My dog Zorro had to undergo surgery last week. He had a huge tumor on his elbow that had to be removed. The surgery went well but he ended up with a few stitches. This left the dilemma of stopping him from pulling out his stitches ...

the vet and me tried all kinds of traditional surgical dressings, but they kept sliding off on their own or failed upon being licked. A dog's elbow is a tricky place to bandage.

Finally the vet Dr.Hemant suggested that i try putting on a sock or something..
so heres what me and my mom cooked up... and it works wonderfully!

UPDATE!! (roughly a year back)- The biopsy result from the tumor came in yesterday. its not malignant! He's going to be OK!

UPDATE(July08 2010) - had to admit zorro into the hospital. saw some bleeding in his mouth day before yesterday. its a new tumor. also the old one on the elbow has grown back. The two Vets i showed him to said that the one in the mouth has to be removed ASAP. surgery to remove them both tomorrow.

UPDATE(July09 2010) - Surgery lasted one and half hours. Doctors say it went well, they got both the tumors. we should be able to take him home in 3 days.

Update(July28 2010) - pathology report on the tumors came. the one in the mouth is malignant. trying out homeopathy now.. and then some ayurveda. The Vets' said, conventional treatments are not worth trying.

Update(July10 2011) - The oral tumor came back twice and we had it removed each time. the third time though it was inoperable. After a year of fighting it the cancer won, Zorro passed away in the first week of july 2011.
memorial page: http://chaitanyakrishnan.blogspot.in/2011/07/zorro-rip.html

Step 1: Required Items

- some old, yet "clean" socks .. preferably, ones where the elastic is loose(we all have those)

you need more than one depending on how many times in a day you need to change them (depends on the dog, injury, etc..)

- scissors
- piping cord, rope, twine, anything that is soft but strong
- a cooperative and very patient animal

Step 2: Cut Off the Toes

depending on the length of your dog's leg (Zorro is a Labrador-doberman cross, so his legs are long), cut off the appropriate amount off .. on the toe end of the sock.
now you can slide this sock over the existing dressing/bandages etc.

Step 3: 4 Holes

to keep the sock from sliding down, you need to secure it atleast twice...
1) around the neck
2) around the waist/chest area

to do this cut 4 tiny holes on the open end of the sock... just below the elstic area...
tie the rope to these holes and loop once around the neck and once around the chest area.