Collar trouble!

[ClaireVoyante]

My cat will be 4 years old in September, he's worn a collar for about 3 years. I've lived here with him for 3 years in October. So, very recently he has twice come home with one leg through his collar. This week he came home with his collar around his belly. Now I don't think he could have done this, it was very tight and I had difficulty removing it.

I am trying to picture a scenario where his collar would end up around his belly but frankly I think someone is doing this to him. Anyone with any experience of something like this? I have taken his collar off, he is microchipped but I would rather he wore his collar but now I am not so sure.

I'd take that collar off personally.

Could he be trying to climb through a gap and his collar is wide enough to stretch if it catches on something? Is is a safety collar (quick release)?
Pyjamacat won't wear a collar at all and has managed for four years without one.

Someone has to be messing with it.
(some numpty who disapproves of collars & wants to put the cat at high risk?!)
I don't think you have a choice, need to go collar free for a spell.

I think it's very unlikely that a person has done this. Cats come into our clinic with collar injuries every week. They are normally stray cats that were previously pets (hence the collar) they get their leg through the collar and it starts to cut through the skin under the leg and becomes infected and often maggoty. This happens when the cats tries to get the collar off, or when it gets the collar caught on something and tries to release itself.

Other cats get killed by their collars when they get caught and hang by the collar or just die slowly where they are as they can't release themselves. That's why, if you must use a collar, you must use the quick release sort. Yours obviously aren't that type or your cat wouldn't be able to get it's leg stuck that way.

There is no good reason to use a collar and a lot of reasons not too. They are also counterproductive in that a stray or lost cat wearing a collar has to be in a much worse state than one not wearing one before people will try to help it generally, as they naturally assume it has a home and so don't want to interfere.

Take the collar off and leave it off.

No need / use for a collar. They're dangerous and get lost anyway. BonzoCat hasn't worn one for years.

None of mine have ever tolerated a collar - or in The Lodger's case, for more than 20 minutes. (He used to accept one seemingly graciously, go away and then return after 20 minutes without it. I swear, if he'd been a human, I'd have called his return 'swaggering'. )

On the matter of 'incongruous' collar positioning, I recall going outside one morning and discovering a drift of pale fur with an intact (closed and circular) pink collar neatly sitting in the middle of it. (I assumed that The Lodger had been goaded beyond endurance and had finally flipped.) Cats can squirm something dreadful and the power of that, combined with a hooked claw might well lead to some surprising results.

Are you sure, OP, that he hasn't got a new Nemesis out there?

I disagree that there are no good reasons for a collar. When William came to live with my Mum we put a collar on him and, when he went missing, the man who found him got the number off the collar and phoned us. I have no idea if he would have gone to the trouble of taking him to the vet to have him scanned.

Harry wore a collar until he broke his jaw. The vet obviously took it off and we've not put it back on him (he has a bald collar line on his neck). I do sometimes think of putting one on him when he goes away with us, in case he accidentally gets out.

If you do want your cat to wear a collar, please make sure it's a quick release one - I can't believe shops still sell the other sort.

I find there are many great reasons to have a collar.
It needs to be relatively tight, though, or it could catch on things.

My 2 wear quick release collars, so I can attach their Loc8tors.