# Another reason to avoid rawhide chews



## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

Rrawhide chews can cause obstruction, resulting in expensive emergency surgery or even death. Here's another reason to avoid them.

From another list:

Permission to cross post

I don't feed rawhides to my dogs and recommend to puppy people that if they give their dog rawhides to be vigilant and not to leave the dog alone with a rawhide as it can get pieces stuck in its throat and choke. 

I found out tonight that there is a further danger and I will now warn against giving any rawhides in my puppy information. I received the following email from a woman who has a 10 year old standard from me writing about one of her daughter's dogs. They have two standards from me and this happened to one of them. "Amy and David have an obese choco lab. They work constantly with him and his diet. He barks all the time to be fed and the only thing thatgives them peace is for him to have raw hide chews. So naturally the other dogs chew on them, too. 

Amy called me last night that something was wrong with Danny. She said his chest would look distended, then he would burp big time and it would go down. I told her to take him to the emergency clinic. They took Danny's temp and it was 105, his heart rate greatly increased and blood pressure elevated. They x-rayed and didn'tsee anything. They decided to tube him and lots of sludge came out.They put him on iv's and kept him with plans to x-ray again in a coupleof hours. They decided he must have an obstruction because he would fill up, move and the gas would pass. *They did surgery early this morning, and he had a flat piece of rawhide chew that was stuck on the pyloric valve that would flap back at times toallow normal function, then flap back down over the valve. * Of course the dogs will never have the chews again. I just wanted to pass this onso other's can be aware of this danger. It was a costly surgery of 3300.00 and poor Danny has suffered terribly. He wasn't telling anyone he was in pain, just suffering and I am not sure he would have been alive this morning had they not taken him to the emergency clinic." 

Permission to cross post..... 
Marion S. Banta
Parrishill Standard PoodlesAsbury, 
New Jerseywww.parrishill.com


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## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

Rawhides are scary! Thank you for posting!


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## Schnauzerlvr (May 20, 2008)

Wow that is scary..so if I am looking for good treats for my puppy, any good links or places to find good info...he is super tiny so the treat themselves cant be huge and he would be supervised, but is there such a thing as good quality treats and bad treats health wise.. i know we worry about the food we give them, so i would assume the same care needs to go into picking the right treats..any suggestions..Hank is a 3lb, 8wk old mini schnauzer...thanks!


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## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

Schnauzerlvr said:


> Wow that is scary..so if I am looking for good treats for my puppy, any good links or places to find good info...he is super tiny so the treat themselves cant be huge and he would be supervised, but is there such a thing as good quality treats and bad treats health wise.. i know we worry about the food we give them, so i would assume the same care needs to go into picking the right treats..any suggestions..Hank is a 3lb, 8wk old mini schnauzer...thanks!


Bully sticks are a great all natural chew, so is dried beef gullet.  
http://www.sitstay.com/dog/supplies...gId=-1&parent_category_rn=13285&top_category=


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## ACampbell (Oct 7, 2007)

My 14 week old APBT puppy is the biggest chewer I've ever seen (luckily it's been only appropriate things so far and my shoes have survived) and I bought "L" bones from Jeffers.com
They are HUGE so it takes her a long time, but it's just a treated bone (uncooked) and boy does it smell bad...but she loves it. 
Smokey managed to break the knuckle off of it in one good bite (no big surprise there) but it snapped clean and didn't splinter...I'm pretty impressed with their $2 each bones...
I gave my adult dogs braided rawhide chews but they lasted all of about 10 minutes before they were shredded globs of glue on my floor...these definetely smell worse but have been floating around the house for about 4 days and are still intact so much more cost efficient!


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## Mycathinks hesadog (Mar 4, 2008)

I'll 2nd the Bullystick recommendation, and: 

I use Nylabones for my chewers inside the house. They seem to last quite a while, they're not messy, they don't break down into itsy pieces, or at least they don't before the dogs lose interest in them.

Check out your local farmers market or butcher for bones for your dog. When they are in thier kennels I get HUGE buffalo tibias? (thigh bone) for $4. They are still working on them, and I got them at the farmers market almost two months ago. Just be sure you are getting a raw or smoked product, nothing that has been cooked (if so it will splinter).


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

Bully sticks may seem 'all natural' but are also laden with chemicals. I avoid any and all chews made for dogs and give them the real deal - raw bones. Knuckle bones can be cut in half by your butcher for smaller dogs, and they're less likely to crack or break a tooth than, say, larger marrow bones. They're also not as rich as the latter, which can cause diarrhea, especially when first introduced to raw bones. 

Nylabones and the like can also be dangerous with chewers who get pieces off, get stuck in the gut and cause an obstruction. 

While safer than other options, raw bones should be given under supervision as well.


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## Schnauzerlvr (May 20, 2008)

Sounds like all very good advice..Right now he is chews on nylabones for his teething. I would honestly need to look to see where there is a butcher, not something easily found in my area, our meat is usually at supermarkets and stuff and I am not sure they would have bones and stuff, lol..most of their stuff is pre-packaged. I will be looking into the bully sticks for sure.. thanks guys.


