Don't give a dog a bone?

Pi1otguy

Pi1otguy

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http://www.kcci.com/health/23224367/detail.html
The FDA spelled out 10 reasons it's a bad idea to give doggie a real bone.
Among them: broken teeth, mouth or tongue injuries, bones or fragments of bones getting stuck in a dog's esophagus or even its stomach, which might require surgery. Bone fragments also can cause constipation.
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Chocolate and other bio-chemically poisonous stuff I understand, but since when did dogs become too fragile or too stupid to have bone?
 
I vaguely remember something about the problem being when the bone
was with the meat when it was cooked. More investigation required.
 
Certain bones can fracture and basically end up like swallowing shards of glass. I do not give my dog any bones. Instead, he chews on the Nylabones. And he loves em.
 
I just kill homeless people and feed them to the dogs. :dunno:
 
EdFred said:
Certain bones can fracture and basically end up like swallowing shards of glass. I do not give my dog any bones. Instead, he chews on the Nylabones. And he loves em.
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Dogs in our house growing up didn't get bones for this very reason. And my dad was a veterinarian.
 
There are bones and there are bones...

After some research, I started giving Peg beef shank bones, which she loved. Not cooked, just blanched with scalding water to make them less greasy. She'd usually get all 4 or 5 inches of marrow out in about an hour, then gnaw the bone enthusiastically for weeks without doing much damage to it, and none to her teeth. Every time I saw her with "Boney" I'd check to make sure it hadn't cracked- once in a while she'd crack one, and I'd take it away, just to make sure she didn't swallow a shard. But every now and then a piece would break off before I saw it... she'd ignore the shard and keep working on the main part.

I worried more when she got ahold of a synthetic bone- she'd practically swallow them whole, and I was worried she'd choke on the pieces.

I think real bones can be very beneficial, but again- cooked bones are not good, nor is cooked meat. Dogs are not engineered to process cooked meat and bone, and even thick bones like shanks become quite brittle when cooked. Small, splintery bones like chicken bones or ribs are usually not a good idea, either, even raw or nearly-raw.
 
I'd do a sterilized bone (they're super hard), but none others.
My current dog doesn't care for bones or Nylabones, but loves those knotted ropes. (Such a mess - he doesn't get them often, as they're dismantled within an hour or two.)
 
flyersfan31 said:
I just kill homeless people and feed them to the dogs. :dunno:
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:rofl:

Maybe that's why the homeless people always run the other way when I'm walking my dogs in NYC...
 
We bought a big beef leg bone (specifically marketed as dog bones) for our golden retriever a while back. The next day when we let her out she kept squatting in the backyard, but there was no production. By afternoon it was clear there was something wrong.

So off we went to the emergency vet (because the normal vets aren't open on Saturday afternoons). 24 hours and 4 enemas later we had our dog back, none the worse for it. Though it was pretty scary. On the x-rays it looked like she had swallowed 4 golf balls, but it was just bone impacted in her colon.
 
Pi1otguy said:
http://www.kcci.com/health/23224367/detail.html


Chocolate and other bio-chemically poisonous stuff I understand, but since when did dogs become too fragile or too stupid to have bone?
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If you understand the chocolate thing please explain it to me. Because from everything I have read that is a fairly new OWT.

Before you go off on the theo-bromine, look at the quantities needed to make a dog sick. You would have to be feeding a dog a pan of brownies three times a day for a week before they would have a serious reaction. The area you walk your dog will probably cause you more of reaction sooner than the dog will notice.
 
I do know that when we fed our dog plain m & m's, it was one of the most vile smells we experienced.
 
ScottM said:
If you understand the chocolate thing please explain it to me. Because from everything I have read that is a fairly new OWT.

Before you go off on the theo-bromine, look at the quantities needed to make a dog sick. You would have to be feeding a dog a pan of brownies three times a day for a week before they would have a serious reaction. The area you walk your dog will probably cause you more of reaction sooner than the dog will notice.
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This is more of a Steingar question, since it is biochemistry. I only know a little here compared to him.

My 2 cents- it's not just the amount, but dogs also metabolize the stuff more slowly than we do. Those that keep feeding the dog chocolate eventually cause it to build up to a level that is toxic.

Like many things, it gets toxic if too much is had for too long. For an (imperfect) example closer to us- carbon monoxide. If we get a small whiff, we do clear it If we are continually exposed to that small amount, it builds up faster than we clear it and we get sick.

A few M&Ms won't kill Fido, especially if he's a large dog. Giving a little pocket dog Ghiradelli breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, might.

I think it is fairly new because some people didn't pamper (or think chocolate is pampering) until recently.
 
COFlyBoy said:
We bought a big beef leg bone (specifically marketed as dog bones) for our golden retriever a while back. The next day when we let her out she kept squatting in the backyard, but there was no production. By afternoon it was clear there was something wrong.

