Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me just start off by saying that I gave this collar 5 stars mostly to rate how much better it is than your conventional hard plastic collar. I don't think this collar is perfect, but it is the best alternative there can be to the dreaded cone. I want to write this review because when I was debating whether or not it would be worth my money to purchase this, the few reviews there are for this only served to confuse me more. Some people hate it, and others love it, and then there's obviously the picture someone posted of this collar having been chewed through by their cat. I'm hoping this review will address some of the things people may be wondering before purchasing this. I ordered this because my cat has an injury on her paw and she keeps licking the scab and drawing blood. I only wish I had ordered this collar immediately after she got spayed so that I wouldn't have had to go through the pain of constantly readjusting the bodysuit I made for her to make sure she couldn't take it off. I had to get crafty, because the hard cone she was supposed to wear stressed her out so much. The cone was making her disoriented on top of how weakened she was from surgery. If I had this collar, I would have had a much easier time and not have had to devise alternatives to the cone. Here are some things to keep in mind when buying this: 1) MATERIAL: It is soft and bendy, but not flimsy; it will remain in a cone-like shape around the cat's head. I have not experienced a problem with the drawstring clip yet. The inside of it is reinforced so that a relatively calm cat, who doesn't go wild when a cone is placed around its head, wouldn't be able to figure out a way or have the drive to chew through it. Based on the way the cone fits around my cat's head, I don't think she would be able to get it in her mouth in such a way that she could chew it, which brings me to the size of the cone. 2) SIZE: I have a very small cat. She has most likely reached her adult size, as she is almost a year old, but she maintains a weight of 7.7 pounds. So you can imagine that her neck is tiny. The extra small size fits her quite snugly. If you have a cat who is larger than 10 pounds, I would suggest going with size small. I've read one review written by someone who says size small was too big for their cat who weighs 13 pounds. While the cone itself might be too long or whatever, the neck size of extra small probably will not fit a 13 pound cat. 3) DESIGN: One of the biggest problems with this cone, perhaps, is that the only way to put it on your cat is to put it over their head. It's sort of like putting your head through a t-shirt with a really small neck. Except with this, you're putting it over a cat's head. Obviously, because your cat won't want anything to do with this strange object being placed around its head, it will struggle. I would suggest having another person hold the cat while you slide it over its head. I understand that for this sort of collar, there's not much that can be done differently in terms of design, but it is something to take into consideration when determining size. My cat has a small head. If your cat doesn't have a small head, the extra small size simply won't go over its head. 4) COMFORT: After I put this on my cat's head, she actually went to her water bowl and began drinking. With the plastic cone, she cannot eat or drink. The bendiness of this allows cats to be able to eat which is a big plus. And later, I saw her lying down on her cat tree, which she never does with the plastic cone, because it's too bulky and she can't jump on while she is wearing it. She usually sulks and becomes limp with the plastic cone. With this one, she is walking normally. Also, note, that any type of e-collar, unless it is completely transparent is going to hinder the cat's peripheral vision. This one has more of a problem in that sense, because it is green. This takes away from the comfort factor, obviously, but here I am comparing the comfort level of this collar to the plastic cone. When wearing the plastic cone, cats will frequently bump into walls and doors and get more freaked out as a result of that. With this one, even if the cat bumps into something, it does not make a scary noise and the fabric does not crinkle either. Also the plastic cone my cat was wearing (I guess it was worse than others) sort of hung on the top of her head, so she felt as though there was a weight on her head, so she would walk with her head hung low, almost dragging the collar. This one stays perked up on its own, and does not put weight on my cat's head. The last thing I want to say is that this review is based on the relief I am feeling only a few hours after putting this on my cat. I just started using it a few hours ago. If I find that she was able to chew it or take it off, I will update, but so far, it doesn't look like she'll be able to remove it or anything. UPDATE: My cat wore this for one week without any problems. Once we got the hang of putting it on and taking it off her, it became super easy for everyone. She did develop this strange tendency to constantly scratch at it with her hind leg claws and surprisingly, this cone stood up to a week of her doing that without tearing. So I would highly recommend this for cats or small dogs. The recovery process for pets is stressful enough to begin with, so if you want them to be comfortable, I would definitely opt for this over the hard e-collar for small pets.