Ollie is out of surgery. Got the call that all went well. Picking him up in 2 hours. Will report back later… 
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Ollie is home and is wearing a cone. Poor thing. I’ll take a picture later if I can.
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Still no picture - sorry… We’ve been busy trying to figure out the eating and drinking thing with the cone on…
I took the cone off but he went right for his incision so that was that. I’ve had 2 other Male cats that we fixed (others were done by rescue groups before we adopted them). Both were pretty good about steering clear of the area for a few days and we were able to take the cone off right away. Ollie doesn’t seem to be like them but he’s tolerating the cone pretty well thankfully.
Here are his eating / drinking tricks he’s developed on his own:
Wet food - That’s easy - just grab some with your paw and lick it off.
Dry food - That’s easy - just knock it out of the bowl onto the floor and put your cone over it so your head sticks out and eat
Water - This one if funny / easy… We have one of those cat fountains so he’s got it made in the shade up in my MIL’s house. Down here he sticks the cone in the water bowl and the cone has the water in it he can drink up.
Animals are quite resilient and creative for solving problems.
The one problem we have is he won’t calm down or lay down and nap. Wasn’t expecting that. Whatever was in that sedation reversal must have been some pretty strong stuff.
I’ll update tomorrow
Steve
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He does not look happy. I’m glad the surgery went well.
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He was happy about 20 mins ago when he managed to get the cone off himself. FML
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You might have a long night ahead!
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Buzzy was snipped during the summer. He went straight to the window sill and spent his recovery time resting and looking out the window. I removed the cone and he didn’t even bother licking his newly snipped area. Each cat is different.
Years ago, I had a dog with a broken leg. After the vet had removed the pin, she put a few stitches in his kneecap and sent him home with me. He had those stitches out within 30 minutes. I took him back to the vet where he got new stitches. This time he was sent home with a cone.
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When we got ours snipped, the cones lasted maybe 30 minutes tops before they had them worked off.
But the funny part about the situation was that it was during the height of the pandemic, so the follow-up to check the healing was to be done over Zoom, but we couldn’t get things working right; so vet has us shoot photos and send them (they looked fine).
So now, in November, Google comes up with “x Year ago today” to show us pictures of the kitties’ missing parts.
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Doing the best I can. I’ve had it off for the last 4 hours. Most of that time he slept next to me. He’s a cleaner kind of cat and since the vet let him piss himself and gave me back a pissed soaked cat it’s making this more difficult then it needs to be and quite smelly. I’m pissed and will be making my own stink about this entire situation when we go for the follow up. I don’t want to lose my mind until he’s out of the woods in case we need them.
Drop off - Between 8:00-8:30AM. I was at the door exactly at 8am. Nobody was there. We sat out in the freezing cold for 20 mins waiting. There was at least 1 person inside though because I saw her walking from her car at 7:55. I rang the bell every min for 20 mins until she let me in.
Then, once I am in, I ask about the bloodwork (AKA Money Grab). The tech has no idea about the results because nobody read them even though they confirmed the surgery on Sat morning and woke me up. My sister in law’s sister came in and read the results at 8:45 - all normal.
He was supposed to be first in line for surgery and out by 12:30. NOPE… Didn’t go into surgery until 12:30. I had a very important call at 4 for business that I could not miss so it was a mad rush to get him and get back. My MIL just had her cataract surgery but I had to force her to go pick up my son from school bc the vet screwed me.
I haven’t had more than 4 hours of sleep in a week and I feel like ■■■■. Didn’t need this debacle. Was specifically waiting to get him fixed until my MIL was all set with her eyes. This whole thing has been planned for months. Literally the day her second eye was done, Ollie peed on the floor by the door so we had to rush to get this done so he wouldn’t destroy her house.
It’s been rough and I can’t wait for Ollie to be free of the cone and back to himself bc I have a lot of crap going on in my life.
He will probably get the cone off before my MIL gets up at 7:30. Is what it is. I can’t bring him down in my house because of the other ■■■ hole cat. I’ve had 2 other males go cone-less immediately. Just trying to get 1 good night out of him with it on and it’s coming off tomorrow under close monitoring.
