Re: indoor cats - to collar or not to collar... that is the question :)
My gang are all microchipped and are all house cats but only Hattie wears a collar and this is because she is a great escape artisit and is always looking for ways to get out! And I have a neighbour who feeds all the cats in the area and takes them in her house if they dont have id on! Hattie was once gone a whole night and she was next door the whole time because the lady presumed she was stray!
It must be different in the UK for some reason because we see a lot of collar related injuries, mainly when cats have got a leg stick through it and been unable to get it back out. I have seen horrific injuries, some which heal in time, some which require surgery but this normally never works, amputated limbs and in one horrific case I remember the cat eventually had to be pts after months of surgeries and 3 failed skin grafts, he was a gorgeous stray and never complained once through his ordeal, that was a very sad day he had been with us so long and we were all attachted to him but there was simply no more we could do to save him =(
Our practice does all the RSPCA work too and I would say we see on average 2 collar injuries a month, thats quite a high statistic, I think ID is important if your cat goes out, but microchipping and/or tatooing is a safer option. I must add of all the cats we have delt with with collar injuries, none of them have ever had ID on the collars! So their injuries might as well have been prevented and we couldnt return them to owners at the end *grrrr*
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