Need E-Collar Suggestions

[Guest Trentsmom]

Our 9 month grey pup has a deep flesh wound on the back of his front leg near the first joint (The vet did not want to stich). Because of the long nose, even with the e-collar, he can still reach his knee joint to lick and pick at the wrap. We are using the basic plastic bo peep style clear plastic e-collar. Has anyone use other collars with success in keeping the mouth away from the front legs? I hate to muzzle him if I don't have to.

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

I just used a muzzle with a stool cup when Jayne had stitches on her front legs. She wasn't bothered by it at all and never had a chance to mess with her wounds. I think it's probably more comfortable than an e-collar.

[Maddiesmom]

Maddie hated the bo peep e collar when she had to recently get stitches. When I came home at lunch to check on her - she had it off. I found a piece of ribbon and tied that through the loops til I could get home from work and thin of another idea. That work but she was ticked and I got stink eye really bad. People have suggested the soft e collar. I have not used that as I went the muzzle route with duct tape on the front of the muzzle - Maddie was much happier with that. My girl just sleeps during the day.

When she had a cyst on her hind leg that she was picking at- we used a t shirt and that stopped her from picking or licking the cyst. Can you try, light weight jammies or something like that? That is the only thing I can thing of, besides the muzzle.

 

I took the muzzle off when I was home and watched her like a hawk to make sure she did not lick the paw as she once managed to get her stitches out before they were ready to. The vet called her Dr. Maddie as it was about time for them to come out anyway but Mads should not have done that.

Edited March 12, 2012 by Maddiesmom

[Guest Trentsmom]

I was thinking of buyin a baby sock to help cover it. Maybe the muzzle isn't such a bad idea. Being a puppy that didn't grow up on a Grey Farm, he's not had much experience with a muzzle, so he doesn't like it much- but it does work. Plus, we also have his litter mate brother and he likes to help lick it too. I'm glad we're not the only family that gets stink eye from their dogs, lol. Thanks for the tips

[Maddiesmom]

I was thinking of buyin a baby sock to help cover it. Maybe the muzzle isn't such a bad idea. Being a puppy that didn't grow up on a Grey Farm, he's not had much experience with a muzzle, so he doesn't like it much- but it does work. Plus, we also have his litter mate brother and he likes to help lick it too. I'm glad we're not the only family that gets stink eye from their dogs, lol. Thanks for the tips

 

 

If it is not too far up- you can baby sock it. I would wrap vet wrap aroundthe top of it as it he is anything like Maddie they can get the sock off.

 

ETA- I also spray a little bit of Butter Aple on the vet wrap to deter her from trying to lick or get it off of her foot.

Edited March 12, 2012 by Maddiesmom

[cleptogrey]

bite-not collar, works really well, pretty comfotable. at 9 months of age i bought accident only insurance(aspca) for felix he was such a crazy pup! i basically insured his legs as marlene dietrich's legs were the insurance was cheap and made me feel a tad more comfortable as i watched the lunatic do his thing .

[juliemac]

You can try a child's t-shirt (and maybe tape the armholes closed).

 

To answer your question about the e-collar though, a cheap alternative is to take a towel (I'd use a hand-towel rather than bath towel on a puppy) and fold it lengthwise to the width of puppy's neck. Wrap it around his neck and duct tape it in place (to itself).

 

Good luck!

[LadyGrey]

If you have to use an e-collar, use the soft flexible ones. My girls do very well with them. And they are not so huge either. Just enough to prohibit licking.

[TheFullHouse]

We put a shirt on Jilly Bean to cover her wounds. It's worked amazingly well and she's a major licker!

[Guest GSP]

The staff at our vet made an e-collar that fit one of our dogs properly so that it would actually prevent him from licking. It's brilliant, and most importantly simple!

 

They used the regular, hard plastic e-collar, in the largest size they had. Then they cut a section out so that it formed a narrower cone. It must have been sort of a triangle shaped section, since they didn't want to make the opening at his neck any smaller, but they did want to make the opening near his nose smaller - since that will also make it longer and more effective. Then they just taped it together since the tabs had been cut off. I hope that description is clear enough to give you the idea. If we had thought of it, we really could have done it ourselves... but we didn't!

 

We use a long piece of rolled gauze looped through the e-collar and also his collar to keep it on when we need to. He absolutely hates it, but it does the job.