choking on rawhide bone

[gypsy]

Hello all!!
My question is in regard to bones, hard rawhide bones. I used to give them to my dog Darla, and everytime she had one she had this bad habit of breaking rather large pieces out of them and choking on them. It scared me to death! Another strange thing I disliked was that there was always blood left in the bone. Even on her favorite ball when she chews on it too much! She used to have a cracked tooth, and I at first thought it was the reason for all this, but I had it removed about three months ago. The few times she had a bone after that the same thing hapenned, bleeding in her mouth, and choking on large pieces of the bone. To make a long story short I have stopped giving her bones for good. Now I only give her the rawhide sticks or strips and she has not choked, or bled. But, people I know keep telling me that she needs to chew on bones to clean her teeth, that all dogs need to chew on bones. I do brush her teeth every two days, and I think this is enough to keep her teeth clean. My question is, is it true that I should be giving her bones for her teeth?? I rather be safe and not have her choke again on them. Aren't the sticks and strips enough??? I am specially skeptical of it also because she has another cracked tooth!!

[gypsy]

don't know how that voting thing got in there, sorry, guess I made a mistake, disregard it

[Dax]

How old is Darla? I stopped giving rawhide bones as I found both my dogs swallowed big junks. From my reading, they also warn that undigest rawhide in the guts can cause blockages. The worst were the processed ones. Now I only give pig ears (very rarely) and knuckle bones raw with meat on.

The blood could be there because there is mild gum disease (if she's older) and the s******** acts just like dental floss on the tooth. Or if she's teething it's helping the new tooth break thru.

[gypsy]

Doglover,
I was told by my vet that Darla is between the ages of 3 and 5. Unfortunately I don't have her birth date as I adopted her from a shelter. It's good to hear, so it's OK that I don't give her the bones. Great! I've never tried the pig ears, I'll get some next time I hit the petstore! I've been giving her the smoked pighide sticks and she goes crazy over those.

[erdog3]

Try one of the large marrowbones, you can get them from your butcher, they really have to munch on them and pieces don't break off as such, your dog will actually try to chew it to get the soft marrow out of the middle. She does need it for her teeth, you will notice them start to go yellow near the gums after a few months, then plaque will attach, and the gums become a brilliant red, with intermittent bleeding. Pigs ears are ok, but only for a treat, they are very salty, and make your dog extra thirsty.
Her bleeding now I would guess and I say guess, would be from the broken pieces of bone, they may have cut her gums.
Open her mouth, check her teeth out, if there is plaque attached it could be that breaking away, causing it too.

[lou3]

the best and safest thing for cleaning teeth is a toothbrush. You can also buy denta rasks (pedigree i think) that wont make their gums bleed and some brands do a tooth diet (although i dont recommend the Hill's one). If your dog has existing plaque on their teeth then invest in a dental scraper and remove it with that to start with. You can get toothpaste that you dont need to use with a toothbrush if your dog objects strongly.
Hope this helps
Lou

[sambucca/whiskey]

I give Whskey marrow bones and knuckle bones from the butcher he loves them, they are healthy adn you dont have to worry about breaking pieces off nut you should still supervise.

[lou3]

bones can cause intestinal impactions and should not be given on a regular basis.
Lou

[sambucca/whiskey]

marrow bones cause impaction? all he eats is the marrow and it is reccommended daily if you do BARF

[lou3]

There are a million and one problems i can point out with BARF and this is just one of them.
Its ok to feed him the marrow so long as he doesnt eat any of the bone, but i wouldnt let him chew it either in case it splinters (which it can do even when not cooked)

[ June 12, 2004, 06:44 AM: Message edited by: lou3 ]