Please help!

[Moggieslegacy]

I wonder if I take the cone off, and if he seems inclined to lick if took a tiny bit of Cheyenne pepper or something else and put it on his fur an inch away from his genitals, if that would stop him from licking but not irritate anything sensitive? Maybe a bit of olive oil on the fur first to keep it from moving to somewhere sensitive? I don't want to make it worse...

 

[Moggieslegacy]

OK... I just sewed up a quick pair of 3 legged cat pants (one for his tail) to put on attached to his harness if he starts uncontrollable licking and took the cone off. He relaxed right away and stopped bouncing off the walls and if he starts wanting to lick I will first try distracting him. Obviously he won't be able to use the litter box wearing cat pants so they are not a great solution. But for now he just seems happy to have that thing off.

 

[DougRD]

My kitten was neutered today and the vet was concerned because he was licking the incisions and sent him home with a cone. We have been home an hour and a 1/2 and he has already managed to get it off or 1/2 off 3 times. I used some duct tape to stop him from prying open the tabs using the furniture. But the 1/2 off is scary because his lower jaw is outsde the cone and the rest of his head is still stuck in it. And he was wanting to play already and going places like the backs of chairs and counters. Which is dangerous wearing the cone. My cat carrier is really small and there is no doors in my house or a battroom.Thankfully he is having a nap right now, but the vet said to keep the cone on a week. I can't see how this is going to be possible. I was not expecting this. When my last cat was neutered there was no cone and no peoblems at all. I can't stay awake all night watching him. And he does seem to want to lick what is left of nis balls. And because he is so long and his neck is so long I am not even sure he can't do this wearing the cone. He seems to be getting very close. I am kind of freaking out. I don't want him to hurt himself.

This sounds familiar. When I had my F2 boy neutered, I had to bring him to my veterinary hospital's main office 80 minutes away because they wouldn't use gas anesthesia at my local office and he had to have a specialist anesthesiologist. After surgery, they put a cone on him and wanted me to keep it on him for 10 days. Well, it lasted only 10 minutes of the ride home. So I took him directly to my local vet office to have them put it back on. After 3 attempts they gave up and told me a cone wouldn't work on him (it sounds like it doesn't work on Savannahs in general). They told me just to keep an eye on his incisions, and bring him back if there were any issues with them healing. Luckily Darwin didn't seem very interested in licking the incisions and they healed fine. I hope everything works out fine with Moggie as well.


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[Moggieslegacy]

Thanks for sharing your experience DougRD. Just reading that made me feel better. Brigitte mentioned that it seems mostly cats just want to wash off all the weird veterinarian smells, and now the cone is off Moggie was mainly concerned to wash his face and paws that had his nails clipped for the first time. When he got to his genitals I held a small piece of clean paper towel over his non balls. He washed the towel a bit and everything around it and for now anyways he seems perfectly content to leave that area alone. Haven't tried the cat pants, but I am pretty sure they won't be tolerated well.

 

[admin]

I would keep the cone off as DougRD suggested and watch him. I have never used a cone for male kittens... Or for females...


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[Moggieslegacy]

The advice is really greatly appreciated! Seeing him leaping around with a 1/2 off cone was really scary. He seems to be doing fine without it and I think it would have been more dangerous than licking, if he got it 1/2 off while I was sleeping.

 

[John Popp]

Never used a cone for a neuter, but had success with other injuries and surgeries. After the first 6-8 hours they get used to it although I have had to reinforce some with tape. In one boys case, removing the cone when I was pretty sure he wasn't focused on licking his cast ended up being a bad idea as once they get the idea they want it off, there isn't any turning back.

 

[Moggieslegacy]

I used duct tape to keep him from using the furniture to pry open the tabs, and that worked, but the way this cone is designed there is a small space between cloth tie that goes around his neck, and he would use his back paws to pull it up and then get his lower jaw stuck in between the bottom of the cone and the tie. Which would get him completely freaking out. There was no way to stop him doing this that I could see. I retied it a few times, but he kept doing it. His long neck maybe gives him options to get his lower jaw caught that cats with average necks would not have.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I've never been able to keep a cone on any of my cats beyond my British Shorthair. As you say the long neck and proportionally smaller head of the Savannah makes it nigh impossible to do. Luckily my vet knows this, and doesn't use external sutures... so for neuters and spays it isn't necessary.

 

[Moggieslegacy]

I asked my vet if they could give me something bad tasting to put in the area to stop licking if it became a problem and they said they did not like to use this. Is there a problem with that stuff? I can't possibly watch my kitten 24/7 for the next week. I don't see any external sutures or even an incision, Just slightly swollen genitals and deflated little ball sacks. He does try to lick the area occasionally. Don't know how much he would do this as I have been stopping him. And now he has decided me following him everywhere is a mad game of chase and he just made 3 substantial leaps from various pieces furniture... It seems his playfulness is like water and none of it had anywhere to go yesterday, so he has double the energy today.