Chicken bones help...

As proud as I have been of Becca lately...tonight she almost sent me over the edge. We went to a friends to play with their puppy. While running around with him, Becca suddenly put her nose in the air, and ran around their garage into the bushes. When we got around the garage she was eating something. I thought she had found a poo until it crunched. Long story short she ate some chicken bones. We are supposed to leave to visit my mother tomorrow. There are no emergency vet services up there, no internet either. What should I do?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Beth on August 2, 2013 at 9:57pm

Raw or cooked bones?

Keep in mind that while bones CAN cause problems, the vast majority of time they DON'T. However, personally I would worry about going somewhere with no vet with a dog who just ate bones, but I tend to be a worrier and most of what I worry about never becomes a problem....

Unfortunately my Jack is a great air-scenter and will run right to dropped food that every other dog in the area ignored, so I know how scary it can be....

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on August 2, 2013 at 10:48pm

She should be fine. The biggest problem with cooked bones is that they splinter and can get stuck in the throat. Since that did not happen, once down the powerful stomach juices should deal with them.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Marcie on August 3, 2013 at 6:19am

Thank you for your replies. They were cooked bones, I found a fried chicken wrapper in the bushes.

I called the 24 hour emergency vet after I posted last night. They said to feed her a few slices of bread to bind to the bones. They also gave me a list of what to look for in case of obstruction and numbers to vets. There are emergency services 1 hour north or 2 hours south of Mom's house.

This morning she was as eager as ever to eat and cleaned her bowl. She had a very normal poo on her walk. Will I be able to see the bones when they come through? How long should it take? She is a three poo a day dog.

How is it I can recall Becca off chasing a fox kit, but not off cat poo or garbage?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on August 3, 2013 at 9:06am

You will not see the bones coming through, they will have been digested. Last question: if she managed to get the fox kit, it would be harder and harder to call her off of it :-D Enjoy the stay at your Mom's.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Beth on August 3, 2013 at 5:18pm

She may literally not have heard you; for dogs, smell is the strongest sense, and sometimes when the nose turns on the ears (and brain) turn off. This happens for me sometimes with Maddie. There is no "fix" for this, though sometimes a loud whistle or hand clap or shouted "NO!" can break through the block.

Alternately, she may have heard you but determined that what she smelled was going to be far better than whatever treat you could possibly provide. Jack does this (I know he hears me because he'll sometimes stop to weigh up the possibilities before coming back to me or continuing towards what he was doing). The only way I can tell to train away from this is to use some sort of aversion for dogs who are tempted to ignore the recall. Some work with a light weight long cord helps for some dogs, while others simply learn that they only have to listen when dragging the cord. Or an e-collar set to the mildest setting, though for me that's not something I choose to do with the dogs I have at this time.