PDSA warns about the dangers of giving bones and rawhide chews

Give the dog a bone? Vets warn pet owners not to do it is an article that was in The Daily Telegraph yesterday (17th September 2016). It outlines the advice that the PDSA are issuing in respect of giving dogs bones (raw and cooked) and rawhide chews.

Also filled hooves sold by pets at home and other pet stores are highly dangerous.

I would never suggest anyone feeds a dog a cooked bone and feeding what can only amount to shank or chop bones from your own meal has always been a no no.

 

We did have issues about 15 years ago with a dog and rawhide chews mainly because he was so greedy he didn't chew it into submission e almost swallowed it whole.

Never fed them any dog since then.

Raw feeding includes loads of bones, but they are the small ones which are easy to bite through and which don't form sharp shards when they are broken. I don't feed any long bones (raw or cooked) but Molly eats chicken carcass or turkey neck daily and I won't be changing from this unless there's an alternative that she can eat without the dreadful diarrhoea that made her skeletally thin that she had before. That is why we tried raw feeding in the first place.

 

Raw soft bones are perfectly safe once you are sure that your dog knows what to do with them. Of course they should be supervised while they are learning how to eat them, but once you are sure that they are chewing them enough to break them down into small bits, they would only be dangerous if there was an existing partial blockage of the gut or for the tiniest of dogs (and if there's an existing partial blockage of the gut then that is way more dangerous than the bones ever were!).

Bone is composed mainly of calcium phosphate. Dogs who are fed a raw complete diet obtain their calcium needs from the finely ground bone that is included. It is therefore best to check whether the food already contains bone meal. If it does, it may not be necessary (nutritionally) to add bones to the diet. An excess of calcium in the blood stream could lead to problems for the dog. Also, too much bone can cause constipation.

Molly doesn't eat any kind of 'raw complete diet'. She eats carcasses/bones, meat, offal and veg/fruit which together make up a complete diet.

This is not really a thread about raw feeding but actually you are giving your dog a raw complete diet, the difference being that you are mixing it yourself. There are different models of raw feeding and many pet owners use meat that already contains bone meal. It's possible to give too much of anything, including bone. This is particularly important in young, growing giant breeds when the joints need to be protected.

If people want to give bones, they should research the subject in order to make it as safe as possible for their dog.

Edited September 18, 2016 by ccit

Did the article mention rawhide chews?

 

Did I miss that part?

Did the article mention rawhide chews?

 

Did I miss that part?

 

Yes it did.

Raw hide chews are awful.

 

Bones on the other hand, my dogs have them every day as part of a well balanced raw diet. No issues with any bones what so ever. Mine have carcasses, ribs, necks, skulls etc.