If not, we usually give them a store bought remedy to break up the hair so they can pass it. Once we tried for two weeks to get rid of our cat's hairball with no avail. We were giving him as much of the store bought product as the directions permitted. Finally frustrated with the situation, I called one of my vets to ask if they had any suggestions. He decided that even though we were dealing with a feline, we should give it a try anyway.
Hair is a protein.
We had to blend the raw pineapple to get it to a consistency in which we could get the cat to swallow. We started out with about 12cc in a syringe knowing we'd never get that much down the animal, I think we probably got about 4cc down the cat's throat and about 8cc all over us. It wasn't a pretty sight. We repeated this for about three days. No more coughing.