Should he wear a cone of shame?

[TheMouseInMyPocket]

My 9yo lab has been neutered this morning. He came to us at 3 and a half, having been left entire by previous owner. The vet at the time advised us that neutering him at that age carried as many risks as advantages (which I now realise isn't exactly true), so we left it. About 3 weeks ago he developed an abcess on his prostate, fortunately he is getting better and the vet (we've changed practice recently) recommended having him done.
That's the background anyway now for the actual question - I picked him up about 3 hours ago, he seems OK, just sleepy. The vet hasn't given us a cone for him to wear, the dog hasn't really shown any interest or licked the area as yet, but would it be a normal practice to maybe put him in a cone just in case? I don't know, as he's not had any surgery before, and didn't think to ask at the time.

Mine managed to bite his cone off so I had to watch him like a hawk and he did sometimes go for a sniff but I stopped him in time before he licked it. If mine had kept his cone on I would have used it as it only takes a few minutes for them to chew/lick. You can get Medical shirts instead to use if you prefer.

Haha BiteyShark, is your username in fact your dog's name?
Thank you for your advice, I will see how he goes without it for now I think, he won't be left alone over the next few days and we're going for a wound check on Thursday, so I guess if I need one, I can get one then. Poor dog has been through wars over the last few weeks, I really wish I had him done when we first got him

We had an inflatable one for our lab, a bit like a rubber ring?

Meant he bounced off everything rather than leaving a trail of destruction everywhere he went. Or so we thought. He wore it for all of 2 hours, then we managed with nothing, just a sharp 'stop' whenever he investigated his tender area. See how yours go, if he can manage without, life is so much easier 😉

OP It was originally in honour of his puppy biteness but yes it has continued to be a theme

I wouid have sworn my Goldie boy had no interest in licking after his Op and I certainly never saw him but apparently he was and he ended up with a nasty abscess

Hoppinggreen I am sleeping by my dog at the moment as he has a suture reaction from his neutering a few weeks ago (had been given the all clear but it tends to show later) and he hates his medical shirt so sleeping near him calms him down. I have realised that he tends to wake early in the hours to have a sniff and lick down there which I would not have known about had I not been right next to him so I can see how you might think they aren't licking there.

We never needed one when ours was done and he healed very quickly with no problems what so ever, why don't you closely monitor him and see if it's needed or not.

When our lab had an op the vet have us one just in case and told us to only put it on if needed. We never needed it but she was supervised.

So far he's shown minimal interest in the area (although he has looked there a couple of times and groaned!), so I'm hoping we can do this without a cone or clothing, especially as he's a dog that hates wearing anything other than his collar. So we're spending our day on the sofa (I'm in between night shifts, so that's perfect for me!).

We got like a big baby giro in navy from our vets we bought 2 1 fir wearing And one or washing....they are great prevents them aggravating or itching the wound while healing. We have kept them for future use