Inflatable / padded post-op collars......

[PotOfTulips]

Given that our cat managed to get out of the vet-supplied plastic Cone of Shame in less than 30 seconds, has anyone tried the inflatable collars or the padded types ?

I can see a lot of these are designed to be "pretty" for Insta, looking like flower petals and so on, but do they actually work ?

I am concerned that anything inflatable might well be punctured by a vengeful paw. Any experiences ?

It did work as it forced round her neck. But because she's so tiny, when it was folded back it came down to her paws. And she refused to walk properly, and sat at the bottom of the stairs mewing pitifully. So I took it off. I got another soft collar but didn't even bother trying it! I got it on Amazon.

My friend works at an animal rescue charity and they use them all the time. They are supposed to be pretty good. They just use the basic ones though, not the ones that look like flowers.

*fitted round

It was padded rather than inflatable.

Chronic overgrooming cat here and I've made loads of padded ones, more like a doughnut cushion. They work very well.

Sorry no pics. We used the donut on our chocolate point who'd had a tumour removed from her face.

I think it was more effective than the cone as it was softer and perhaps a bit more comfortable.

thank you all - really useful ! I can see some of the collars fasten with velcro, which looks better perhaps. Others seem to have a toggle / string arrangement, where I'd guess the cat might be able to pull at the string more.

Do you find the fastening makes any difference - better or worse ?

This soft Velcro collar from Amazon worked much better on our cat than the plastic cone the vet gave us, which she’d get out of in about 30 seconds flat. It also allowed her to sleep a bit more comfortably. She broke her pelvis and had major surgery so needed to rest. It has a toggle as well as Velcro, which helped, but we did still find it unceremoniously dumped in the litter tray on several occasions.

Obv she still hated it, as the pissed off face below demonstrates.

I didn't like the fabric/doughnut ones at all - they obscure vision, hard to keep clean, not as effective, and they were either insecure enough to fall off easily or could be secured but then presented a hazard as they didn't have safety releases. A properly sized standard cone with a safety release collar is safest IME.