From:
sinexr@howa.lib.md.us
Date: 2002-04-18 13:17:00 UTC
Subject: Collar injury
Now I think it may have been a mistake, but I've had my three wearing collars 24/7. I did this because of something that I read last year, while studying ferrets, prior to adopting one. According to the book, the purpose of collaring them was to bell them, and so that,
should they escape, people would be more likely to identify them as a stray pet, rather than a wild animal. Anyway, last night, when I removed their collars for their bath, I saw that there was something wrong with Rhodry.
Rhodry's fur directly under the collar was a shade of brown found nowhere else in his coat. The hairs are all much shorter, and I can see skin irratation, and even some clotted blood. All this had been hidden by the collar, so I hadn't a clue about any of this until their
bath time. He didn't apear to be actively bleeding, but it appeared that he at least had been oozing blood.
After the bath, I did NOT put the collars back on any of them, even though nothing seemed amiss with the other two. My theory as to what went wrong there is that either I'd put the collar on too tightly (although he never seemed to mind the collar), or his and Nevyn's
wrestling may have been more serious than I'd thought. Or both, or neither. I do not plan on returning any of them to collars until the marks disapear from Rhodry's neck, and maybe not even then.
What I did about this injury:
In addition to removing the collars, I sat down with Rhodry and gently dabbed at the irratation and blood clotting with a cotton ball of hydrogen paroxide (sp?). He didn't act like it stung, but after a while he started wiggling and I let him go play. I did that once last
night, and once today, as I don't want the wound to become infected. I also noticed that there was some debris on the inside of Rhodry's collar, so I picked off what I could, then set all three collars to soaking in a cup of water with a little cleaning solution mixed in.
I'm thinking of including them in my next load of laundry.
So now that you know what I observed, and what I did about it, we come to my questions.
1) Do my theories as to the cause of this injury seem consistant with my observations, and if not, what else could have caused them? I don't want a repeat performance, even though I seem more conserned about it than Rhodry.
2) Am I treating him properly, or is there something else I should be doing? Or something I've been doing that I shouldn't?
I'm really feeling bad about this -- and don't want this highly avoidable thing from happening again.
Robin Sinex
Nevyn, Rhodry, & Brangwyn
Ellicott City, Maryland