Hairballs Aren't Really Ball-shaped, Are They?

In my previous article, I mentioned how Tungsten had to receive injections of water several times a day. Josie is currently receiving worse treatment, though hers, fortunately, is not permanent.

I think my Chubs has a hairball. She was been throwing up lately, more than usual. She has always had a sensitive stomach, and eating too much would cause it to overflow, so to speak. But recently, she has begun to vomit less food and more fluid, sometimes a pinkish, clear liquid. I’m told that this may be a symptom of a hairball, one which may be irritating her stomach and won’t come up.

Enter the laxative, in a manner of speaking. This is a special laxative / lubricant, something in the form of goop that will help push, pull, force, coax, persuade, perhaps even blackmail the hairball out. The first thing was to get the goop into her.

I knew I would face an up-hill battle when I was told that it was ‘fish’ flavoured. Most of my cats like some form of fish. They like it from a variety of tinned foods which, I suspect, use real fish, more or less, in their contents. The goop one buys as a form of medicine is probably not full of the harvest of the sea. I don’t know which ultimately cancer-causing chemical is used to simulate fish flavour, but it doesn’t find favour with my crowd. I recall tormenting the late Bear-Bear with ‘triple-fish’ flavoured medicine. The ‘triple’ bit must have meant he would hate it thrice as much as normal. Josie shared the BB’s opinion and would have nothing to do with the goop.

The instructions were to apply a bit to the cat’s nose, so that they would grow accustomed to the taste. Do you know what happens when I put something on one of my cat’s nose? She walks around with it on her nose. “Put a drop on her paw” is another useless instruction. Mine just rub it off, which is pretty messy when it’s sticky goop.

Anyway, I initially tried pushing some of the medicine into Josie’s mouth with my finger. That was a failure. It got all over the outside of her mouth and she looked like a badger that had just caught a rabbit; an unpleasant sight. Then I used a syringe. This is was better, but the big syringe I used was too big. I could not force the plunger down hard enough against the drag of the goop, and so either too little came out, or too much. Then I switched to a smaller syringe. This, though not perfect, got the job done. It is still a struggle with Josie, but almost everything that should go into her is going into her.

However, I think I have been overdosing the Great White. The directions stated that a quarter to one teaspoon of goop should be fed daily for two or three days, and then a quarter to a half teaspoon once every two or three days. I misread and put two or three teaspoons into Josie each day. Well, that ought to oil the insides, don’t you think? Aside from a fear of goop, my cat has suffered no ill effects from the excessive dosage.  I’ll give her a teaspoon once a day for a couple of days, then two or three over the next week.

I am not sure if I will be able to tell if the medicine is working. I know that Josie hasn’t thrown up since I started giving it to her, though it may be that vomit simply can’t force its way up against the goop. Seriously, though, the only vomit I’ve seen was an immense hairball this morning. It wasn’t Josie’s colour (white) and was probably Renn’s. If it was Josie’s, so much the better. This written, I will probably go home to find that my Chubs has exploded in my absence. I did notice a large amount of softer poop in the litter-box today. I hope that was Josie’s, as well.

Her appetite is not what it should be, but I imagine if she has a hairball, it would turn her off eating, as well as causing her to throw up what she has consumed. And having goop forced down her throat likely doesn’t make her feel like sitting down to an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord either. The real test will be in a week or so, after the treatment is done. If she continues to keep her food down, and starts enjoying it again, we will have won.

With so much of a cat’s life revolving around eating - it’s as much a pleasure for them as a necessity, I think - I want Josie to feel good inside and outside. I want her to wake up one morning and dance about the house singing, like one of those old commercials in which a man has taken Ex-lax or something similar the night before. I’d like her to prepare her own breakfast while she’s at it, but I’ll settle for her feeling good.