Tell me it'll be okay

Leo was neutered last week and all was going fine until last night. He licked himself until he developed a golf ball size blood clot. The Vet gave him some antibiotics and pain pills. If the blood clot gets bigger he has to have more surgery. To keep that from happening I had to put an E-collar on him & he hates it. I have never had to use one of these before on any of my animals. I keep wanting to take it off but I know it's better than the alternative. If any of you have used this I need you to tell me to leave it on and that he'll get used to it.

PLEASE keep the collar on, if he's already done that much damage he could make things even worse. He will quickly get used to it, just help him about the house to start with, esp up and down steps etc.

I'm sure with the antibiotics and pain relief he will soon be much better, and as long as he can't get to the wound, he should be fine.

Sending healing thoughts :flwr:

They do look a little sad with the e-Collar, but it is what is best for them ... especially dogs like Leo that like to lick.

Lucky is a licker too, so I followed the vets advice to a "T" ... he had undescended testicles so a much more involved neuter and had to keep his e-collar on for 10 days. I was so thrilled when he could finally take it off, but I'm glad I kept it on him.

I hope Leo feels better soon and the clot goes down in size. :xfngr:

Now he is hyperventilating and I'm real close to taking it off.

If you respond to his anxiety, it will feed his anxiety. Try very hard to leave him be -- hyperventilating is not necessarily a big deal, a normal response for a dog to deal with stress, and he needs to keep it on and not have people make any big deal about him wearing it (eg consoling him etc). Having surgery again is going to be far more serious and risky than wearing an e-collar. Please call your vet or an emergency vet if your vet is closed if you are concerned, and do not take it off. Only very rarely do dogs get this obsessed with a wound but when they do they can cause themselves serious harm and further surgery will require him to wear an e-collar again anyway. If he leaves the wound for a while it will settle down and the painkillers will help it heal.

Try giving him something else to chew on, a filled kong for example.

I had Leo in a collar for a while when he ruptured an anal gland and after a couple of hours he was pretty indifferent to it.

I have found that a neck brace is a good solution to this problem. It will prevent dogs from bending their neck to lick areas of their body.
It seems to be more comfortable & better tolerated by the dog, does not obstruct their vision or catch on door frames etc.
They come in different sizes.
They are expensive to buy but my vet will hire them out.

I have also used toddler's T-shirts and babygrows to stop dogs from interfering with wounds

Margaret C

We'll be okay. He's been through so much in his 4 years it's hard for me to add to it. I've never had an older pet fixed before. All my other animals were S/N when they were puppies & kittens.