Cat appears to have had frontal lobotomy instead of being spayed

rainglow

My cat has lost her damn mind since she's been spayed. She's now had two completely personality 180's; first by hiding in dark rooms post-op, and now by actually being friendly and sitting on us. She's normally snarky, hyperactive, and aloof. But the strangest part is that she's compulsively licking the plastic cone around her neck! She licks every part of it, to the point where she loses her balance and falls over when trying to lick behind her head. You'd swear she was doing a Stevie Wonder impression half the time.Then when I do take it off to let her eat and groom, she grooms her chest like an absolute maniac - the same spot for ten minutes. She's also started licking us (cone or no cone), which she never did before.

Is this normal post-spay behaviour?

boomerang

Grooming is a very important daily ritual for cats - it sounds to me like she is unhappy with the buster collar and frustrated at being unable to groom as normal.

Are you sure she really needs it? It's very unusual for a vet to put a buster collar on a cat, post-spay. Why not try leaving it off her for short periods under supervision, and if she doesn't go at her stitches, then I would dispense with it altogether.

rainglow

Unfortunately she goes straight for the stitches every time, even stopping mid-feed to gnaw on them. I know she's really depressed as she has no interest in playing, but was almost too hyperactive for us to handle before. The vet said I had to keep it on for ten days though, the poor little thing

Sigma Force

Well it sounds like a good thing that she has become more friendly, hormones can do strange things and she might be feeling more calm now.

As for the cleaning the collar, bound to happen perhaps give her a hand by wiping some of the food that gets stuck off with a warm damp cloth.
It's frustrating to watch but it's only a couple of days, if she's eating and in general good health and not in any discomfort then she will be fine.

Won't be long before she can be rid of the collar.

boomerang

Aw, that's a shame, rainglow. Poor little girly must be tormented by the buster collar, but it's for her own good. The ten days will fly. Are the stitches very tight, by any chance? Sounds like they're bothering her.

carwash_2006

Cats can start overgrooming when seriously stressed. The worry here is that it can become habit. Perhaps if you were to get a Feliway plugin it might help to calm her. It is unusual for them to go at the stitches so much. Usually it will hurt them to pull at them so they stop.

Hope she is fine when the collar comes off.

rainglow

I don't really know if they're too tight by looking, but she doesn't yelp if I touch them so I don't think there's any pain there. Thanks for your answers guys, it's very reassuring since this is my first cat and I don't know what's bad, and what's just normal kitty behaviour. Six more days of Stevie Wonder it is

comongethappy

I had to put a lampshade collar on my kitten as she had a bad infection on her neck from a bite wound when she was 10 weeks. Without the collar restricting her grooming, she kept grooming the sores I had to reopen and they kept getting reinfected. She had to have the collar on for 3 or 4 weeks, and she too would go mad grooming the collar and grooming me. She's the picture of health now though and the collar grooming does not appear to have had any adverse affects on her.

The Sweeper

Babygro, or a strip of foam and some velcro tape.

Cats hate post-op elizabethan collars. Do her whiskers touch any part of it? A cat's facial hair is very, very sensitive and if the collar is touching off her whiskers it could be driving her nuts. (The solution to this is NOT, I repeat NOT, to trim her whiskers. Never, ever cut a cat's whiskers.)

Is she kitten sized or bigger? A newborn babygro thing - one of all-in-one body jumpsuit ones - is an alternative to a collar. (Sorry if that's a bad description, I don't have kids. ) Fitted with the buttons along the cat's back, it'll stop her going for her stitches. She won't like it, but it'll leave her head free and might make her happier.

An alternative is using a strip of foam and some velcro tape to make something that looks like a neck-trauma collar they put on whiplash victims. You're not trying to stretch the cat's neck out, but you need to stop her being able to turn her head to get at her stitches.

BlackCat2008

As the wound heals the stitches feel to become tighter and there for more itchy, not only has she come home smelling of strange things she wants to lick away but she is restricted from doing so.

If you can confine her to one room and allow her some time free of the cone, you could try discouraging her from eating at the stitches, let her lick them but tell her no when she starts to bite them and pull her head away from them, licking the area also helps to heal them and soften the scabs so there not so itchy, just give her some extra time to wash and keep an eye on her and she should be fine, even try playing with her to take her mind of them.

Realtine

It's a big op for a little cat. But don't worry I'm sure she'll be fine. Ours was exactly the same four years ago, we thought we brought back a totally different cat from the vet's in fact I even brought her back to the vet's a day or so later because she wasn't the same cat at all. However all was well and he gave her some pain relief in case she was a bit sore.
She healed up well, takes a little time, and she' still a narky bitch.

MsFifers

When my cat got spayed the vet didn't put a collar on her at all. Yes she was at her stitches the first day - but she soon stopped and forgot about them. It was a bit distressing to look at her figuring it out, but it didn't cause any problems eg infections.

I did the same as Blackcat suggests - play with her or give her treats to distract her from biting the stitches.

I would have thought after the first couple of days the wound is less likely to open if she licks it.

10 days of a collar sounds excessive to me. If it was me I'd take it off, let her give herself a good groom and let her settle into her new hormone-free existance.