Give A Dog A Bone, Or Don't

May 2, 2010 12:35 PM

Are raw bones healthy or harmful for you dogs? Will my dog end up the hospital if I give him raw bones?

I've given my dogs raw (knuckle) bones on occasion, but am worried about giving them any more, based on the things I hear about dogs swallowing bones and ending up with expensive operations or broken teeth. We have some shank bones as well in the freezer, but I hear they are more dangerous than the knuckle kind.

What is your experience with giving dogs raw bones? Yay or nay? Any bones we should stay away from? Or should we stay away from all of them? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

(FYI, we don't give cooked bones at all after hearing about how dangerous they are.)

posted by The ____ of Justice to Pets & Animals (27 answers total)

I've heard never feed them chicken bones since they can splinter and poke holes in the digestive system. I can't speak for any other bones though.
posted by kthxbi at 12:43 PM on May 2, 2010

A vet who was more holistically based told me to give my dog raw chicken wings. He said that they only splinter when they are cooked.
I have always fed my dogs the large shin bones from the butcher, usually raw, but sometimes cooked as well. They love gnawing on the end and working to get to the marrow inside. Never had a problem.
posted by newpotato at 12:49 PM on May 2, 2010

While many people feed them with no problems, I feel they are dangerous. Where I work we have had dogs with GI blockages and punctures from them, as well as dogs with tooth fractures from them. Do your research, and research both sides, since many people get pretty evangelical about raw feeding and gloss over the inherent risks. While I fed raw for a while, I did not and do not feed bones. Whatever you do, definitely don't give cooked bones of any type from any animal!!!
posted by biscotti at 12:54 PM on May 2, 2010

There's a diet called BARF that recommends feeding dogs and cats raw meat and bones, IIRC. Since it's a movement and the boards aren't filled with people complaining about dogs developing ailments, I assume raw bones are safe. Feel free to read the site more in depth than I have.
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:56 PM on May 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I grew up with a German Shepard that would spend a couple of days gnawing on a big old raw soup bone once every month or two for a pretty big span of his life. He did chip some teeth (though that may have been his other occasional habit of chewing rocks that did most of the tooth chipping) but he never needed veterinary care in any bone chewing related reason. Wild animals in the same family pretty much chew on raw bones all the time so I don't see how it could be that big a risk for a dog.
posted by idiopath at 1:07 PM on May 2, 2010

Raw bones are ok, but I would be very cautious and would not give them to small dogs at all. My dogs, at 50 and 80 lbs respectively, I feel are OK to feed turkey necks and other parts with small bones. Soup bones (AFTER being cooked) are *NOT* -- this includes all of the packaged bones you can buy at the grocery store in the pet aisles or pet stores.
posted by SpecialK at 1:20 PM on May 2, 2010

SpecialK: "Soup bones (AFTER being cooked) are *NOT* -- this includes all of the packaged bones you can buy at the grocery store in the pet aisles or pet stores."

yeah, you want the meaty bloody raw bones that are sold for humans to make soup with, not the ones in cardboard blister pack for sure.
posted by idiopath at 1:45 PM on May 2, 2010

A recent report from The FDA:

"Bones are unsafe no matter what their size. Giving your dog a bone may make your pet a candidate for a trip to your veterinarian’s office later, possible emergency surgery, or even death.”
posted by Neiltupper at 1:49 PM on May 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

My wife, who is an emergency vet, has seen plenty of issues with all types of bones. This, however, does not mean we don't give our 3 bones.

If you are worried about it, which you are since you have written this question, don't give your dogs any bones. Stay away from the naugahyde bones!
posted by TheBones at 2:16 PM on May 2, 2010

I've heard that the bones to stay away from are pork bones, as they tend to splinter much more often. I have nothing to back this up except respect for the people that told it to me.
posted by InsanePenguin at 2:35 PM on May 2, 2010

Our 20lb Boston Terriers have eaten raw chickens, including the bones, for 5 years. We don't give them the hard ends of the leg bones because they did not seem to digest them well enough and would vomit them later. The other bones are really soft and they do well crushing them. We don't give them anything larger or harder than poultry because of their size.

Some people who feed raw crush the meat, organ and bone together in a meat grinder, but for us the benefits of the exercise and teeth cleaning from the bones outweighs the fear.

