Cats and furballs. What's your solution?

also try... Pumpkin puree can and mix it little with cat food! :)
 
Well, petroleum jelly is a mineral oil. You could use petroleum jelly you found at a grocery (Vaseline). It acts as a lubricant to help furballs pass.

Some vets recommend butter, but I am against it. Butter came from milk. Not all cats are lactose intolerant. My cat had a horrible experience a few months ago. Hubby accidentally left milk on the table for a while, and I had no idea how much milk she drank it. She vomited all over the floors. Cats lack the enzyme, lactase that helps digest milk.

I just had a sudden thought regarding canned pumpkin. What about pumpkin baby food? I've never bought it yet. Hmm..

This is what I feed my cat- Libby's Pumpkin. The fall and winter seasons are coming up, so the prices should go down a bit soon.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Libbys-Pumpkin-15-oz/dp/B0005ZYSIA/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1285158813&sr=8-2-fkmr2]Libby's Pumpkin, 15 oz: Amazon.com: Grocery & Gourmet Food[/ame]


I recommend feeding cat a wet food diet if you can afford to buy raw meats like a whole chicken, organs, beef, etc. It'll alleviate furball problems.

For those who can't afford to buy raw meats can try canned pumpkin or Vaseline to control furball problem. Oh, and furminator! I looooove furminator.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGAzWUSNvcs[/ame]
 
I forgot to add additional comment-

Canned pumpkin will spoil after being opened. Place it in the ice cube trays- freeze it. It is easier.
 
Must order the furminator soon. Thanks for suggesting this.

I put vaseline on my cat's nose and top paws. He didn't seem to mind but he went on a long grooming process after this. So I'll try again next week and see if it helps.

Am glad you guys gave me suggestions to use for my cat.
 
When in the past I had a fuzzy Siamezer he would shed like crazy and lick even more. When he got a daily brushing he got a thin smear of vaseline on his little nose. My vet suggested it. Just a little bit, like lotion for his nose. If he ever got a furball it was rare and he would get a small dollop on his nose. It was so much easier to dot his nose between his crossed blue eyes than on those dangerous paws. lol. (I still miss that menace)
 
freckles said:
yup, keep it up, brush every other day or so, it helps a lot! have you tried furminator? -- click on pictures for more in there. you WON'T regret that brush!! it sheds a lot of 'hidden' furs out for you.
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Thanks for the recommendation! I'm going to check that out! In the meantime, for 2 of the 5 cats I have, 2 are long-haired. We shave them down regularly -- we use the shaver on the longest setting so it doesn't shave them bald or even close to it at all. It just makes their fur a bit shorter, that's all. It does work well in terms of furballs.

Barbaro said:
I forgot to add additional comment-

Canned pumpkin will spoil after being opened. Place it in the ice cube trays- freeze it. It is easier.
Click to expand...

That's a GREAT idea! I use the canned pumpkin too after it was recommended by my vet. I never thought to freeze it.

Miss-Delectable said:
I went to the grocery store today but they had no canned pumpkin, so I think it's an American item.

As for Vaseline, they contain petroleum. *sighs*

So I might have to order it from US or ask one of youse to do me a favour.
Click to expand...

In the U.S., we are in a real shortage right now of canned pumpkin. It hasn't been available in stores since the middle of summer. So it's possible that could be the same worldwide. Last time I asked, they thought the shortage would be over sometime in October, so next time I grocery-shop, I'll check to see if any are back in stock yet. (I don't think it has anything to do with fall being pumpkin growing season because normally canned pumpkin is available year-round.)

