Cat owners are used to their pets having hairballs. As a matter of fact, it is pretty common to see cats cough up hairballs. Many cat owners don't realize, however, that hair balls can actually cause some serious problems. If you have noticed that your cat has been coughing up a lot of hairballs recently, then it's quite possible that your cat can benefit from cat hairball control. If this is your first time researching some of these methods, then you may want to know first what the different is between healthy hairballs and unhealthy hairballs. The line between the two is not always clear, but by being a sensitive and observant pet owner, you may be able to make a good judgment call.

All cats cough up hairballs, though many have problems. This is when cat hairball control becomes necessary. To begin with, if your cat has diarrhea, indigestion, or even constipation, then your pet may very well be suffering from unhealthy hairballs. Before you rush your animal to the vet and spend hundreds of dollars on getting some common sense advice, you may want to make sure that you are not missing a chance to help your cat with some basic control methods.

On the most common cat hairball control methods is to help your cat to groom. Sure, cats love to lick themselves to improve their appearances and to keep themselves clean, but they can also get to the point where they have trouble getting rid of the hairballs. You may need to help your cat to groom. You can purchase a brush. This will get rid of much of the excess hair that your cat is having trouble digesting. By combing your cat several times a week, you also are giving it attention. Instead of simply grooming, this can be a real bonding experience.

Another common method of cat hairball control is to increase how much water your cat drinks. Water helps to break down the excess wet cat hair that may get stuck in your pet's stomach. By breaking it down, the water enables your pet to get rid of the hairball in its excrement. Many pet owners put their animals on high fiber diets. This breaks down the food and hair that your cat carries in its stomach. Special diet foods can be purchased. If you are going to look for some great hairball control methods, make sure that you go online, this way you can read about the products.

What? No mention of cat crass? Or malt paste? Or petroleum jelly? Or Katalax? Though you might not have the latter one in the US.

Potentially quite dangerous advice though:

Unfortunately, because each of these can have so many causes, which could be a hairball but which also could be a bacterial infection, obstruction etc, your advice to first look around for some home remedies to save money can potentially be the wrong thing to do with dire consequences.

Perhaps next time be more careful about the advice you put on the tinternet - here and on the other sites that you write for. Just a thought.