By: Rebecca Rose, InClover founder and product developer
If you have ever watched your cat wrenching to expel a hairball, or if you have stepped on a hairball in the middle of the night, you have experienced the discomfort of hairballs. Hairballs are known in scientific circles as trichobezoar and are very common in cats, especially in long-haired cats (although they occur with any length of hair). They are more common during warmer seasons and climates.
Studies have shown that cats normally spend as much as one-third of their waking hours cleaning and grooming themselves. Because of the structure of their tongue, a majority of this hair becomes consumed during grooming.
Cat hair is made up of keratin, a type of protein. When the cat is unable to break down and digest the hair, it forms into a hairball in the digestive tract. It is this hairball that causes the discomfort.
OptaGest gets to the root of hairballs with protease, the enzyme that digests proteins. OptaGest works to break down the hair so it can easily pass through the system. With daily use of OptaGest, hairballs will be a thing of the past.
Watch the active enzymes in OptaGest digesting a cup of oatmeal: In Clover Enzyme Test.