A WOMAN has issued a stark warning to other cat owners after her furry friend's newly-bought collar melted into its neck - leaving serious burns.

Kim Mills, 28, from Milton Keynes, Bucks, bought a reflective collar from the Jolleys pet store in Westcroft for her cat Megatron on June 28.

But within days of putting the collar on the six-year-old black-haired cat she noticed that the plastic clip had fused to Megatron's neck during the UK's seemingly never-ending heatwave.

She said: "When we took the collar off there was fur and skin fused to it, and a horrible burn wound on my cat's neck.

"At first I thought somebody had tampered with it."

Kim took her cat to the vet, where the burnt skin was cleaned and antibiotics were prescribed, but the total bill for the trip reached more than £78.

The vet flagged up the possibility that the burn on Megatron's neck could be to do with a chemical reaction between flea treatment ingredients and the collar.

Kim said: "The vet asked me when the flea treatment was applied, but it was in the middle of June - so I think that reason is ridiculous."

She contacted the collar's manufacturers Ancol to complain, but was also told that a Spot On flea treatment she applied to the cat's neck had reacted with their product - rather than melted because of the hot weather.

But Kim said: "I find it hard to believe that the reaction would be so strong, after all that time to physically melt the plastic and cause it to fuse to my cat's fur and skin."

A director of the family-run Ancol confirmed that they had seen the photo and were waiting for the collar to be sent back to them for testing, but could not comment until it arrived.