This is a long post, so please bear with me.
Yesterday, I went to the butcher shop around the corner and came home with a trimmed turkey carcass (for free!). Yippee! I'd recently started both my dogs on a raw food diet - the frozen patties from Nature's Variety, which they love – and thought I'd let them gnaw on a real bone from a real animal. When I got the carcass home, I pulled off some smaller rib and organ pieces and then one piece, about four inches long, that seemed to be an intact bone, covered with meat. When I put it on a dish for Ziggy to gnaw on, he SWALLOWED it! The entire thing, whole!
I watched him very carefully for the rest of the day, and he seemed completely fine.
Then, at 6:00 this morning, he got up and began pacing ... sat down in the middle of the room, and stared, paced, went into another room, and then went into my bathroom and threw up. He threw up again in the hallway, twice ... while hunched over (sitting) his head tipped back as if he might yodel, but then he paced again. His ears were flattened, his eyes slightly bugged out, his tail drooping. He went downstairs, whining.
I almost went out of my mind with fear, thinking that the bone was lodged somewhere in his intestinal tract and would kill him! I immediately got on the Web and began to look for information on "dog, bone, swallow, emergency," and the phone number of the nearest pet emergency center.
He threw up twice more. Then I tried to take him outside to see if he would pee or poop, and he wouldn't even go out. So I let him go back to bed and took Zoe outside. She threw up in the grass.
When I came inside, I made a small amount of cooked oatmeal and fed some to him, in very small dollops. He ate the oatmeal with no hesitation. Then I gave them both half-servings of their regular breakfast, the Nature's Variety raw food. Again, I only let them eat one mouthful at a time. They both ate with no problems, and they both had some water.
I've watched them very carefully all day. Zoe pooped early in the day, and Ziggy did at about 1:00. Both have loose (but not watery) stools that are yellowish and a bit mucusy. Neither one looks or acts sick. They are moving around, drinking, sleeping, responding when called ... in other words, they both seem to be OKAY.
I, on the other hand, probably lost 15 pounds in sweat (and some tears). I thought that I may have killed my dog.
The moral of the story, for me, is that neither of my dogs can be trusted to "chew up" anything. They are both gobblers and will swallow as quickly as possible anything that's put in front of them, WHOLE. I've also reaffirmed the good advice that any introduction of something new in their diet should be made very slowly and gradually. Note to self: Don't put an entire turkey carcass in front of them when they're never seen one before!!! (Slapping self)
Any thoughts on similar situations will be much appreciated!
Lori
The Z-Pack: Zen, Zoe, and Ziggy
)... She loves it and it keeps her busy for awhile... But I also make sure I keep an eye on her until she's had her fill and her jaws get tired... Then I throw away the bone she just gnawed... I don't keep it around 'coz it gets dirty and ants will eventually swarm on it...
I USED to give pig ears and pig ear strips but no more. I have no problem with the ears themselves, but they give my dogs such horrible gas :eek: , like… clear the room and run for cover, don't come back w/out a mask kind of gas. It is awful!
