hairball or worse?

by laura
(pasadena)

My cat is 5 yrs old, and has always had, what I call, digestive problems. He has vomitted his food alot. Sometime it contains are big hairballs, and sometimes there are none. He seems to drink plenty of water, so I keep him on Purina sensitive system (DRY) and it seems to limit the amount of times he vomits per month. Anyway, for the last week he has been doing the choking-jerking-hacking noises and motion, but nothing is coming out. I found a pile of what seems to be a thrown up bunny in the back yard, and that has been there for at least a week or so.....do you think this could be part of the problem?

Answer by Kate
Well there are several issues here.

if your cat has a long coat then hairballs will be a constant problem if he is not groomed regularly.

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/hairballs.html

Also if he is a hunter and catches and eats his prey a lot then he may have got a bone caught etc.

My best advice would be, if on this occasion he seems to behaving differently then before and is throwing up more often and making these hacking noises then I would definitely take him to the vet, just in case he does have a bone lodged in his throat. Hairballs can also build up to such a point that they are too big to pass and the vet will have to help here too.

i do hope he is better soon

best wishes Kate

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