My wonderful GSD nearly died Tuesday nite, and I need to figure out how to prevent this from happening again.

Zodi, 11 yro, has been raw fed for about 8 years. For most of that time, she's eaten premade raw, with occasional RMBs (mostly hen turkey necks and chicken leg quarters). She has thrived on this diet.

Still, I've wanted to try to move more towards a whole prey diet, and have been feeding her daily RMBs, with some premade (no other way to mix her supplements in well). The RMBs again are mostly turkey necks and chicken leg quarters, sometimes chicken backs.

Alas, she is a gulper. And, even tho I watch her very carefully and encourage her to chew/crunch, which she does a fair amount of, she'll reach a point where she just swallows whatever she's eating, just about as soon as she thinks it'll go down.

Occasionally, something would get a bit stuck, and she'd have to stop and hawk it up...fine, she'd just eat it again.

However, the other nite, she literally bit off more than she could chew (I can kind of smile now about it, but trust me, I was devastated).

I bought a case of turkey necks, and unfortunately, they turned out to be tom necks (never again!). I've been cutting them roughtly in half, weight-wise.

Tuesday, she was eating one of the fat ends. Everything was going as it normally does, then suddenly, she walked over to the door, and was clearly in distress. I knew something must be a bit stuck, but she couldn't even hawk. I knew we were in trouble.

From this point on, she wasn't breathing. She wanted to go out, so out we went, and I started to try to reach into her throat to grab the damn turkey neck piece. I could not grab it. Inadvertently, I actually pushed it further down her throat.

I'd read about doing dog Heimlichs, and for the life of me, could not remember how to do this correctly; I tried, failed. I was becoming desperate.

By now, her tongue was turning blue, she was limp, her eyes were unfocused. Thankfully, my husband was home and I called him over and told him to try to get it out.

He somehow managed to do so. By this time, she was unconscious and not breathing at all. I would guess about 4 minutes had elapsed. I thought she was dead.

I grabbed her and picked her up and tried to squeeze her rib cage to encourage her to start breathing. I talked to her, called to her, kept squeezing her, and finally, she started to try to take little breaths.

Very gradually, her breathing improved. Eventually, her eyes opened, but they were unfocused for a while more. When she seemed stable enough, I let her lie on the ground to recouperate, which with time, she did.

I was concerned that she might have some brain damage from being without oxygen for so long, but she was her normal self the next day (I have no doubt that she lost a lot of brain cells, but it seems they weren't critical ones).

I am scared of this happening again. Like all of us, I want her passing to be from natural causes after a very long life, not from negligence or incompetence on my part.

So, I am open to advice from those of you who have experience with this sort of choking thing. What is the quickest, safest, surest way to unblock a dog who is choking so severely?

Can the Heimlich maneuver really be effective with this type of blockage? (This damn thing was larger than a racquetball, but smaller than a hardball. It was freaking huge and was very tightly lodged in her throat.)

I will not buy any more tom necks, that's for damn sure. I still have a lot left in the freezer tho. I am wondering if a food processor can grind them up without wrecking the machine? (I can cut off the fat ends and just grind the suckers up.)

I've tried holding one for her as she eats it; didn't go that well . For one thing, they're damn slippery, and once your hand gets all wet from dog slobber, it's hard to hang on to as the dog is trying to eat it.

So far, she hasn't had trouble with the leg quarters, but when I watch her eat them, she just crunches them up a bit and swallows a few times (I know they're not dainty little pieces<g>, and gone.

I know that dogs are not masticaters and that they tend to grab/tear and swallow chunks, but I really need help in figuring out how to deal with this.

leih

I would have been completely freaking out! OMG! Glad she's alright.

 Quote: leih merigian

I will not buy any more tom necks, that's for damn sure. I still have a lot left in the freezer tho. I am wondering if a food processor can grind them up without wrecking the machine? (I can cut off the fat ends and just grind the suckers up.)

I wouldn't put it in the food processor-you'll be buying a new one faster than you can say turkey neck. Might want to get a meat grinder to do the job. We grind all our poultry bones and meat up in ours.

Wow, that must be scary! I have been careful with the size of bone when I'm giving to my dogs. I prefer if bones are too large to swallow, not able to gulp at once. I think smaller bones are easier to swallow and won't choke the dog, but there are always risk with swallowing a bone. I used to give a meaty bone to Teddy when he was three months old. At first he would nip the meat around then tried to gulp the whole bone. Lucky, he hasn't choke on them, but I was uncomfortable giving them to him. I just don't give at all, but I do give bigger bone where he can chew them. When they get smaller, I just throw away.

I had to perform Heimlich's maneuver on my Westie a couple of months ago. He likes to inhale his food, and managed to swallow several pieces of chicken meat at the same time.

I knew something was wrong when he started pawing his face, acting frantic and looked like he couldn't breathe.

I didn't know if Heimlich's maneuver would work on a dog, but tried it anyway. He was standing up, I put my arms around him, like a bear hug, and placed my fist behind his ribs.　　It worked really well, the meat popped out after the third thrust.

I have a Pug who is guaranteed to choke on chicken backs. I've had to dislodge several of them. I put my hands under his abdomen and jerked his belly up...several times (my adrenaline goes up just thinking about it). Picture your self leaning over a chair back and dropping your belly down on it, I'm not sure if I forced the stuff out or just helped it out with gravity and the sudden stop of downward momentum.

So now I mince all of his chicken backs with a very heavy cleaver.

A heavy hatchet would also work. I have found that a heavier cleaver is *much* easier to use than a small light one.

Lay the neck on a piece of 2" x 12" x 12"+ board or solid big stump (done outside because of the inevitable flying pieces) and you can have a safe pile of meat and bone in less than a minute. Chop it when it is about 1/2 frozen to reduce splatters.

Here is what I can do to a whole chicken or a leg quarter with my heavy cleaver.
http://photobucket.com/Chopped_Chicken

 Quote: leih merigian

I've been cutting them roughtly in half, weight-wise.

How come?

As you already know, choking can happen anytime, on any kind of dog food, or toy. It can happen with ground food or huge, whole food.

A lot of people end up grinding the food up.

Just to give another perspective, Turbo is almost guaranteed to choke on ground food or ping pong ball size pieces. It dumbs it down for him. He does better with food that he HAS to work on. Even by the time he gets the food to a point where he would normally swallow it, he'll continue on with he gnawing.

I can't imagine watching my dog choke to death. She made it because of you and your husband. You guys are amazing, and I hope that if I am ever in your position that I can function and save my dog.

My view is only a suggestion. I hope you guys find a feeding routine that is comfortable for you. Y'all will be able to find something that works.:smile:

I don't know if there's any credence to this but there were a few people in my co op who said they don't feed their dogs turkey necks for the very same thing that happened to your dog. It sounds so scary.

The reason I've been cutting them in half is they are HUGE<g>. I have no idea how many calories are in a tom neck, but I give her half in the morning along with some ground, then half again at another meal, with more ground.

I know all dogs are different in how they eat and what works for them. Mine has never had any trouble at all with ground. None<g>.

Thanks, also, for the kind words. I felt quite indaequate, to be honest, but I guess we did get the job done.

leih