Cat advice

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Ordinarily, they're deposited on the posh rug in the front room via the front end, but after the malt treats (they adore them, btw), there are strange looking fuzzy monsters sitting in the litter tray the next morning. They are quite pale, but then again, my cats have a mixture of colours. I'm guessing Noah's would look like he'd murdered Casper!

paddypaws101

Definitely sounds like a hair/furball fit to me. One of mine does this quite frequently and I give him a dose of Laxapet or Catalax which is a malty paste, they all seem to like it and will eat it straight from the tube. Is this the same as the malt treats mentioned above?
Prevention being better than cure you could try a good Furminator session to get to the fur before the cats does!

Fire_Fox

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Ordinarily, they're deposited on the posh rug in the front room via the front end, but after the malt treats (they adore them, btw), there are strange looking fuzzy monsters sitting in the litter tray the next morning. They are quite pale, but then again, my cats have a mixture of colours. I'm guessing Noah's would look like he'd murdered Casper!

Noah likes to 'cough' and also eat raw chicken wings sat on my nice rug. :eek: The first hairball gave me a fright, as I thought he had had done a funny coloured number two! I have had cats before but never seen a hairball.

Think I am going to get some malt treats. Noah has always had fat belly but it's actually really solid, not wobbly at all. I am pretty sure he doesn't have worms as doesn't go out and I check the litter tray (will buy wormer when he has his checkup as he does eat raw meat). Maybe he is full of furballs ...

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

The treats have the same stuff in as the pastes, but you are less likely to lose the tip of your finger with little crunchy treats! The litter tray will probably be used a couple of times during the night, so be prepared to be woken by the sounds of digging for victory

I must admit, whilst I'm happy to give my herberts the occasional treat of liver, tuna and the odd bit of raw mince/meat trimmings whilst cooking (the girls can tell what's for dinner by spotting which cat is staring at my legs from the kitchen door, usually willing me to drop the lot on the floor),

one of the reasons I tend to keep them as tiny treats is that everything big and yummy is dragged off to be consumed under my bed/behind a door. I hate crawling around after them, trying to see if they have eaten it all or have decided to leave it to go nasty!

But furballs are one of the joys of indoor cats, normally they'd be left round the back of a hedge somewhere, we just get these added extras. [sigh]

rita-rabbit

thanks for this reminded me to restart Mia on these De-Fur-em (reckon Chi deposits his outdoors - never saw one before Mia & that was after the double glazing had been put in - higher windows I saw her coughing with her head out of the window)

Becci

thanks for all the advice, where do you all get the hairball treats from? ive rung the vets to see if they stock them but all they have is the paste and would want to charge me £30 to see a vet before they would let me try that! Also this morning i have noticed when i pick her up her breathing sounds quite deep and raspy is this normal with hairballs? or could it mean there is something else?

SnowyOwl_2

Is there confusion between hairball elimination and a coughing fit?

Furballs come from the stomach, not from the lungs! If your cat was coughing and wheezing that is from the lungs and she'd have held her head out flat. If your cat was trying to get rid of a hair ball through her mouth she'd make horrible sick noises - really exaggerated retching and she'd bend her back up and down with the effort. (It's alarming and not at all pleasant to watch I have to say.)

You can get hairball treatment from any pet shop.

It sounds to me like she's got a chesty cough rather than a hairball, ie it's an irritation in her lungs rather than hair in her stomach.

Maybe you could take her in to the vet anyway - I know £30 is a fair whack of dosh...but for peace of mind isn't it worth it?

Becci

Yeah think im going to take her down now, shes insured so worse case senario is £50 excess to pay! Swear the cat always times getting ill as close to pay day as possible so im strapped for cash!

squiggle37

Hiya, my cat Biscuit was like that last week, kept me up all nite with the sound of her trying to be sick and coughing, horrible to watch her and listen to as she looked like she was in pain, went to vets next day after reading on net that it could be a hairball bought some catalax (£15) gave it her for 3 days she seems fine now. Good luck at vets.

Becci

Hi al am back from the vets, the cat is fine, vet just thinks its a hairball, am going to try her on Katalax but going to get it online as its half the price of the vets! will let you know how she gets on