Yes, this is something I would like to know about too. I've had long haired cats that cough up hairballs, but I've also had short haired cats that do it as well. With those cats we used a beef flavored lax (prescription from the vet, but I know you can get similar stuff at pet stores like PetsMart). It comes in a tube kind of like toothpaste. They all considered it a treat and would gladly lick it off our fingers. I noticed that with my short haired cat that got hairballs, the density(or thickness) of the coat was different than my other short haired cat that didn't get hairballs. Does it have to do with having plush coats, be it long or short hair??

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"In a cat's eye, all things belong to cats." - English proverb