Not sure what to do with this scaredy-cat!

[retainertrainer]

We have a sibling pair of 6 month old kittens. The female went to be neutered yesterday,came home with a fetching collar. She’s doing really well with it. Her brother is in bits, doesn’t seem to recognise her, hisses every time she goes anywhere near him. He’s clinging to us, following us around everywhere and purring like a drill.

I feel so sorry for our girl. When he came home after the snip,she curled up next to him and washed him all over (he’d pooed twice in the car so was in a bit of a state!).

Any ideas? She’s got to wear the cone for 2 weeks! (Seems excessive to me!). I don’t know if I should keep them apart while I’m in work this morning or let them just figure it out.

We had the same when (older) boy cat had an op on his tail, his sister reacted in just the same way. Remember that your girl cat looks different/weird because of the cone, and smells different having been to the vets, so he is a bit confused. It'll all blow over

How long did it last? They have such a lovely bond I hope it comes back! He’s still hiding behind the tv!

Try feeding them both some cat treats at the same time and also if he has a cat blanket cuddle her in it so she gets lots of his scent on her.

Thankyou, we’ll try that.

Two weeks in a cone seems a bit ott.

We had our two female six month old kittens spayed last week. The vet doesn't automatically give collars. One of the kittens plucked at her stiches a bit so we got one for her, but she really hated it and we took it off. They were both fine within 3-4 days and both playing with our older neutered male cat. I'd take the collar off!

Rub the boy cat with a soft cloth especially around his face and then rub that onto girl cat - she will currently smell different and this will help her smell like home again.

Mine were the opposite - the girl hissed at her brother for 24 hours after his neutering and when she came back from hers, he was super attentive and snuggled up to sleep with her.

I like to keep the buster collars for a few days as I've seen the horrible aftermath of cats getting to their stitches in the early days (at a charity I volunteer, not with my own cats). But generally vets use skin glue on the top layer these days and the incision is very neat so after a few days you can at least give her supervised time without the cone. Mostly they get used to it quickly anyway.

He’s come out of hiding but he’s still hissing at her and has taken a few swipes. I’ve taken the collar off, she’s given herself a good clean (I made she she left the stitches alone). I’ve been stroking him then her etc to mix their scents up again. I’ve had fed them both some chicken which he tolerated and I put some of it in the collar and he took it out of that. They played next to echo their for a while but he hissed if she got too close.

He’s now sleeping under the bed and she’s on the sofa with me. Off to do the school run in a bit so I’ll pop the collar back on for that.

I hope he calms down again, they had such a lovely bond before.

Just had my 6 month old cat neutered. She didn't wear a collar - vet said they only need it they constantly pull at their stitches. Within a week everything was fine. Def ditch the collar unless she really needs it.

My boycat hissed at girlcat for a couple of days after she was spayed in November. It wore off though and they're best friends again.