Today we had in a cat that the nurses had to clip the tummy matts off and were having a hard time even extracting from its cage and 3 of my dogs were nasty and or difficult to groom regulars. I was wistfully saying to the nurses that I wish we had an air muzzle to save all of our fingers from danger.
So I'm doing nasty doggy number one, who also cage guards, but allows me to bath him. Im putting on his muzzle and e collar so he wont pull his muzzle off, when I suddenly have a brilliant idea. I went and got another e collar and taped the 2 together at the wide ends and made my own air muzzle. I could still dry his head through the front hole and could extract each ear as needed. I cut the tabs off the end that went over his head so that it went on easily and then used a leash clip to attach it to the grooming noose so that it wouldnt come off. I used a size that was fairly loose around his neck so I could still dry the hair around his neck easily. AND the little stinker stood like a statue the whole groom, no difficult behaviour for anything, not even his head after I took it off which may be because he behaved for the rest of the groom and wasnt hyped up by bad behaviour. I also didnt have to deal with the wet mouth that a muzzle usually causes.
I used it on my 2 other not nasty but difficult for everything dogs and they also just stood and behaved. The nurses also used one on the cat, they were able to slide it over its head in the cage because if you hold it by the end it gives you a bit of distance between your hand and the animals mouth and then safely scruff it. We were all amazed and the vet got the nurses to make one up in every size and they used them all day.
So, they are simple and cheap (free if you work in a vet clinic) to make and can come in many different sizes. All the animals today that had them on accepted them without any fuss, unlike some of them with muzzles, and were calmed by them. You can leave them on for long periods without danger of overheating, so for the hardcore nasties you can get the owner to put it on. If you still need hand protection to do the head you can just undo the tape and leave one e collar on. And owners cant possibly fuss that they are cruel to their little precious Hannibel Lecter because the dogs/cats today didnt even seem to notice they were wearing them.
So I'm doing nasty doggy number one, who also cage guards, but allows me to bath him. Im putting on his muzzle and e collar so he wont pull his muzzle off, when I suddenly have a brilliant idea. I went and got another e collar and taped the 2 together at the wide ends and made my own air muzzle. I could still dry his head through the front hole and could extract each ear as needed. I cut the tabs off the end that went over his head so that it went on easily and then used a leash clip to attach it to the grooming noose so that it wouldnt come off. I used a size that was fairly loose around his neck so I could still dry the hair around his neck easily. AND the little stinker stood like a statue the whole groom, no difficult behaviour for anything, not even his head after I took it off which may be because he behaved for the rest of the groom and wasnt hyped up by bad behaviour. I also didnt have to deal with the wet mouth that a muzzle usually causes.
I used it on my 2 other not nasty but difficult for everything dogs and they also just stood and behaved. The nurses also used one on the cat, they were able to slide it over its head in the cage because if you hold it by the end it gives you a bit of distance between your hand and the animals mouth and then safely scruff it. We were all amazed and the vet got the nurses to make one up in every size and they used them all day.
So, they are simple and cheap (free if you work in a vet clinic) to make and can come in many different sizes. All the animals today that had them on accepted them without any fuss, unlike some of them with muzzles, and were calmed by them. You can leave them on for long periods without danger of overheating, so for the hardcore nasties you can get the owner to put it on. If you still need hand protection to do the head you can just undo the tape and leave one e collar on. And owners cant possibly fuss that they are cruel to their little precious Hannibel Lecter because the dogs/cats today didnt even seem to notice they were wearing them.
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