My dog's new collar...

Zophie

Zophie

Member
Feb 14, 2007
8,870
8
#1
So my dog has been having issues with chewing her tail. She did this years ago, and the only way to stop her was to make her wear an e-collar for a couple months. She had to wear the HUGE size or else she could get the tail around the side of it and still chew it.

She stopped chewing her tail for years and then decided to start up again a couple years ago, and it's driving me nuts. I tried the big e-collar again, but it was soooo big that she ended up falling out of the bed one night. She is 13 now and has back problems, so I'm worried that will happen again. Her disk problem flared up when she fell and it was awful.

So as a last resort before having her tail completely amputated (which she will end up doing herself if this doesn't stop) the vet told me to try this new puffy collar. It looks like one of those whiplash things people wear after an accident. I had to take her LV collar off and put this on, but she's doing pretty well with it and it seems to keep her from being able to get to her tail. She can still eat and drink with it on though which was another problem with the e-collar.

So here are some pics of my baby with her new collar. :amuse:

Please keep your fingers crossed for us that this will actually work.
 

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#3
Oh dear...well the new collar is precious.
Poor little thing. A much better alternative to the other kind, YAY!

Have you tried the behavior modification stuff with her?
Here is a link for you.

We had this problem with my cat, and one of my dogs is a bit of a foot licker, too.

Try this link...if it asks for a password, just hit cancel and it should open.

One of those kongs with peanut butter inside is very good for this purpose...

http://www.francisvet.net/Documents/Compulsive%20Stereotypic%20and%20Displacement%20Disorders.doc
 
#4
Thanks. I am printing that out.

I am sure she has a compulsive behavior problem. When she had the problem with this when she was younger the vet put her on Prozac and that didn't seem to stop it and it didn't stop until I left the cone on her head for at least two months straight.

When it started more recently I tried amytriptaline (or something like that) and it did NO good. Then I had the problems leaving the big cone on her because of her back.

Unfortunately she has NO interest in toys. So no distracting her with that. But I do see in the article as I glanced through something about them getting affection on demand, which she definitely gets. (hard not to do that). The vet suggested trying a kong but can you put a treat in there? I can't give her peanut butter because she had pancreatitis.

When I watch the Dog Whisperer he always gets people to take their dogs for regular walks. I try to do that but really it just doesn't happen. She is pad trained because she poops usually 2 or 3 times in the middle of the night and no way am I walking her after dark, so I just gave up on the walking thing.

So I know part of the problem might be me not structuring her life enough but it's so hard to do that with my schedule. I'm really hoping this whiplash collar thing will sort of retrain her not to go after the tail. I got it to work with the e-collar years ago so I hope this will work too. I'm thinking it's a habit that needs to be broken like people biting their nails or such and that it'll just take time to break.
 
#6
I was able to use a pheremone spray for my cat, she stopped licking herself raw within a couple of days. I dont know if there is such a thing for dogs though.

good luck with this, it is a very hard thing to break.
Besides the kong, there are other kinds of toys that you can put treats inside and they randomly drop out. She might like that.

Also, some dogs do well if you leave the radio or tv on while you are gone.

I am not sure if clicker training would work...but you could try. The collar may help break the habit, and then when you take it off, only interact when she is NOT biting her tail.....

Good luck, it is definitely a project! The new collar is a huge improvement over the other, thats good at least!
 
#8
I tried this stuff called DAP, something like a hormone scented plug-in that is supposed to calm the dog. Didn't work! I just gave her a bath and had to take the thing off but so far at least it's kept her away from her tail and she doesn't seem to mind it too much.
 
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