This gives a nice description of peristalsis (motility), and IMO confirms MC's on the right track with the 10+ hour fasts:
http://www.britannica.com/science/peristalsis#_comments When the stomach is filled, peristaltic waves are diminished. The presence of fat in a meal can completely stop these movements for a short period until it is diluted with gastric juices or removed from the stomach.
This tells me that all those meals were keeping Mazy's tummy full, and which reduced the peristaltic waves, which meant some things (e.g. fur) weren't really moving along.
I went through my books and class materials and what keeps popping up to help digestion/elimination issues are: probiotics, fiber (everything I have says fiber helps improve motility), and mucus (e.g. Slippery Elm Bark, Marshmallow).
I've gone back to the beginning of this thread and determined the following:
- Mazy gets a probiotic twice a day
- She gets (or was getting) Vets-Best (psyllium) for fiber daily
- She gets Slippery Elm Bark (mucous) daily
- She also gets egg yolk lecithin to help break up the fat the holds the hairball together in her system
- Mazy gets raw egg yolk, which contains choline, which aids motility
- Mazy occasionally needs to have her anal glands expressed (IMO, another motility issue)
- When Mazy grooms, she ingests WADS of fur that then sit in her tummy. I suspect she eats the grass to try to hork the fur, but unfortunately, the fur AND grass then sit there.
So it seems to me that MC is doing everything that my materials recommend, and while these things have been helpful, through no fault of MC's, they haven't completely addressed Mazy's motility issue.
I wondered if she needed more fiber, but if the fur and grass along with the Vet's-Best aren't enough fiber, I'm not sure adding more would help. There was a point where MC increased the VB, and it didn't seem to make a difference.
Then I wondered if she needed more mucous. Elsewhere in the thread, though, MC mentioned that she thought the mucous agents in her diet (Slippery Elm) might be causing Mazy's bum to get red and dry.
MC could certainly add more probiotic to Mazy's food. I doubt it would hurt, but I don't know that it would help. Maybe giving the raw egg yolk more often would help?
So I'm trying to look at this from a different perspective. It seems like there are 2 issues (IMO): 1. Mazy ingests a LOT of fur. Is there something going on that her fur should pull out that easily? 2. The ingested fur just sits in her tummy, as does the grass that she eats. As MC has already determined, there's definitely a motility issue.
I did some searches on amino acids and hair loss, and it sounds like adding those to the diet can improve skin and coat health. I didn't find any "smoking gun" evidence, but since hair and skin are both made of protein, and amino acids are the building blocks of protein, it makes sense.
I also did more searching on peristalsis and motilin. Again, no smoking gun that told me
what actually causes peristalsis (yeah, the muscles move the food along, but WHAT makes the muscles move?). I did find something on Wikipedia about motilin receptors:
Motilin receptor is a G protein-coupled receptor that binds motilin.[1][2] Motilin in turn is an intestinal peptide that stimulates contraction of gut smooth muscle.
Then I clicked on "peptide" and found this:
Peptides (from Gr. πεπτός, "digested", derived from πέσσειν, "to digest") are biologically occurring short chains of amino acid monomers linked by peptide (amide) bonds.
Personally, I would feel much better if I'd had that "Aha!" moment like I did with the ACV. I am totally speculating here, but I'm wondering if adding an amino acid supplement, if one exists for pets, would help Mazy's motility issues as well as improve her coat so she doesn't ingest as much fur. And if anyone can find something that confirms any of this in a major way, I would love it if they would post the link here. At this point, it seems to me like MC's tried everything else.
I will continue researching, but I wanted to post what I've found so far. Because I would really hate for MC and her furkids to forgo the outside trips to the backyard. I know they all really enjoy it.
Edit: I did also find that Omega 3's like fish oil could help skin and fur health, and maybe that would make things a little more "slippery" on Mazy's insides, but when I re-read this thread, I saw that Mazy had been getting krill oil and it hadn't seem to do anything for her. So I don't know.