Eh Ate Some Cooked Chicken Bones...

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

So we were down at our local park, the footy had just finished - I'd completed a lap of the ovals and picked up a large amount of strapping tape and other rubbish, met up with a couple of other dog walkers, was keeping an eye on my dog - cos she looked like she was about to crap in the hedge...

but no.

She was foraging - found a small paper bag of roast chicken bones - looked like the breast and maybe the wing. Hard to tell - she scoffed it so fast. The bits she dropped looked like breast/chest ridge bit. I wonder if would have been better if I'd let her chew her food more. She never chews it thoroughly tho.

So tonight I've decided she can't have any dinner - because she's likely to up chuck it. I thought about giving her the salty water vomit treatment but I'm not sure what she ate or how safe that would be.

And of course now she's complaining. Loudly and often.

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping nothing goes wrong and contemplating never letting her off lead again. Though I probably will. Tomorrow at the beach.

I also really really wanted to hit her. Hard. Very angry with evil hound. Sigh. Not used to feeling like that.

Anyone got any suggestions. I'm hoping while she's whinging at me for food - that she's fine. I really don't want to take her to the vet on the weekend. Last time the vet got her to vomit up chicken bones for me - he wondered what I was fussing about - looking at a little bit of gravelly chicken bones stuff in the bottom of the bucket.

[persephone]

Why not give her her food? the more food in her gut to pad out the bones the better , I think.

Lots of dogs eat cooked chicken bones regularly ..mine have scrounged them quite a few times. I just give food & psyllium husk .

Causing vomiting may not be a good plan.. if there are sharp bits..they can do an awful lot of damage coming up the wrong way

[Skitch]

I wouldn't suggest making her vomit. I'd suggest feeding her soft foods.. this has happened twice with my dog and both times I have fed him bread soaked in olive oil and he passed it all fine :) If bread doesn't get on with your dog (not uncommon!) buy some of the cheap nasty supermarket soft dog roll and give it a good dousing of olive oil

[Rebanne]

feed bread to her, the theory is it wraps around the chicken bones and cushions them as they move out. I have read of milk soaked cotton balls being fed to a dog who munched on some Christmas decorations once.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

She will love you lot.

I have some bread I can soften up for her.

I also have tonights serve of home made casserole which is like tinned food - without the mystery ingredients but includes a fair bit of bran too. So that and the bread should make her feel a whole lot better about life.

Tho she has given up yelling at me - which is nice. I didn't think that was possible.

[Erny]

Whilst feeding cooked bones is a no-no, it doesn't mean that every time cooked bones are eaten that the worst will happen. I agree with everyone else. Feed her so that the bones have half a chance of being smothered by the soft food as it moves through the intestinal passage.

And don't be angry with her. Nothing's ever achieved at being angry. She was being a dog. If someone left the cooked chicken bones in a place other than in a bin, get cross at them. But otherwise, put it down to one of those things and rejoice when you see the bones make their way out in her poop.

Good luck - hope it all goes well.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I gave her the bread and she's sleeping.

Previous bone eating has resulted in a 3am vomit that I did nothing to induce.

She knows when I'm angry with her or myself - I don't think she can tell the difference. But that didn't stop her hoovering the bad stuff. I didn't yell at her or hit her, I only put her on lead and continued our walk, but so that she couldn't forage any more. She still got RZ (re-inforcement zone ie heel position) treats (kibble).

I did kick myself for not spotting that package before she did. I'd cleaned up so much other crap. And she always goes on lead past the footy club bbq area. I just guess weekends after sport - she might was well stay on lead because there is so much trash everywhere - and give the local labradors time to hoover it instead.

[Skitch]

:) Fingers crossed for an incident free night! I've known many, many dogs to eat various cooked bones over the years accidentally.. and only a couple of those have had serious problems. As mentioned above, it's not a death sentence.. definitely worth being cautious over when it happens and doing your best to never let it happen but I'm glad you didn't get too upset at her as it would have acheived nothing when she had scoffed it before you could get to her! Just unfortunate really.. I was kicking myself the two times my boy ate a chicken carcass, too.. bloody dogs. who would have 'em :p

[Kirislin]

Mine have done this too, and while I dont normally allow cooked bones the ones they've stolen like that have passed through without problems. Hoping for some healthy non scratchy poos this morning for her.

[anniek]

The odd time mine have done it I have given them some milk soaked bread to help it through - then fed as normal next meal time.

[CHA]

I remember a very stressful time, when I came back from the vet - having made the decision my old dog was no longer enjoying his time with us and was gently put to sleep - that my young pup at the time had got into the bin and eaten a whole cooked chicken carcass while I was there.

I panicked and rang the vet who said to just watch him for any symptoms and spent the next 24 hours watching him like a hawk.

He was fine and has now gone on to eat many other things that he shouldn't, such as socks and more socks..... I think he has a cast iron belly!

They're such a worry.

[noisymina]

Agree with Erny.

I fed my dogs cooked bones for years without any hassles whatsoever!

Not that I'd advocate you do this - but the chances of problems on a one-off are pretty remote.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

So far so good. Poo smaller than normal this morning but that's cos she had less dinner. No sign of the contraband tho.

She had a lovely time at the beach this morning - no sign of discomfort either. Ought to be going for a walk now but I suspect neither of us can be stuffed. She wouldn't be getting off lead this time either which does take the fun out of it for her.

[knitmehappy]

Well this is timely!

This afternoon Buddy managed to raid not one but two(!!!) separate picnics of their roast chicken at the dog park. I had just pulled one ribcage out of his throat and was putting it in the bin and he found the next one!!! I think I pulled most of the bones out of his throat.

I was so embarrassed my dog was acting like a lunatic today, but I'm sure it had something to do with the aroma of roast chook floating through the dog park. His recall is normally very good but I don't think even Superdog would have resisted. Ive only had him for about 4 months and haven't managed to teach "leave it" yet, I thought I was doing well with having reliable recall.

But, yeah, if it was your picnic he ate today, I'm sorry. Although I really do think if you are going to eat roast chicken off the ground at the off-leash dog park then you should expect to lose some of it.