This site was helpful to us when we were deciding how to feed our dogs http://www.rawlearning.com/
posted by simbiotic at 2:39 PM on May 2, 2010

I take a middle road, and feed raw chicken necks about once a week. They are cartilaginous enough not to chip teeth or puncture intestines, but bony enough to be very helpful in keeping the teeth clean.
posted by HotToddy at 2:43 PM on May 2, 2010

I used to give my dog whole beef shin bones. They don't splinter raw and they're too big for any dog to crack open.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:21 PM on May 2, 2010

My dog died from chicken bones. (:

Don't ever give them weak bones. Keep the weak bones in a well secured garbage can.
posted by caddis at 3:24 PM on May 2, 2010

Just another data point, I guess. We give our girl the marrow bones sold in the meat section of the supermarket, four to a pack. We freeze them and give her one each weekend. She's a smallish dog so we give her the shorter ones.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:48 PM on May 2, 2010

Response by poster: Caddis--I'm sorry to hear about your dog. Were these bones raw or cooked? Perhaps it wouldn't have made a difference either way?

Again, sorry to hear about the doggy. :-(
posted by The ____ of Justice at 4:26 PM on May 2, 2010

Wild animals in the same family pretty much chew on raw bones all the time so I don't see how it could be that big a risk for a dog.

Nature only "cares" about animals surviving long enough to reproduce, it is not geared toward optimum health.
posted by biscotti at 4:34 PM on May 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

We gave our golden retriever a regular bone from the pet store, and he ended up in the emergency vet with bone splinters impacted from his colon to his small intestines. We're lucky it didn't cause any perforations.
posted by emilyd22222 at 4:37 PM on May 2, 2010

A friend had a dog that was given a pointy bone to chew on. It swallowed the bone and died from a perforated stomach.
posted by exphysicist345 at 5:27 PM on May 2, 2010

Cooked, he got into the garbage can after dinner and ate some of the chicken bones in there.
posted by caddis at 6:37 AM on May 3, 2010

No smoked bones, either. I truly cannot understand why those or rawhides are even sold in pet and grocery stores stores.

Beef knuckles and "soup" leg bones are too dense and increase the risk of slab fractures. I avoid feeding weight-bearing bones in general.

Avoid bones that are too small/can be swallowed whole, and those that have been cut leaving sharp edges.

Depending on the size of your dogs, a chicken, duck or turkey neck is probably the relatively safest raw bone you can give them. They can still be a choking hazard, so monitor the dogs while they eat and know the canine Heimlich.

Bullysticks are fully digestible and great for teeth.

Another chew option that may be safer than bones and still satisfying to your dogs are deer or elk antlers. We get them from ElkUSA.com.
posted by vers at 11:33 AM on May 3, 2010

Chicken necks, lamb necks, chicken frames (all the meat stripped, no legs or wings) are all regular part of my dog's diet, and it keeps them pretty happy, and their teeth in good condition too.
posted by tomble at 10:54 PM on May 3, 2010

Here's the photo of the raw bone I gave Lyle (it was a two-pack) from the pet store, the x-ray of that bone in his stomach, the bill for the surgery, and the pieces of bone that came out of his stomach. That said, I still give Lyle bones occasionally, but I am *much* more careful in choosing them - he gets very thick-walled marrow bones that he cannot break pieces off of to swallow, and he never gets to chew on them unsupervised.
posted by judith at 11:29 PM on May 3, 2010

We used to give our medium-smallish dog soup bones regularly, after they had been cooked. She would wear them down and they would get sharp, at which point my father would take the bone and cut or grind it down to a flat surface again using his grinding wheel. Her teeth were quite healthy and the bones made her happy.
posted by chairface at 10:07 AM on May 4, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers, everybody. Based on your answers, I think I'll give them raw bones occasionally but keep a close eye on them, especially after they gnaw off most of the meat.

I'll have to look into bullysticks too.

Judith, that is CRAAAAZY. Those are some fascinating photos. I'm glad Lyle is okay now!
posted by The ____ of Justice at 11:24 PM on May 9, 2010

Response by poster: Just an update--I've stopped giving my dogs bones entirely after one of them apparently swallowed too much raw bone (knuckle? cartilage?) a couple of weeks ago. At one point I think the piece was stuck in her throat. Luckily she vomited...but for a while we seriously thought we had lost our little girl. She had a glazed look in her eye, and she afterward she collapsed on the floor. It was terrible.

Emergency trip to the Vet Clinic. She is back to normal now, and peppy as ever, but egads, our pups are no longer getting any bone of any kind.

:-(
posted by The ____ of Justice at 12:30 PM on June 28, 2010

!

Goodness! Glad she's okay.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 12:36 PM on June 28, 2010