One of my female cats actually removed one of her own stitches after being neutered. I took her back to the vet and she got restitched and gifted with a cone. She's the only one of my cats that ever got a cone from being neutered.

Domina

i just had this crazy visual of a field of feral cats all with cones on. seems like something that belongs in a surreal movie! hehe

We just had our cat spayed at one of the spay clinics, they did not give her a cone.

I've never seen a cone, ever -- but I have assisted in at least 50 neuterings, and you're supposed to end up with something that is not a wound -- the process is very neat, the couple of stitches kind of retract into the sac, there really wouldn't typically be anything there that they'd go after, and I've never seen them go after it, either. Now if he turned out to be a testicle up in the abdomen (tetraorchid), or if there was only one apparent and they went hunting around in the abdomen for the other (monorchid) -- both of which I've experienced with neuters -- then yes, you'd have a real abdominal incision. But even with that, I've never seen a cone. Maybe it's a new trend or just something this vet likes to do. I truly don't see why you need to leave it on. You can take it off temporarily and observe; if all goes well, just keep it off.