HAIR BALLS

Question
We have two cats, male & female. Although we brush our ( the female does not like it at all) cats often they still have problems with hair balls. We tried the medicine recommended by our vet but this caused both cats to get diarrhea. Is there a special cat food you could recommend

Answer
Hi William,

There are many cat foods out there that have 'hairball' formula's but the best one I can recommend is, honestly, raw.  My cats have been on a raw diet for over five years and have absolutely NO hairballs to bring up!  A species apropriate diet makes for a healthy coat that sheds less  and a digestive tract that can handle what does get ingested so the problem isn't there to begin with.

Alternately you can use these formula's but they are generally high in corn which many cats are now allergic to and thus it causes diarrhea as you have seen.  

If you don't want to switch to a better diet you can try to lubricate your cats digestive system to make it easier for the cat to pass the hairball.  To do this you can add a teaspoon of fish oil to their food once a week (this also has some good vitamins for them).  Canned pumpkin mixed with their food everyday also helps to really move things along and cats seem to like the stuff!  

Good luck!

Natoma