Cat collars

[BringMeThatHorizon]

Having a dilemma about what to do with my cat and her collar...

She's always had an easy release type collar but she just generally doesn't like them, loses them constantly, scratches at them regularly.

We eventually stopped putting them back on her, but last summer she was hit by a car. The accident happened at around 10pm at night and someone took her home with then and into the vets the next day, but I've felt so incredibly guilty that she wasn't wearing a collar and they didn't know how to contact us, and that she was in pain for so much longer than she should have been if we'd been called and taken her straight to the emergency vet.

Lots of surgery and cage rest later, we've recently started letting her out for short periods in the day but I've been insisting that she wears a collar to stop anything like that happening again.

I've just been giving her a cuddle and found a ring of scabs around her neck where she's obviously been scratching at it. It's not too tight - I can easily fit two fingers under it. I've taken it off as I hate the thought of her hurting herself, but I also really don't want to let her out without it.

What would you do? Keep it on and hope she gets used to it again? Or leave it off?

Collars are dangerous qnd pointless. If she has a chip that's all you need.

I know that some can be dangerous and so we've always used the easy release ones that pop right off if they get stuck.

I guess my point is that because she wasn't wearing one she was in huge amounts of pain with a fractured pelvis and leg for almost 12 hours, whereas if she'd had one on and we'd been called straight away she would have been at the emergency 24 hour vet within the hour.

I nearly lost one of my cats to a quick release collar that didn't release so none of mine wear them now.

Really if anyone finds an injured cat they should take it to a vet straight away regardless. I see your point but that is quite a rare scenario.

It’s batshit to kidnap an injured cat. What were they thinking?.

@Fluffycloudland77 I know, I don't know why they did it. I'm glad that someone did eventually take her to the vets, but it kills me thinking of that night and her being in pain and scared in a place she didn't know.

From comments it sounds like we were just unlucky and I need to get over it and just let her be happy and collarless again!

We gave up on collars with our cat, lasted him 3 days on a good spell. Every vet and many volunteers have microchip scanners, first thing they do with injured or suspected stray is to scan and check for owner details, so as long as she's chipped and your details are up to date. Sounds like you were very unlucky with your specific situation.

I found one of my cats on the doorstep when I got home from work hog tied by his "quick release" collar which malfunctioned, his back legs and front legs were stuck in it.
After that none of my cats wore a collar.
They are all chipped and when one of them got run over the vet called me immediately after someone brought him in and I was there in 5 minutes.
Buns has never worn a collar because if someone had tried to look at the tag she would have bitten them.