our 3 year old cat, who we got from the cat resuce centre 10 days ago, was spayed yesterday. i collected her last night and, after a few tears (me!), she recovered well after the surgery and anaesthetic. the vet had not put an e-collar on her after the surgery but provided us with one should we need it. needless to say at 5.30 this morning i woke up to her chewing her stitches. i must have caught her just in time as she hadnt broken any of them and so we managed to get the e-collar on her - but now she is thoroughly miserable and keeps bumping into things and getting food and poop (when she sniffs it after she has been in the litter tray) on it. i feel terrible for her and we have been looking online all day for an alternative collar. we have ordered a pro-collar and it should arrive on wednesday (because of bank holiday) - if anyone has used these i would love to know if they were any good.

i suppose what i really want to know is how long will it take for her to get used to the e-collar, as the vet has said to leave it on for 10 days till the stitches come out. What have other people done in realtion to length of time for leaving the collar on?

I just feel so bad for her, but as I have never had a cat before maybe i am over-reacting.

any advice on how to make her more comfortable would be gratefully recieved.

thank you

When my Rosie was spayed, she was exactly the same - hated the collar, was thoroughly miserable, kept bumping into things. She was done on the tuesday. Some friends came round on the Friday - they're dog people but had a really good look at the wound and said it had knitted together so I took the collar off. Sure enough she spent a while pulling at the stitches (didn't break any - I think they're made of pretty strong stuff) but I think she was mostly just cleaning herself. So all in all, she had it on a little over three days and came to no harm. However I have heard stories of cats tearing their wounds open so...