he coughs after but nothing comes up and he eats less those days. I don’t know his past living situation but he never seemed to learn to eat grass like my other cats did and the shelter confirmed his odd habits.

I’m clueless what to do. I even tried growing the grass really long and slowly pulling it in front of him to trigger him to “catch” it hoping he will try to eat it like he would with string, but he won’t fall for it.

Looking back at your post, bugmankeith, if the reason you think your cat has hairballs is that he wants to eat plastic bags, string, and cords, that might be a sign of something else, like pica. Has your cat ever actually coughed up a hairball? Or any amount of fur? Does he seem like he feels sick? Or not want to eat? The fact that you say your cat's stools are very furry speaks to his digestive system doing exactly what it should be doing: taking the fur out of your cat's body. The fur is supposed to get pooped out. Coughing the fur up, particularly in large clumps, is what's not normal! A company that makes powdered egg yolk has a good article on their site (here) that summarizes a study on hairballs. Our vet talks a lot about motility and hairballs -- if your cat is already pooping the fur out, that's exactly what he should be doing.

Pica, on the other hand, is a situation here humans need to be careful about keeping stuff the cat likes to eat or lick away from the cat. One of our cats like chewing on ribbons and leather, the other likes licking plastic bags and nibbling certain kinds of cords. They've gotten less interested in those things over time but we still keep plastic bags in a drawer and shoes with laces out of reach. Here's some basic information on pica.

Back to furballs, though... For many cats, brushing is the best way to avoid hairballs, as a preventive measure. Our cat who tends to accumulate hair in her gut used to hate brushing but has decided she enjoys it because she gets more attention.

LTS3's mention of egg yolk is a good one, no matter what. I put egg yolk in two meals a day for our cats. I'm not sure if it helps with hairballs or not but it's good for cats in general and ours love it. They get some egg in their foods already (it's in the supplements for their homemade food) but I add about one more egg yolk a week to each cat's diet. I wouldn't want to give them more than that -- it can apparently cause loose stools.

 

[Azazel]

It’s probably for the best that your cat won’t eat grass. Contrary to popular belief, cats aren’t supposed to be throwing up all the time. It’s better to try and encourage hairballs to come out the appropriate end. Is he pooping? Then he’s probably fine. If not, or if his poops aren’t normal, try putting a teaspoon of plain canned pumpkin in his wet food. You can do this daily until you get healthy poops.

 

[bugmankeith]

Looking back at your post, bugmankeith, if the reason you think your cat has hairballs is that he wants to eat plastic bags, string, and cords, that might be a sign of something else, like pica. Has your cat ever actually coughed up a hairball? Or any amount of fur? Does he seem like he feels sick? Or not want to eat? The fact that you say your cat's stools are very furry speaks to his digestive system doing exactly what it should be doing: taking the fur out of your cat's body. The fur is supposed to get pooped out. Coughing the fur up, particularly in large clumps, is what's not normal! A company that makes powdered egg yolk has a good article on their site (here) that summarizes a study on hairballs. Our vet talks a lot about motility and hairballs -- if your cat is already pooping the fur out, that's exactly what he should be doing.

Pica, on the other hand, is a situation here humans need to be careful about keeping stuff the cat likes to eat or lick away from the cat. One of our cats like chewing on ribbons and leather, the other likes licking plastic bags and nibbling certain kinds of cords. They've gotten less interested in those things over time but we still keep plastic bags in a drawer and shoes with laces out of reach. Here's some basic information on pica.

Back to furballs, though... For many cats, brushing is the best way to avoid hairballs, as a preventive measure. Our cat who tends to accumulate hair in her gut used to hate brushing but has decided she enjoys it because she gets more attention.

LTS3's mention of egg yolk is a good one, no matter what. I put egg yolk in two meals a day for our cats. I'm not sure if it helps with hairballs or not but it's good for cats in general and ours love it. They get some egg in their foods already (it's in the supplements for their homemade food) but I add about one more egg yolk a week to each cat's diet. I wouldn't want to give them more than that -- it can apparently cause loose stools.

Thank you for the info! My vets always told me coughing up a large hairball is healthy, I never heard pooping it out is, so this comes as a surprise to me as all my cats rarely pooped out hairballs always vomited massive ones once in a while.
My new cat vomited one small hairball up and that’s it, I do see hair in his stools frequently and he poops regularly and eats regularly. He hates being brushed, he will growl and bite even touching him with any brush I’ve tried 3 types, the shelter told me they saw the same behavior and warned me, he used to hate his back being touched so much but slowly stopped that only brushes trigger it now.

As for Pica, I did have a cat in the past that did these exact things, but had nutrient deficieny, stomach issues, and we never gave grass too. Once we started giving grass that cat stopped eating plastic bags he did it to try and vomit. Sadly our old cat was very ill and back in the early 90’s I was a little kid and didn’t know what I know now to help him and we had an awful vet.

That’s why I thought my new cat does this since he never had the opportunity to eat grass to vomit and bag eating was an alternative learnt behavior. My new cat also used to eat litter and lick his urine, which I read is vitamin deficiency, so I started giving probiotics and he now gets a high quality diet and has stopped that and his coat is no longer dull but shiny, I only had him for 4 weeks but I see a big improvement, he didn’t eat good at the shelter or his former home.

Also with pica, I read excessive grass eating could be a symptom. I used to also have a cat that ate grass everyday, multiple times a day and would vomit after but no hair. This went on for 10 years and our vet said nothing concerning and all bloodwork came back normal. One day our cat drastically started losing weight and we felt a massive lump under his stomach and found out he had lymphoma of stomach and liver and he died a week later. It upset me for years the grass eating probably was a sign something was wrong and he was in pain, but why the vets found nothing for 10 years I don’t understand?

 

[lisahe]

Yes, the fur should just come out the other end so it's a good sign that you're seeing all the fur in the poops! Personally, I wouldn't worry about hairballs unless he's vomiting a lot and nothing's coming out. Or if he seems not to be hungry. I guess if he's getting rid of all the fur on his own you don't really have to worry about brushing! There are mitts that help remove fur, though: our cats like those.

If you've only had your cat for four weeks, I wonder if those pica tendencies will gradually lessen, once he's more settled in. Between the shelter and his previous home, where it sounds like he wasn't being fed well, he was probably under a lot of stress, which could be a contributing factor. That's one thing that's mentioned in the article and (of course!) it's our more high-strung cat who's eaten so many shoe laces and ribbons. Giving her toys (and paper, she loves shredding paper!) to chew on really helps, but several things, like rubber bands, are just banned from the house or stored away. Again, personally, I'd be much more concerned about talking with the vet about pica than the fur.

I'm very sorry to hear about your previous cat. Some vets just aren't very well trained in diagnosing digestive problems: we went through something similar with our previous cat, too. There was a lot of "nothing to worry about" but she also ended up with digestive problems and what was most likely lymphoma.

 

[MoonstoneWolf]

I'm giving these 2 cats 1/8 teaspoon 100% pumpkin puree a day. It helps with their hairballs as well as other issues. Make sure it's just pumpkin puree though and not a pie filling. Treasure loves the taste of pumpkin. With Shaman I have to hide the pumpkin in a spoon of her food. I usually do this first thing in the morning and they're good the rest of the day. Just my experience though.