They should make fashionable Elizabethan ruffle-cones so that your cat can have some courtly flair about her.

When my kitten was spayed a few years ago, we put towels or blankets in the dryer for a few minutes and then wrapped her up in them. Frankly I think she would like for us to do that all the time. ; )

I don't remember my cat having to wear a cone after getting spayed. Then again, that was when I was 7, which was 17 years ago. I probably didn't even know what getting spayed was. I just remember my cats being depressed after they got declawed.

On another note, your Tweet looks very much like my Kasey. The only difference is that your cat doesn't seem to have any white on her chest, and Kasey had like 6 strands of white hair there. And I can't tell what color your cats eyes are. My cat had the prettiest green eyes. He was my first kitty, and he was so wonderful in every way.

When my cat, Shaly, was spayed I was pretty little so I don't remember it very well. She was declawed at the same time and she was miserable. The cat I have currently is also spayed but that was done before I adopted her.

she shouldn't have to wear a cone at all...if you go back to the vet or a pet store, they should be able to give you this gel that you can put around the incision that tastes like shit and will prevent her from trying to lick it. you put it on w/a q-tip a couple of times a day...and just let her be super comfy. i can't remember the name of the product, but when i had my cat neutered, the vet suggested i buy it b/c it really does make cats not mess w/the incision area and it worked like wonders!

hope that helps!

None of my female cats were ever sent home with a cone after spay. I have worked at the SPCA doing many, many spay clinics; none of those cats was ever sent home with a cone.

My guess is that your clinic had a pressing need to sell you a cone for your cat and that's the reason she's wearing one. And the "two weeks" instructions were to justify the cost of the cone.

Get rid of the cone. At least ditch it when you're with her and can watch her. She'll feel a lot better. I've never seen a cat do more than a perfunctory sniff and maybe groom around the area of the incision. Cats generally don't pay attention to the incision site.

When I would have a newly-spayed foster cat staying with me, I would stick her in my small extra bathroom that had a tub/shower with a sliding door. Litter box on one end of the tub, bed/water on the other. Kitty stayed there for 24 hours. After 24 hours, I opened up the shower surround and kitty stayed there in the bathroom for another two days.

You can always confine her to the bathroom when you go out if you're worried about her running around. Or put the cone back on. But when you're home, take the cone off and keep an eye on her.

my cats that were spayed never had to wear a cone either...in fact, I've never heard of any cat that wore a cone after being spayed... i also had a male cat that had a serious cut (in an area on his belly similar to where spaying would be) that had to be operated on, stitched, etc. and he never had to wear a cone either.. and two weeks seems like a really long time

To help her feel more confident try scratching her under her chin. This gives her love while also making her raise her head.

P.S. After a year of following your blog but not commenting, it was this post that moved me to register! :)

yeah, weighing in with the no-cone thing here, it's definitely odd. They'd only get one (with any surgery, not just spaying) if they demonstrated the tendency to fiddle with it, which mostly they didn't. The gel mentioned above sounds like a good deal though, as does the taking it off and watching her while you're there.

Other than that, you are totally right on the miserables thing - that cone looks like she's wearing an 1830s bonnet, aka Silliest Hat Ever Worn By A Human Being (ever). It would have been just the kind of thing Cosette would wear, like on the movie with Claire Danes, which was good with the costuming side of things IIRC. But then the whole fashion of the time was disastrous as far as I'm concerned, so the hat's arguably the least of it ;-)

On another note, I checked out the other picture and saw that you actually have yourself a Ceiling Cat and a Basement Cat (almost). Very cool!

i don't have a cat, but i do have a tiny 10-pound puppy who was just neutered. the cone was way too big for him and he couldn't lift his head, so the vet suggested we cut it down: it only needs to be like an inch past their heads to keep them from licking. Finny was still miserable about wearing the cone for 2 weeks (and not being able to go on long walks! restless little guy!), but he could still romp around, eat and drink, and cause a little puppy mischief while still not being able to lick himself...

