anyways, my indoor cat for some reason as the years go by is getting more and more barf-oriented. When he was very young, whenever he had a hairball he would hack and hack and hack and eventually stop without barfing, then he figured out that if he ate some food, he could just barf it up with the hairball and it would be a lot less stressful (no more hacking). As the time went on he seemed to wait less in terms of hairball size, before he used to wait until they were larger, but lately he doesn’t want to be bothered I guess so it’s starting to get like a daily thing.
In addition to this sometimes randomly he will eat too fast, then barf (guess he didn’t chew it enough), and then just go back and re-eat more slowly.
As you can imagine all this barf-cleaning is starting to get to me in a big way, not to mention that I haven’t found yet a product good enough to completely make the carpet look like nothing had happened (not like big stains remain, but if you know where to look, and I do, you can see that there was something there).
Has anybody figured out a way around this? I am positive my cat is healthy (shiny coat, active, affectionate, everything normal) so I am reluctant to take him to the vet (he really, REALLY, hates going there), but this is driving me nuts. He also hates being brushed, so that’s not a solution either (when he sees the gloves/brush he hides, regardless). I feed him only good quality vet food, so I don’t want to feed him some mineral-oil crap they sell at walmart, or vaseline (like some people advocate), but in any case I am not sure that would be very helpful either, because he does seem to use the litter box very regularly anyways.
My cats were having barf problems for years and years! Soooo much barfing. Twice I got barfed on in the middle of the night. My cat jump on me to hang out, then 10 minutes later look at me funny and split second later barf on me. Good thing I love those little buggers.
They were eating “high grade” vet food, but I was convinced that it was what was making them barf all the time (other than the grass they eat outside, but it’s pretty obvious when grass is the culprit lol). Anyways, I FINALLY got my parents to switch it up to another food and now we are down to ~1 barf a week. It’s Iams digestive care (or something like that). I’ve never been a big Iams fan, but it was working for my girls so I figured try it for the boys too. Success! I’ve also got some kind of hairball treatment that I use with one of my girls that seems to help when I’m regular with it. Will have to check what it is when I get home, but she sees it as a treat for sure!
other than the grass they eat outside, but it’s pretty obvious when grass is the culprit lol
I had this issue too, I can’t have plants in the house (even plastic) because the stupid cat will try to eat them, same thing with rubber bands (of which he’s very fond of too)… I am not sure about the food as he’s been on this food all his life (9 years) and the issue seems more related to him being lazy and not feeling to deal with hairballs than anything else. He also know very well that doing this is bad (he goes away to barf, then comes back usually) but I guess he doesn’t care too much
I am thinking I will have to try and get him used to the brushing (maybe I will try to associate brushing to catnip or something), meh
Some cats just barf a lot. Our senior cat is alternately known as the Unipuker for obvious reasons. Diet does help. Since we switched to a food that has no corn or wheat in it, (Blue Buffalo, which uses mostly rice) the barfing has gone down by about 80%.
My cats were on their food for almost that amount of time too. Give a switch up a try. Try a formula with hairball control too. Ask your vet if they have any samples of food too. That way you can see if the cat will eat it, then try a bag and see if there’s any changes. And ya, brushing always helps. One of my girls FREAKS when I brush her so I just do the best I can with hairball treatment through food, etc.
There’s an anti-hair ball product called Laxatone that I get at my vet. One cat loves it and will lick it off my finger, the other hates it, but he is the long haired guy, so I put a big smear of it on his paw/arm. Once he stops trying to “run away” from it, he’s fine and licks it off. It seems to work quite well.
Seriously, use some type of natural oil on their paws. Butter works well. Smear a glob onto a paw, they lick it off, it lubes their innards and makes everything lots better.
Seriously, use some type of natural oil on their paws. Butter works well. Smear a glob onto a paw, they lick it off, it lubes their innards and makes everything lots better.
If only. With the Unipuker, anything smeared onto one of his paws gets flung onto the wall or floor within ten seconds of application.
In respect to the do do box how are his turds. Does he go once a day,what about the size and amount?
I wish my cat was ok with the vacuum cleaner, as soon as I turn it on he hides under the bed… size/amount seems ok compared to the amount of food he eats (it sometimes contains a few hairs, but rarely), my cat also drinks a LOT of water (always has) although I am not sure if this would have any side-effect of any kind.
My mom used to get some stuff from the vet that came in a tube. It looked sort of like molasses, but thicker. And the cats loved it.
That’s what I have. They would eat the whole tube in one sitting if they could!
Maybe a little more fiber in the diet will help.