The Hairball Paradox

[tdonline]

I posted this a few years back and didn't receive much feedback (if at all). The problem remains so I'm posting again in hopes some new ideas pop up.

Quite simply, the more I brush my cats, the more hairballs (or more accurately for one of them, retching without much hair) appear. Does anyone else experience this?

When I don't brush, one of my cats, D, still gets hairballs but just not as frequently. J, her sister, almost never gets hairballs at all. But when I brush, it's almost guaranteed that one or both of them will hack up a ball within 12 hours of brushing.

So why brush? Well, in the warm seasons, the shedding is outrageous. In addition, I worry about the infrequent but huge hairballs that can build up and possibly become obstructions. J, has poop with lots of hair so she passes them through her GI system. Unfortunately, she also seems to be very sensitive to any bit of hair that doesn't go through. So once or twice a year, she will show signs of illness and goes off eating for a day or two. Then she hacks up and all is well. You would expect a gigantic hairball, but no, it's just a measly little thing. D, on the other hand, hacks up more frequently but the hairballs look like little cigars.

Sorry for the details, but circling back, why is it when I follow the oft-given advice to brush more, my cats produce more hairballs? I've tried different methods but the results remain the same. I use the furminator, then a horsebrush to pick up loose hair and gently pat them with damp hands to catch the finest of loose hair. Half a day later, hairballs.

 

[Ardina]

Maybe the brushing prompts your cats to groom themselves to "fix" how their fur lies. And the grooming session after you've loosened their undercoats leads to increased ingestion of hair and thus a hairball. I have no evidence for this theory besides the fact that one of my cats used to groom herself after getting petted. That's the only thing I can think of.

 

[tdonline]

Ardina, that's my theory as well. That's why I try to pick up the loose hair with the horsebrush and damp hands. Maybe I should leave them alone and stop brushing? And just hope they don't develop huge hairballs?

 

[arouetta]

If shedding is the reason you are brushing them, what about switching to bathing them? I found that regular baths got rid of a lot of cat fur.

 

[abyeb]

Are your cats longhairs or shorthairs? If they're shorthair, then I'd suggest brushing once per week, longhairs will need more brushing, but exactly how much depends on how thick the fur is. Since it seems that your cats will self-groom more after a brushing, which causes the hairballs, I think you have to try to find the minimum amount of grooming necessary that keeps their fur looking good and not matted, but not too much grooming that will cause more hairballs when your cats self-groom to "fix it", so basically this is an optimization problem. You can also try laxatone or egg yolk lecithin, which will help to aid their digestion so that the hair will come out in the stool.

 

[tdonline]

I bathed them when I first adopted them. I gave up because they scratched up my back trying to escape. And they were traumatized. I also believe they would go on a licking frenzy after bathing.

 

[tdonline]

Are your cats longhairs or shorthairs? If they're shorthair, then I'd suggest brushing once per week, longhairs will need more brushing, but exactly how much depends on how thick the fur is. Since it seems that your cats will self-groom more after a brushing, which causes the hairballs, I think you have to try to find the minimum amount of grooming necessary that keeps their fur looking good and not matted, but not too much grooming that will cause more hairballs when your cats self-groom to "fix it", so basically this is an optimization problem. You can also try laxatone or egg yolk lecithin, which will help to aid their digestion so that the hair will come out in the stool.

They are DSH though one of them borders on DMH (she sheds a sweater a day...I swear). Ok, I will stick with a schedule and see what happens. This problem makes me question the timeline ranging from hardly brushing at all to brushing everyday. One friend told me she brushes her cat daily with HB gel dosing and her cat never gets hairballs (and is very regular too). What a dream.

Yes, they get HB dosing after brushing. Doesn't seem to make a difference. We used egg yolk lecithin for a couple of summers and again, no difference. Slippery elm made them vomit.

I'm also considering torso/belly shaves for them. They won't allow me to brush in that area. Perhaps that's where they are ingesting most of the hair? It's certainly the body part I see them lick most often.

 

[susanm9006]

I think that brushing loosens some fur in the undercoat that then gets picked up by the cats tongue. Instead of brushing I would use something like Furminator which actually cuts out some the undercoat to reduce future shedding. I also always finish my grooming by running my damp hands over the cat to pick up loose hair remaining on them which always seems to be quite even when I think I have gotten it all.