My Dog has a brace on his broken leg and I need to keep him from chewing on it. I’ve tried jalapeño peppers but he likes them and I put an ice-cream bucket over his head but he managed to get it off. I know a cone collar would be the best but I’d like to avoid it if I can and I don‘t have one right now anyway. Right now he is in his dog house that he isn’t supposed to be in and I know he is chewing on the brace. I am going to pick up a cone collar tonight but then he will have to be inside and he likes to be outside. Any Ideas?

I called the local vet and they don’t have the bitter apple spray or anything else to keep him from chewing on the brace. I don’t think they were too happy that I took the dog to a different vet 2 hours away.

Here's an idea we used when our dog started to chew our cabinets. Our vet told us to go get unscented right guard deodorant spray (aerosol) and spray it on anything you don't want the dog to chew. It is nonpoisonous and it makes the dog feel like his mouth is full of cotton balls - not pleasant. Worth a try. It worked on our cabinets! Claire

If you are near a pet store, they make a product called Bitter Apple (I think) that is like an ointment you rub on stuff you don't want to get chewed- IT WORKS! You do have to reapply it maybe once a week or if it starts to wear off.

BTDT

I wouldn't recommend spending money on the cone,if your dog is a chewer and able to get the ice cream bucket off. Our dog chewed her cone off in a matter of hours.

When I go to town today I'm going to pick up some unscented right guard. He hasn't chewed a whole lot on the brace but he has to wear it for 8 weeks so I need to keep it intact until then. I called around yesterday to see if I could find bitter apple spray but no one had any. I may order some bitter apple just to have on hand and I picked up a collar from a friend yesterday to use when needed.

give him some Benadryl and maybe he'll relax about the brace. i'm not kidding.

The adoption place we got our dogs from also told us that some dogs actually like the taste of the bitter apple stuff someone had mentioned....so for chewing we were told to put baby anbasol on the item (cabinets, flooring, electrical cords..etc)....just make sure you use the plain kind not the flavored, as the dogs may like the taste of it.

Beth

Thanks MB for the reminder of Benadryl. I was told to give my older dog Benadryl to calm her down when we have a thunder storm but it doesn’t calm her down much. ACE works much better but is much harder on her at her advanced age.

Chip is a very calm border collie and doesn’t fear much of anything. He is handling his leg very well for such a young dog. He does chew a little on the brace but all he’s done is make wholes in the tape. I put a little more tape over where he chewed and sprayed it with right guard and he hasn’t touched it. I don’t like the idea of right guard especially since all I was able to get was scented (there isn’t any unscented deodorant in town). I need to order a bit for my horse so I’m going to get some bitter apple for the dog too. I did borrow a cone collar so I have that now if the chewing gets bad. I’ll post a picture of him on my blog one of these days. One week down seven more to go.