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Has anyone else used a pheromone collar?

post #1 of 7
1/30/11 at 8:31pm
Thread Starter 
My new cat was a bit freaked out when we first brought him in, and the vet really stresses him out, so a lady who does cat rescue suggested that I try a pheromone collar for him. She said that she thinks Feliway diffusers aren't very effective but the collar holds the pheromones close to them.

I figured what the heck. It's typically $15 at Petsmart but I got it for $11 (a heck of a lot cheaper than Feliway!). It looks like a flea collar, but purple.

I think it's definitely made a difference. Not night and day, but he definitely started seeming more at ease and happier.

My only concern is that while it says that it's breakaway, I'm not sure how that mechanism works. I'm hesitant tug on it too hard, because I think maybe by "breakaway" they mean that it will actually snap in two in order to free a stuck cat. Once it's time to take it off (it's supposed to last a month), I'll tug on it to see how much pressure it actually takes to get it to release. I'm not worried about my cat currently because he really doesn't move around much and is very unlikely to get stuck on anything.

Well, there is one more concern...it stinks! A nasty sweet medicinal sort of smell. He's been wearing it a week now and it's gotten much less intense, thank goodness. But it was nasty for a while.

So has anyone else tried this? What do you think?
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post #2 of 7
1/31/11 at 2:36pm
Hey There,
I use this collar as well, and it has worked wonders. I have the same concerns as you do about it being breakaway. I tried "breaking away" an old one and it didn't break the way I was hoping it would. Because of that, I don't keep it on him unattended. I did a post a while back about brands of calming collars that breakaway and nobody had a response - and considering this board is made of up experts - I'm assuming there likely aren't many options!
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post #3 of 7
2/2/11 at 12:16pm
I tried this collar for my cat that was having behavioral issues. It seemed to help a little but it almost seemed like she was in an altered state. When I put it on her for the first time her eyes got all big and funny looking. I hated that the power got all over the place too.

I thought the breakaway was pretty easily done. I almost ripped one because she was struggling when I was trying to get it on her....it came almost halfway ripped.
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post #4 of 7
2/3/11 at 4:50am
Yes, you are right. It is very strong. I have a bengal, so the trance like state is welcomed after what he usually puts us through. I'll try breaking away an old one again next time if you say you've had success. thanks!
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post #5 of 7
2/3/11 at 5:19am
[quote=herekittykitty8;3017093]Yes, you are right. It is very strong. I have a bengal, so the trance like state is welcomed after what he usually puts us through.QUOTE]

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post #6 of 7
2/3/11 at 7:58am
The biggest issue for me was the impossibility of adjusting a hard plastic collar and getting that the left over bit to feed through the loop. No matter how carefully I tried to pre-adjust it and slip it on over their head, it was always loose. And seemed to itch as much as smell like an irritant.

But I can totally attest that the pheromones will do the trick, as others have suggested. We introduced a stray cat who had been in my bedroom a few days to three resident kitties tonight and the attacks literally stopped in their tracks. I had mine all out initially distracted by toys (which worked) while stray explored the hallway, then separated again to give the collar time to take effect. There were one or two incidents of minor hissing and weird mewing sounds (hope he isn't seriously stoned !) afterwords and besides a bunch of stareoffs that came to nothing, that was the extent of it. They had to be physically restrained from charging just this morning when the door was opened.

Skeptic to true believer in one night. ;-). And why not ? One collar on each cat ($15 a month) is way cheaper than vet visits, stitches, antibiotics and possible permanent damage or death!!!
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post #7 of 7
2/3/11 at 9:44am
Wow....I might try pheremone collars for our cats, might help them get along better! As for the breakaway collar, which is my cat's usual collar, I closed it and opened it a bunch of times to wear it out a little before I put it on my cat, plus I leave it loose enough that it'll hopefully pull off if there is a serious problem. Since she always wears a collar I figure having it be able to break away is better than not being able to.
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