{"id":422,"date":"2015-02-10T19:18:34","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T19:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/petcarefacts.com\/?p=422"},"modified":"2015-02-10T19:21:02","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T19:21:02","slug":"hairballs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/tips-and-how-tos\/hairballs","title":{"rendered":"Hairballs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The fact that cats have hairballs is common knowledge. However, \u201cwhat are they\u201d and \u201chow do they happen\u201d are not as widely discussed, since the subject can be rather gag-worthy. Though hairballs may hardly be a pleasant topic to consider at the dinner table, for the sake of understanding our kitties better, let\u2019s briefly break down what is happening to your feline when a hairball makes an appearance.<\/p>\n<h2>What is a hairball?<\/h2>\n<p>The scientific word for hairball is <em>trichobezoars<\/em>. This can be broken down to <em>tricho<\/em> meaning \u201cpertaining to hair\u201d and <em>bezoar,<\/em> meaning \u201ca mass or glob collecting in the gastrointestinal system.\u201d A hairball is the solid substance that is vomited by a cat after a build-up has happened in his body, and is considered a natural by-product of meticulous feline hygiene\/grooming regimen.<\/p>\n<h2>What causes a hairball?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pawversity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cat-haiball.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-423\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pawversity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cat-haiball-300x287.jpg?resize=250%2C239\" alt=\"cartoon image of a cat that has coughed up a hairball\" width=\"250\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cat-haiball.jpg?resize=300%2C287&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cat-haiball.jpg?w=650&amp;ssl=1 650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Cats spend a large portion of the day grooming themselves. They find a quiet place to stretch out, and give special attention to licking every inch of their bodies. By so doing, they remove dirt particles, dust, lint, and excess hair from their coats to keep them sleek and shiny. During the grooming process, the brush-like fissures in a cat\u2019s tongue scoop away the hair and dusty bits, which the cat sometimes accidentally swallows. Most of the hair will simply pass through the cat\u2019s stool, but in many cases, the grime and fuzz gets stuck in either the cat\u2019s small intestine or his stomach. This internal wad of fur causes digestive discomfort for the cat, which results in him coughing until the hairball has been regurgitated.<\/p>\n<h2>Symptoms of hairballs<\/h2>\n<p>Your cat may seem out of sorts for a while, showing evidence of a loss of appetite or constipation. He will also be retching and hacking, or making gagging noises throughout the day. This will eventually result in him vomiting, either producing the hairball, or simply just the contents of his stomach, since the hairball is causing him discomfort. If your ailing feline is gagging for more than a day or two, or is having severe diarrhea, then be sure to bring him to a vet as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fact that cats have hairballs is common knowledge. However, \u201cwhat are they\u201d and \u201chow do they happen\u201d are not as widely discussed, since the subject can be rather gag-worthy. Though hairballs may hardly be a pleasant topic to consider at the dinner table, for the sake of understanding our kitties better, let\u2019s briefly break [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-and-how-tos","tag-cats"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cat-haiball.jpg?fit=650%2C621&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5xKys-6O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}