Whenever a dog or cat is hurt, the vet often gives them a head-cone to wear to prevent the hapless animal from reaching their wound and bothering it. When my dog had one, he kept bumping into things (like me, the door, my priceless Faberge egg), he couldn't drink very well, he looked foolish, and none to happy. My idea is to make a bandage covering that would prevent the animal from ripping/ licking at the bandage and wound.
Basically take an ace wrap and thread parallel zig-zag lines of small wire through the material along the grain making sure that most of the wire is exposed to the outside (see link). Coat the back with a moisture barrier that will allow air flow but not, you know, icky stuff so the wires don't get wet. To hold the whole thing on, instead of the usual ace clip, use the special wire connecting harness clip with built in radio transceiver. The clip connects the even wires to the positive side of the battery in the transceiver and the odd wires to the negative.
The dog wears a collar similar to those anti-barking collar. Though I prefer the ones that make loud noise or sprays a bad odor, if your pet is persistent, you may have to go with the shocking ones.
When the dog/ cat/ horse/ not-so-smart-little-brother starts to lick the bandage cover, they complete the circuit with their tongue and the collar goes off. It should have a shut-off timer should the thing get wet- you don't want to put the poor thing through anymore discomfort than it already has.
I envision that a vet could have several sets of collars and clips, with a large roll of the wire ace wrap that he could cut off and give to the owners for use while the pet/brother is healing.
Edit: Changed the name to a better one, I think. Thanks, [reensure]-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Mar 13 2006 Wire pattern http://pg.photos.ya...2c31re2.jpg&.src=phJust to show which way I meant for the zig-zag part [NotTheSharpestSpoon, Mar 13 2006] This would probably work fine, but I can't get past the fact that you are inducing additional discomfort to an animal that is already stressed. I'm not sure the benefit outweighs the misery.
(P.S.: Much better effort on this version.)-- jurist, Mar 13 2006 Yeah, I thought that there would be some of that feeling as I have had them myself. But I can't be home all the time and he (my dog, not my brother) was really unhappy with the cone. I was just trying to think of a way to keep him from going at it.
P.S.- Thanks, I'm learning.-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Mar 13 2006 Fido. Heal, I say, heal.-- po, Mar 13 2006 My heretofor trouble-free cat, CB, recently joined the thousand-dollar cat club, after twelve years of being maintenance free. A bun, chicken-flavored.-- normzone, Mar 13 2006 Boo-Boo Wrapper Blaster?
Das my little man.-- reensure, Mar 13 2006 [Boo-Boo Wrapper Blaster] -reensure
I like that name much better than the one I came up with. Can I change it without losing any information? With your permission, of course.-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Mar 14 2006 Sure, [NTSS]. It's just a suggestion; please, feel free to run with it.-- reensure, Mar 14 2006 The timer would have to be a neccessity, but how long would the animal be electrocuted before it shuts off? I can imagine a dog getting his/her tongue caught in the wires, constantly having a charge running through it.-- jellydoughnut, Mar 14 2006 [jellydoughnut], on most shock collars that I have seen, the thing gives one 'punishment' and then waits for a break in the barking before resetting for another higher rated voltage response. They are designed very carefully to avoid needlessly tormenting the dog plus the wires are very small compared to the size of the tongue so the chances of getting stuck before the dog stopped licking are small.-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Mar 14 2006 Clever. Croissant.
(I had a cat that was licking a wound. I recalled reading that cayenne pepper powder was a good coagulant and promoted healing, so I sprinkled some on. He stopped licking, and healed up nicely.)-- baconbrain, Mar 15 2006 Did he ever get within petting distance of you again, [baconbrain]? I imagine that capsaicin must have stung.-- jurist, Mar 15 2006 [jurist], I wondered about that capsaicin stingy part myself. Where's [DrCurry] when you need him? <sends out the Curry signal and sneezes violently from all the extra powder>-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Mar 15 2006 He didn't seem to be in any pain from the pepper, but I've never tried it on myself, so I can't be sure. It worked, and he continued to treat me with all the kindness, consideration and caring that one expects from a cat.-- baconbrain, Mar 15 2006 I had a dog that liked to destroy expensive pieces of horse tack. Not the cheap ones, only the nice ones.
I'd heard about the spicy training trick, so I baited him with some fiery stuff. All that happened was that he developed a taste for Cajun cooking.-- normzone, Apr 21 2006 [normzone], instead of barking did your dog just go "AIEEE" ?-- Canuck, Jul 19 2006 random, halfbakery