Does your cat wear a collar?

Collars can be great for ID with cats but there are significant dangers:

There are large numbers of reported incidences where the front leg(s) gets caught under the collar causing the collar to cut under the front armpit into the bone. The cat is usually so stressed that he/she will go into hiding, causing huge stress and grief all round. Without intervention this may cause septicemia and eventually death.

If you do use a collar:

• ensure it is a proper cat collar with an elastic insert (or completely elastic) and with a safety clip

• check the elastic still has plenty of spring
• check you can fit just 2 finger (no more) between neck and collar and keep checking with kittens as they grow larger
• too tight and the cat will choke
• too loose and the cat is in danger of getting his/her front leg caught in the collar thus causing extensive injury
• cut the excessive of the collar off.

I once had to cut the excess bit of an elastic collar off the tongue of a cat where she had groomed herself and got the furry elastic excess caught on her tongue and couldn’t free herself. She ended up getting her tongue pinned down to her chest where the collar was. Fortunately we got her quickly so there was no long term damage, but it would have been extremely painful and stressful if she had been left for any length of time.

Telaf highly recommends microchips

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