One word "Coconut Oil" ok that is two, mol!! it works!!
How do you use it? I don't think my cats would eat it mixed in food. How often? Where do you get it?
I use a furminator on three of my cats, two daily, the kitten a few times a week, and one does not allow brushing of any kind. The Boy gets hair ball illnesses, where he becomes sick with diarrhea and vomiting and inappetance, sometimes for several days. The illnesses are becoming more frequent as he ages. He is on an all canned grain free diet with daily de-shedding. There may be a motility issue, but I am not willing to try cisapride with him. When he gets that sick I give him fluids, and mass quantities of hair ball medicine until he passes the fur (it passes in the diarrhea, large flat mats of it)
The kitten has thrown up one hair ball, and the other two rarely bring one up, because during shedding season I dose with hair ball remedy every other day. I always dose on an
empty stomach, and do not feed for two hours after. Hair ball products interfere with nutrient absorption. You want the stuff to glom onto fur, not food.
When it gets to be the end of October I begin tapering the doses, until they are back to once every four or five days.
I put the stuff directly in their mouths and they swallow it. They hate it, all except for The Kitten, who would eat as much of it as I let her. She only gets the stuff once or twice a week. I rotate three brands, since I am not thrilled with any of the brands.
That Nutrivet stuff uses vegetable oil, which is basically useless. Vegetable oil, like butter, digests too quickly to be any real use, so I don't know why they bother using it. I notice the other active ingredients are psylium. (psylium is what is in metamucil) and coconut oil, but they are further down on the list. It also has alcohol in it, which I wouldn't like to put in my cats.
I do use pure psyllium added to one of my cat's food periodically, the one who has anal gland problems.
I am interested in how and why coconut oil works.