Just what is that blue thing around Mojo's neck?

Mojo goes to the Vet at Petsmart. Just about everyone in our local petsmart including the vet nurses and groomer know Mr. Mojo by name and greet him as soon as he enters the store. He has had quite a few incidents in his two years here. He has had several rashes as he is allergic to flea bite and even though he is on flea control medicine just one bite before the flea bites it himself send Mojo into an itching frenzy. He also had a seizure when he was a few months old, it was one isolated event but never-the-less caused a visit to the vet. He has been a textbook case for the conditions that this breed can get including a corneal ulcer secondary to his inherent protruding eyes (that is why he is wearing the blue collar in the picture) and most recently he incurred a herniated disc in his spine secondary to a condition which is a very long thoracolumbar spine found in breeds such as daschunds and shitzu characterized by a very long back and short legs. This anatomy often causes early and progressive degenerative disc disease or drying out of the disc between the vertebrae of the spine. About 6 weeks ago, just a few weeks before the scheduled arrival of our newest puppy, mojo began having severe symptoms of pain and inability to jump up or down from furniture, the car etc. Just touching him caused him to cry out in excruciating pain. A trip to the vet and some xrays confirmed that he had a pinched nerve due to a herniated disc caused by DDD (degenerative disc disease). They were quite honest with us an informed us that if medicine didn't work he would need to see a spinal surgeon for surgery!. He wasp laced on complete bed rest (kennel rest) and placed on a steroid and a muscle relaxant. Thank goodness in just a couple of days his symptoms completely disappeared. We need to be forever aware though that he had this incidient and that it could re-occur at anytime therefore he is never allowed again to jump from heights as herniated discs in these breeds can often lead to paralysis. We got lucky this time!

So Mojo has earned his reputation with lots of battle scars for such a little guy so when the groomer or vet nurse or any of the dozens of Petsmarts employees say loud and cheerfully... "Hi Mojo, how are you today?" and you just happen to be the owner of a lesser known canine in the vicinity of Petsmart in Waterford Lakes, don't get insulted. They know him for a reason. Just consider that and hope they don't get to know your pup that well !