Cats are meticulous groomers, using their rough tongues to clean their fur and remove loose hairs.
The cat's tongue has tiny hook-like structures called papillae, which catch loose hairs and allow them to be swallowed.
During this grooming process, they ingest a significant amount of hair.
Hair accumulation
While most of the ingested hair passes through the cat's digestive system without any issues, some of the hair can accumulate in their stomach and form hairballs.
Hairballs are clumps of undigested hair mixed with digestive fluids and stomach juices.
As the hairballs grow in size, they become too large to pass through the narrow passage leading from the stomach to the small intestine.
To relieve the discomfort caused by hairballs, cats instinctively try to vomit them out.
The process of regurgitating a hairball is known as "hacking" or "coughing up a hairball."
It's a natural process
It's a natural and necessary way for cats to eliminate the indigestible fur from their stomachs.
Hairballs are more common in long-haired cats or cats that shed heavily, as they tend to ingest more hair during grooming.
To help prevent hairballs, regular grooming and brushing can reduce the amount of loose hair a cat ingests during self-grooming.
Special hairball remedies, such as petroleum-based products or fiber supplements, can also be given to cats to help move hair through their digestive system and reduce hairball formation.
