Dog E-collars are often used to help prevent your pet from licking or biting any area that has to heal after a surgical operation. In most cases the dog e-collar is fitted based on the dogs neck size and does the function of protection to a fair degree. The problem is no one really is prepared for all the other stuff that will go wrong because of your dogs e-collar.
Axel, our larger male German Shepherd broke his right hock or ankle bone several months ago. Upon picking him up from our veterinary specialist office we noticed he had a large dog e-collar on. While we knew this was to be expected we noticed immediately that he kept bumping into things. His dog e-collar would get stuck in the door, on the plant he tried to sniff, and even getting into the car.
So we thought this was just a matter of getting used to it and it would take time. When we got home however there was an even bigger concern, that of putting him in his crate to lay down. Having metal crates we noticed immediately that he could not turn around within the crate. He became panicky and distressed almost immediately. There was no way we could simply leave the e-collar on him all night like that.
To fix this problem I had to disassemble his crate and reposition the panels to make a larger open area pen. Problem solved and the dog e-collar was no longer a problem. Not true. After a few more days we noticed he was still bumping into things quite a bit and that eating was often difficult because it would push his food bowl. What we tried was a different e-collar. In this case we had originally gotten a transparent one from the vet. It seems while he could see through it, he would often try to react to things directly through it. When we replaced it with a white one he reacted only to things he could see directly in front of him. Making it easier for him to judge distance and locations.
The only problem with the white e-collar is that it was not as stiff as the clear one. This eventually led to him being able to crush it and eventually chew it to pieces. It seems that he was determined to reach his ankle despite a plastic e-collar being in the way. For 11 weeks of recovery we went through at least 4 e-collars.
Remember that simply taking your pets home to recover after surgery does not mean your out of the woods yet. If your pet is using a dog e-collar for part of the duration, then make sure you have an idea of what can happen. Move any low level breakables from their path, make sure they can get to food and water, and double check the e-collar for chewing marks, just to be on the safe side.
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