Just in case--anyone have/use a soft E collar?

Preparing for what may be eye surgery, I was investigating soft E collars, and saw some info. on the doughnut/inflatable type...those look great for keeping a dog from licking, etc., BUT they don't really protect the eyes, which is I'm assuming the reason for the cone post-eye surgery.

I did see another soft one at our local Petco, but they didn't have many, and the one that was larger was filthy, so I wasn't about to buy it to try it.

I think it was the Comfy Cone one:
http://www.arcatapet.com/category.cfm?catnum=245

(This page also has the inflatable ones)

Thanks, all!

I don't think that the inflatable kind would work, but the soft cone-shaped one might. After Sammy's eye surgery, his vet said that if he didn't mess with the eye, he didn't need to wear one. So I kept him in it when I wasn't there, but he wore it when I was out running errands. (Because of how I scheduled his surgery, I was actually off for the first several days afterwards.)

Yes, I was wishing I'd discovered this earlier; then again, I scheduled his OTHER sugery this summer right after I finished school!

I'll ask the vet once I know what's going on.

Thanks again, Ginger.

I bought the comfy cone when I thought Freddy Jones was going to have eye surgery. I had him wear it several times in preparation, and he didn't seem too bothered by it. I use it on Toby when I dremel his nails. It works great to keep him from snapping at me.

Otto's eye specialist would not recommend a soft e-collar when Otto had his eye ulcer. The doctor felt the hard, projecting collar was necessary to completely protect the eye, and that a soft one would allow the dog to scratch or rub the eye, or for other object to bump the face.

On the bright side, he said most dogs are fine with the hard collar by the third day of wearing it, and Otto was managing fine by the second afternoon. His biggest problem was going up and down stairs wearing it, because the bottom rim hit the stairs and bounced him back. Might work better on dogs with longer legs than a pug.

Good luck with the surgery - I hope everything goes just fine.

Thanks, all. I will wait to talk to the vet, and likely the specialist. I haven't even been told surgery will be the call, but I'm guessing, giving Wally's history, that it will be.

How long did your pups have to wear one after eye surgery?

Otto's eye ulcer was treated non-surgically, but he had to wear a collar for 10 days.

Do they even sleep with the collars on? I'm assuming yes, but poor babies!

Chester wore a traditional hard e-collar after his eye surgery. It was hell! We did keep it one pretty much 24/7 unless he was sitting on the couch in our arms, especially since we also had Bruno and those two were always getting into something. It's really hard to drink in those things. But back when Chester had his surgery, I don't think they even had the soft cone collars on the market so I can't speak for those.

We used a donught shaped soft collar for Bruno after his knee surgery, which was much more comfortable, but you are right, it does not provide a lot of protection for the eye. I wouldn't suggest using a donught collar for an eye surgery.

Sleeping in an e-collar post surgery is a tough call. The pug is miserable! There were nights (a few days after the surgery) when we did take it off so Chester could sleep but that usually meant that we didn't get any sleep because we were too nervous about Chester hurting his eye.

Thanks, everyone. I'm headed out in less than an hour to the vet. Did you take the collars off to let them eat and drink? I hope so!

Eph91 wrote:Thanks, everyone. I'm headed out in less than an hour to the vet. Did you take the collars off to let them eat and drink? I hope so!

Yes. We just keep an eye on them. It's much easier with just one pug than with two. If we had to leave them alone, Chester was in an x-pen with the e-collar on and that's when drinking became a challenge for the poor boy.

ETA--Kendie, I should know this, probably, but what did Chester have the surgery for?

Thanks, Kendie. I imagine if it comes to this (surgery), I'll have to separate the boys when I leave, although I think the cone would maybe mean I wouldn't have to. I think they only sleep when I'm gone.

Eph91 wrote:ETA--Kendie, I should know this, probably, but what did Chester have the surgery for?

Thanks, Kendie. I imagine if it comes to this (surgery), I'll have to separate the boys when I leave, although I think the cone would maybe mean I wouldn't have to. I think they only sleep when I'm gone.

Chester had a prolasped eye so the eyeball pretty much dislocated from the eye socket. They fixed it, saved the eye, and his eye was sewn shut for something like 10 days. It was a LONG time ago when he was about 7 or 8 months old (he's 8 now).

It was a really tough call when we had to leave them alone. The hard e-collar didn't keep them from licking and sniffing each other and since they were both still little puppies, Bruno was always in Chester's face trying to figure out what was going on. We hired a pet sitter to stay with them while we were at work for a few days and decided to separate Chester in an x-pen for the other times we weren't there. Almost losing his eye was so traumatic for me and we had adopted him for maybe a month before it happened so I was a total worry wart back then and extremely over protective.

My foster Willie had eye surgery before I got him and he wore it all the time. Day or night. He slept in it with us and it didn't bother him at all! Now me on the other hand hated the thing as I was the one he bashed in the head with it when he changed positions in the middle of the night!!! He could eat and drink, the cone was like a shield from the other dogs getting his food. It fit totally over the bowl perfectly. I was glad when it came off, but he really could have cared less about bashing into the walls or our shins!

Thanks! I guess I'm lucky that my boys are a bit older, and I really do think they sleep when I'm not here. I'll see what the specialist says once I get an appt. I asked my regular vet today, and he said that he wouldn't necessarily need it on--it would just depend on how he acted, etc., with the sutures. I'm sure I'll get one no matter what if we have the surgery, and then see how it goes.

No, Otto wore his all the time.

It took him less than one meal to figure out that he could put his head over his food dish and completely cover it with the collar and eat that way. He look like a space alien vacuum cleaner!

I was more concerned about sleeping, but he would just sprawl out and rest his chin on the bottom of his collar, or the side. He seemed comfortable enough with it. The only thing someone warned me about that I'd not realized was that the collars can retain heat, so to be very careful when walking him on hot days (even more careful that we'd usually be with a pug in the heat). We we lucky in that it was a very cool July here, so the heat really wasn't a problem.

(The biggest nuisance to us was that he kept bumping into our legs with the hard edge of the collar as he'd follow us around - took him a while to realize he couldn't follow as closely as he's used to and that thing hurt when the edge was pushed into our calves or thighs!)