Neutered - How long to wear cone?

When I had my little Pom neutered he wore the cone for 5 days. Somehow he managed to lick with it on and pull the stitches out, but by then he was healed enough it did not matter.

Hanna was spayed on Wednesday and only wore the cone for the car ride home.
First day she mostly slept - tried to lick a couple of times and I told her "no" quite firmly and she stopped. Yesterday she was back to her old self - throwing toys at me and has shown no interest in her incision at all. It looks really good, nicely closed and no redness at all. I did give her the pain meds both days but she likely did not need them yesterday. Can't believe how well she did she really is back to her old self and not getting why I will not play tug or throw toys for her to fetch.

The answer is it depends on when he will leave it alone and how theincision looks.

 

When Melli cut her foot and I had to stop her licking, I had her wear her rain slicker instead of a cone. She couldn't reach the paw and it was more pleasant than a cone.

 

Hollie never bothered her incision so I didn't put it on her.

Shelby was a nut and it know she would have chewed her stitches out so she wore the cone for about a week or so.

When Hollie was in a cast the vet gave us a soft collar for her to wear (for 4 weeks!). It was just like the cone but soft and flexible. Hollie never bothered with her cast so I didn't put it on her.