Does my kitten have to wear a collar (cone shaped) after surgery?

Question

My kitten has just been spayed and the vet gave me one of those plastic cone collars to stop her licking the wound. I could not get it on so I took her back and the vet put it on for me. As soon as I got her back she went mental and got the collar off! I phoned the vet and they said that she MUST wear the collar because she may infect the wound or even worse pull out the stitches! What can I do as this is stressing us both out !!???

Answer 1

you must persevere with the collar. they all hate it but the benefit will be a healthy wound and better recovery.
the collar is used to prevent the animal interfering with the wound such as licking or tugging the stitches etc.
if she does manage to get at the stitches while your not looking it could end in another general anaesthetic to re-stitch the wound and of cause another risk to her.
she is most likely to hate the collar, but keep putting it back on. tie the tie used to attach it by ensuring you can at least get two fingers under her tie. if you can this will ensure ease of respiration.
keep going with the collar - she will make you upset to watch her walking backwards and trying to pull it off but keep going with it.
its only on for a short time after all!
she should be able to eat and drink with the collar on and easily get into the litter tray if an appropriate sized collar has been used.
some are fine without the collar but its not worth the risk.
god luck.

qualified veterinary nurse UK

Answer 2

Sounds like kitty is having a bad day!! No offense my friend, but if your cat is crazy enough to get that collar off, (and believe my Lab would be calling for tips right now if he could!) she might be neurotic enough to rip off those stitches, which is probably why the vet is insisting upon it. I doubt the vet is being so stringent for fun. Your cat might just be a special case. Take advice from the other folks here. Give her treats and love, and play with her and she will calm down about the collar. If that doesn't work, try putting her in her kennel. Then she won't have enough room to get it off. If your vet thinks it's a danger it probably is. These people in here are not your vet. They don't know your cat. Poor thing. Just wants that darn thing off.

Also, you want to make sure that you get her used to that cone before you go to bed, because when that cat gets bored, she'll inevitably turn to the stitches. I wouldn't risk it. My pets always got used to the cone. It's heartbreaking for the first couple of hours, but seriously if you get them used to it, it gets better.

Answer 3

None of my cats, both male and female, had a collar after neutering or spaying. My female kittens had a bandage wrapped around the wound, and both pulled the stitches out, but not before the wound had healed - I guess the stitches become irritating when it has healed. Try her without the collar and see how you get on, she will lick the stitches as they will be in the 'way' of her normal grooming.

A bandage will give protection until the wound has healed and give her the freedom she wants.

Answer 4

Listen, not every cat tries to pull its stitches out. Take the collar off and WATCH her. If she is excessively licking or chewing the stitches then you'll probably need the collar. Can you distract her from the wound with petting her or giving her treats? Kind of keep her mind off of it? Or try what my vet recommends if necessary: wrap an ace bandage around her gently to cover the wound.

Answer 5

None of the cats I've ever had during my lifetime (about 12) have ever had to wear a cone after being spayed (or neutered).

Just keep an eye on her. She will lick at the stitches because they will itch her and she's just trying to soothe them. If she begins to pull at the stitches, then you may have to put the cone back on. I find the cone is extremely stressful for cats, dogs too, but not as much.

We don't send any of our patients home with a cone after spaying either.

Answer 6

I have had 6 kittens and 5 feral cats spayed/neutered in the last two months. I told the vet not to put collars on the feral cats as they won't let me near them to take them off. In the end none of the cats had collars, I had no problems, they didn't try to pull the stitches out, maybe I was lucky but it is an awful lot of cats just to be luck.
I wouldn't stress any of the cats.

Answer 7

I had my kitten spayed a few months ago. She was around 6 months then. The vet told me to come back for a cone if she started to lick her wound. She didn't lick it and she didn't get infected.

Answer 8

Both my kittens had to wear cones for a full 10 days. They ripped out their stitches almost immediately after waking up from surgery. I tried a couple times to take them off to see how it would go and sure enough, they ended up biting sutures out. They even managed to get free from their cones twice and bit out stitches. I was disappointed that my vet used external sutures, but oh well. They ended up getting very used to the cones, it was not big deal after the first couple days. They have healed very nicely since the spay.

Answer 9

keep the cat calm and resting. if its not even noticing it has the stitches, then dont worry about the cone. only use it if its trying to get at the stitches or is licking the incision at all. my pup never even knew she HAD stitches. but once my older dog had eye surgery and kept swiping at her head so she had to wear one. (its funny when she went out cause she would try to sniff the ground and the bottom lip of the collar would catch the grass!)

Answer 10

Hm, most vets do the dissolving stitches or glue, so there's little to no risk of the animal pullin' it out. I work for a rescue, and have gotten 2 male kittens, 3 female kittens, and 1 adult female cat, fixed this month. Not of them had to wear the collar.