How to make a collar?

[Essentia]

On top of my new chinchilla with the hurt back leg, I was surrendered a chinchilla with a hurt front paw. It seems I can't win these days.

The surrendered boy was doing really well until tonight. The owner has no idea what he did to hurt his paw, but did bring him to the vet where he was prescribed Baytril for infection and metacam for pain. The hand looked to be doing better. It had a large scab over the top, and the swelling had started to go down. Earlier today I had noticed some puss under the skin and I was going to lance and irrigate the wound when I got home from work. Well, by the time I got home, he had done the deed for me. He had completely eaten the scab off and all that was left was healthy pink tissue, no puss. I irrigated the wound and let him be for a bit. I caught him chewing on it again though.

I am very afraid that I am going to end up with a chinchilla with a chewed off front paw by the time I wake up in the morning. Can anyone think of an idea to make him a collar? When I asked my vet he kinda looked at me like I was stupid and said nothing was small enough (he really is a good vet, I promise). So, it's up to me now. Any ideas? I have a 24 hour walmart right by me, so I can pick up any supplies I need. I just don't want to go to bed first and wonder what I may wake up to.

 

[Ash]

Get some poster board and cut it down to size and staple it? Or the largest sized flash cards? Idk, just throwing ideas!

 

[Chibigirl]

you could cut fleece or an old pillow case and put that overtop of the index card idea to make it nice and soft for their neck?

 

[Essentia]

Anyone think this might even remotely work for the night? It's a plastic cup (with the bottom half cut off) wrapped in fleece. The opening isn't quite as large as I would like, but it might work (maybe with a whole bunch of prayer!).

 

[threewingedfury]

It's always worth a try. That fleece came in handy!

 

[Essentia]

I swear, it was the perfect size. All I had to do was sew a seam, turn it inside out,and bam! Cup cover. Haha.

 

[mercynursie]

Hi Essentia! I was sitting here thinking about this and thought of something that might work too. Get some of the blank sheets of the craft stencil plastic (Walmart,hobby lobby,michaels,ac moore should have it). If you do stenciling you'll know exactly what I'm talking about,the one that is a solid sheet so that you can make and cut your own stencil patterns out,sometimes its frosted or pink colored.Its flexible and easily cut to shape for the elizabethan style color. Its also thin and durable enough that I believe you can sew a strip of fleece(blanket binder style) to soften the edges and use fleece ties to secure it and adjust it around the neck. Yea, I know I rig stuff up really bad but most of the time my ideas work!!!!:hmm:

 

[alli713]

They do make chinnie sized cones, MuShu had to wear one about a month ago, there's pics on here somewhere, so your vet doesn't quite know what he's talking about with that. You can get small blue flexible ones. They are quite expensive though.

I've heard of some also making a cone with an x-ray sheet.

 

[Essentia]

Alli, do you know if you can purchase them in a pet store or something similar? Our vet doesn't have anything quite that small. Maybe a cone for a chihuahua?

 

[alli713]

Okay, I just checked for you, and this is the collar MuShu had. I guess they aren't too bad price wise, I was going off of what the vet charged me, but I should have known they'd mark the price up significantly lol

It's the 4" one, and is a little large for chins, but it works. By the time 3 weeks were up with MuShu, she had chewed a couple small holes in the cone, but it wasn't bad at all.
http://www.trimlineinc.com/sizes.cfm

You can buy them here:
http://www.arcatapet.com/item.cfm?cat=10297

And here's the pic of MuShu with hers so you can see a size reference..

It kind of made it hard for her to get around, hence the small cage and low shelves, but she could eat fine with it on, which was important to me. I suppose you might be able to cut it shorter since it's a soft material, but it works okay.

 

[Essentia]

Well right now he is in a smaller cage with no shelves and just a fleece tube and a very low lying hammock, so it won't be a huge change other than him having something around his neck. Thank you so much for the links.