Elizabethan Collars
(Photos courtesy
of Jukka Järnberg, SiruCats
Bengals, Finland)
Elizabethan
Collars
Q.
My 6 month old girl has just been spayed and had an
allergic reaction to her (low-allergy) stitches. the
vet gave me antibiotic tablets and a topical solution to
apply but ... she kept licking it off so I made an
Elizabethan collar out of cardboard and used sticky tape to
join the ends together. It fits well - not too tight
around the neck.
-
However, how wide does it need to be roughly? I may have
made it too big. It comes halfway down her upper front legs when
she's standing. Is that OK?
-
Also,
should I remove it for meals and post litterbox
bathing, or leave it on? Thanks.
A1.
Try cutting front and back leg holes on a work sock and slipping
her into a body
suit. Much more comfortable for her and she can't lick the
stitches and can eat
and pee-poop with ease.
A2.
An E-Collar only really needs to come to a 'skotsh' past the
end of her chin. As long as when she *tries* to lick
her incision, she can't - it's long enough.
Cats
are pretty smart. With mine, when I take off the
collar - I put it back on when they are doing 'unacceptable'
things. The pretty quickly learn what is acceptable
behavior and what is ''collar worthy".
You also might try giving your kitty some Benadryl
antihistamine. Histamines are the things that make allergic
reactions, and things itch. Antihistamines alleviate those
symptoms. Also, they make us and cats just a little
sleepy. Just relaxed enough that a silly old incision
might not be
such a bad thing. But you definitely want to keep the
E-collar on when she is unsupervised.
A3.
1. The real test is whether she can walk without scraping
the bottom of the collar on the ground. No matter what
size you make the collar, she'll do this sometimes at first
while she's getting used to it. If she can't walk across the
room without getting the collar stuck, it's too big.
2. When my Bengals have needed a collar, I put their food on
a plate for the first few days while they're getting used to
it. It's easier for them to eat off a plate than from
a bowl. The ideal size of the collar partly depends on
the width of the food bowl. If the bowl is too small for her
to eat even
after she's had a few days to adjust, then shorten the
collar or keep feeding her from a flat plate.
The last time [one of my cats] needed a collar, I had
to keep it on all the time. If I removed it for even a
second, he scratched at his drain. I couldn't stop
him, so I left the collar on the whole time. The day
the collar got removed, he groomed himself for over an hour.
He had a lot of catching up to do! You could probably
brush your girl during the time she's wearing the collar to
help make her feel clean.
A4. It
usually takes them a few days to learn they can't run under
the bed or jump from the floor to that top perch while
wearing the collar. :)
I'm
attaching a picture of Kiko from January when he last had to
wear an E-collar. I entered this is a contest titled
"It's hard to look macho when you're wearing a
bonnet." It got second place. Ha!
(Photo right, courtesy
of Lisa & Kiko)
A5.
I don't know about the Elizabethan Collar, but how about
putting Bitter Apple on the stitches to keep her from
licking rather than putting her through the discomfort of
the collar? Just a thought.... I think the Bitter
Apple is okay to use on the open cuts. My Mom used it
on her dog when he had to have surgery and it worked well --
you might check with your vet about it to be sure. It
really made things much easier on her and the dog!
