GROOMING MAKES MY CAT CHOKE
There are special diets to help with hair problems for cats
By David Grant
Q MY TEN-YEAR-OLD cat has a habit of tearing out lumps of hair while grooming. This has caused him to choke. I have tried hairball-reducing biscuits without success. Is this common?
Arthur, Cheshire
A HAIR balls (sometimes called trichobezoars) are a very common problem. Up to 80 per cent of cats will regurgitate them at least monthly.
This accounts for your cat’s choking episodes. The cat’s tongue is like a rasp and grooming always results in some hair being ingested.
Mostly it passes along the digestive tract without problems. However it is regurgitated if it builds up in the stomach.
I would take your cat to the vet for a check-up. Skin allergies predispose some cats to excessive grooming. Treatment would greatly diminish the fur ball problem if this is the case.
Sometimes anxiety can provoke excessive licking or it could be simply due to excessive moulting, which is common at this time of year. Finally I would want to check that the digestive system is functioning normally.
There are things you can do yourself to prevent the problem. The most obvious one is to groom the cat daily. Cat grooming brushes are available from pet shops.
Many cats enjoy this as a part of their daily routine. There are special diets said to help this problem and it is worth trying some of them. To help the hair pass down the tract you could try adding a teaspoonful of corn oil to his food several times a week.
