I'm not sure if I did something wrong with giving my pup Nickie a raw soup bone (knuckle bone) to chew on yesterday morning.

I had the butcher at our local supermarket order some for me. I bought 2 packages (4 to a package) - they are about three-fourths of a pound each bone. I gave him the smallest one yesterday in his crate (of course he loved it). After an hour of chewing on this raw bone which seemed to be mostly cartilage with a little meat around it, it was down to a bone about 3 inches by 3 inches, about half inch thick. I put it in the trash.

This morning about 3AM, he yelped to go outside. He had thrown up a little bit in his crate, including 4 pieces of white bone, each about the size of a dime. Also, when he pooped, he made a little yelping sound like it hurt him. Examining the poop after daybreak, could not see any bone fragments.

Did I do something wrong by giving him this bone to chew on (didn't realize that he would eat nearly the whole darn thing!). Just wanted him to have something to chew on since rawhide is not good for him (gives him diarrhea).

His diet consists of Candidae dry kibble (about 3 cups divided into two meals a day). He weighs about 70 lbs. He ate his regular food last night and also this morning and went for his normal mile walk today.

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I'm not sure if I did something wrong with giving my pup Nickie a raw soup bone (knuckle bone) to chew on yesterday morning.

You can see if you look up recreational bones on this site you will get many opinions. I personally feed knuclkle bones occasionally, but take them away once my dog gets to the shank part of the bone.

Looking at your dog's picture, I would say you have a dog with considerable jaw strenth

A 30 lbs dog may just chew the meat off a bone and lick at the marrow and be fine with a beef rec bone. You want YOUR dog to avoid chewing on weight bearing bones (like cow femurs). They can cause teeth fractures and the bone fragments are generally too hard to digest, even raw (as you have found out).

My dog barfs up peices of bone he can't digest(raw fed) (I usually don't feed those things anymore, but we all have to learn). Not really a big deal in my books. Your dog's poop may have been firmer because of the digested bone, or maybe there was a little fragment, I am not sure about the yelp.

Just check that he is doing his # 2's regularily. If you are worried that a bone fragment may have irritated the insides you can use some slippery elm powder, it just coats the digestive track. If he is eating and pooping like normal, he is probably fine.

If you want to feed your dog bones, start to raw feed him. These will not however be bones that will occupy your dog for any great lenghts of time, they will be edible bones. With an aggressive chewer you may be stuck using treats stuffed in kongs or other such things to occupy you pooch's time.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Thanks Jennifer,
I was really hoping that I was on to something with the big knuckle bones - guess those are just for little dogs! I forgot to add that in addition to the Canidae dry kibble, I also give Nickie 2 tablespoons of low-fat yogurt each morning and every other morning, he gets a raw egg.

I've tried the kong with low-fat cream cheese or peanut butter in it; he takes care of that in just a few minutes.

Maybe the knuckle bones would be OK if I only let him have them for half the time (about a half-hour) before he gets down to where the bone is. From what I can tell, they seem to be made up of mostly cartilage - a couple of them have what looks like an inch wide section of leg bone attached - naturally that was on the one I gave him yesterday - guess I should have made soup out of it instead!

My trainer said that if you freeze the kong with the treat in it that it will take longer for them to get it.

I have a dog though that can pop a tennis ball in 30 seconds flat. Even Kongs don't last much longer. I give her and my other dogs big smoked bones from a local petshop for $4 each - I'm not sure what they are but they usually last a couple of weeks before I take them away for getting uneaven on the ends.

I just looked at your pics and saw that I recognized Buster! Is Nikki a PB mix? There must be something genetic in them for chew chew chewing.

I recently had my apple tree trimmed down and Sadie grabbed some of the larger diameter branch chunks to chew on. I sit and watch her she is like a bark machine. She chews off the soft bark almost quicker than a wood chipper could. I've never seen her swallow any but I wouldn't trust her not to ....

Hi Kelly,
Yes, Nickie is bullmastiff/pitbull mix - what a handful! He loves to chew like our pitbull Buster did. At least Nickie has given up chewing on rocks. Now he will occasionally pick up a rock but drops it on his own.

We used to give Buster those long white bones that you can buy in the pet stores - he really liked chewing on them but the vet told us that he was wearing his teeth down too much. Also our dentist told us not to let him chew on tennis balls because the fine dirt particles that get in the covering of the ball act as an abrasion to the tooth enamel as he chews. (I know that on this web site the story is that the glue in the tennis balls destroys the tooth enamel). A tennis ball would usually last him a couple of weeks. When it lost most of its "bounce", he would chomp into it and tear it into pieces (never would eat anything like that when he destroyed it).

Anyway, the frozen Kong is a good idea - always thinking of ways to keep our boy entertained!

I had a similar experience with a large knuckle bone that I gave my (F) Malinois for the first time. She got me up in the middle of the night with whinning. She went outside and had waterly, very dark diarrhea, This was also as I was switching her over to RAW diet.

I didn't give her anymore recreational bones for awhile. I had some problems switching her diet over but that has all worked out now. I can give her a recreational bone without any problems I blamed the bone for her digestive upset but who knows. It might have been the diet switch at the same time.

For the Malinois, Border Collie and my Lab mix; I'll give them the occassionally recreational bone. As soon as they abandon the bone, I remove it. My vet (who's a big fan of RMB diet) said that when the bone dried out it becomes as hard as concrete and can easily break teeth.

Hi John,
Yes, I was aware of that about taking the bone up after they are finished with it (although in my case, I think I will take it up when Nickie is half-finished with it!). It is also very unpleasant to step on one of those bones in the dark! Another good reason to remove them right away.

I have to give the bone to Nickie in his crate since he likes to "sling" anything that he thinks is a prey item (must be the pitbull in him!

Hi Diane,

My dog can break off chunks of marrow bones so I don't give those anymore. I have had good luck with knuckle bones...the curvy shape makes it harder for him to bite off, I guess...but the first time True had a knuckle bone he threw it up. Very unpleasant!

There is some debate on whether recreational bones should even be given to dogs (risk of cracked/broken teeth)so while I continue to give them to True occasionally, I worry about it.

Hello,
I had been giving my dog recreation bones, raw for several years. She sustained a slab fracture of her 4th molar. It did need to be extracted. Unfortunately, I won't be giving her rec. bones anymore. She had only been working on the bone for about 30minutes. So I know it was not old and hardened.

Just be aware that they can fracture teeth. It does warrant examining the mouth, to become familiar with what is normal for your dog, so you can recognize any problems, is they do occur.

Linda