A word of warning regarding collars

[dungrulla]

So my dog had a new collar that was sort of a plasticy neoprene material, and pretty cheap. We put it on him on Friday and he evidently got wet.

The collar was left on (as the dog always wears a collar) and around Saturday evening we started to smell a foul odor on the dog. Cue “Jesus, what did he roll in, he reeks!”. Gave the dog a bath (he had in fact rolled in something, but at this point we didn’t realize this was NOT the source of the foul odor) and let him air out, sunday morning he STILL smelled pretty foul and it was at this point that my sister noticed the smell was coming from the collar.

So I took it off and cue the “HOLY JESUS” moment. The dog had a HUGE hot spot all around the lower part of his neck. Attempted to clip the area so we could clean it up but the dog fought us and so we took him to the vet to be sedated and to have the area clipped.

German shepherds are prone to skin issues. Evidently, neoprene collars do not breathe well and can also set up allergic reactions. He had a reaction to either the collar or the damp which set up to create a massive hot spot/infection.

The dog is now on strong antibiotics/steroids as well as tramadol to help with any pain/keep him from scratching. All of this happened inside 48 hours or less.

Word to the wise: Don’t leave neoprene collars on your dogs. We had never had this problem happen with all the dogs we’ve ever had, but $450 later and some serious guilt that this happened to my poor dog, I will not be leaving collars of any kind on him for an extended period anymore.

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=dungrulla;8225917]
Evidently, neoprene collars do not breathe well and can also set up allergic reactions.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, I giggled at this. Did you really think neoprene breathed?

Jingles for your dog’s quick recovery.

[dungrulla]

[QUOTE=trubandloki;8225924]
Sorry, I giggled at this. Did you really think neoprene breathed?

Jingles for your dog’s quick recovery.[/QUOTE]

Well, no, but we’d never had this issue before so I honestly wasn’t expecting to take off what I considered to be a pretty normal collar and find a giant crusty smelly sore underneath either.

He’s now wearing the dorkiest looking harness ever along with a T shirt to prevent him scratching…

http://imgur.com/DIQ1bl3

[SouthernYankee]

Jingles for your dog. I’m glad you figured out the issue quickly and got it addressed before it got more serious.

However I have a nylon, neoprene, plastic hunting collar on my hunting dog, she wears it 24/7 and I have yet to have any issues. I also know a lot of other hunting dogs that wear theirs 24/7 without issue. It’s unfortunate that your dog had an allergic reaction to it, but that doesn’t call for ‘BANNING THE COLLARS’ because of one issue.

I have a cat that I can’t use spot on flea treatments because it burns her skin, the other two cats are fine. But I’m not posting that it’s dangerous and is going to hurt other peoples animals, I know she has sensitive skin so I exercise a little common sense and go a different route with her. Just like you know your dog has skin allergies so pick something that will breathe, I like leather collars for that reason.

[dungrulla]

@SouthernYankee;8225934

However I have a nylon, neoprene, plastic hunting collar on my hunting dog, she wears it 24/7 and I have yet to have any issues. I also know a lot of other hunting dogs that wear theirs 24/7 without issue. It’s unfortunate that your dog had an allergic reaction to it, but that doesn’t call for ‘BANNING THE COLLARS’ because of one issue.

Oh, I’m not advocating banning the collars, but I certainly won’t be leaving one on MY dog again. I meant this as a general precautinary statement because apparently this is not terribly uncommon. The vet sees them a lot with neoprene and even more often with invisible fence collars, because those are plastic and the prongs start to dig once this gets set up. It’s more the breathability if the collar gets wet on certain breeds of dog that are already prone to getting hotspots.

[SouthernYankee]

[QUOTE=dungrulla;8225917]
So my dog had a new collar that was sort of a plasticy neoprene material, and pretty cheap. We put it on him on Friday and he evidently got wet.

