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Hopper has a cone

Published on 33 Comments on Hopper has a cone

Poor little Hopper is stuck in a cone for the next ten days:

Around noon yesterday we noticed a long string hanging off her tail. At the base of the string there was a small wound covered in blood. So I headed off to the vet.

Sure enough, she had injured her tail in some way, and then spent the past day or so worrying at it and pulling off a long stretch of skin and tendon. So now she has a bandage on her tail and a cone around her neck. We are crossing our fingers that this is enough. If it's not, and there's nerve death toward the end of her tail, a little piece will have to be amputated.

Hopper is not adjusting well to the cone: she keeps bumping into things like a drunkard, and then getting stuck. We're taking her in today to get the bandage rewrapped, and I'll ask about this. She seems to be getting a little better as she explores the house, but still, I've never quite seen this behavior in a cat with a cone and I wonder if it means there's something off about her eyesight.

33 thoughts on “Hopper has a cone”

  1. Special Newb

    "Hopper is not adjusting well to the cone: she keeps bumping into things like a drunkard, and then getting stuck"

    I admit my reaction would be to enjoy the entertainment.

  2. tim

    Try a thick felt "cone". Still prevents the cat from accessing the wound but is floppy enough not to obscure vision or hamper eating. You can make your own easily too.

    1. nyingje

      Absolutely, get rid of the stiff plastic cone and get a soft fabric one -- it will make a huge difference. Your local pet store will probably have one and there are many on Amazon.

    2. gyrfalcon

      That's a brilliant idea. It simply never occurred to me when my cat had to wear one of those torture collars after minor surgery on his leg. He was absolutely miserable and very frustrated, the cone catching on things as he passed and jerking his head back, and being unable to groom himself.

      Sigh.

      I had to have him euthanized on Monday-- at 19 yo, he'd gone into kidney failure, so it was a mercy for him but misery for me.

      3. ShaunCurry

        So sorry for your loss. We lost our 19 YO Kizmet in April. It is always a tough transition to lose a pet but especially when one has been with you for that long a time.

  3. Brett

    My cat crashes into everything when he’s needed a cone. My theory is that his habit is to slink along walls and rub past furniture, etc. There’s no changing that habit and he can’t understand that he needs to give things a few inches of clearance.

    1. KawSunflower

      Astute observation- although I don't quite recall how much more sensitive cats are to their use of whiskers than dogs seem to be - or why.

      Can we give Special Newb some sensitivity training?

        1. KawSunflower

          You're not giddy; you're bereft, forlorn - still in mourning.

          I love dogs, but living a humble life in a small space & working long hours means that cats, not dogs, have been my life's saving grace.

          1. Special Newb

            Lmao!

            He was excellent as cats go but I don't like animals in general and especially animals who think they are superior.

    2. formandfoliage

      Yes I think that you are correct - cats use their whiskers to determine where they are in space and if the cone covers them, I bet that IS the problem!

      1. Special Newb

        Isn't this common knowledge? I assumed that was the first thing you check. Cats are stupid so they need to use their whiskers to touch things otherwise their spatial orientation goes to hell.

    3. TriassicSands

      This is the problem. Cats need their whiskers to navigate. It's instinctive. Right now, her whiskers don't provide the information she needs, so she'll back up and try again, because her whiskers are telling her she can go forward.

      It's not funny, because it is unsettling to the cat, but maybe some here enjoy seeing that in others.

      She will survive the ten days and return to normal, but the important thing is to prevent her from getting to her tail. If that takes a rigid cone, then so be it.

  6. rick_jones

    One thing you could try is see how well you move about the house with something fastened to you which makes you fifty percent wider than you are.

    1. TriassicSands

      People rely on their vision. Cats rely on their whiskers.

      A more apt analogy would be to have a person suddenly lose her eyesight. However, people, depending less on nstinct, will probably adapt more quickly than Hopper does. If she does at all.

  8. Heysus

    Hang in there Kevin. It take a bit of time to learn to use the cone and yes, a fabric collar would be much better. I believe that the cone also obscures peripheral vision.

  9. cld

    Saw somewhere that cats can walk around the house while being entirely asleep, so this may be part of this issue.

    I've also been working on a theory that cats actually only sleep around four hours a day and our reality is actually their collective dream.

    So she may not be getting enough sleep and, contradictorily, is finding it hard to navigate our waking dreamscape.

  10. HokieAnnie

    Get well soon Hopper!

    As for the collar I'm with the others - go on Amazon or Chewy and get a soft collar, there's many varieties out there but I'd steer clear of the inflatable ones, my Cowboy was given one by the vet after surgery and he popped it flat in no time. But the floppy ones work very well to prevent fussing of stitches. I can't imagine an inflatable one working at all for a cat.

  15. Cressida

    The only time I experienced the cone thing was several years ago when one of our cats had surgery on his paw. I got him home and let him out of the carrier and he immediately began crashing around the house in terror. He managed to charge through the banister uprights and fell nearly a story to the bottom of the stairs, and then raced back up to the top floor and continued running around, losing his bandage in the process. Eventually I cornered him in the walk-in closet and shut the door and calmed him down. He was fine, of course - he was on his fourth or fifth life by that time and hung on for a few more years before succumbing to heart disease. Anyway, lesson: If you bring home a cat in a cone, get to an enclosed space without any hazards *before* letting them out of the carrier.

    I hope Hopper is on the mend.

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