Killer hairballs caused by excessive licking

Animals normally groom themselves by licking their skin in the process ingesting hair.

Dear Daktari, I must say I like your articles, which are very interesting. Now, I had a very interesting calf which I lost because we acted too late. This calf was a good Friesian cross in which I had seen lots of hope in my dairy farming. We thought it loved itself so much because it used to lick itself a lot. We did not know this was a bad thing and as such, I did not point it out with my veterinary doctor. Now, it suddenly stopped eating feeds and refused suckling and then died. When the veterinary doctor did a postmortem that is when he said the calf was killed by a hairball. He asked if we had seen it lick itself and that is the time we realised we were living with a fatal behaviour which we entertained but killed our calf. Kindly let us know how this can be prevented or treated. [Emmanuel Pulei, Isinya, Kajiado County]