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Sunday, April 13, 2008

Mark Your Calendar--National Hairball Awareness Day


It's April 27, if it's not already on your calendar. Make plans now for your salute to the bezoar--the museum is. We will host a special exhibition of hairballs. One of our human hairballs is already on display in our Human Body exhibit. To celebrate NHD, we'll display some of our veterinary specimens--they are impressive. Cats get hairballs and so do humans (trichobezoars). Ruminant animals do, too (cows, llamas, goats, etc.). They once were thought to be a universal antidote to any poison. Turns out that they just might work on arsenic. Here's a pic of one our human hairballs that is currently on display. It was surgically removed from a 12 year-old girl who had been eating her hair for 6 years.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That is nasty! I am going to see that today with my dad as a trip...i cant wait..most people are scared of it but not me. i have a lot of brothers so i am used to this kind of stuff. I CANT WAIT!!