Everyone likes eating a donut, but have you ever tried wearing one? When Buddy Beagle came here, he was wearing one of those lampshade cone e-collars. That was to keep him from licking or chewing at his many wounds, and it did its job admirably. But it did make life cumbersome.

While he was in intensive care at Cedarwood Animal Hospital, the cone was a bother, but he wasn’t involved in as much activity as he is allowed here, so it was fine.

Why a Cone is Bad

He hated the cone and he let the Peoples know about it.

He rammed into everything he could find, trying to break the collar off. When he interacted with us, he’d inadvertently ram us with the cone. That does not promote neighborly relations! He scooped up gravel, grass, dirt, poop, whatever he encountered as he wandered the yard. And every time he moved around in his crate to get comfy, he rubbed that cone along the bars and made a lot of noise. This is okay in the day but at night, the rest of us were trying to sleep. It interfered with being able to drink, and eat, and it made chewing a chewie all but impossible because he could not get his paws involved to help hold it. He was not a happy boy!

So NiceLady did some looking to see what else was available that would serve the purpose but offer a better quality of life without breaking the bank.

When Blondie was stuck in a cone, they got her a Comfy Cone that was way better than a lampshade cone, but that wasn’t going to work for Buddy. He’s a Beagle: they tend to walk around with their noses on the ground all the time.

The Kong Donut Collar

She decided to go with the Kong E-Cloud Dog Collar. She ordered it from Amazon and had it rushed in for him. It was a good choice. The Peoples worried that it might not keep him away from that open spot on his rump — and at first it didn’t and they had to go back to the cone. But then Hairy discovered that if he inflated it to a firmer level it did prevent rump licking. Kong says not to inflate it to where it’s hard, so he was careful not to over-inflate.
Buddy found that life is much easier in a donut.

Yes, if you MUST wear an e-collar, a donut style collar is much less cumbersome than a cone.

As to durability: he has been test driving this for a while now, rubbing it along fencing, poking it into brambley Boysenberry bushes, dragging it along the ground, and and has not succeeded in puncturing his e-collar. HairyFace checks it each morning and has only had to add air to it once.

The blue velour cover is removable for laundering.

Buddy is happier, we are happier. This is just a win all around!