Hair balls aren't the cat's meow -- Newsday.com

Love and marriage, peanut butter and jelly ... and cats and hair balls, right?

Wrong. Very wrong, says veterinarian Michele Gaspar, a board-certified feline specialist who runs the Cat Clinic in Flossmoor, Ill.

"Unfortunately, even many veterinarians think that cats are supposed to hurl hair balls, that it's absolutely normal," she says, when exactly the opposite is true. "I'll give a cat one hair ball a year. But God, in her wisdom, did not create a vomiting species."

Gaspar says hair balls, along with chronic, intermittent vomiting, are a prime sign that something has gone awry in a cat's gastrointestinal tract - specifically, inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. But because hair balls are often dismissed as just part and parcel of cathood, IBD is "rampant and poorly recognized," she says, adding that a cat's refusal of food, so often attributed to dental pain, is more commonly caused by intestinal disease.

An inflammation of the intestinal lining, IBD can be detected by abdominal ultrasound and definitely diagnosed with a tissue sample obtained through endoscopy or exploratory surgery. In addition to diarrhea and vomiting, often the main symptom can be weight loss, which usually is first noticeable around the spine. While IBD is multifactoral - among the culprits are genetics and a weakened immune system - Gaspar stresses that a proper diet is crucial for getting the disease under control and avoiding it in the first place.

"Cats are descended from desert dwellers, and they are meat eaters that are not designed to eat a lot of carbs," Gaspar says, noting that the primordial feline ate animals that "run fast and fly and crawl." That diet doesn't include many of the commonly found proteins in cat food - such as beef, lamb or seafood - nor other ingredients that also have a propensity for triggering food allergies in cats, such as corn, soy, milk and wheat gluten.

"While I don't expect to be able to buy mouse-in-a-can in my lifetime," the next best thing is a poultry-based wet food, Gaspar says. (Among the canned brands she recommends are Merrick's, Wellness and Prairie; choose chicken, turkey or duck.) Dry foods are not the ideal, because they are high in grains and low in moisture (a problem with felines, which, because of their arid origins, have a low thirst drive and are prone to dehydration).

Home cooking is the best option, Gaspar adds, although convenience is a stumbling block for many owners. And do-it-yourselfers must remember that cats have an absolute need for the amino acid taurine, as well as the correct balance of calcium and phosphorus.

When it comes to dietary modifications, sooner is better, Gaspar warns. Taste and texture preferences can become quickly and deeply ingrained, and some cats, particularly older ones, will literally starve themselves before switching to a new diet.

"After three days of an unpalatable diet, a dog will say, 'OK, I'm going for it,'" Gaspar says. "But a cat will say, 'There's always day four.'"

For dry-food junkies, Gaspar recommends Innova Evo, which has a turkey-based, low-carb formula.

A change of diet isn't the only remedy for IBD, Gaspar stresses; depending on the cat, other measures might include a course of anti-inflammatory drugs, or B12 supplementation to correct vitamin deficiencies.

"It's much more complicated than food, but food has got to be where you start," she says, especially given how far domestic cats have strayed from their natural design.

"We've taken the world's greatest carnivores, incredible visual hunters that are used to lots of environmental challenges and a diet they have honed over millennia," she says, "and we treat them as hothouse plants with very little stimulation, and essentially feed them corn on the cob. And then we expect them to be healthy."

As for hair balls, forget homespun remedies such as feeding a cat Vaseline to correct a "grease deficiency." There's no such thing, Gaspar stresses. Instead, find a vet who recognizes these gross little urped-up missiles for what they really are - a symptom of intestinal inflammation that is preventing the cat's gut from operating properly.

"And if your vet is not on board, and shrugs his shoulders and says, 'That's normal for a cat - they all puke,' then you need to find someone else," she concludes. "You're ultimately responsible for advocating for your kitty."

WRITE TO Denise Flaim, c/o Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747-4250, or e-mail denise.flaim@newsday.com . For previous columns, www.newsday.com/animalhouse