Cat in e-collar - any advice?

rebochan

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I've posted a few times about the endless saga of Carter and his allergy-related hair loss. Well, he's two months into his allergen-free diet (Science Diet z/d for now) and after I had him looked at again, the vet prescribed him Prednisone, which seems to finally be clearing up his skin and he's got hair coming in everywhere! Except on his underside. Which he is *still* overgrooming. Especially his little "spay sway". He went in today for his annual shots and health checkup, so we assessed his skin and the vet decided to drop his Prednisone to only every other day and but he has to wear an e-collar for a few weeks so we can see if stopping him from over grooming like that will clear up the rest of his skin. Seriously, he grooms it so hard you can actually hear him sucking on the skin in the next room


Well, I've never had to deal with this before and I want to make sure that he goes through the least amount of discomfort while still keeping him from licking his skin constantly. I already took the lids off the litter boxes since there was no way he'd fit otherwise, and since he and the other cat get scheduled feedings, I can give him breaks to eat. I just don't want to give him any more breaks than that, because I know I can't actually stop him from licking just because I'm in the room (seriously, I've tried.) Is there anything else I could do for the little guy?

Requisite e-collar fashion photo. Also, does this look like the right shape?



I feel so bad for him - he already hates the vet, so along with having to get two shots and a fecal exam (because he held his number 2s all night and all morning O_O), he also had to get a bath because he wet his crate on the way over to the vet. He's had a rough day. Thank god he's such a loving, trusting cat or this would be a nightmare and a half.
 

mews2much

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I am not sure how to help you because my cats always got them off some how.
Meeko had one just like that because she had a bad infection and Lucy when she was fixed because she pulled the stitches out.
both of them went bezerk and removed the color.
I hope he will keep it on.
 
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rebochan

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Originally Posted by mews2much

I am not sure how to help you because my cats always got them off some how.
Meeko had one just like that because she had a bad infection and Lucy when she was fixed because she pulled the stitches out.
both of them went bezerk and removed the color.
I hope he will keep it on.
Well, he's coping so far but he kind of slouches everywhere. I think he's embarrassed
 

littleraven7726

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That looks about right. We have 2 of them. The first was too small for Stimpy, and we had to get a second one--the small dog size from Petsmart.

Thankfully Lola left her spay stitches alone so we didn't have to panic about getting a smaller one...The small one we have she slipped right out of.


The skulking is pretty normal. I recommend cleaning it daily though. When our cats had to wear them, the e-collar itself would get pretty gross from food.
 

howtoholdacat

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When Hemmy was recovering from surgery he had to wear one for two weeks. The first night he was home he got stuck behind my computer desk. The cone touched the plastic tube things I used to protect the cables (so he doesn't chew on those and need surgery for something else). Anyway, he couldn't get himself out so it might be smart to block off any tight squeezes for him. Also, Hemmy would drink water and then use his box so I was constantly washing sticky gooey litter off the cone. Since he would get nasty, I'd set him up on the couch next to me and take the cone off for a short time so he could groom some. Of course, that meant I had to watch him the whole time, never taking my eyes off, so he didn't pull out his stitches and find himself in worse trouble than before his surgery. The minute he moved anywhere near his stitches I put the cone back on. He's a pretty laid back kitty so that worked well. Maybe your boy could do very short, supervised grooming sessions too if it helps him learn to groom gently?
 
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