Those Nasty Hairballs

Recently we had a cat which showed all the signs of having a very nasty hairball. I’m sure you all know the signs a cat will show trying to get rid of them. They put their head down and cough from deep inside. It's not a chest or head cough. Sometimes they stick their tongue out a bit while they are coughing. Usually they can cough the hairball up. If not, we usually give them a store bought remedy to break up the hair so they can pass it.

Once we tried for two weeks to get rid of our cat's hairball with no avail. We were giving him as much of the store bought product as the directions permitted. Finally frustrated with the situation, I called one of my vets to ask if they had any suggestions.

Jonathan Barkow, D.V.M. of Oakwood Animal Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan told me if it were a rabbit we were dealing with, the treatment would be to give him raw pineapple. He decided that even though we were dealing with a feline, we should give it a try anyway. The raw (not canned or heated for preservation) pineapple contains the enzyme papain, which breaks down proteins. Hair is a protein.

We had to blend the raw pineapple to get it to a consistency in which we could get the cat to swallow. We started out with about 12cc in a syringe knowing we'd never get that much down the animal, I think we probably got about 4cc down the cat's throat and about 8cc all over us. It wasn't a pretty sight. We repeated this for about three days. Then we gave him a rest and guess what? No more coughing.

I would not recommend using this method routinely. The prepared products are much easisr to use. However, if you get a cat with a really stubborn hairball, you may just want to give this a try. Hopefully it will work as well for you.