The collar was left on (as the dog always wears a collar) and around Saturday evening we started to smell a foul odor on the dog. Cue “Jesus, what did he roll in, he reeks!”. Gave the dog a bath (he had in fact rolled in something, but at this point we didn’t realize this was NOT the source of the foul odor) and let him air out, sunday morning he STILL smelled pretty foul and it was at this point that my sister noticed the smell was coming from the collar…[/QUOTE]

I’m not trying to start an argument but you put the collar on Friday, gave him a bath on Saturday and realized he had an issue on Sunday.

That’s 2 days. That’s 2 days of his skin festering. I have a hard time understanding how you can not see an issue when you can smell the issue. But then again I visually go over the dogs, cats, horses, and cows every single day. If a calf coughs I know about it. If the horses have a tick I know about it. And if the dogs have an issue with their collars I know about it. Call me OCD.

[dungrulla]

[QUOTE=SouthernYankee;8225948]
I’m not trying to start an argument but you put the collar on Friday, gave him a bath on Saturday and realized he had an issue on Sunday.

That’s 2 days. That’s 2 days of his skin festering. I have a hard time understanding how you can not see an issue when you can smell the issue. But then again I visually go over the dogs, cats, horses, and cows every single day. If a calf coughs I know about it. If the horses have a tick I know about it. And if the dogs have an issue with their collars I know about it. Call me OCD.[/QUOTE]

I put the collar on Friday evening, there was nothing noticeably wrong with the dog until Saturday evening around 9 PM. Since he had some unidentified…material on him, we assumed he rolled in something. Not an unreasonable assumption, this dog LOVES to roll in dead animal carcasses for some reason. He’d spent the entire day with us up until this point and behaviorally was acting completely normal (as he continued to act all the way up until the vet sedated him). I doubt his neck started to fester the instant I put his collar on him.

We woke upthe next morning and noticed the problem within 15 minutes when putting the dog outside. Not sure where in there his skin started festering, but nothing was amiss until Saturday at 9 PM and the problem was discovered around 7 the next morning.

The dog has quite a lot of fur on his neck, it truly wasn’t visible until the collar came off and we parted his fur. Hot spots can progress pretty rapidly and the vet said this likely did not truly set in until late Saturday and that the bath probably just made it worse. I already feel pretty damn guilty about this and cried about it for most of yesterday…insinuating that I left it like that on purpose or wasn’t paying attention when I was is pretty hurtful

[chism]

[QUOTE=dungrulla;8225926]
Well, no, but we’d never had this issue before so I honestly wasn’t expecting to take off what I considered to be a pretty normal collar and find a giant crusty smelly sore underneath either.

He’s now wearing the dorkiest looking harness ever along with a T shirt to prevent him scratching…

http://imgur.com/DIQ1bl3[/QUOTE]

pictures please?

[Anne_FS]

[QUOTE=SouthernYankee;8225934]
It’s unfortunate that your dog had an allergic reaction to it, but that doesn’t call for ‘BANNING THE COLLARS’ because of one issue. [/QUOTE]

Unless there was an edit, OP didn’t call for banning the collars, let alone BANNING THE COLLARS.

Poor dog. I hope he heals soon. Hot spots are nasty. My only comment is how could you have bathed him thoroughly and not noticed the wound? Glad he’s on the mend now.

[dungrulla]

[QUOTE=chism;8225957]
pictures please? ;)[/QUOTE]

Honestly I wouldn’t but that’s just me. The vet suggested from now on that we don’t leave anything around his neck long-term because once a dog has this happen once, it’s prone to having it happen again and again.

[dungrulla]

[QUOTE=Anne FS;8225965]
Unless there was an edit, OP didn’t call for banning the collars, let alone BANNING THE COLLARS.

Poor dog. I hope he heals soon. Hot spots are nasty. My only comment is how could you have bathed him thoroughly and not noticed the wound? Glad he’s on the mend now.[/QUOTE]

We mostly bathed his butt and back where he had the grody stuff he rolled in (which we assumed was what was producing the odor). He’d just been to the groomer two days prior to this and the dog HATES baths and also weighs 110 lbs, so we didn’t think to bathe the rest of him Usually we take him to a groomer to get baths because he’s so difficult to bathe. The wound is on the underside of the neck toward the chest so we really didn’t see it.