Anyway -- if you are need of something from someone in the US (like me), I would be more than happy to ship you something. PM me :)
 
AlleyCat said:
Thanks for the recommendation! I'm going to check that out! In the meantime, for 2 of the 5 cats I have, 2 are long-haired. We shave them down regularly -- we use the shaver on the longest setting so it doesn't shave them bald or even close to it at all. It just makes their fur a bit shorter, that's all. It does work well in terms of furballs.
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hmm, on longest setting, is another good idea! maybe I can try that... how did two of your cats reacted to the clipper?
AlleyCat said:
Anyway -- if you are need of something from someone in the US (like me), I would be more than happy to ship you something. PM me :)
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me too, miss delectable! sorry I didn't see this earlier. hope you didn't had to wait.
 
Hi guys,
Good to hear from y'all here. I don't need canned pumpkin just yet. I put vaseline on him one time and it seems to work now that he's not coughing everyday. Yay!

But will order furminator as summer is coming around the corner and he'd be shedding like mad.

Thanks, I'll PM you if I'm in need of something for my old dear cat. If you need something that Australia has then you're welcome to do the same. :)
 
LOL Yizuman.

My old cat did puke like a human once. :lol:

So cat can puke if they ingest some food that does not agree with their digestive system.
 
I'm going to offer one more suggestion: try changing his food. Seriously, food impacts nearly everything about an animal. Some food (usually lower quality) can make a cat shed more. The length of the coat also doesn't mean anything: it's the density of the coat. I've got a longhair cat: has hacked up maybe 3 hairballs in her life (which is going on 9 1/2 years now). I've also got a shorthair who has never hacked up a hairball in her life, though she has had wheezing episodes (you know, that gasping noise that cats usually go through right before they splat the floor with a hairball, only Buffy eventually gulps and stops wheezing, and she's fine). I've got a third cat, another shorthair, who hacks up a hairball practically on a weekly basis. She's a horrible shedder. She spent about 3 years on a RAW food diet, but when I switched her to canned Friskies (my place of employment shut down) for about 6 months, I noticed the rate of hairballs went up dramatically. It seemed like there was a hairball every few days. Now she's on canned Halo and I think she's had one hairball this past month. She's on that mainly because she's always had digestive issues, and this stuff has been helping that (it's high fiber and has pumpkin in it, which could easily be helping with the hairballs, and it's low protein to help her digestive system keep from spewing foul diarrhea, lol)

Also, get a ZoomGroom. Sometimes it doesn't work for certain animals (doesn't work on my dog, or my longhaired cat, but they actually don't shed that much), but when it does work, it's amazing. Occasionally I'll take Molly (the hairball queen) outside and just go nuts on her with the ZoomGroom, getting out wads and wads of hair. She then spends the next week without shedding clumps of hair everytime somebody strokes her back, and most importantly, there's no hairballs. I actually like the ZoomGroom better than the Furminator.
 
Miss Delectable said:
Good to hear from y'all here. I don't need canned pumpkin just yet. I put vaseline on him one time and it seems to work now that he's not coughing everyday. Yay!
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that's great!! hope that keeps up. oh, miss, it's good to record each spitballs and you may notice a pattern -- you could know more by patterns. it's interesting! and that can help his vet a lot if any major problems coming up.

Aussie_Dog said:
I'm going to offer one more suggestion: try changing his food. Seriously, food impacts nearly everything about an animal. Some food (usually lower quality) can make a cat shed more. The length of the coat also doesn't mean anything: it's the density of the coat.

Also, get a ZoomGroom. Sometimes it doesn't work for certain animals (doesn't work on my dog, or my longhaired cat, but they actually don't shed that much), but when it does work, it's amazing. I actually like the ZoomGroom better than the Furminator.
Click to expand...
completely right. one of my cats, she's short haired, SHEDS way more than all other cats. like it's summer all around the year!! furs SO thicky. so annoying lol but furminator helps a lot with that. the funny thing is I've NEVER seen hairball from her if I don't groom her but from others and they all eat same food/RAW.

what miss delectable have is a long haired. furminator works best for me, all of them are strictly indoor and it combs throughout. had zoomgrooms and they were chewed to death lol. works great for brushing furs off couches, too.

anyway, cool that you feed (or fed) them RAW diet too!
 
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