"Cone" collar for cat - problem eating

Benny_Cake

Our female cat got neutered today and we were given a plastic cone collar for her to prevent her licking the stitches. The problem is that it's slightly too big for her to reach her food bowl! It isn't a problem tonight as she is fairly spaced out after the day she's had, but do any of the pet superstores sell smaller collars - she doesn't like being touched (feral instincts!) so putting the collar on and off is a pain. Thanks!

The Sweeper

Trim the collar so she can eat and drink. If the wound is on her side the collar will still be very effective in keeping her from the stitches. You may find she doesn't even want to eat with it on - cats can react very badly to such collars and will initally try backing away from them and eventually just refuse to move while it's on. If you leave it on and she adjusts, you can trim it back so she can eat.

Just be conscious of it on her though - keep it clean. Can you imagine being hungry, and having gotten food on the end of the lampshade that you can smell, but not being able to reach it for hours? Wipe the collar after she's eaten and make sure she can drink with it, without ending up bringing her head up and shoveling a big scoop of water down her own bib.

Alicat

How about putting the bowl on top of a very small box? At least that would give it height so she can get the cone down around it.

planetX

Also try a very small bowl that will fit entirely within the cone - I used a hamster bowl.
Don't forget water too! And don't hesitate to take the thing off if she completely shuts down, it's not alway necessary.

Benny_Cake

Thanks folks,we took the collar off so that she had a chance to eat. We put it back on her and when we came down this morning, she was asleep and there was no sign of the collar, she had it well hidden under a chair...cats! We'll probably just stick to putting it on when we're leaving her on her own and at night, thanks again!

angry kitten

Benny_Cake wrote: »

Thanks folks,we took the collar off so that she had a chance to eat. We put it back on her and when we came down this morning, she was asleep and there was no sign of the collar, she had it well hidden under a chair...cats! We'll probably just stick to putting it on when we're leaving her on her own and at night, thanks again!

Sounds very familiar. We trimmed the cone back for our chap and took it off when he was eating. We used a little bit of short, soft bandage threaded through the loops on the bottom of the cone to stop him getting it over his head. Is such a relief when they don't need it anymore.

I would advise against leaving it off though, we felt sorry for our chap and left it off for a while each day. We thought we'd see him if he started tscratching. But when I left the room for 2 minutes he'd torn a couple of stitches and had to be re-stitched so ended up wearing it for longer. Is not worth it.

OwaynOTT

feed her by hand. And I agree with the poster above don't leave the cone off.

MaryK666

When we had our girls done, at separate times, neither of them were put in collars. One of them was perfectly fine and didn't bother with her stitches at all. In fact she sailed throught the healing process.
The other one - the one with the long fluffy coat - spent every spare minute trying to pull her stitches out and had my heart broken. Mind you, she is the hyperactive one so I shouldn't have been surprised.
We took her back to the vet who put staples in place of her stitches and this worked a treat and stopped her opening up the wound.

I think it depends on your cat and how itchy the wound gets when it's healing as to whether they'll pick at the stitches or not.
Some vets will automatically use a collar although it may not always be necessary.
Some cats will tolerate a collar and some will go ballistic and get themselves into an awful state which can slow down the healing process as their immune system can drop if the stress levels get too high.

If I were you I'd see how your cat gets on without the collar and if it seems that she's leaving the stitches alone, then she should be grand without it. It seems as if she's going to go out of her way to get it off anyway so it might be less upsetting on her if you give her a chance to see how she gets on.

The Sweeper

Yeah, all my cats were neutered as kittens through a short incision on their belly instead of their side, and stitched up with just a few stitches. Not one of them needed a cone. One of my guys had an ulcer on his eye after a scratch and had to have his nictating membrane pulled across the eye and sewn shut to protect it while healing - he had a collar for a day or two but it traumatised him so severely we took it off and watched him closely. He would bring his foot up to scratch his eye, but the second he connected with the stitches he'd shudder and stop. He had to be sewn like that for nearly three weeks (it was over Christmas, which added some time) so we left the collar off and watched him like hawks and thankfully all was good.