# Terrifying Hairball Incident!



## JohnX (Jun 26, 2007)

My beloved twelve-year-old indoor kitty enjoys robust good health and is the whole world to me, in absence of any other family.

A early summer or two ago, I was reading in bed at about 4AM when I heard her choking up something and looked to see her fall off the bed. When I got up to look, I found her totally unconscious. I picked her up and began doing everything I could think of to shake life back in her and after a very long minute or so, she came to and after a bit of wheezing and staggering around was OK again after a while. I didn't dislodge anything and nothing seemed to come up.

OK, so today I hear her horking something up (never a rare event) and I look down to see her mightily shoot out a massive hairball a good foot or so out on the floor, turn around, walk about four feet and collapse. Horrified, I picked her up and ran into the bathroom with her and began shaking her and putting my finger in her mouth to see if her airway was blocked or what, but nothing came up and in less than a minute or so, she was conscious and after a bit of wheezing and rubber-leggedness, she was OK again. Nothing dislodged, no more upchucked, _nada_.

Aside from looking a bit more pensive and thoughtful than usual, she was normal in a bit.

So, after this second bad scare, I started thinking: Whatever this actually was, it seems like a statistical impossibility that these were the *only* two times it's ever happened -- I just wasn't there to see it and she got over it on her own, I suppose. If it were a human, I'd suspect a vagus nerve episode provoked by violent choking, but I don't even know if cats _have_ vagus nerves, or what. I'm mightily perplexed and very concerned for my cat. I can brush her until doomsday, but she'll still manage to scrape up enough fur for a hairball...and in any case it seems like she loses consciousness _after_ she's delivered herself of the obstruction anyway.

Any thoughts on this?


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## nanook (Jun 12, 2005)

How scary! 
I had the same thing happen with Little-one a few years ago. He made that hairball hacking sound and promptly fainted! Nothing ever came out. I was panicked and rushed him off to the vet. They took an x-ray. Nothing. So, to my horror, they suspected heart disease. He was only about 6 years old! Well, we did all the tests (more x-rays, ultrasound and ekg). Everything looked fine. They still don't know what caused him to faint so, needless to say, to this day, everytime he starts hacking, my heart is in my mouth. Strange thing is, he rarely actually has a hairball. I sometimes wonder if he's slightly asthmatic, but they never mentioned that at the three different vets I went to over it.
If I were you, I'd do two things. Have him checked out by your vet and start giving him a hairball remedy once a week.
Good luck with your kitty.


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## Willow771 (Jun 20, 2005)

invest in a cheap little life saver called Petromalt. comes in malt and fish flavor (my cats love malt flavor) its 7 bucks a tube. you give them a half inch squeeze in the mouth or smear it on their paws if they wont lick it off the tube directly. china is a compulsive puker, found out her sensitive tummy couldnt even take 20 or 30 hairs without puking and this helps big time. it soothes the tummy and break downs current gathered hair in the stomach and prevents future hairballs.

its a MUST have


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## Sparky (Apr 11, 2008)

nanook said:


> I sometimes wonder if he's slightly asthmatic, but they never mentioned that at the three different vets I went to over it.
> If I were you, I'd do two things. Have him checked out by your vet and start giving him a hairball remedy once a week.
> Good luck with your kitty.


My kitty has/had asthma. I thought she had a hair ball stick too. I took her to the vet he took some x-rays and found the asthma. He gave her two shots and she was 100% after two days. She had two more attacks about 4 months apart. Dr. thought it was due to the weather change. I have since begun changing the air filter in my heat/AC system once a month when I give her her flea treatment and we have not had an episode in three years. 
Also I feed her Hills Prescription Diet and she never had hair balls. No foul smelling litter box either.


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## hypertweeky (Nov 25, 2007)

Oh my gosh that is very scary! 8O 8O 
I am glad she is OK now!
Tiger has *never* had a hairball as he eats lettuce every morning, he LOVES green, I would suggest petromalt as well, my friend uses it for her cats and they do great.
http://www.thecatconnection.com/page/TC ... L/HRB-0787


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

If you have a short haired cat you might want to invest in the Furminator brush. The brush does an amazing job of getting alot of loose hair out of a cats coat so you kitty ingests less hair when she grooms herself. What a scary incident. Glad she is Ok.


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## gunterkat (Aug 19, 2006)

Wow! What a scary thing to happen! 8O 
Arianwen hasn't had any hairballs that I know of. She eats a lot of grass, though, and doesn't upchuck it. Could the grass she eats be a natural hairball remedy?


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## JohnX (Jun 26, 2007)

Well, despite my brushing her half to death yesterday, she still managed to hork up a couple more much less impressive hairballs during the night. I know, because I was sleeping on one and stepped on the other upon rising. :roll: 

She was nowhere to be found, and I looked all over the house, calling her...fearing she has crawled off and croaked during the night, but after a while she magically appeared, looking at me like I was stupid. She ate a big load of hairball-formula catfood and then came in and sat on my chest, purring her brains out and belching in my face. Everything normal, in other words.

Though it's still a mystery at this point, I suspect that she is not choking, but just briefly passing out after the occasional _really_ severe hurl (I probably would too). There's nothing else wrong with her, aside from the usual attitude problems.

I figured that the hairball food, which I've been feeding here for the past month or two, would replace the added hairball supplements, but maybe not. I probably need to get her a more effective brush as well.


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## Leazie (Apr 14, 2007)

How scary. I would also invest in a baby nasal aspirator so that you can clear her airway after one of those attacks.

I hope that changes that you are making in food, etc. make a big difference. If she still keeps having the hairball problems can you get her shaved so she doesn't have anythng to ingest (I am reaching here).


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