I've had my three cats spayed and so I've gone through the healing with them in different ways. The first one, a Russian Blue like your beautiful feline, was spayed in Russia, where they give you a popona, which is like an apron that the cat wears while s/he recovers. That prevents them from licking it. I wish we had that here, it's a more natural method and comfortable for the cat.

Recently my kitten was spayed and she refused to wear the cone (she'd successfully take it off of herself), and I wish I had just kept her in the bedroom for the next two weeks to heal, because she developed a seroma from jumping around and playing as usual with her sister, my middle cat. It's the size of a golf ball, a collection of blood and fluid, more likely to develop with two layers of stitches (vs. the more expensive 3-layered approach). Anyway, long story short, a week after the spay, I had to keep her isolated in a bedroom for two weeks which saddened her of course, and upset the other cats.

It ultimately depends on the cat though - my middle cat had neither a cone nor a popona and she was fine. She was about 7 months and active, but she didn't have a playmate like my current kitten does, so she didn't get into mischief or develop a seroma.

Good luck!

they make soft cones, too - i just saw some at my local pet supply store. i think they're called "comfy cones".

Awww, poor Tweet! I have a 9 month old kitten named Miranda (a tuxedo kitty) that we had spayed back in August. She didn't need a cone either, but she also didn't have stitches, they used surgical glue instead. I'm actually kind of surprised that your vet used stitches, as surgical glue is becoming more and more popular with vets.

I highly recommend doing the antibiotic gel some other posters mentioned. We had issues with Miranda licking her wound, or at least around it, so we picked some of that up and applied it in the morning and at night and she stopped licking it. You also want to make sure Tweet stays calm and doesn't do a lot of running around and jumping that way she doesn't develop a seroma like grigom mentioned, or tear her stitches out. For me, this was the most challenging part of helping Miranda heal after her spay. She wanted to play so badly, and jump on things like a normal happy kitten, but we couldn't let her. Anytime we left the house or when we went to sleep we locked her in the bedroom with her litter box and food and water so she wouldn't be tempted to jump up on things when we weren't there to watch her.

I hope that helps. Good luck with the healing process!

My cat just had an eye removed (he's 17) and needed to wear a cone to keep him from pawing at the sutures. He sulked around and looked really depressed with his head down. It's good to make sure she's healing well and make sure she's comfortable where the surgery was performed, but I think it helps to scratch her head and cheeks once in a while too--my cat really appreciated that, and when they have the cone on they can't do it themselves. Maybe brush her gently too so that she doesn't feel like her fur is getting dirty because she can't clean herself.

What a cutie. She looks pretty content for being a cone head there.

In recent years we've had five spays and one neuter (my parents were much less interested in fixing the boys). In no case did we have any cones on our cats. The first batch (three spays, one neuter) we had it done at the humane society. I don't know if they're just used to catch and release animals and so they use magic stitches that don't register or something. The other two spay s we had done at the local vet, but still no cone, and one of the cats was basically feral (her brothers and sisters weren't) and there were no problems.

I seem to recall getting a little nervous if they picked at the stitches, but I think just how if you picked at your own stitches you'd go, "OWW!!" and stop picking, the cats get the picture pretty quickly. Never had any problems. You could also wrap a bandage around it, but I think that might be even more annoying (one of our cats had stitches on his paw and the bandage drove him insane--more so than the antibiotics we had to give him).

Just gotta watch out if you have another cat, because sometimes they like to remove foreign objects from their bretheren. In our household, that meant collars. We would OFTEN catch one cat trying to remove the collar of another cat ...

Another post on the 'no cone' side. My cats were spayed and neutered, and didn't have them.
I don't think they're needed. Agree with the post above that the picking at the stitches will stop.
And aw your poor cat, hope Tweet feels better soon.

How's the baby doing, Vanessa? I would love an update (sorry if I missed it?)!