The Best Hairball Remedies for Cats of 2024
Contents
- Our Top 6 List
- 1. Nutri-Vet Feline Natural Oil Hairball Paw-Gel
- 2. Vetoquinol Laxatone: Oral Hairball Lubricant Gel for Cats
- 3. Dechra Cat Lax
- 4. Vet’s Best Cat Hairball Relief Digestive Aid
- 5. Epic Pet Health Cat Digest
- 6. Richard’s Organics Cat Hairball Remedy
- Verdict & Review
- Nutri-Vet Feline Hairball Paw-Gel
- Pros
- Cons
- Buying Guide
Many cats spend a lot of time preening and cleaning their fur, and during this process they inevitably end up swallowing some of it. Most of it just passes harmlessly through their digestive tract, but sometimes it forms a ball in the stomach. All cat owners are familiar with the sound of a cat vomiting up hair balls.
While cleaning up hairball barf is not exactly fun, it’s far better than the alternatives, such as paying a veterinarian to remove hairballs that are blocking the GI tract, or even worse, a dead cat because its GI tract has been shut down by hairballs.
It is far better to prevent such problems by giving your cat ongoing hairball preventatives and treatments throughout its lifetime. Here, we are going to discuss some of the top hairball products to assist you in selecting the right one for your cat.
Our Top 6 List
# | Preview | Product | Our Rating | Link | Price / Value |
1 | Nutri-Vet Feline Natural Oil Hairball Paw-Gel | 10/10 | |||
2 | Vetoquinol Laxatone: Oral Hairball Lubricant Gel for Cats | 10/10 | |||
3 | Dechra Cat Lax Cat Hairball Remedies | 10/10 | |||
4 | Vet’s Best Cat Hairball Relief Digestive Aid | 9/10 | |||
5 | Epic Pet Health Cat Digest Hairball Remedy | 8.5/10 | |||
6 | Richard’s Organics Hairball Remedy for Cats | 8.5/10 |
This product supplies natural oils that lubricate the ingested hairs, preventing them from forming balls, and helping them to pass through the digestive tract. It can be given to your cat by simply squirting a small amount of it on the cat’s paw or into the cat’s dinner bowl.
The delicious chicken and catnip flavor will have your cat eagerly licking it up.
Pros
- All natural ingredients
- Contains catnip extract and natural chicken flavoring
- Provides extra B vitamins and important minerals to your cat in addition to helping with hairballs
Cons
- Contains a fairly large amount of corn syrup
This is another product intended to coat the ingested hairs with an oily substance to help prevent them from forming balls and to assist them in being passed through the digestive tract. It is tuna-flavored for cats that love their fish.
It can be given to the cat by squirting a small amount into their food or on the cat’s paw.
Pros
- Tuna flavored
- Very effective
Cons
- Contains petroleum jelly and mineral oil
- Contains a lot of sugar in the form of molasses, corn syrup, and malt syrup
Similar to the previous two products, this product also provides oils to help those ingested hairs pass through instead of forming balls. This formula has an interesting take on the problem and uses cod liver oil as both its primary ingredient and its flavoring agent. Humans may think cod liver oil smells and tastes nasty, but cats have a different viewpoint when it comes to this topic.
However, cod liver oil has a very high vitamin A content and some feline experts believe it shouldn’t be fed to cats on a regular basis because excessive levels of vitamin A can cause toxicity. Unlike some vitamins like B vitamins that are water soluble and rapidly pass out of the body, ingested vitamin A accumulates in the body.
Pros
- Contains cod liver oil, a natural source of vitamins A and D
- Contains vitamin E, a natural antioxidant
Cons
- Contains a small amount of petroleum jelly
- Contains sugar in the form of malt syrup
This product consists of tablets that provide a hefty dose of fiber to your cat. The fiber is from all-natural sources and is intended to help the cat pass ingested fur through its system. The tablets are flavored with chicken liver and most users report their cats will simply eat them like they were treats.
