Happy new year, all! Seeking advice from fellow cat owners who have gone through the drama of the Cone of Shame. My cat (female, 8 years old) recently had to wear an e-collar for several weeks because of a skin allergy, likely diet-based, that had caused a sore on her forehead. Unfortunately I needed to keep the collar on for longer than hoped, because we had a false start with her elimination diet; the first prescription food we tried made her sick to her stomach. Now that it's off, she has healed up nicely -- but seems convinced that I'm going to sneak up on her and put the collar back on. She has, as a result, spent the better part of four days hiding under my bed. She will come out for food/water/litter box, but acts very skittish the whole time and after a few minutes dashes back up the stairs. She's very food-motivated normally and has taken enthusiastically to the second prescription food we tried, but what I've had to do for most meals this week is lure her down the stairs by bringing the food bowl right to the side of the bed and showing it to her.
What I've done or am doing to try to soothe her:
- Lie down next to her hiding spot on the floor, reach in to give skritches, talk to her and tell her we miss her out and about the house. She purrs, slow blinks etc in response and will put her paw on my hand, so clearly when she feels safe from the evil Cone, she is happy to show me affection.
- Get her to come downstairs for meals, instead of feeding her right next to the bed, so she sees everything is normal. I do also suspect she sometimes emerges when I'm sleeping, like this afternoon when I was having a nap I think she went downstairs for water, since I noticed her water fountain had been pulled forward a bit off her feeding mat which is a little habit she has when getting a drink. And to my further encouragement, this evening she came back downstairs on her own to get her dinner.
- Tonight I'm getting around to putting the litter boxes back together (one normally lives in a cabinet and the other is the igloo style with a cover, but they were both out in the open while she was wearing the e-collar so she could access them) in hopes that that will be another hint of normalcy for her.
Any other suggestions? Is this normal? Should I get the vet involved at some point (and if so, when) to ask if meds might be required? The other thing I thought of is I have some Feliway spray on hand, and I could try giving a few spritzes around the house.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/koml34/did_the_cone_of_shame_give_my_cat_ptsd/
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