So off we went to the emergency vet (because the normal vets aren't open on Saturday afternoons). 24 hours and 4 enemas later we had our dog back, none the worse for it. Though it was pretty scary. On the x-rays it looked like she had swallowed 4 golf balls, but it was just bone impacted in her colon.
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Weird... was it one of those flavored, cooked ones? Peg could not do that kind of damage in one day to a raw beef leg bone, even in her youth, and Rottis can exert 200-300 psi with their jaws.
Retreivers also have powerful jaws, but it seems amazing that your dog broke that bone into 4 pieces in one day! :eek:
 
ScottM said:
If you understand the chocolate thing please explain it to me. Because from everything I have read that is a fairly new OWT.

Before you go off on the theo-bromine, look at the quantities needed to make a dog sick. You would have to be feeding a dog a pan of brownies three times a day for a week before they would have a serious reaction. The area you walk your dog will probably cause you more of reaction sooner than the dog will notice.
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I'll wait for someone else to explain it. I just "understand" as in it's plausible. My understanding is that LD50 is around 100-200mg per kg. In theory, if a 20lb dog eats 1 lb of dark chocolate it'll be in trouble and experience problems at levels close to a half pound of milk chocolate. That said, scaled up to people size I can't see myself eating ~10 lbs of dark chocolate in a day.

http://vetmedicine.about.com/cs/nutritiondogs/a/chocolatetoxici.htm
 
Our local butcher has smoked beef shin bones in a pan on the counter for dogs. We pick out one without the hip-ball and have them cut the 8-9" piece into 3 on their bandsaw. We give each dog one; only when supervised and take it away once it is "picked clean" - usually an hour or so.

Of they get the hip-ball it is usually so greasy and has so much cartilege and meat on it that they get sick.

The black dog will work on that shin bone piece forever if we'd let her.
 
Piper's first attack came over a bone. That was the last time he was ever allowed a bone or meat.

Unfortunately, it was not his last attack. Sigh.
 
EdFred said:
Certain bones can fracture and basically end up like swallowing shards of glass. I do not give my dog any bones. Instead, he chews on the Nylabones. And he loves em.
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We lost a very beloved dog that way. :frown3:
 
Not sure that wolves eat the bones.
 
EdFred said:
Not sure that wolves eat the bones.
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They hunt in packs and if they catch some prey they ship it off to a processor to get it back as jerky, summer sausage and hamburger.
 
weilke said:
They hunt in packs and if they catch some prey they ship it off to a processor to get it back as jerky, summer sausage and hamburger.
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That sounds just like something out of Family Guy. :rofl:
 
JoeSelch said:
I'd do a sterilized bone (they're super hard), but none others.
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So it's been a long time since I've had a dog and I'm not in the market but what the heck is a sterilized bone?
 
Everskyward said:
So it's been a long time since I've had a dog and I'm not in the market but what the heck is a sterilized bone?
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Sterilized bones (sold at pet supply stores) are typically shin bones, heat treated, hollowed out, and cleaned of all meat. They're very, very hard.

(Most) dogs are only able to wear grooves in them and perhaps work very small chips off the ends over a period of many months/years.

Why they interest the dogs, I have no idea! Some people like to stuff them with peanut butter or Cheez Whiz to keep their dogs entertained.

I've heard that some consider them too hard as they can cause excessive wear on dogs' teeth.
 
weilke said:
How do Wolves survive ?
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According to my wife (who is very well dog-educated, and for this argument we'll extrapolate to wolves) there is only an issue with bones if they are cooked (or sterilized). Cooking bones (cow, pig, chicken) causes them to splinter when the dog chews them, resulting in small, jagged gut pluggers.
 
EdFred said:
Not sure that wolves eat the bones.
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And even if they do they aren't cooked. :)

Besides, wolves are to dogs what wild horses are to domesticated horses. I'm sure natural selection gives them stronger constitutions.
 
Other things we never worried about when I was a kid, but do now, are onions and grapes/raisins. Aren't supposed to give those to dog either. My Corgi likes a sip of wine now and then, which my wife says is just like giving him grapes. He seems fine, but he doesn't get much.
 
Everskyward said:
Besides, wolves are to dogs what wild horses are to domesticated horses. I'm sure natural selection gives them stronger constitutions.
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Yep. Wild animals are far, far tougher than domesticated ones. This should not be overlooked.
 
Chocolate contains theobromine, which is neurotoxic both for dogs and humans. Dogs just metabolize it more slowly. At least, that's what my Google-fu says, and it does make some sense. My little Moogie dog got ahold of some M&Ms a few years back. She was kind enough to regurgitate them on the white carpet rather than expire from acute toxicity. Ibuprofin also causes lots of doggie poisoning, or so my vet says.

My boy dog gets pet store bones and chew them incessantly. Probably bad for his teeth, but definitely good for his psyche. One must make certain that such bones are sufficiently large to be refractile from ingestion (they gotta be big enough that rover can't swallow them). Raw bones for our food are indeed bad for dogs just like the OP said with incredulity. They do indeed splinter and can be swallowed. So is feeding them scraps from the dinner table. I think we can tell the dog owners in this thread.
 
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