The fiber in these tablets comes from apples, slippery elm bark, psyllium, and the marshmallow plant. Slippery elm bark has been used for many years to treat a number of digestive tract problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome, in both people and animals.
Pros
- All natural sources of fiber
- Digestive enzymes from plant sources
- Real chicken liver added for flavor
Cons
- It’s a pill. Many cats won’t eat pills no matter what tricks the cat owner tries or what it is flavored with.
This product is touted as an odorless, tasteless substance that you spray onto the cat’s food. It won’t know the product is there and just eat its food, consuming the hairball remedy at the same time.
The delivery method is brilliant, but we have no idea why this product would help with hairballs. It contains nothing but three minerals and two vitamins suspended in water. However, some users report it actually does seem to help with hairballs and their cats eat normally when it is sprayed over their food.
Pros
- Easy to get your cat to consume it
- Some users report it works well
Cons
- Contains nothing but a few minerals and vitamins suspended in water
This product is a gel intended to be placed on the food or the cat’s paws to be licked up. It contains oils to lubricate the passage of fur through the cat’s digestive tract.
It contains all-natural ingredients and supplies omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in a delicious chicken-flavored format.
Pros
- All natural ingredients
- Includes cod liver oil and flaxseed oil
- Calendula and rosemary extracts
Cons
- Has a high sugar content from dextrose and fructose
The clear winner in this line-up of hairball remedies is the one from Nutri-Vet. It has all-natural ingredients, it is formulated correctly to be an excellent hairball remedy, and it comes in a delicious gel that cats eagerly lick off their paws. Its only drawback is that it contains some sugar in the form of corn syrup, but pretty much all of the products on the market intended to treat and prevent hairballs include sugar in their ingredients.
Buying Guide
According to veterinarians, there is a three-pronged approach to use when fighting against hairballs:
- Brush your cat every day to remove loose hair
- Feed the cat a high-fiber hairball control cat food
- Add a hairball control supplement that includes oils to help the cat pass loose fur instead of forming hairballs
The foremost concern is whether the cat will eat the remedy. Many cats are extremely picky eaters and will reject anything new, and even an array of foods the cat owner thinks look delicious. Thus, if your cat doesn’t eat your first choice supplement, simply try another one. It doesn’t matter how good the product is if you can’t get it into your cat.
The next thing to carefully consider is the ingredient list. Cats are peculiarly delicate animals and it is important to be sure that what you are feeding them is safe. You hear stories about dogs consuming all kinds of weird things and robustly failing to notice it should have killed them, but cats who eat the wrong things tend to not make it. You want to look for ingredients that are healthy or at least safe for a cat to consume. When in doubt, call your veterinarian and ask before feeding the substance to your cat.
How to use hairball remedies
Most hairball remedies are intended to be given to your cat once a day, every single day. Contrary to popular belief, cats are quite easy to train if you discard your notions about animal training and simply accept the truth: your cat doesn’t care what you think and will only do things you want if the cat gets what it wants in return. Thus, we suggest turning it into a game in which kitty thinks it is getting a delicious treat for playing along.
Brushing your cat daily is a big part of controlling hairballs. The type of brush you need depends on whether your cat is short- or long-haired. You can also use a pet grooming vacuum attachment. Take it slow. When your cat is feeling relaxed and affectionate, as part of a petting session run the brush over the cat once and then apply your hairball remedy to the cat’s paw as a reward. Then, every day, gradually increase the length of time you brush your cat before rewarding the cat with its hairball remedy. You will soon have a cat that enjoys being brushed so it can get its tasty hairball remedy treat. And you won’t have to clean up hairball barf anymore.
We are the Pet Cat Friends, a dedicated group of pet loving bloggers and product testers for all your meowy needs. We research, test, and review cat related products with the help of our collective 21 cats. Feel free to leave us feedback and treats!