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#87636 11/23/02 09:34 PM
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A spelling bee word. I had a very lovable kitten that died of a trichobezoar.
Bezoar


Definition:
A ball of swallowed foreign material (usually hair or fiber) that collects in the stomach and
fails to pass through the intestines.


Alternative Names:
Trichobezoar; Hairball


#87637 11/23/02 10:05 PM
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What did the "tricho" have to do with the "bezoar"?

I've heard of trichonosis, but that's something altogether different, isn't it?


#87638 11/23/02 11:19 PM
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Tut,tut,meine liebe Wortkennerin, remember trichotillomania, trichiasis,trichotomists,
Remember anal trichiasis, having a hair across.....its a hairy topic.
A trichobezoar is a hairball. Longhaired kittens grooming themselves swallow enough hairs which
will not digest, don't even leave stomach, until there is a golfball sized mass obstructing the
pylorus. I had never seen it before, and could not imagine what was wrong. I found it on PM,


#87639 11/24/02 12:24 AM
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Well, if a bezoar is a hairball, and tricho = hair, then it seems a trichobezoar is a hairy hairball.

I've heard of hairy eyeballs, but this is the first I've heard of hairy hairballs.

It would have made a great Hogwash word. You should have sent it to tsuwm!


#87640 11/24/02 12:37 AM
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bezoar
n.
5Fr b=zoard < Sp bezoar < Ar bazahr < Pers padzahr < pad, protecting (against) + zahr, poison6 a concretion found in the stomach or intestines of some animals, esp. ruminants, and sometimes humans, formerly thought to be an antidote for poisons

Dear WW: as above, note that the hairy ones were not in original mentions.





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