loss of fur

[Kay]

Pennypuss, my new rescue, has a distinct thin furless ring around her neck which I assume is loss of fur from wearing a collar - I have never used cat collars myself but would like to know from someone who has if the fur will grow back

[Lilith]

Hi, sadly, it doesn't, or at least not in my experience. My feral rescues, when they roamed, all wore collars to show they were now owned (though I don't like collars.) When I secured the garden and removed the collars, Finn, the tomcat, who had a coat like thistledown, had a bald ring round his neck, which never grew back. Mouse, his daughter, still has a bald strip round her throat, but her coat's much thicker and it doesn't show. Emily's neck was fine. It seems it depends on the cat and coat-type. Emmy's coat was longer and coarser; Finn was part Siamese.

Congratulations on Pennypuss - please give her a love from me

[Alice]

My two Ragdolls had worn collars for years before they came to me and their fur soon grew back, so you'd never guess that they'd collars on. Similarly, years earlier when I took collars off two moggies their fur soon grew back, so I think you can be optimistic for Pennypuss.

[Ruth B]

We've only had two cats that wore collars and both had permanent collar lines, although they never really had a long chance to heal.

When we got Blue our old Ragdoll I couldn't bare the thought of a collar line cutting through his amazing ruff so he became the first cat I actually knew off to be microchipped, I'd heard about it, but didn't know anyone who had had theirs done. It was less than 20 years ago, now I believe all cats should be chipped, how things have changed.

[Mollycat]

My one and only experience was a rescue girl who is now at least 20 and has not had a collar for the past 12 years. She still has a distinct mark but the collars she had were the furry felt lined type and I' pretty sure they are worse. Also the one she had on when she adopted us was way too tight so I presume all the time she wore one would have been the same.

[Lilith]

Ohh I hate that, seeing some cats trussed up so tightly in collars they must be choking How would a human like to wear a tight band round their throat 24/7?

It takes a bit of fussing to get the balance right between too tight and too loose (which can be dangerous) but worth it. Better still, of course, no collar at all but sometimes there has to be ...

Hope Pennypuss's fur does grow back.

[Ruth B]

I always used the ones that had the buckles that didn't have a peg in them, it didn't take much effort to pull the collar undone. We went through them at a reasonable rate of knots, but better that than them not coming undone when they needed to. It didn't help that one of the cats, the tortie no surprise, used to get rather neurotic when she didn't have a collar on. From what we heard they had been rehomed at least twice before (mother and daughter pair 8 and 6 years old when we had them) and we think that when they went back to the shelter they always took the collars off, we think she learnt to associate no collar with a change of home or something. We always kept a good supply in and spare tags as well.

It's been a long time since we put a collar on a cat and I doubt we will again, technology has moved on, but there is still a place for them in some cases, just make sure they release easily one way or another and are fitted correctly.

[booktigger]

I tried a collar on Lucy, gave up as the last time I tried, she got it off and hid it down the side of the sofa, I'd only been upstairs for 30 mins! If I had another black cat I would use a reflective collar

[Kay]

I've noticed she scratches her neck quite often too, so I suspect the skin under the collar was inflamed - before she went to her last owner, who put her into the rescue I got her from, she belonged for some years to an elderly couple, who might well have used an old-fashioned collar. When the man died the wife, who had dementia, couldn't look after Pennypuss, so the nephew removed her and asked a friend to take her.

Anyway, she's home now, without a collar, and is just beginning to come out of the bedroom a few times a day - she won't stray far from the bedroom door, but it's progress - and I suppose at the age of 11 missing out on the great outdoors is not such an issue - and perhaps she was always an indoor cat