Evil E-collar

[Guest Grapehound]

When I was home for lunch today, Raisin had her usual round of zoomies and then started crying when she tried to lie down on her bed. The outside toe on her back left leg was at a weird angle and bleeding, so off to the vet we went. Turns out she dislocated the toe and the joint broke through the skin (yeah, I had no idea it could do that). So now she's all bandaged up and on limited movement for the next couple of weeks. Since she's a doggie door dog, it'll be interesting to see how the switch to crating will work.

 

So, to the issue at hand... I don't trust her to leave the bandage alone unsupervised, so she needs something to stop her. She's not too freaked out by the e-collar, but her neck is pretty sensitive and the e-collar is tearing it up.

 

I thought of taping up her muzzle, but I read about a dog vomiting into her muzzle and since the antibiotics and pain meds she's on are new, I certainly don't want that happening while I'm gone.

 

Also, the vet said if the x-rays don't look better in two weeks, they'll take off the toe. Do they do that under sedation?

 

Here's a picture of the poor baby...

[Batmom]

Absolutely they would use sedation to take off the toe!

 

Joseph was not absolutely determined to get at his stitches, so I just taped the muzzle a little bit. Some pics here: http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k96/rzbhound/muzzletaping/

 

You could also try wrapping a little moleskin (Dr. Scholl's stick-on) around the bottom edge of the e-collar.

 

Good luck and all paws crossed for good healing!

 

 

[Guest EmilyAnne]

I saw a couple alternatives to the 'plastic lampshade' style of e-collars on this page: http://www.bonafido.com/page6.html

 

Perhaps you could call around to different vets and see if anyone has anything like that?

[PatricksMom]

See about the stiff, turtleneck like collar (can't remember the name right now)--I have one and it seems much more comfortable and less frightening for the dog.

[tbhounds]

The "turtle neck" collar is called a bite-not collar.

Edited December 12, 2007 by tbhounds

[ABCgreys]

We use a bite-not collar and the dogs like it MUCH better than an e-collar.

[silverfish]

Yep another vote for the Bite-Not! It's so much better tolerated by sighthounds.

 

I'm sorry to hear about Raisin's toe - how awful. But yes, removal of a toe would mean a general anaesthetic, not just sedation. Hopefully it will heal OK.

[Guest Che_mar_Cody]

Poor thing

Our vote for the Bite-not collar too

[Guest greyaspet]

With the bite not collars they can reach their legs, it is great for side wounds of back but not for legs or feet.

Sheila

[Guest KatieGrey]

I had e-collar troubles when my Lily had her amputation of her back leg, she kept getting the collar off and opening up her surgery site. From the suggestion of some members of greytalk I got a bite-not collar and it worked wonders! She kept it on and looked a lot more comfortable than with the e-collar on. She was also able to move around better without getting caught on things, like she did with the e-collar. I bought mine at dog.com.

[Guest jbox]

When our Grey had a recent toe infection on her front paw, I just took one of my socks and put it on her and just above her knee bone where it gets skinnier I put a band of medical tape around it, tight enough to stay above the bone but not tight enough I couldn't get the tip of my finger between the skin and sock. Then I would simply fold the upper part of the sock over the medical tape so she didn't have access to the tape. It worked fantastic! She hated the E-collar so this turned out to be the perfect solution for us.