Be *careful* when chews are mostly eaten!
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A few days ago, I gave Ziggy an 8-inch rawhide chew bone and have been letting him work on it. But keeping a careful eye on him, because I know when a rawhide is about the length of the palm of my hand, and really softened up, there's a good chance that he'll try to swallow it whole.
A few minutes ago, he did exactly that, and LUCKLY I was watching him from my work desk, because he started to choke and couldn't breathe! I opened his mouth and could see it stuck at the back of his throat. He was trying to swallow it down, so I quickly grabbed a handful of kibble and gave it to him, watched him chew up the kibble, and swallow everything down in one gulp. I got him running behind me to be sure that he was still breathing okay, and he was. Thank GOD!!!
So be careful when your Bs chewies are almost small enough to swallow. If you're not there when it happens, you might face a terrible disaster.
Lori
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make sure that you keep an eye on him for the next few days and that it passes through….. because they can become impacted..... not the greatest thing to post... but it is something that we all need to watch for....
My Maggii would do that.... the minute that she thought I was on my way to take it from her... she would try to swallow it....
and there is a link to the Heimlich for dogs that everyone should have printed and someplace close to them in case of a problem... here is a link to doing a Heimlich on a dog
http://www.ehow.com/how_2166868_perform-dog-heimlich-maneuver.html -
My dog, Tosca, did this as well. In the beginning I was a completely ignorant pet owner, and would even give her a rawhide in her crate while we were working. Then, one day when I went to the pet store to buy more, the salesperson warned me about doing that…thankfully I listened because just a short time later she was chewing a rawhide in our presence and bit off a piece, tried to swallow it and started choking. Luckily my husband was able to reach down her throat and pull it out, but it was very scary. Now, I will still give her rawhide, but ONLY if I am there to supervise, and I keep treats nearby, so that if it gets to small or bites of a piece that she wants to chew and swallow, I can trade it for a treat. They are great sanity helpers, especially in the dead of winter when you have a bored basenji, but you just gotta be so careful with them!
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Definitely watch the back end as Pat says. Don't mean to scare you, but things can happen. Rawhide is not digestible.
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I don't give my boy rawhide after all the bad stories I have heard. He will sometimes get a bully stick to chew or a greenie but only when I am around & can monitor him with those. Usually he will get frozen marrow bones on his crate during the day instead.
