Question:
Hi - I have a young siberian/blue heeler cross that recently began wearing a plastic medical cone around his head. Hes always been a big face rubber (he loves to drop a knee and rub his head into wet grass/carpet or whatever else while walking quickly/jogging) but recently he started getting a raw spot on his nose. It persisted so the vet recommended that we try the cone to stop him from rubbing. Hes never worn a cone before and Ive heard from some people that some dogs do really badly in a cone, they get depressed or what not. He wasn't too happy about it but seemed to adjust ok, normal appetite, still wanted to walk and hang out as usual. He has had the cone on for about 12 days now and his nose is just starting to improve, so I think its helping (just taking longer then I would have hoped!). The problem is, tonight I noticed that he has chewed himself raw on a spot on his tail. He has never done this before nor has he ever had any skin problems to speak of. He doesnt have fleas and he is an otherwise healthy dog. Im worried that the chewing on his tail is because of stress caused by either the cone or not being able to rub (he loves rubbing, it is a really important part of his routine i think) or both. I bandaged it up to try to keep him from chewing it, but im pretty sure he'll pull that bandage off in no time and go back to chewing on his tail. What should I do? Should I take off the cone right when the nose is starting to heal or just wait until the nose heals at the possible expense of the tail?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Answer:
Poor dog I dont have any advice but i hope he hangs in there and heals up... :(


Answer:
Might be a simpler solution throw away the cone and get a basket muzzle instead it would protect the end of his nose and prevent him from shewing on himself. If the proper size the muzzle will not touch the end of the nose
http://leatherbrothers.com/Muzzles/M180-2.htm


Has there been any colour change to the nose as in looking pink or greyish or is the leathery part smooth instead of pebbly?

THe reason I ask is that maybe the sores are not from rubbing but disease, is goes thru stages on getting bad and then improving but over time scar tissue builds up and it never gets back to looking normal, some forms only affect the nose and others can be systematic. the 2 form will affect the nose mostly
http://www.rr-oona.com/DLE/AI-DLE-eng.html

http://www.rr-oona.com/DLE/AI-PE-eng.html

Answer:
If you have had him to the vet to check for sore spots and such it may very well be psycological. Young dogs need quite a bit of excersize and mental stimulation. He sounds a bit fixated on his tail at the moment. Do you have a wagon he could pull on his walks? I think if the physical symptoms have been eliminated that he could just need you to tire him out some more.

Answer: