Hairballs are usually harmless — but not always. Here’s when they’re hazardous.

By Tom Ewing

Fastidious cats and long-haired breeds are at greater risk of developing hairballs.

Your old Persian cat, Farah, is napping peacefully on your new Persian rug. Suddenly, she bolts up, wide awake and clearly uncomfortable. She crouches, extends her neck, and for a few seconds, retches, hacks and gags in distress. Then, to her relief (and your dismay), she spits up something scary looking — right on that valuable Persian rug.

What Farah has disgorged is a trichobezoar — a damp wad of undigested hair, moistened by bile and other digestive fluids — that’s commonly referred to as a hairball. Despite that term, hairballs are rarely globular in shape. Rather, they are most often slender and cylindrical. According to Joanna Guglielmino, DVM, they…

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