My 'Wild' Kitten, Vivi

[VioletFae]

Vivi is back and happy to be home (not loving the cone though), and the vet had to use anesthesia to stitch her back up. I have to go back in 10 days to have them removed, and she has to keep the cone on until then. The vet mentioned she had a reaction to the sutures.. is this normal? I've had many cats and have never had any trouble like this when getting them fixed. I'm not sure how I'm going to kiss her with that cone on!

Um, am I having a blonde moment or does it seem a little tough for her to eat with it on? Any tips? I know that if it is removed there is no way she is going to let me put it back on her =/

Also, this is completely random but I thought I'd mention it- Vivi wakes me up 3-4 times during the night for attention- it's super cute but getting old quickly, lol. It's like she can't go too many hours without being loved on. Do they grow out of this phase? I'd love to have a full night of sleep again, but I don't have the heart to put her in another room.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I had a girl recently have a reaction to sutures, but not such that it opened, the suture line did get swollen though. It's the first time I've seen it though... so I don't think it is normal, they are individuals and I know that I personally am sensitive to many things that other people use just fine!

It is a challenge for them to deal with the cone, a smaller shallow dish may be easier to her to fit the cone over so she can reach to eat... is it a hard plastic cone then? Usually my vet will cut those so that it is long enough to prevent them licking themselves but not too long that they can't eat or drink from dishes.

When dealing with kitten behaviors like the sleeping issue, you have to think that what is cute as a kitten will it be cute the rest of their lives. If you reward her behavior by waking up and petting her then she is going to continue to do it.

 

[NikkiA]

D did that as a kitten, and so did Mickey. When they were little, if they didn't settle down after waking me up, snuggle, and go back to sleep, I kicked them out of bed and closed the door.
With D, we settled into me petting him for a minute, then holding him and snuggling him, and both of us going back to sleep. He does it about 2x per week now, between 1:30 and 4:00, but he settles right down again for me after a head butt I pull him over into my arms, he grabs my left hand in his paws, and we both go back to sleep.
With Mickey, the older he has gotten the more he waits until our alarm goes off (or we make eye contact- whichever comes first), and he charges at us for a snuggle. On the weekends, he tends to settle into my right arm, and go to sleep after a couple of minutes, then wake up for some attention when we start moving and taking affirmative steps to getting up.

 

[VioletFae]

Well, it took her all of 5 minutes after waking up to figure out how to get the cone off She backed up into the small space between the wall and the armoire, then when the cone was stuck in there she pulled her head out of it lol.

I didn't even notice it at first, I was just happy that she was finally eating (nature's instinct canned chicken seems to be a winner, yay!). I got it back on after she ate and cleaned up a bit. Right now she's laying in my bed with my 4yo waiting for me to go to sleep.

Nikki, how old is D now? Vivi does usually settle down pretty quickly once I finally give in and pet her for a minute or two. She's so darn cute it's hard not to! She doesn't purr extremely loud, but it seems loud when it wakes me up, so I can never turn her away lol.

Ahh, kitties

 

[VioletFae]

Here she is with her stylish new collar...

 

[NikkiA]

She could be Mickey's twin sister. So darn cute, even with the collar!

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I've never had much luck with "the cone of shame" here... I think it has something to do with the Savannahs having a proportionally smaller head to body like the Serval does. Or the determination to get the darn thing off! LOL!

Kelly Sheppard (not sure if she participates on this forum) once told me there is a way to make a kinda harness out of bandages so you turn the collar part of the cone into a figure 8 harness with longer webbing? Might be worth playing around with if you NEED to keep that on?

 

[VioletFae]

She seems to be doing ok with it now, yayyy. The cone somehow stayed on during the night and she isn't making too big of a mess while eating. 9 more days!

 

[John Popp]

As SV owners I think we are very sensitive to the term "wild" being thrown at any of our cats actions. Probably a poor choice of words, and the crating post surgery suggestion isn't necessarily out of line depending on how your cat/kitten responds. After our first SVs neuter (a lot less invasive than a spay) the vet simply said "keep him from running around.........uuugghhh, well do your best".

I also don't believe your vets advice should be different for any other domestic kitten but only your vet will know if that's advice they offer elsewhere. They also had a brief pre-surgery introduction which may have tipped the scale one way or the other as to how your kitten was going to respond post surgery. With our little guy, there wasn't any question that he was going to be running around as if his tail was on fire, although fortunately she never used the word "wild" in describing his behavior.

 

[admin]

What about a soft collar instead? They seen to work much better and the cat is more comfortable.

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