To make matters worse, today (1-8) was the 11th anniversary of my Mom’s passing so I also had to stop by the cemetery.
Here’s a pic of the sleeping buddy for a smile.
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Just in case this helps you at all, you can use baby wipes or toilet wipes on cats safely (unscented is better but not required). If he’s skittish, place one on each palm and rub face to tail, quickly, in one sweep.
If he’s cool, he can lay in your lap or eat, while you wipe him down a bit more thoroughly.
Of course, if he’s really cool, use a washcloth and diluted dish soap, followed by combing.
Any little bit you can do will help alleviate the unclean smell for you and most especially him (so he won’t try to clean obsessively or get frustrated with cone).
But as always, you know your own cat best, and this might not be something to try right now.
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What an ordeal! I had a low budget neuter performed on Dewey by the Humane Society and the experience was much better than yours. I don’t blame you for being upset. I’ve never had a piss-soaked cat returned by a vet, that is awful especially since he can’t clean himself right now.
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I let him clean for a long time last night to get all the urine off and stopped him when he went to “that” area. He’s pretty much all cleaned up already and relatively odor free. I was using gauze and warm water last night to help him through the process which he tolerated. He probably remembered this type of assistance from when he was teeny tiny…
Thanks for the advice 
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You’re not kidding… The more I think about it, the more enraged I get.
This one will be north of $1K all in with the bloodwork, the procedure, and the follow up. I was actually going to skip the follow up, not for money reasons, but I know a thing or 2 about cats and surgery. Didn’t want to put him through another trip to the vet (3rd in 2 weeks).
I might take him just to air my grievances (Festivus) - “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people and now you’re going to hear about it!”
Finally - here’s a recommendation for anyone that needs to cone their cat in the future… I’m quite sure Ollie was up all night trying to get that cone off. I bought a different one from Amazon last night (link below) and it showed up at 5AM this morning. I was sleeping but my wife was up. She put it on him when it arrived and he immediately went to sleep for 4 hours in it. It works in preventing him from getting at the area and it’s easier to eat / drink / use the box.
Last night he somehow got a cone full of litter… Thankfully we were still up and cleaned it out. He didn’t use the box again till this morning.
This is hilarious… My MIL still has a holiday rug out which is apparently made out of velcro material… The cone got stuck to rug when he rolled over and he couldn’t get up. Glad I was there when it happened. That rug has been put away for the year…
Ollie doesn’t look happy in this pic but he’s a lot happier than he was.
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I can’t remember exactly but I think Dewey’s procedure was $400 or less but it was a few years ago. That included tick removal, a chip, blood-work, and the vet threw in a free teeth cleaning while he was under. He was an awesome vet. Unfortunately he has moved on and is now teaching in the veterinary program at a major university in a few hours away. We got Dewey one of those fabric collars, it wasn’t as cool looking as Ollie’s space motif.
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I’m not a cat/dog person but I kept looking at that cone thinking it really needed to be flower petals and then I found this …
As to this part “The cone got stuck to rug when he rolled over and he couldn’t get up.”
all I can say is 
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I was pretty desperate for a solution yesterday and the overall pick badge was the way to go…
I saw Ollies collar on Alibaba so I knew where it came from but didn’t matter. I would have paid $200 for this thing if it was going to make him feel better faster…
I almost went to Petco last night to get an inflatable but most of the reviews said their cat popped it with their nails… LOL
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Ollie got chipped too. That was cheap… $40.
We will never let him outside intentionally off-harness but he’s quick and gets spooked easily.
We are constantly shifted him from house to house (MIL’s / Ours), and you have to go outside to do that… (2-Family) / NYC living…
He was going great on the harness during the summer and walking like a dog and loving it. Then, 1 day, we were walking in front of my house on the sidewalk and the sprinkler system turned on and scared the ever-living crap out of him and now he’s not so quick to go out in the harness / leash. Too cold now anyway.
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