Successful Options other than ecollar

webmiss

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My 6 month old kitten , 6 lbs Himalayan, is getting spayed on Wednesday.

She's a rambunctious girl and I just know she will HATE an ecollar. Anyone have any recommendations of other successful options to prevent her from messing with her stitches? Tube socks aren't big enough for her.
 

red top rescue

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In my experience, they do just fine with sufficient pain medication so the incision doesn't hurt and they don't lick it.  I NEVER use an e-collar on my spays and neuters, and I ALWAYS get buprenex pain meds from the neuter/spay vet.  They only dole out three doses, but that's 36 hours worth of pain relief that starts the night of the surgery.  They may give the incision a lick or two but they don't tear at it.  I've heard some cats get loopy on buprenex but I've never experienced that, although they may get very clingy.  I usually hold the patient and watch something on the DVR that first night.  By the second day they are just fine.

I'm not sure about the laws in your state.  In this one they are weird.  The mobile vet can give out buprenex to take home but the vet operating out of his office CAN'T.  (Mine did for a postoperative cat, but had to be sneaky about it.)  On the other hand, Hope in New York had no problem getting buprenex for her cat from her vet, who is not mobile.  So do check the laws in your state AND see if your vet is willing to give it, and NOT Onsior or the other NSAID which are not sufficient for this kind of pain in my opinion. 

I HATE e-collars because they are in my opinion like torture devices.  Imagine if something hurts but you can't get to it, you just have to feel the pain, or it itches and you can't scratch it, so you just have to tolerate the itch.  In rescue I've had several hundred cats spayed over the years and only ONCE was there a problem, and that was because her internal stitches ruptured at the hospital before I ever took her home so she developed a nasty hematoma and had to go back for repair surgery the next day. I didn't even have pain medicine then, just had to wrap her with Vet Wrapand hold her all night, poor thing. 
 
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webmiss

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I am praying she will be a good girl and leave her stitches alone.

I'm also concerned about how active she is for after her surgery. She runs and jumps like crazy.
 
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webmiss

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The baby onesie idea is great but I cannot for the life of me find onesies without the snaps
 

LTS3

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The picture in that thread shows the part where the bottoms snaps are usually located cut off. So it's fine to use a baby onesie with snaps since the bottom is just going to be cut off. A small baby t shirt would also work just as well. You just want to make sure the abdomen is covered to prevent licking and scratching.

There are medical pet t shirts but it'll probably take at least a couple of days to arrive by mail.
 
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webmiss

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But if you cut the snaps off to make enough room for her head it would remove all the material in the middle and become one big hole including the leg holes.
 

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One big hole would be fine.  You don't need the leg holes.  In fact, those would probably block her potty region, which would be a really gross clean-up.  Just cut off the snaps and slip it over her head and put her front legs through the armholes to help hold it in place.
 

LTS3

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One big hole would be fine.  You don't need the leg holes.  In fact, those would probably block her potty region, which would be a really gross clean-up.  Just cut off the snaps and slip it over her head and put her front legs through the armholes to help hold it in place.
The legs holes aren't needed at all. In fact, once the entire bottom and leg holes are cut off, the onesie turns into a t shirt so you can just buy a baby t shirt. All you need is something to cover the spay area.
 

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My vet suggested this for our cat...if you do happen to need it to stay put... it's actually a onesie but you put it on upside down...here's a video how to do it. The video is created by the dermatologist that I took my cat to :)

 
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webmiss

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Yes ! That how I was intending to use it, backwards! I didn't think about cutting the hole above the snaps! I'm definitely going to try this!
 
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