[Countrywood]

I got a plastic Adaptil collar for my dog, after 2 days ( i took it off at night) he started acting lethargic so I thew it out.

[chism]

[QUOTE=dungrulla;8225966]
Honestly I wouldn’t but that’s just me. The vet suggested from now on that we don’t leave anything around his neck long-term because once a dog has this happen once, it’s prone to having it happen again and again.[/QUOTE]

Thanks…i deleted that part of my comment because I dont’ think they’re the same thing…

[Horsegal984]

[QUOTE=dungrulla;8225966]
Honestly I wouldn’t but that’s just me. The vet suggested from now on that we don’t leave anything around his neck long-term because once a dog has this happen once, it’s prone to having it happen again and again.[/QUOTE]

I wouldn’t leave the same collar on him, but did he not wear one before? Seems like a bit of a jump to say that you had a reaction to a fake $5 Walmart watch so never wear a watch again.

Personally I think in the majority of cases having a collar with ID on it far outweighs the risks. Just go with a known material like leather or nylon.

[dungrulla]

@Horsegal984;8225991

I wouldn’t leave the same collar on him, but did he not wear one before? Seems like a bit of a jump to say that you had a reaction to a fake $5 Walmart watch so never wear a watch again.

Yeah, I suppose. I am tempted to put him in a harness instead but the problem there is the same problem could just happen where the harness sits.

I may try him in a leather/nylon collar, which he has never had a problem with and just watch him REALLY closely. I could also just leave it off when he’s not outside, he is microchipped.

[S1969]

Definitely sounds like an allergic reaction to the materials rather than just not being a breathable material. My dogs wear neoprene hunting collars and have never had an issue, but I recall my neighbor putting new “cheap” leather halters on a group of 6 yearling TBs (cheap so they would break if caught)…five horses were fine and one looked like someone used a blowtorch on his face in the shape of a halter.

It’s a good PSA to check under your dogs collars anyway, and especially if they are new - maybe also possible to have rough edges that you wouldn’t notice until they rub.

Most topical products recommend a “test patch” and we so often skip that step; but every now and then we are reminded that there can be serious reactions to just about anything.

Hope it clears up fast!

[dungrulla]

[QUOTE=S1969;8226024]
Definitely sounds like an allergic reaction to the materials rather than just not being a breathable material. My dogs wear neoprene hunting collars and have never had an issue, but I recall my neighbor putting new “cheap” leather halters on a group of 6 yearling TBs (cheap so they would break if caught)…five horses were fine and one looked like someone used a blowtorch on his face in the shape of a halter.

It’s a good PSA to check under your dogs collars anyway, and especially if they are new - maybe also possible to have rough edges that you wouldn’t notice until they rub.

Most topical products recommend a “test patch” and we so often skip that step; but every now and then we are reminded that there can be serious reactions to just about anything.

Hope it clears up fast![/QUOTE]

Apparently neoprene has also won the ‘allergen of the year’ award this year…

[toady123]

Poor guy - glad you got it figured out!

If he is OK without, that’s what I would do. My dogs rarely wear collars at home - one just hates to wear one, and I also worry about them getting hung up. They are chipped.

When they need to wear one (e.g. when we are visiting somewhere, or have people over) they wear leather. When they swim they wear nylon just for the time they are in the water.

I know lots and lots of dogs wear all kinds of collars just fine - so it comes down to what works for the individual.

[LauraKY]

One of my dogs has a leather collar, another a nylon collar. The third, my collie, only wears a collar when she goes out. She and the lab tussle too much and he pulls her around by her ruff. There is a chance, small, but still chance, that he could get his jaw stuck in her collar. So I just leave it off at home.

[Bicoastal]

Particularly hunting dog owners, what is a neoprene collar? I’m used to the plastic or vinyl waterproof ones. I imagine neoprene stays wet forever, which would escalate a hot spot situation.

Not to the OP, whose emergency bath situation I understand, just in general I giggle at owners who wash the dog but not the collar. The collar is often handled and close to the human yet no ones seems to notice the rank odors of never-washed nylon or cloth collars. There are some STANKY collars out there.