Hair all preventative for a cat with food allergies?

[treeclimber]

My cat has food allergies and has been put on a novel protein diet

His symptoms seem to be improving, but he also seems to be having more hairballs now, probably because I stopped giving him his hairball preventative gel. I still brush him but he’s got a lot of hair and I think brushing alone may not be enough.

I’ve been trying to find a hairball preventative I can give him that’s allowed under his novel protein diet, but they all seem to have poultry, fish, beef, or “natural flavor” which could be any of those.

Does anybody know of a hairball preventative that’s OK for cats with food allergies?

 

[FeebysOwner]

How about butter or margarine? A dab from your finger or on his paw for him to lick off. Or you can try adding a couple of drops of olive oil to his food.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Or if he can have eggs, egg yolks are good for hairballs. Dried egg yolks, or egg yolk lecithin work well too. One of my cats really like both of those, but the other not so much. You can actually purchase dried egg yolks from Foodfurlife so you don't have to go to the trouble of making them yourself, and they have a long shelf life. Here's the link if you're interested: EZ Egg Yolk

 

[daftcat75]

Pet Naturals of Vermont uses a hydrolyzed chicken liver flavor. The hydrolyzation process is meant to make it look less like chicken to the immune system. It may work for your boy.

PET NATURALS Hairball Cat Chews, 30 count - Chewy.com

Digestive enzymes may also help because it is the fat that binds with hair in the stomach that creates the impassable ball that eventually comes back up. Adding a little digestive enzymes to his food could help predigest some of that fat making it harder to form a ball.

Optagest is a brand I've used before.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LO2QEG/?tag=thecatsite

Finally something that could really help with the hairballs. But it may not be tolerated by your guy. Egg yolk lecithin is a mixture of fats derived from egg yolks that will help emulsify the fat in his belly and gut. Emulsification of the fat makes it easier for the cat to pass the fat. And if that sounds like a laxative effect, it is. You shouldn't need very much of this. I would simply re-pack it into size five or size four gelatin capsules so that he doesn't even have to taste the stuff (in case he's as picky as my Betty.) But because it is made from eggs, it may not agree with his allergies.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003OCAZTM/?tag=thecatsite

 

[LTS3]

Digestive enzymes may also help because it is the fat that binds with hair in the stomach that creates the impassable ball that eventually comes back up. Adding a little digestive enzymes to his food could help predigest some of that fat making it harder to form a ball.

Digestive enzymes may not help for all cats. My cats have been on Optagest for a few months now and they still have hairballs

 

[daftcat75]

Digestive enzymes may not help for all cats. My cats have been on Optagest for a few months now and they still have hairballs

Digestive enzymes is one of the weaker therapies for hairballs. It has helped my cats some in the past. But usually their hairballs still come. They just seem to be worse without the digestive enzymes.

Hairballs can also be an early sign of IBD. If you've tried other hairball therapies and you're still not finding relief, I would recommend ultrasounds for the hairballers. The only presentation Betty has with her IBD is hairballs and truly the only thing that has eliminated them is pred. She's tapered twice and even at the 2.5 mg level, she's been hairball free for nearly a month now. To be clear, she hasn't had a hairball since we started pred in August. We're almost at the one month mark on the 2.5 mg taper level and still no hairballs.

 

[treeclimber]

Pet Naturals of Vermont uses a hydrolyzed chicken liver flavor. The hydrolyzation process is meant to make it look less like chicken to the immune system. It may work for your boy.

PET NATURALS Hairball Cat Chews, 30 count - Chewy.com

Yes!!!!! Thank you!

I'll run these past our vet to double-check, but I think he can have these!

Edit: I don't see anywhere on the packaging for the one on Chewy where it says the chicken liver is hydrolyzed. But I did find this version on Pet Naturals' website which comes in a different style of packaging (cylinder instead of bag) and does say hydrolyzed. Not sure if they're both hydrolyzed or if there's a difference between the two, but I thought it was worth mentioning for anyone else who Googles across this later.

 

[treeclimber]

Hairballs can also be an early sign of IBD. If you've tried other hairball therapies and you're still not finding relief, I would recommend ultrasounds for the hairballers. The only presentation Betty has with her IBD is hairballs and truly the only thing that has eliminated them is pred. She's tapered twice and even at the 2.5 mg level, she's been hairball free for nearly a month now. To be clear, she hasn't had a hairball since we started pred in August. We're almost at the one month mark on the 2.5 mg taper level and still no hairballs.

That's useful to know.

There are definitely digestive issues happening, but his ultrasound didn't show any thickening of his intestinal walls and his eosinophils were pretty high, so fingers crossed it may be something more in the realm of allergies than IBD.

 

[daftcat75]

Yes!!!!! Thank you!

I'll run these past our vet to double-check, but I think he can have these!

Edit: I don't see anywhere on the packaging for the one on Chewy where it says the chicken liver is hydrolyzed. But I did find this version on Pet Naturals' website which comes in a different style of packaging (cylinder instead of bag) and does say hydrolyzed. Not sure if they're both hydrolyzed or if there's a difference between the two, but I thought it was worth mentioning for anyone else who Googles across this later.

As far as I know they are the same thing. Probably just different sizes. The cylinder may stay fresh longer than the bag? Betty liked these chews okay. They weren’t her favorite. I had to break them in half for her and she didn’t alway get through all four halves. She likes Greenies a whole lot more. But that is likely something he can’t have.

 

[treeclimber]

As far as I know they are the same thing. Probably just different sizes. The cylinder may stay fresh longer than the bag? Betty liked these chews okay. They weren’t her favorite. I had to break them in half for her and she didn’t alway get through all four halves. She likes Greenies a whole lot more. But that is likely something he can’t have.

Probably so - maybe the picture of the packaging for the small size is an older picture, and they changed to hydrolyzed later without updating the picture.

"Liked them OK" I can work with - if he decides not to eat them, I can always break them into small enough pieces to give them like pills. But hopefully he'll eat them!

Also looks like they have psyllium, which his vet wanted him to try too, so that's an extra bonus!!