How do you keep your cat from scratching at a scab or small wound? That’s a question I was recently confronted with when I saw that my cat, Motor, would not stop scratching her head. Fleas that somehow survived the repeated doses of Capstar the cats have had this summer were most likely to blame. She started with a small scratch, which had almost healed when she opened it up again and made it worse by scratching at it. I knew it would heal and didn’t think a trip to the vet was necessary. But, she definitely needed to stop picking at herself.

Motor is not the kind of cat who will sit calmly while her nails are trimmed, so although trimming them did help somewhat, I knew I didn’t want to do that again for awhile and that the more immediate way of helping her was to prevent her from scratching all together.

Motor is also not the kind of cat who will wear a cone. She had to wear one in the past and hated it, spending half of her time trying to rip it off and the other half sulking about having to have it on her neck.

So, I decided to look for a “no-scratch” collar by doing a search using Google. There were some really cute novelty ones on Amazon, like this one made to look like an orange:

There was also one that looked like a piece of toast.

But I found one on Walmart’s website that jumped out at me because it looked pretty straightforward and the price wasn’t bad, so I wouldn’t be wasting much money if Motor refused to wear it.

On Walmart’s site, it’s described as “Shldybc Adjustable Cat Cone Collar Soft, Cat Recovery Collar, Pet Anti-Licking and Biting Collar Flower Ring Pet Dog Neck Ring Anti-Scratching Head Cover.” Or, here’s the link if you want to check it out.

At first, after it came in the mail, the collar lasted about five seconds on Motor before she pushed it off. That’s when I noticed that it could be tightened using a string, which you can see in the picture below. I carefully made it a bit more tight but not tight enough that it would bother her. To my surprise, Motor actually kept the collar on after that.

A few hours later I even caught her napping using the collar as a cozy, convenient pillow. I couldn’t get a great picture of it because, every time I tried to get close, she would wake up and move, but trust me, she looked extremely cute. Unfortunately, the only evidence I have is this blurry picture.

Now, two days later, Motor is still wearing the collar and showing no signs whatsoever of being annoyed by it. Nor is she able to scratch her head, which is great! It almost makes me wonder if, once her head heads up, she’ll miss wearing the collar! I know I’ll be happy to see her head heal up but will miss her shiny, yellow flower-like neck decoration.