Hairballs happen when debris and dead fur get ingested when your pet cat grooms herself. Normally, the process lets this ingested fur pass properly through the gastrointestinal tract. However, if the stomach gets irritated, the debris and dead fur could get squeezed up and back through the cat’s esophagus, exiting through her mouth. The coughed-up hairballs are frequently coated with saliva, stomach bile, and perhaps partially digested grass or food. This makes your pet cat’s hairballs take an elongated shape.
Are Hairballs Good?
You might think that it is good for your cat to cough up something that should not be in her digestive system. There are reported cases of pet cats having accumulated a huge amount of hair that eventually becomes an obstruction, necessitating surgery to remove. Therefore, between the two, coughing up hairballs might appear to be the better option.
Hold on a bit
But vomiting, coughing, and various other related behaviors might be indicators of serious medical problems like allergies, cancer, inflammatory bowel diseases, asthma, heartworm, and others.
Frequent coughing up of hairballs should be brought to the attention of your vet clinic Columbia MD.
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