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- Jan 29, 2018
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I'm preparing for an eye enucleation in a couple weeks and am trying out some recovery collars.
I first tried a cone style e-collar. He wore it for about 4 hours two days in a row and at the end of the second go, he was having a harder time than when we started. Plenty of back-arching, walking backwards, walking into/scraping against walls, getting stuck and other weirdness. He didn't try too hard to remove it so that was promising, but when he started doing this disturbing thing with his mouth—opening and closing it kind of like he was biting the air I took it off because the distress was seemingly getting worse.
I also tried an inflatable style recovery collar and it didn't bother him much at all, he even played with his string toys like normal (which he wouldn't do with the cone) and ate treats. The only problem was sleeping, he had to sleep in a different position than normal and it made his breathing labored because it was pressing on his neck/throat.
I would like to use the inflatable collar at least some of the time for the obvious reasons, but especially since my guy has had problems with FIC and I'm very scared of him having urinary issues due to the stress of recovery.
Has anyone used an inflatable recovery collar for an eye, head, face or ear injury? I can't tell if it will actually keep him from his stitches although some experiments I've done bending him like a Gumby doll while he's wearing it (my dude is awesome, he might think I'm crazy but he gets with the program anyway) suggest that it might be a safe option.
I did email my vet about my concerns and he sent back a short one sentence reply "elizabethan style is better", but that didn't really answer my question.
I've attached a couple pictures of the styles I've tried. The inflatable one fits him proportionally similar to the little dog in the photo.
Thanks for any input.
I first tried a cone style e-collar. He wore it for about 4 hours two days in a row and at the end of the second go, he was having a harder time than when we started. Plenty of back-arching, walking backwards, walking into/scraping against walls, getting stuck and other weirdness. He didn't try too hard to remove it so that was promising, but when he started doing this disturbing thing with his mouth—opening and closing it kind of like he was biting the air I took it off because the distress was seemingly getting worse.
I also tried an inflatable style recovery collar and it didn't bother him much at all, he even played with his string toys like normal (which he wouldn't do with the cone) and ate treats. The only problem was sleeping, he had to sleep in a different position than normal and it made his breathing labored because it was pressing on his neck/throat.
I would like to use the inflatable collar at least some of the time for the obvious reasons, but especially since my guy has had problems with FIC and I'm very scared of him having urinary issues due to the stress of recovery.
Has anyone used an inflatable recovery collar for an eye, head, face or ear injury? I can't tell if it will actually keep him from his stitches although some experiments I've done bending him like a Gumby doll while he's wearing it (my dude is awesome, he might think I'm crazy but he gets with the program anyway) suggest that it might be a safe option.
I did email my vet about my concerns and he sent back a short one sentence reply "elizabethan style is better", but that didn't really answer my question.
I've attached a couple pictures of the styles I've tried. The inflatable one fits him proportionally similar to the little dog in the photo.
Thanks for any input.