What You Should Know If Your Dog Needs to Wear a Cone

Everyone knows that dogs are highly intelligent creatures. However, like any other animal, they can find it difficult to understand suddenly when something they’ve always done is no longer allowed. For example, scratching an itch or licking a wound on their body.

In this situation, you have two options. You can try to continuously monitor your pet and not allow it to scratch a sore ear or lick a surgical stitch. In the second case, you simply need to put a protective collar on it.

When a protective collar is necessary

Typically, people use collars to protect affected areas – on the head from scratches, and on the body, tail, and limbs from licking. This protective barrier comes in handy in several cases:

• post-surgery period – stitches after surgical intervention need time to heal, which is often accompanied by pain and itching. This causes the dog to lick or scratch the troublesome area, and if allowed to do so, the stitches can come apart or an infection may enter the wound, leading to complications;
• limb injuries – dogs usually don’t like having foreign objects placed on their legs, so a cast or splint on a damaged limb, they will, of course, try to remove, thereby disrupting the healing and recovery process;

• eye and ear diseases – usually come with inflammation and itching, so it’s necessary to protect the affected organ from external influence. Plus, treatments often involve ointments and other means that shouldn’t be wiped off after application;
• skin problems – various skin diseases (dermatitis, allergies, fungal and bacterial skin diseases) and wounds also require special treatment and aseptic conditions, but canine interference can aggravate the disease – help spread the pathogen to other parts of the body or introduce additional infection. Also, licking fur after treatment with flea and tick products is dangerous to health, as such substances are often toxic.

What a protective collar looks like

A protective collar (or, as it’s often called, a post-surgical collar, since it’s mostly used in the post-surgery period) primarily looks like a cone, which fits over the pet’s neck with the wide end facing outward (resembling a lampshade) and is secured with a collar or string (bandage, rope). These collars come in different materials and shapes:

• plastic — the most common and affordable. Made of flexible plastic, usually transparent, it’s easy to wash and doesn’t obstruct the animal’s view, but it can create additional noise when in contact with hard surfaces and may restrict movement;

• soft — made of health-safe materials, often has a flexible body covered with waterproof fabric. Such collars are more comfortable for dogs — they don’t restrict movement even during play or sleep. Frameless models are even more convenient for the dog, but they don’t restrict unwanted actions as effectively;

• inflatable — a special type of collar that has the shape of a lifebuoy rather than a lampshade. It’s also comfortable to wear, doesn’t obstruct the view at all, but is more suitable for short-legged pets with short necks, as it only restricts neck mobility. Dogs with long limbs and neck can still reach wherever they want even with such a collar on;

• neck brace — made from elastic polymeric foam, only restricts neck mobility, and therefore is used in cases where forbidden interaction areas are located on the body.

Many manufacturers of animal products (e.g., Collar, Kruuse, Osso, Trixie, Avita-group, Talismed) make protective collars. You can buy them at a veterinary pharmacy or pet store.

How to Put On a Protective Collar

First and foremost, you need to understand that size matters. To ensure the veterinary protective collar performs its functions, you must choose the size that fits your pet. To do this, you will need to know the circumference of your dog’s neck, and the seller will help you choose the appropriate size collar.

All protective collars attach to the animal’s neck (using a collar, string, thin rope, bandage, or their own devices) and are designed to restrict its mobility and serve as a barrier between the head and the rest of the body. Most collars require additional preparation before putting them on — assembly or inflation (detailed instructions for assembly and putting on the animal are included with each purchased protective collar).

Do not put a protective collar on the animal and leave it on for an extended time. Let your dog get acquainted with it, first disassembled, then assembled. Once the dog has sniffed the collar and gets used to it (stops fearing it and treating it as an unfamiliar object), you can carefully and slowly put it on your pet without startling it.

If the collar bothers the animal too much, you may have to take it off for a while and monitor the dog’s behavior yourself. When the pet calms down, you will need to put the protective collar back on. Usually, within a couple of days, dogs fully adapt to wearing the protective collar.

How to Make a Protective Collar Yourself

You can make an Elizabethan collar yourself from available materials. For small breeds, you can use an unnecessary X-ray, a flexible plastic paper folder, or dense fabric (double layered).

Homemade protective collar made of fabric

For large dogs, you can use dense cardboard and other suitable materials of adequate size and density, so a strong dog doesn’t break them.

The process of making a protective collar at home is quite fast and simple:

• On the selected material, mark a semicircle slightly larger in diameter than the length of your dog’s muzzle (from neck to nose tip). In the middle of the base of the semicircle, draw another semicircle with a diameter equal to the circumference of the pet’s neck (easier to measure a collar fastened to the necessary hole).
• Cut out the future product along the marks.
• If you used dense material, finish its edges (the easiest way is to tape them). At the same time, provide loops on the smaller curved edge; you will need to thread the collar or string through them to secure the collar on the pet’s neck.

You can provide the even edges of the fabric-made collar with Velcro or fasteners for easy putting on/taking off. In the case of using dense materials, you will need to shape the device into a cone right on the pet’s neck — overlap the straight edges slightly and secure them with adhesive tape.

How to Make a Protective Collar from Cardboard Yourself

For comfortable and safe wearing, it is important that there is a distance as thick as your finger between the collar and the pet’s neck.

A protective collar is a useful and simple tool that will help safeguard your pet from unwanted scratches and licking. The main thing is to choose a collar that fits in size, and making it yourself is not difficult.