Zoe just had surgery -- I'm a first-timer. Need advice from the kitty sages.

So Zoe -- who is 2 1/2 just had four stones removed from her bladder on Thursday.

I brought her home from the vet yesterday morning, and she was acting okay. They put an E-collar on her (one of those upside-down lampshade things) because she's a wee bit difficult at the vets (*cough* they need to sedate her to get her nails trimmed), but she was really depressed with it on. Earlier this afternoon I took it off of her (she was a very happy girl) and she gave herself a full bath. However, later tonight, she decided to try to bite at her stitches, so I put the collar back on.

Does anyone have any advice to keep her from biting her stitches without wearing the collar? I was thinking maybe I could tie something around her middle or.. well, I really don't know.

I figured if anyone would know, they'd be at this forum.

Hmmmm, I understand about those collars. Animals hate them so much. My Misty had surgery to remove stones from her bladder 2 years ago when she was 7 years old and my vet used internal stitches so I didn't have too much trouble with Misty licking and didn't need the collar. However, she would lick the incision even though the stitches were internal. It's so hard to get them not to lick but I was thinking maybe your vet can tell you if it would be safe to put something on your kitty's tummy that she won't like the taste of. Something that wouldn't irritate the incision and would be non-toxic.

Good luck. If I think of anything, I will come back and add another reply.

Karen

I think it would be better if she was left with her e-collar on.

One of my cats had to have pins in his leg and had it wrapped in bandages,and was
throwing himself about the place(I had to keep him in a cage for 4 weeks)but to stop
him biting at his bandages and catching the pins on the cage I put him in a baby grow,One of those little all-in-ones that you can get for babies,It worked for him.I just had to make sure the hole at the backend was cut big enough for him to do his 'business'.

I don't know if you could do something like that,but I'd be worried that she could still
pull at the stitches through the material?
If you try anything like that then do it when you can keep an eye on her and when you
can't watch her put the collar back on.

Yeah... probably just better to leave the collar on. Better safe then sorry!

All I can say is that I sympathize (see here). When Lucy had her surgery, I couldn't keep the collar on her; she just slipped right out of it. I was fortunate enough that I could work from home and sit with her, watching that she didn't bother her stitches. But it is hard.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

You guys are probably right that it's better to just keep the collar on. She gets really depressed with it, though, so it's hard for me not to take it off and let her feel normal again. But I suppose a few days of depression is infinitely better than her getting the stitches open and bleeding to death.

Right now she's under the bed. She, in the past, ripped a hole in my boxspring so she goes in there when she wants to be left alone. At least I can be confident that she's not hurting herself.