Chicken bones/ My vet/ a bit of a lecture

Yeah... I definitely think some dogs might not be able to handle some bones.

 
   Jessie's allergic to chicken and pork so she mainly gets beef bones, and they're harder and more thick-walled. She can eat ox-tails and short ribs with no problem, and chews the meat off beef back rib bones but doesn't try to eat the bone. She is walked daily year round so I have intimate knowledge of her poop.[8D]  If I didn't walk her I probably wouldn't have known about the pain caused by passing bone chips from the marrow bone.[&o]

ORIGINAL: brookcove    Some dogs gulp ... -

 
All dogs naturally gulp their food.  Kibbled foods force the dogs into chewing their food.

All dogs naturally gulp their food. Kibbled foods force the dogs into chewing their food.

 
I don't agree with that.... I have 5 dogs... None of them gulp..Only Max my Scottie who has IBD and I don't feed him raw.... I tried a duck neck and I thought his eyes would pop out with excitement...to much excitement.... He can only have duck in his diet so when I was cleaning one to cook I kept the neck and wings but the way he eats a RMB..well no more.
My others will sit and chew and take there time quietly in the yard cause I monitor them. when I was feeding kibble they would chew... nobody gulps.. Max doesn't gulp with Kibble or anything other than a RMB... so no more. He never gulps on his homecooked meals either... but acts like a nut ball with a bone like he died and went to doggie eating heaven. LOL

Willow will take the smallest cookie and break it into even smaller pieces and then thoroughly chew them too. 

I think the Time of Edible Bones has ended at our house. They will still get large marrow bones to chew/gnaw on because they've never had any trouble with those or even attempted to eat them or chew on them hard enough to break a tooth. But the last batch of soup bones I ordered came with some other random stuff--those big chunks of marrow and meat and crunchable bone. I've given stuff like that before with no issue, but this time...issues. I swear it's like they were totally aware of the fact that we just moved to a house with WHITE CARPETS. Conrad was puking up little pieces of bone randomly for like 3 days (not enough to cause serious alarm--Conrad's always been a puker, if there's anything in his tummy at all that isn't sitting right, he'll puke it up for a second look). Meanwhile, Marlowe was constipated, THEN he had diarrhea, THEN he got constipated again, though as of now he seems to be back to normal (thanks to a couple days of bland chicken and rice diet).

So, no more of those. The pieces of bone in them, while thin and edible, just seem to be too small for them to think about chewing.

actually the bones that seem to cause the most problems are the so-called "recreational" bones that everyone seems to assume are "safe":  the beef marrow and soup bones. These are the bones that you hear in association with stories of broken teeth, diarrhea, puking bone shards, pooping bone shards.
I think it's much safer to feed soft edible bones like raw chicken, lamb, pork bones than hard beef bones. Assuming of course your dog can handle them.

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

try it yourself-- drop a chicken wing in a vat of acid. The bones go rubbery pretty darn quick. Dogs hold their food in the acid of their stomach for hours.

Hours?? Um... not if your dog is healthy!!

A barium study of a healthy digestive tract will have digesta moving through the small intestines in less than two hours...

ORIGINAL: terrierlover   I don't agree with that.... I have 5 dogs... None of them gulp...

Well, I understand where you're coming from, and not trying to convince you otherwise, but would like to elaborate further about my perspective.  By their very nature and design, dogs by all means naturally gulp their food.  But to understand what I mean, you first have to understand that kibble is not a natural food for dogs, in is an invented food for them.  The jaw structure and teeth structure is designed for tearing, ripping and shredding meat.  The teeth and jaw are strong enough to crunch through smaller prey bones.  As soon as they detect something hard, they instinctively crunch to make it as small as possible to go down because anything hard is a potential choking hazard.   Even a small cookie such as Laurie mentioned, nonetheless a small, hard baked substance (unnatural) must first become non-chocking hazard.

Kibbled food (choke-able) forces the dog into chewing, a perpetual state of chewing.  They become some accustomed to chewing, even if you give a small piece of meat they're probably going to toss it around for a few seconds...you fooled them!  But maybe try this as an experiment.  Sit down at your table dog near by and start preparing small bite size pieces of any meat or chicken.  You can use a hot dog, but only cut pieces no bigger than say you thumb nail.  Give a few pieces.  Keep going and should quickly notice your dog realizes whats coming and it's down before you know it in a split second gulp. 

I do not need feed bones.  I have no need for I am certain my ration already has plenty of calcium/phosphorus from bone content.  Calcium/phosphorous should be balanced correctly in the diet.  Disrupting that balance (and paying for it) is not part of my plan.  If you're strictly a raw feeder or home prepared, then your probably adding some bone.  But I would then assume one has the knowledge to know what a correct ratio for calcium phosphorous content should be for their dog a prepare accordingly.  I would advise caution for anyone recklessly adding bone content with no regard to proper balance in the diet.

Can gnawing on bone knock plaque buildup on teeth?  I'm sure it can, but I think the more important issue is what is causing the plaque buildup in the first place (high carb in kibble).  Cleaning teeth with food is a fallacy, even with kibble as professed by the industry.  Think about it, does it make sense to you?  Doesn't it make more sense kibble can compound the problem, packing in food particles in the nooks and crannies of the teeth with carbs as the foundation of majority of these kibbles?
Foods in nature for dogs (by nature) are soft, wet and slippery, sliding easily off the teeth.  Raw feeders have a much better edge on the cleaner teeth than the kibble feeders, without question.  It is because of the texture of the diet, not from a bone cleaning miracle.  It is probably a good idea to add some bone to gnaw periodically for the kibble dog in efforts to clean teeth.
But again, I would emphasis priority in paying attention to a proper calcium/phosphorous ratio with added bone as part of a diet.

Foods in nature for dogs (by nature) are soft, wet and slippery, sliding easily off the teeth. Raw feeders have a much better edge on the cleaner teeth than the kibble feeders, without question. It is because of the texture of the diet, not from a bone cleaning miracle.

 
   There is a place close to us where the public can learn about wolves, including watching them feed on a deer carcass. According to the naturalists that care for the wolves, the deer's hair cleans the wolve's teeth when they're tearing into the hide, similar to when we floss.

Interesting!

Yes that is interesting.  never thought of something like that.  What we can learn on these forums is amazing.

ORIGINAL: Misskiwi67

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

try it yourself-- drop a chicken wing in a vat of acid. The bones go rubbery pretty darn quick. Dogs hold their food in the acid of their stomach for hours.

Hours?? Um... not if your dog is healthy!!

A barium study of a healthy digestive tract will have digesta moving through the small intestines in less than two hours...

That's what I thought. I've heard proponents of raw say that one of the reasons dogs aren't as susceptible to food poisoning is that the food moves through their system so quickly.

ORIGINAL: cc431

Cleaning teeth with food is a fallacy, even with kibble as professed by the industry.  Think about it, does it make sense to you?  Doesn't it make more sense kibble can compound the problem, packing in food particles in the nooks and crannies of the teeth with carbs as the foundation of majority of these kibbles?

That makes perfect sense to me.

I think eating bones all depends on the dogs and how well they chew and eat them

There anscetors ate bones and so on...they have the K9s to chew stuff up and so on...it really to me depends on the dogs i believe