9 replies to this topic

[BNM1980]

Hi,

On Thursday, Blake swallowed a cooked pork rib bone. The bone was about 7 cm long and 2 cm wide; that is, about the size of, or slightly larger than, a cigarette lighter. He is acting normally, eating, drinking, and going toilet as usual.

Will the bone pass through, dissolve, or do I need to take him to the vet? What about exercise? Is it okay to let him run around?

He is a seven month old male, and pretty big for his age. He has swallowed the chewed up pieces of an entire plastic chew bone before, which passed right through, but this is a whole pork bone and I'm worried about splintering.

[Shetlander]

Yikes. I'd be worried too. Did you call the vet to see what he or she thinks?

[BNM1980]

Yikes. I'd be worried too. Did you call the vet to see what he or she thinks?

I'm going to call tomorrow.

[mbc1963]

I would be worried, too. But...

When I was a kid, before we had the good sense we have now, we all used to throw all our leftover bones to our dogs. Childhood Dog died of cancer and heartworm after living a wild, unfixed life for seven happy years. The bones never caused him any trouble.

Mary

[BNM1980]

Well, whatever happens, it's the last bone he's getting.

My dog eats practically everything. Indiscriminately. Without chewing. He eats leaves, plastic, cigarette buts, breaks up and eats his chew toys, and even shreds up and eats his crate blanket. Yes, a couple of days ago he actually defecated pink blanket. I'm worried one day he is going to snaffle up something that will do him harm, like a battery or a piece of rat poison.

Blake's my first BC. Is this typical BC puppy behavior? My last dog, a King Charles spaniel, was never this bad, even as a puppy.

[momtotwo]

It might be a good idea to bulk up his food until it passes. Wet dog food can help to bind to the pieces and help them pass smoothly.

[BNM1980]

It might be a good idea to bulk up his food until it passes. Wet dog food can help to bind to the pieces and help them pass smoothly.

I do this. However, there are no pieces. He swallowed it whole!

[juliepoudrier]

Generally cooked bones are unsafe to give to dogs. But as someone else noted, folks have and still do feed that kind of stuff to their dogs all the time without serious consequences. Once when I was setting sheep at a trial, the pen person (hi Debiie!) and I were having lunch between runs when we noticed that a sheep had cut her face on a cattle panel. We jumped up to take care of her, leaving our plates on our chairs. Big mistake with the ever-hungry Twist around. Suffice to say that she was nicknamed "Chicken bone" that day, but fortunately she had no ill effects from having stolen Debbie's chicken. It won't hurt to check with your vet, but since you know he ate it, you can keep a close eye on him and act quickly if something seems to be wrong.

J.

[setsail]

My 28lb female Poe stole a fried chicken leg and swallowed it whole. I called the e-vet and we just waited it out. We fed her bread and bulked up her dinner so that she had some padding and she was fine. She was able to break it down and luckily it didn't twist around and cause an obstruction. She didn't even have an upset stomach from the grease. Come to think of it, we haven't had fried chicken since.

Poe is a goat in a border collie coat. She has in fact eaten rat poison the first month we had her She steals everything. We are working on it, but until it slows down she is on a tight leash while outside and crated every second we can't watch her. She's a rescue, but probably between 16-20mons I think.

[Shetlander]

My dog eats practically everything. Indiscriminately. Without chewing. He eats leaves, plastic, cigarette buts, breaks up and eats his chew toys, and even shreds up and eats his crate blanket. Yes, a couple of days ago he actually defecated pink blanket. I'm worried one day he is going to snaffle up something that will do him harm, like a battery or a piece of rat poison.

It isn't unheard of for puppies to be such bad chewers (and swallowers). Most of the time they outgrow it and while they are young, you need to do a lot of management to safeguard your possessions and keep the puppy from killing himself. Quinn will still quickly destroy any toy but Nylabones which he slowly grounds down over time. He will also kill any dog bed other than the expensive "patented chewproof" Kuranda bed I bought so the Sheltie would have something besides linoleum to lie on when I'm gone during the day. Even approaching 4 years, when he sees soft toys or dog beds, he flips into destroy mode. The good thing is he is wonderful about not chewing my stuff up, so I can live with those two chewing holdovers.

Your concerns of your puppy getting sick, needing emergency surgery or even dying are real. Until he matures, "baby proof" your environment as much as possible and work on the two great commands of Leave It and Drop It. Those can be life savers -- literally.