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More about the E-collar after Spay/Neuter

post #1 of 6
11/20/11 at 9:51pm
Thread Starter 

I read a little about what some people thought about the use of the elizabeth collar after spay surgery. Just wanted to get some more feed back. So my 7 month old kitty was spayed Saturday morning. We are approaching day three. I was advised to use the E-collar and did try it but I couldn't seem to keep it on her. She is still very tiny and her head seemed to small for it. I put it on her three times and she got it off all three times. She has been licking her incission or at least the area, not constantly as of yet but she does it fairly often and only for a few seconds at a time. Is there anything I should be doing to treat the wound to prevent infection. The wound looks ok to me. Its a fresh wound so it is obviously red and slightly scabbed looking but there is no discharge and it is not opening. I just want to get an idea of how likely it is that it will become infected if I don't use the collar and she continues to lick it occassionally. Some have told me not to worry, one lady told me she had three females soayed and never used the collar and others have said they have to wear the collar. I believe the clinic used a glue to seal the wound. She was also micro-chipped. Thanks in advance for any feedback. 

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post #2 of 6
11/20/11 at 11:40pm
If she's only licking it in the way of normal cleaning, I personally don't worry about it. If she picks at the stitches/glue, licks excessively, or starts biting at the incision, then I'd do something about it. I've had many many cats spayed, and only one needed intervention. But I put a tube sock on her (around her belly), not an e-collar.
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post #3 of 6
11/21/11 at 7:04am
Thread Starter 
Wow what a great idea. The sock sounds like a good back up plan. For now I will just keep watching her. Have you ever found cleaning the incision with salt water beneficial? Someone told me they did it to prevent infection. Thanks for your help.
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post #4 of 6
11/21/11 at 8:33am
No, I don't mess with the incision. I figure anything I do will only introduce more bacteria. Make sure to keep the litterbox and her usual sleeping places extra clean, too!
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post #5 of 6
11/21/11 at 8:10pm
Thread Starter 

So I got home from work today and I checked her incision and it looked fine. Then I saw her biting away at it a little later. This is the first time I ever saw her do that. I totally freaked out and put a sock on her as you suggested. I hope that she did'nt do any damage. I really can't tell. I don't know if I should take her to the vet asap, which I really can't afford or I should just wait and see what happens in a few days. I know I'm being a little nuts about this but I'm squeamish and have trouble looking at the wound. I hope I'm over reacting.

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post #6 of 6
11/21/11 at 10:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scaredyandgaga View Post

So I got home from work today and I checked her incision and it looked fine. Then I saw her biting away at it a little later. This is the first time I ever saw her do that. I totally freaked out and put a sock on her as you suggested. I hope that she did'nt do any damage. I really can't tell. I don't know if I should take her to the vet asap, which I really can't afford or I should just wait and see what happens in a few days. I know I'm being a little nuts about this but I'm squeamish and have trouble looking at the wound. I hope I'm over reacting.



I got my cat from a breeder when she was between 5 and 6 months old, I told them I wanted her for a pet - not as a breeding cat. So approximately 5 days before I got her they had her spayed. Then they shipped her on a plane, where she pretty much ending up having to poo on paper towels, and then when I got her I took her to petco to have her washed because she smelled a bit of poo herself even though I couldn't see it and there she through a royal fit obviously because she didn't like water then (she does like water now) and only after the end of that and we were getting her dried off did we see that she had incisions in her belly. The breeder never told me when she was spayed or even that she was going to be spayed - I thought i was going to have to do that. Anyway so after all that, the next day when she had her vet appointment (I had called in advance as I knew the day I was getting her) the incision looked fine to the vet, just the normal swelling that happens apparently. Well after that she started licking and biting/pulling at the incisions and two days later I brought her back to the vet to have the incisions removed so that she didn't hurt herself.  I found out later from the breeder that they were the dissolvable kind of stitches. Yea after that whole little thing I started asking all sorts of things about her after the fact, but it's all good now and I still trust the breeder...

 

The point I'm getting to is my cat went through a lot of stress while she was going through the healing process after being spayed (leaving family, first car ride, an airplane ride, meeting new family, being washed and handled *when she had the dissolvable stitches that I didn't know about* with the dissolvable stitches your not supposed to let them get wet for two weeks for it to heal properly) after all that she never got an infection, never had a problem, it ended up being good. Your over reacting because your scared and you don't like seeing your cat in pain, but it will be okay. agree.gif

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