The cone of shame - do you keep it on when they are sleeping?

[QueenOfTheMetaverse]

Our dog has a cone of shame on but is v unhappy. He keeps banging his head against the floor to get it off and scraping it on anything he can. He's removed it twice now and once he got his ears stuck and we had to take it off him.

Is this normal? Will he get better with it?

He has a suit on too but without the cone, he is pulling that off to get to his wound

Hate a cone almost as much as the dog does.

A Buster collar is much better, ours has been using one for years and it is far more satisfactory.

Mine was exactly the same and the plastic cone was ditched immediately.

We got him a soft cone for when we went out and took it off when we got back so he never wore it whilst we were with him.

However, he's small and clingy and sleeps at the end of the bed so very easy to keep an eye on.

My lab slept with his cone one. He used to just rest at one side of it. Still hated it though, kept walking into door frames. I was glad when it was off.

If he is not being fully and directly supervised then he should be wearing his cone. Dogs are capable of causing sometimes catastrophic damage to their own surgical sites... believe me.

Ok thanks. It is on and staying on.

Mine had to wear a HUGE one day and night, for about six weeks. She sleeps under the duvet, snuggled up against me. It was like sharing a bed with a table lamp. I don't think either of us got much sleep.

I don't like cones and don't use them on my own animals. The inflatable collars/donuts are much more comfortable and far less restrictive.

Mine wouldn't keep one on overnight anyway.

The blow up collars are more comfortable for them, that's what we used when we had our dog neutered.

My last dog removed his own stitches, while still at the vets...it was an arthroscopy he’d had though, so a tiny incision and they just left it, but a bigger wound and that could have been a disaster.

re inflatable collars, they’re definitely comfier, but, it’ll depend what needs protecting as most dogs could reach their legs, tail and some the neutering site too.

Our vet uses soft cone on our spaniel. Makes so much difference.

Mine had to wear one for quite some time after major surgery and he wasn't happy but eventually got used to it and slept in it quite happily, after a while we got him in t-shirts instead, his wound was on his chest so not that easy to get too

I got one of these inflatable ones from Amazon on next day delivery when I needed one. Best idea ever. The dog might not have been a fan, but he didn't hate it and his life was much easier. And he could sleep in it because it was soft.