I gave my dog a raw gnawing bone a week or so ago. It was a cut cow femur I think...not a lot of meat on it. He liked it but didn't chew it much - went and buried it in the backyard instead. So today, he came back with it, all dirty and probably pretty funky with bacteria. He was excited about it so I let him keep it and he gnawed it and cleaned it all up.

The question is: is that an ok thing, to let him keep it when it's like that? I figured he was really into it and dogs are sort of designed intestinally to handle bones like that, but at the same time, it had to have been full of bacteria...

My mom's dog does the same thing. She gives him a chicken leg or wing and he goes and buries it in the yard (something my dad's not keen on). He had buried a pig's ear and just a couple weeks ago my mom said he came up to her, paws dirty, with something in his mouth-she was grossed out-and it was only a pig's ear and not a rotten piece of chicken!

I would say that I would have done the same thing you did. Let the dog chew on it for a while, then be sure to pick it up and throw it away the same day-just to avoid any parasites or bacterial things. This is JMO.

I know that dogs love rotten things. Love to roll in them, eat them, bury them. My mother in law had a golden that loved to roll in dead, rotten things. It's just what dogs do-yuck ! My lab will try to eat and pick up dead fish and other creatures when we go camping or to the lake. We don't let him eat any of it because we don't know where it's been and if there's any risk for disease/parasites/bacteria . At least with the bone, you know where it came from

Edited by Keleah Stull (02/26/2009 02:53 PM)
Edit reason: added more

Matt, I'd probably chuck it because as recreational bones "age," they become much more susceptible to breaking into shards.

I worry less about bacteria then as Connie said the bone breaking into shards, or the bone becoming hard enough to actually break the dogs teeth.
They become very hard as they dry.


Randy

Keleah, I don't let my dogs have even one tasty bite of things like roadkill any more.

Here's why: Several years ago my dog got a big fat munch off of a dead whatever lying in the sun.

This resulted in a case of acute pancreatitis. It was so bad that she had to be hospitalized on IV support for five days. In fact, it was touch and go for a couple of days. The scan showed every abdominal organ, including the liver, inflamed and swollen. She had a high fever. She had vomiting, abdominal pain, and rapid breathing.

She did survive, but I was ultra careful of her diet for the rest of her life. (There is some evidence that one attack can make the individual more susceptible than others who have not had one.)

My research into acute pancreatitis taught me that cooked fat is very often the trigger (as in what is commonly called "Thanksgiving pancreatitis" or "holiday pancreatitis"), and that rancid fat is at least as bad as cooked fat.

Rancid and cooked fat don't even have the same chemical makeup as fresh.

But anyway, I learned something from that, including not to offer much in the way of cooked leftover meat fats.

Raw fats and oils are completely different, IMO.

So if he wants to dig one up and suck the dirt and funky meat off, that's ok, but then toss it once he's done gnawing?

Thanks everybody!

I would supervise him with bones so that he can't bury them.

IMO bones and chewies should always be given with supervision.

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

I would supervise him with bones so that he can't bury them.

IMO bones and chewies should always be given with supervision.

100% agreement here!

Right on - thanks Connie! thanks Jennifer!

Connie, I'd never let my dogs eat nasty, rotten dead things-I try to stop them before they even pick it up, can't catch them all the time-at most they pick it up, I see them and tell them "out" and that's the end of it.
As far as bones, my dogs get to have them a couple of days them they go into the trash. If the dogs happen to bury one and dig it up later, I make sure I get it from them asap.