Help! RAW feeding problem?!?!

[Guest Anonymous]

ok, Ares was just eating his food--chicken with bones and all, not ground up. suddenly he began choking (i guess) and walking around the room while he kinda threw up. he walked around for maybe 10 seconds. then he started to urinate on the floor (he has not had an accident in 2 months). he seemed to be choking. I took his collar off (it isnt too tight, but I just thought it might help) and let him "shake it off."

he sat there for about 30 seconds. now he appeard to be himself and is looking for more food. what happened? did he choke? was the urination just because he couldnt breath or something? is he ok now? I am worried that if I leave or go to bed, something may happen...

if he did choke, is there anything I should do different? just for future reference, does anyone know a site that explains how to do the heimlich on a dog?

its kinda funny to read, but it startled me!

Joseph

[Canis erectus]

Gah!!! Do not feed chicken bones to your dog!!! They are easily broken up by a dog's jaws and the resulting chunks offer an icreased probability of a dog choking. Also large undugested chunks of bone sitting around in a dog's stomach can make them ill. Chicken bones that have been cooked are even worse, they can slinter into jagged pieces which can really mess up a dog's insides.

I personally don't believe in raw food diets for my dogs for the same reasons that I don't eat raw commercial meats. But if you're going to give Ares bones, I'd suggest using raw beef bones. Far safer than chicken bones.

[DogPaddle]

There are a lot of differing opinions on raw and barf etc.
If it worries you - don't feed chicken bones in future. You can grind them up yourself or get bonemeal if you are worried about calcium/phos./protien balance in your home prepared dog meals.
I feed mine a lightly cooked home prepared diet without bones for one meal/day and EVO for the other. I use eggshells and a vet supplement rather than raw bones. However, I will let them chew away at raw meaty beef shank bones until they have the marrow removed and then I take them away - Kavik has a small chip in his tooth from working a shank bone too enthusiastically and another bigger chip from trying to play with rocks. :roll:

[Malamum]

Mine eat all types of raw bones and plenty of those are raw chicken bones and we have never had any major issues. There have been a few times when things have gone down the wrong way but that's happened to me plenty of times too. Yeah the risk of choking is always there, but it's there with kibble too so for me and my dogs I think the benefits outweigh the risks.

[Aroura]

Canis, raw chicken bones are quite safe, it is only cooked ones that are a real worry. I have had my dogs nearly choke to death on kibble on a number of occasions, needing me to shove a finger down their throat to dislodge it, but have never had a problem with any sort of raw bone (except beef bones, you should never feed a strong jawed dog beef bones as they can break their teeth as my sisters dog did).

Raw chicken and lamb bones are the best, cheapest and safest bones to feed.

Joseph, what sort of dog is Ares? Dogs are designed so that if they ingest bone that is too large they will gag it back up, that may explain the throwing up. The urinating may have been a nervous reaction. What size bones were you feeding? Smaller bones (like kibble) can get caught and actually cause a dog to choke. You should be feeding bones large enough that the dog cannot swallow it without chewing properly. I know a lady who almost lost her Maremma because she swallowed a sawn off peice of lambs neck. Turkey neck can be a danger to larger dogs, and chicken necks for smaller dogs - they are just the right size to slide down and get lodged in the throat. Is Ares ok now?

[DogPaddle]

Gigi - I feed the eggshells to balance the cooked/raw meet I add to their diet. If I prepare a large portion of food for them I usually smash the egg shell into small bits and add it or if I feel like it grind them in my mortar. The dogs accept them either way. If I am just giving the boys an egg a usually take it and toss it into their bowl, it cracks, they eat it all. I usually keep all my eggshells from cooking and baking, rinse them out and keep them for later use.

[Aroura]

If you're feeding a commercially prepared food then adding egg shells will unbalance the calcium levels. I just put whole eggs in the processer, shell and all, when I am making up their meatballs, but a lot of people will dry them in the oven, or air dry them, then crush them into a powder and add a little to the meatballs each time they are fed.

[Aroura]

Thats right gigi, you should NOT add egg shells to a commercially prepared diet - these diets are made to have the correct balance of calcium to phosphorus and adding egg shells give an excess of calcium. However, if you are feeding meat without bones or adding different things to a commercial diet that do not include calcium then it is ok to add egg shells. Is that confusing enough for you? :wink:

[Guest Anonymous]

hey guys, sorry it has taken me so long to get back.

ares is a presa canario (only about 4.5 months old, but already 55 lbs). I feed him chicken quarters. the bones are big, so he has to chew them a lot to try and swallow them. He has been eating raw nearly the entire time I have had him (i used to feed him portions that I had seperated for him, but now I just give him an entire quarter).

nearly everytime he eats, he has done the thing where he chews it up, trues to swallow it, and then gags it back up. this time was odd.

he typically stays by the bowl. this time he was pacing around the room. i am guessing that he choked for a little while and that is what caused him to pee like that.

he has been absolutely fine since then and I have fed him several more meals with the chicken quarters. hopefully, I will be able to get some better selection of good (but slightly less expensive) meats when I move. the only place I can get it from around here is Wal Mart.

Thanks,
Joseph