Sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats*

Hair ingested by licking during cat grooming can eventually coalesce into solid masses in cat gastrointestinal tract. It is believed that dietary fibre might reduce formation of these trichobezoars (hairballs). The effects of two insoluble fibre sources added to kibble diets were evaluated with resp...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Loureiro, Bruna A., Sembenelli, Guilherme, Maria, Ana P. J., Vasconcellos, Ricardo S., Sá, Fabiano C., Sakomura, Nilva K., Carciofi, Aulus C.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2014
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4473147/
id pubmed-4473147
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-44731472015-06-22 Sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats* Loureiro, Bruna A. Sembenelli, Guilherme Maria, Ana P. J. Vasconcellos, Ricardo S. Sá, Fabiano C. Sakomura, Nilva K. Carciofi, Aulus C. WALTHAM Supplement Hair ingested by licking during cat grooming can eventually coalesce into solid masses in cat gastrointestinal tract. It is believed that dietary fibre might reduce formation of these trichobezoars (hairballs). The effects of two insoluble fibre sources added to kibble diets were evaluated with respect to trichobezoar faecal excretion. Thirty-two cats and four diets were used in a randomised block design: a control diet without additional fibre, 10 % added sugarcane fibre, 20 % added sugarcane fibre or 10 % added cellulose. Animals were fed for 42 d and during three separate periods (days 15–17, 25–27 and 40–42), the cats were housed individually in metabolic cages and their faeces were totally collected. The faeces were evaluated and the trichobezoars were isolated and classified into small (<1 cm), medium (1·1–2 cm) or large (>2·1 cm). Means were evaluated by repeated measures ANOVA and contrasts (P < 0·05). Cats fed sugarcane fibre shown a linear reduction of small and medium trichobezoar excretion (number per cat per day; P = 0·004) as well as a reduction in trichobezoar mass excretion (mg per cat per day; P < 0·01). The control group showed increased faecal excretion of large trichobezoars (P = 0·003), which were not present in the high sugarcane fibre group (P < 0·006). No effect of cellulose was observed for any evaluated trait. Therefore, long fibres (sugarcane fibre) may cause greater peristaltic stimulation, increasing the propulsion of hair through the gut, but further research is needed to validate this mechanism. In conclusion, sugarcane fibre reduced faecal hairball elimination in cats, which may have clinical applications for the prevention of health problems related to trichobezoars. Cambridge University Press 2014-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4473147/ /pubmed/26101589 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2014.27 Text en © The Author(s) 2014 The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Loureiro, Bruna A.
Sembenelli, Guilherme
Maria, Ana P. J.
Vasconcellos, Ricardo S.
Sá, Fabiano C.
Sakomura, Nilva K.
Carciofi, Aulus C.
spellingShingle Loureiro, Bruna A.
Sembenelli, Guilherme
Maria, Ana P. J.
Vasconcellos, Ricardo S.
Sá, Fabiano C.
Sakomura, Nilva K.
Carciofi, Aulus C.
Sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats*
author_facet Loureiro, Bruna A.
Sembenelli, Guilherme
Maria, Ana P. J.
Vasconcellos, Ricardo S.
Sá, Fabiano C.
Sakomura, Nilva K.
Carciofi, Aulus C.
author_sort Loureiro, Bruna A.
title Sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats*
title_short Sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats*
title_full Sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats*
title_fullStr Sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats*
title_full_unstemmed Sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats*
title_sort sugarcane fibre may prevents hairball formation in cats*
description Hair ingested by licking during cat grooming can eventually coalesce into solid masses in cat gastrointestinal tract. It is believed that dietary fibre might reduce formation of these trichobezoars (hairballs). The effects of two insoluble fibre sources added to kibble diets were evaluated with respect to trichobezoar faecal excretion. Thirty-two cats and four diets were used in a randomised block design: a control diet without additional fibre, 10 % added sugarcane fibre, 20 % added sugarcane fibre or 10 % added cellulose. Animals were fed for 42 d and during three separate periods (days 15–17, 25–27 and 40–42), the cats were housed individually in metabolic cages and their faeces were totally collected. The faeces were evaluated and the trichobezoars were isolated and classified into small (<1 cm), medium (1·1–2 cm) or large (>2·1 cm). Means were evaluated by repeated measures ANOVA and contrasts (P < 0·05). Cats fed sugarcane fibre shown a linear reduction of small and medium trichobezoar excretion (number per cat per day; P = 0·004) as well as a reduction in trichobezoar mass excretion (mg per cat per day; P < 0·01). The control group showed increased faecal excretion of large trichobezoars (P = 0·003), which were not present in the high sugarcane fibre group (P < 0·006). No effect of cellulose was observed for any evaluated trait. Therefore, long fibres (sugarcane fibre) may cause greater peristaltic stimulation, increasing the propulsion of hair through the gut, but further research is needed to validate this mechanism. In conclusion, sugarcane fibre reduced faecal hairball elimination in cats, which may have clinical applications for the prevention of health problems related to trichobezoars.
publisher Cambridge University Press
publishDate 2014
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4473147/
_version_ 1613237739990286336