How can you know if it’s a hairball or not? Treatment of hairballs involves regular grooming and the use of lubricants to help hairballs pass. What do cats do when they have a hairball? Generally your cat will crouch with her neck extended, hacking and gagging in distress until she vomits up the offending wad of hair. Generally, hairballs are harmless but not always. Usually, the hair passes through the intestinal tract, but some cats are more prone than others to accumulating hair in the stomach. Many cats spend a good deal of their day grooming. Hairballs, known to veterinarians as trichobezoars, occur as a result of cats grooming and swallowing the hair they remove. Of course sometimes the cause of coughing and retching is actually a hairball. Always cover your cat’s face when using such products. Flea spray and flea powders can be inhaled and will cause sudden coughing episodes. Sprays, powders and propellants can cause a harsh cough that is similar to that of a hairball. This is another reason why keeping cats inside is a good idea. This instrument will also allow for removal of the foreign body. Persistent coughs might have to be evaluated by directly examining the airways using a bronchoscope. Most such foreign bodies will be difficult to see on radiographs. Many cats like to eat grass and sometimes the blade of grass can become lodged in the throat. On occasion, a foreign body such as a grass awn or blade of grass will be inhaled and cause a stubborn cough. Additionally, developing immature worms can set off a severe, inflammatory response in the smaller lung blood vessels, in the airways and in the lung tissue itself 1. Adult worms, if present, tend to reside in the blood vessels of the infected cat’s lungs. Yes, you read that correctly- lung disease.
HARD describes a lung disease caused by heartworms in cats. If you listen closely, you may be able to detect a wheezing sound as the cat exhales.įeline asthma can be treated using systemic corticosteroids or administration of an inhalant medication as is used in people. Frequent or prolonged episodes of coughing may in fact be the result of serious respiratory conditions such as feline asthma. Some cats that we may think have hairballs may actually have serious respiratory problems. Let’s take a look a 5 things that you may think are hairballs. Sometimes though, no hairball is produced then you ask “Could it be something else?” Well yes it could. If you share your life with a cat, or two, or five, you have almost certainly heard your cat making a very troubled wheezing, coughing, retching sound that you assumed to be a hairball.
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