Comment by ChrisMarshallNY
18 hours ago
If you have ever put a cone on a cat (which lasts about five minutes), you see they get crazy. They hug the walls.
Their whiskers are a major factor in their perception.
I think they can also dislocate their spine.
My cat likes to sit in what we call his "Buddha" position, with his back bent about 90 degrees, and his paws in front. This seems to be a common position. He'll sit like that for an hour.
>If you have ever put a cone on a cat (which lasts about five minutes), you see they get crazy.
You got me thinking about this, as I've dealt with a number of sick kitties / foster kitties, etc but we've always used a paper plate with a hole in the middle in lieu of a purpose-made plastic cone. So thinking out loud here, our solution might not have been more generally affordable but also had the benefit of not interfering with whiskers.
That’s really clever!
I think the cones must also screw up their aural spatial sensation (changing their perception of sound from fairly omni-directional, to seeming like all the sounds are coming from in front of the cone).
Have you ever tried putting a leash harness on a cat? We did that a few times and every time the cat would just constantly walk backwards until we took it off. It was like being stuck in reverse gear.
Cats also tend to be extremely picky about the feel of the litter in their litter boxes because their paws are extremely sensitive (like walking on your finger tips). Not to mention their sensitivity for smell (flehmen response and affection for well-worn clothes or backpacks).
I think cats just generally tend towards some form of hypersensitivity and the distress of anything you put on them can come from any number of places. No wonder so many seem to suffer from some kinds of neuroses.
My cats are weird and loved their cones after they got neutered. One would stick his head back in the cone after I took it off.
I think all cats are weird in their own way. Our cat often sunbathed in the middle of parking space across the road. We occasionally had to go out to fetch him because he would refuse to move when someone started to drive into the space.
I have a ginger tomboy who does exactly this. He loves just rolling around in the fine layer of dirt while keeping an eye out for birds or frogs
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I've seen a few people use a soft inflatable or plush collar that's more flat, and doesn't go up around the face, instead of an actual cone. That way the cat's the whiskers aren't disturbed while still preventing the cat from worsening wounds by licking. At least some cats seem to be a lot more tolerant of that style.
I tried this but cats, being (almost) liquid, can very easily wrap around the soft collars and reach pretty much any part of their body.
Putting some tape on the back makes them immediately crunch down and creep. There is definitively a reflex going on.