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## Motebi (Apr 8, 2008)

Big, raw bones are the way to go !


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## ACampbell (Oct 7, 2007)

Schnauzerlvr said:


> Sounds like all very good advice..Right now he is chews on nylabones for his teething. I would honestly need to look to see where there is a butcher, not something easily found in my area, our meat is usually at supermarkets and stuff and I am not sure they would have bones and stuff, lol..most of their stuff is pre-packaged. I will be looking into the bully sticks for sure.. thanks guys.



I know what you mean, I moved from beef cattle country (lots of packing plants etc for meats) to Dairy cattle country...I haven't found a butcher or feedlot or packing plant yet...

So raw bones come from the grocery store, at the horrid prices here recently due to the shipping price (my guess is gasoline is the evil here)...
the ones I got from jeffers are smoked, and they smell nasty but the dogs love them (they stain white carpet, so beware)!


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## DogMomma (May 22, 2008)

Thanks for this info. I hope the pup is ok now.


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## Don152 (Jan 31, 2008)

Looks to me like jeffers.com (and www.jeffers.com) are just pet supply search engines.. who is that actual supplier?


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

Schnauzerlvr said:


> Sounds like all very good advice..Right now he is chews on nylabones for his teething. I would honestly need to look to see where there is a butcher, not something easily found in my area, our meat is usually at supermarkets and stuff and I am not sure they would have bones and stuff, lol..most of their stuff is pre-packaged. I will be looking into the bully sticks for sure.. thanks guys.



A lot of supermarkets will provide you with bones - if the bones come prepackaged, they will order them for you. Some pet stores carry NV's frozen bones, so those are an option, too.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Don152 said:


> Looks to me like jeffers.com (and www.jeffers.com) are just pet supply search engines.. who is that actual supplier?


It's www.jefferspet.com . I order from them all the time.


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## K9 Conversation (Feb 18, 2008)

You can try out the Himalayan Dog Chew.....it's kind of like petrified cheese. We sell them on our site posted on the right sidebar. All of our dogs have loved them.


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## sheltiemom (Mar 13, 2007)

I get raw bones from the grocery store, Publix has them, if you have one of those near you. I got three last week for like $1.80 in the meat section. The smoked ones I was buying in dog section were $5 for a pack of two.


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## Bella~Lugosi (Mar 8, 2008)

This is all very interesting advice right now for me, and I thank all of you for adding your thoughts. But can anyone tell me what are the best "all natural" chew bones and where I could poss get them?
Long story short.....My pup just gave us all heart attacks these past couple of days. He had a grand mal seizure (for the first time) on Wednesday night. Our Vet knew that he was to young to be developing epilepsy (he is 6mo) so he ran a series of blood test. We get a call this morning from the Vet....Lugosi's blood work came back & it's not good so we need you to bring him right over for some x-rays! So after several x-rays, they still don't see anything. So now the Vet wants us to play the process of elimination game. He thinks that it could be some kind of food allergy. So he wants Lugosi on everything all natural. He eats all natural food and treats, but my husband insist on buying those damn raw hide chewy's! So now we have to give our dogs everything all natural, chicken or lamb. Absolutely no beef.
Any suggestions? I'm at my wits end and scared to death
Thank you


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## K9 Conversation (Feb 18, 2008)

the himalayan dog chew is all natural. it consists of yak and cow milk, salt and lime. unless your dog is lactose intolerant it is by far the best chew/treat i have come across.


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## ACampbell (Oct 7, 2007)

Willowy said:


> It's www.jefferspet.com . I order from them all the time.



Thanks, I have mine saved to favorites so I never paid attention


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## Renoman (Mar 20, 2007)

Bella~Lugosi said:


> This is all very interesting advice right now for me, and I thank all of you for adding your thoughts. But can anyone tell me what are the best "all natural" chew bones and where I could poss get them?
> Long story short.....My pup just gave us all heart attacks these past couple of days. He had a grand mal seizure (for the first time) on Wednesday night. Our Vet knew that he was to young to be developing epilepsy (he is 6mo) so he ran a series of blood test. We get a call this morning from the Vet....Lugosi's blood work came back & it's not good so we need you to bring him right over for some x-rays! So after several x-rays, they still don't see anything. So now the Vet wants us to play the process of elimination game. He thinks that it could be some kind of food allergy. So he wants Lugosi on everything all natural. He eats all natural food and treats, but my husband insist on buying those damn raw hide chewy's! So now we have to give our dogs everything all natural, chicken or lamb. Absolutely no beef.
> Any suggestions? I'm at my wits end and scared to death
> Thank you



If you go to Petexpertise.com you can get antler chews. They are about as natural as you can get. They are long lasting and don't splinter like some bones. My allergy dog has had no problems with them.

ETA: I also buy the frozen raw bones that most pet food stores have now. I usually get the bison (for the allergy dog).


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## ChrissyBz (Aug 10, 2007)

I stopped giving rawhide chews a year ago. It took a month to convince my mom to stop giving them to her dogs. 

Thank you for posting this. I just read it to my mom to reinforce the decision.


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## melgrj7 (Sep 21, 2007)

My guys love their deer antlers.


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