On two different occasions while working for a vet, I saw dogs come in with chicken bones caught in their throat, three with chicken bones stuck in their teeth, and one with a perforated intestine. I never saw a dog come in with any difficulties from any other bones, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Since I have worked for vets on and off for 30 years, it shows that it doesn’t happen all that often. However, do you want your dog to be the one it happens to? There are safer alternatives to give your dog.
Good point. There is endless debate on many things on some of the dog forums and few reliable numbers. Tons of vehement posts. Partly it depends on how risk adverse you are.
Thats my take on it. Let me share a story. We have a 7 year old dog. I never give him bones. Or at least so rarely I can’t remember ever doing so. One night recently, I thought “what the hell, a dog needs a bone”. Well, I gave it him and it quickly became apparent he wasn’t going to chew on it but break it up and swallow the pieces as fast as he could. I grabbed it from him but I wasn’t positive I had gotten all the pieces.
The very next morning he was shivering in pain and wouldn’t get up for anything, even a walk in the campground. Now, this is a dog thats never been remotely sick and will knock over Bigfoot in excitment for a walk. We rushed him the vet, he did an exam, gave him a shot, and told us to keep an eye on him. Turns out it wasn’t a bone (a few months later we figured out it was newly developed serious back problem).
Let me tell you, the thought that I had killed my dog so he could have a bone was an extremely unpleasant one. The fact I got to dwell on it for a few days till we were sure it wasn’t just made things all the more fun. I get a bit ill now just thinking about it.
Fake bones and rawhides and stuff like that from now on for sure.
It’s only a rule of thumb, important for owners that aren’t used to feeding their pets real food.
It’s not how sharp the pieces are in cooked vs raw bones. Take a raw chicken drumstick bone and a cooked one (from a roasted chicken, not your slow cooker). Crush both underfoot. The cooked bone splinters into needle-like shards, but the raw one cracks into jagged chunks, which are also sharp-edged but do not lodge themselves in a dog’s gums or intestines with the same regularity.
I feed my pets well-cooked, very soft bones (from making stock or crock-pot cooking) all the time. I never feed them the splintery bones from roast chicken, steak etc and I don’t feed them raw pork bones at all (this is based on nothing except my own uneasiness about how nasty they feel to my bare hands). I also don’t give my big dog femurs to chew from anything larger than a lamb/goat kid.
One of my best friends is a vet tech, and we both feed our dogs and cats ‘raw’ which means they’ve been crunching up and swallowing animal bones every day for years (some of them for their whole lives). We’ve had zero problems with our pets, but she treats patients all the time with a]chipped teeth from trying to crack huge hard bones like cow femurs and b]mouth injuries/esophageal or intestinal perforations from cooked, brittle bones - chicken and turkey the most common culprit, pork bones secondary. Knowing what this vet deals with has had a big influence on how both of us feed our pets.
Interesting to read everyone’s replys…
I am also a vet tech and have been feeding my pets raw for years with the common advice of never feeding cooked bones. OK, fine, but since no one here is going to take legal action on dog food, I agree with a previous comment, in that dogs are domesticated wolves and would eat any meaty bones they could find, including accidentally cooked ones, i.e animals struck by lightning at the watering hole or fire victims. We are not smarter than nature…
So I came across this site looking for cooked bone stories that don’t end grimly, b/c my dog now has cancer and I’ve been making her beef and chicken stock for a while. A breeder client of mine told me about his “lactating bitch” diet of pressure cooked chickens put in a blender whole. He never such beautiful and healthy pups and moms as when he did this. So, as my stocks reach 24 hours, I can smoosh the bones by hand and can’t figure how they couldn’t be safe. For anyone who happens to be interested, I tossed in chopped beet and turnip greens near the end for more antioxidants and fiber, and also added apple cider vinegar in the last hours to further leach nutrients from the bones and make the whole thing more basic pH.
BUT…since old habits die hard, I probably still would not feed quickly cooked bones to the dogs. :smack:
Look…
Just because most times a dog eats a cooked bone and does not die is not a reason to let them eat cooked bones with no worry.
I assume all the dog lovers here do not wish to see their beloved pet die because they gave them a bone thinking the chances are slim it will cause problems.
Why would you ever roll those dice whatever the odds?
Yes, like you, I enjoy giving my dog treats. If your dogs digs bones then buy your dog a bone specifically meant as a dog treat (and I mean real bones and not that rawhide shit).
I have not seen them in the supermarket but I have seen bones (real bones) for sale in many pet stores. The ones I see are the BIG bones…beef leg bones or beef leg joints. These things are hefty and very solid. The store I go to says they are processed to some extent to kill bacteria and such (cooked a “bit” I was told to achieve sanitary requirements). The bones itself is kind of slimy from animal fat (there is no fat hanging from the bone but some slimy coating, which my dog loves, remains).
My dog is a Shiloh Shepherd (think big German Shepherd and you have the idea) and the only two things she can’t chew to oblivion are her Kong and these beef bones. They are extraordinarily robust. She wears them down some but they remain largely intact. She also absolutely loves the things. She licks the slimy stuff off in an hour but will go back to gnaw on it for weeks.
If you want to give your dog a bone then buy it a proper bone or learn to prepare them yourself. Your dog will love you for it and no need to risk its health.
Wow really? This is long zombified.
I don’t feed my dog bones (cooked or otherwise), because although he hasn’t , another of his breed has chomped them in a few gulps. So I don’t do it.