Our poor little puppy had surgery for his neuter today. He is currently breathing deeply next to me, so worn out from the events of the day. He has just wanted to be next to his Mommy and Daddy all night so we could take care of him and tell him it would be okay! I was worried about him all day long, but the vet called around noon to say that everything went great. Little did I know that was the easy part…
So they said that he had to wear one of these lamp-shade-looking contraptions so he doesn’t lick the incision…well, those silly Banfield people gave him one that is obviously WAY to BIG…the poor guy couldn’t walk at all in it. They assured me that it was the right size, but that he was just nervous to walk with it on. I believed them, and carried him to the car.
So we got home, and got inside, and the poor little guy couldn’t even stand up on his own, because that thing was too big that it kept knocking him over — it was seriously taller than his little legs! Mommy to the rescue! I went to Petco and got him a miniature schnauzer-sized cone thing, and it works MUCH better. These photos were taken with the first one, sized for a junk yard guard dog.
But seriously, for those of you dog-informed people out there…does he honestly have to wear that thing for one week?! (Um…he’s not wearing it right now). It makes me so sad!
(Can you see how that would be very traumatizing…for us and for Petey??)
Jeff looks happy, but seriously, he’s as heartbroken as Petey’s little face looks…awwwww!
ericamay photography blog: thought studio. 
I’m no dog expert, but my dad is a vet and I’ve never seen him put one of those on a dog…and I’ve watched him do plenty of surgeries. I’d guess that if he isn’t bothering the incision it isn’t a problem to have it off. If I think about it tomorrow when I see him I’ll ask if he does something different to keep the incision fine, or if he just skips it all together.
Yup, just as long as he isn’t licking his stitches, you don’t need to keep it on. I would probably leave it on while you both are gone just to make sure, but you can definitely take it off when you’re home and can watch him. The really important thing is to keep him from running and jumping around (which is probably the hardest part)!
We just got Mazda spayed at Banfield a couple weeks ago. She had the same collar Petey did! She’s a 40 pound dog, though! She wore it okay…it took her a while to figure out how to run with it. The first day was hilarious, though. She kept running into things and couldn’t figure out how to mover over to get through the doorways! Poor thing!
I bet Petey will be feeling better in no time!
We’ve had the collars before but I think that you could take it off if you are with him. Did they give you something for pain? Lola has been on Rimadyl and that stuff has been great! She’s a week out from her surgery and we have felt horrible! I put a leash on Lola to keep her from jumping on and off the bed and that’s worked great. Crating her helps to limit the activity and she has been given plenty of bones to occupy her time!