Whats the topic for today?

Bones- Feeding of bones to dogs

Dogs love bones don’t they. Is that a good thing for them?
Bones are undoubtedly good for the teeth and also provide a lot of enjoyment for dogs but they can also cause problems too.

What sort of problems?
Sometimes they will get stuck in the stomach or intestines and we have to go in surgically to retrieve them?

How often does that happen?
A lot more often than people might think. On average I would say we remove a bone from a dog once every couple of months. We have a whole collection of bones that we have removed from dogs over the years.

Are there any types of bones that tend to get stuck more than others?
We see all types of bones getting stuck but cooked bones are much more dangerous than raw bones.

Why is that?
When bones are cooked they become very brittle and so when the dog crunches them up they can splinter into very sharp jagged pieces. These sharp bones are more likely to become stuck but are also more likely to cause the bowel to rupture.