need help protecting my cat from herself

scarlett got into a fight with an opossum a couple of weeks ago on her first visit out side. two things happened from this visit. one, she will never go outside again, and two she got a wound in between her little cat shoulder blades that got infected. the infection is gone, but she keeps scratching the area and will not let the wound heal.

I asked my vet, and they gave me two obvious solutions. one, cover the wound somehow to keep her claws off of the wound. the problem with this is that they also told me that cats use their ribs in their breathing quite a bit so the cover had to be kept loose. the location pretty much makes it impossible to cover and still be loose enough to not mess with her breathing.

The other solution was to cover her back paws. this worked for a while using fingers cut out of cotton gloves with some tape to secure them, but she eventually found out how to remove them herself.

I can have those claws covered for a few days, but it only take a second for her to get a claw free and scratch the area to break the healing skin and cause it to bleed negating the efforts that had kept the area safe for days.

anyone know a good way to prevent her from scratching the area to allow it to heal? i appreciate any input you could give me.

Two things come to mind:

One get soft-claws and apply them to her back claws.
You can get them from your vet, or from the petstore, or you can order them online, which is usually cheapest.

Two get an newborn size t-shirt and put it on her.
If the neckline slips too far back, you can cut a few holes and thread a cat collar through it to help hold it in place.


Good luck, and I hope she gets better soon, please, keep us posted.

And Welcome to the Cat Site.

Would putting an e-collar on her help? You could pick one up from your vet for a couple of bucks.

Originally Posted by Arlyn

Two things come to mind:

One get soft-claws and apply them to her back claws.
You can get them from your vet, or from the petstore, or you can order them online, which is usually cheapest.

Two get an newborn size t-shirt and put it on her.
If the neckline slips too far back, you can cut a few holes and thread a cat collar through it to help hold it in place.


Good luck, and I hope she gets better soon, please, keep us posted.

And Welcome to the Cat Site.

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Exactly what I was thinking!

Originally Posted by 2furbabies

Would putting an e-collar on her help? You could pick one up from your vet for a couple of bucks.

Click to expand...

I doubt it as he said the problem was her scratching it and NOT licking it.

I'm glad to hear that she'll be staying indoors for now. Although, if you don't want to remove her outdoor privileges completely you might consider harness training her after he wound has healed. So she can still go out with out the risk of getting into a fight or other trouble.

When the dog had surgery we put her in an infant's onesie and cut the bottom's off. They worked pretty well.