Hudson just et a cooked chicken carcass

[Zombies!]

Yeah. What it says on the label.

Said chicken was left on top of the chest freezer. Wrapped in a bag. Minus legs & wings, so it was ribs & backbone, predominantly. But fully roasted. Apparently he's now big enough to reach the top of the freezer. Who knew?

Is my dog gonna die?

[Dudley]

You mean he opened the door and got the chicken?

[Zombies!]

No, I mean the chicken was on top of the freezer, because we'd only just served ourselves dinner and hadn't got around to putting the bones out yet. We (stupidly) assumed we could eat our dinner, and throw all of the bones out in one go.

[Dudley]

Yikes.

[Zombies!]

Yeah. But he's still bounding around like a retard, so all we can do is keep an eye on him.

[HongKongFooey]

Eek, that must be nerve-wracking. I've heard the legs and wings were the worst bones for them to eat. That wasn't from a vet or anything so I dunno but I hope it's true right now. I always put the carcass right into a pot but for the mess, not the dogs.

Good luck with him.

[Taur]

A roomie's dog ate a good part of a bucket of fried chicken and survived without needing veterinary attention, but keep an eye on him when he goes for a poop to make sure he's not in pain and is able to pass stools. He's probably going to have some diarrhea.

Poor Huddy.

[Rebo]

Stoopit dogs. I hope he's gonna be ok!

::crosses fingers::

[jali]

I finally watched Marley and Me last night. Hudson=Marley in this case.

[Andrew Jackson's Hair]

Just watch him and make sure you know where the nearest animal hospital is. Horror stories aside, dogs can happily digest things that would shock you. When my buddy was 5 months he chugged a rib bone that was nearly 50% as long as his entire body length. I thought $2,000 vet bill at best, death at worst.

We never saw that rib bone again in any recognizable form. I still think the dog might have some sort of dimensional portal in him.

Just make sure he's shitting normally (whatever that means in a dog), then take a stick and poke his poop to check for blood. If he makes it a few days he'll probably be fine. If he starts acting sick take him for x-rays.

[Bodhiman]

Damn chickens.
Good luck with that. It can be nerve racking, but I'll echo what others have said; Dogs can digest some incredible things. FWIW, watch the pork bones, too.

[Islander]

Dogs evolved eating human leftovers. When I met my Irish husband back in the sixties, branded dogfood had not come to Ireland and their hunting dogs were all fed table scraps. I think I read somewhere that cooked poultry bones are quite soft anyway and easily crunched. I really think your dog will thank you for that chicken.

[Muskrat Love]

My mom always freaked out when one of the dogs managed to get a cooked chicken bone. I should ask her sometime if she ever lost a dog to that, because we had dogs get a chicken bone many times while I was growing up and never lost one, but my Mom was near 40 when she had me and had a lot of dogs over the years.

Agree with the advice to not panic yet, the dog will probably be OK, but make sure it's pooping OK and that there's no blood. It may have a couple of white bowel movements, that's normal, I had a smallish dog end up eating several beef ribs (a surprising amount, I was scared when I realized he had actually eaten all of them) and it pooped white a few times after. Dogs sometimes need to eat (preferably uncooked) bone so that it can express their anal glands when they poop it out, they get problems if all they eat is soft food. My parents spent a lot of money on one of their dogs taking it to the vet to have it's anal glands squeezed on a regular basis

[severe delays]

Originally Posted by Islander

Dogs evolved eating human leftovers. When I met my Irish husband back in the sixties, branded dogfood had not come to Ireland and their hunting dogs were all fed table scraps. I think I read somewhere that cooked poultry bones are quite soft anyway and easily crunched. I really think your dog will thank you for that chicken.

Actually the problem is the opposite. The bones become brittle which means they are more likely to break into shards which can cause damage on the way in or out. Hence checking the dog's mouth and poop for any signs of blood.

[Mako]

Originally Posted by severe delays

Actually the problem is the opposite. The bones become brittle which means they are more likely to break into shards which can cause damage on the way in or out. Hence checking the dog's mouth and poop for any signs of blood.

IANAVet, but definitely this.




Slightly off-topic but a happy ending;

We had a similar thread about this some time ago and I don't know if I mentioned it there, but my neighbour had a big German Shepherd that I used to look after when I was a young teen. She once ate part of a... I think it was a pork shoulder bone? It was basically a knob, like a shoulder or hip joint, with some of the shaft attached. My neighbour gave it to her to chew on, not thinking that she would swallow the thing.

About a day later, she started having trouble passing stools. Her owner told me about this when I went to collect her that afternoon and suggested I should "assist" her if it looked like she was having problems. He gave me a latex glove.

Now, she was loveliest, most gentle dog I have ever met, and we were inseparable. I walked her twice a day, groomed her, even snuck her into school once. Heh-heh. We really were the best of pals. But that friendship was tested to the limit when, seeing her whimpering as she tried to squat, I applied the glove and went to, um, assist...


I don't recommend putting your finger in a distressed German Shepherd's rectum.


I got her home - she was trying to squat most of the way - called a cab and took her to the vet. She was sedated and the offending item was removed through *cough* gentle digital manipulation. I told the vet to stick the cost on the owner's tab.

She was fine, though she passed blood for a couple of days, and lived to a fantastic age.

[Islander]

Originally Posted by severe delays

Actually the problem is the opposite. The bones become brittle which means they are more likely to break into shards which can cause damage on the way in or out. Hence checking the dog's mouth and poop for any signs of blood.

Thanks for that correction, SD. I'll try to remember it. Always take advice found on message boards with a chunk of salt!

[DogMom]

Islander, it is true that RAW chicken bones are softer and the chewability / passability is acceptable for dogs. However, raw chicken bones offer their own issues, including obviously things like Salmonella.

I wonder if the post you saw was from someone who misunderstood the BARF regimen (Bones And Raw Food).

[SmartAleq]

Raw chicken, including bones, is just fine for dogs--of course, since wild animals eat dead bird pretty much all the time. Chicken bones, though, are not only huge for a bird, relatively speaking, but they do get all shardy when cooked. The little bones, such as the ribs and vertebrae should be okay but the leg, thigh and wing bones are quite large and will splinter badly when chewed on. Hope Huddy's okay, silly idiot...

ETA: *Shakes impotent fist at DogMom*

[Islander]

Originally Posted by DogMom

Islander, it is true that RAW chicken bones are softer and the chewability / passability is acceptable for dogs. However, raw chicken bones offer their own issues, including obviously things like Salmonella.

I wonder if the post you saw was from someone who misunderstood the BARF regimen (Bones And Raw Food).

I wonder whether salmonella is an issue for dogs. I raise my own chicken and I don't currently own a dog...and I don't remember where I saw that info...but FTR, would you please explain BARF?

BTW, I do have 3 cats and give them raw organ meat when I can get it.

[GoSmoke]

Hey Zombies....please tell me that the gorgeous Hudson is okay
I had a Black Lab that would literally eat anything. She once ate an entire package of boloney (package and all) with no ill effects.

[AuntiePam]

Our Boomer (lab mix) only ate/chewed what we gave him to eat/chew. Sadie's been a learning experience. She eats sticks from the yard, crickets, flies, kitty roca, washcloths and socks (just pieces, so far), but her favorite is paper -- Kleenex, toilet paper, newspaper, magazines, paper bags -- if it's paper, she wants it, wet or dry, clean or dirty. She poops it out and she hasn't shown signs of tummy ache, but it's still worrisome.

I thought pups would stop chewing when their permanent teeth came in, but she's 9 months+ and will chew for hours. It's been a real challenge, finding chew things that last for more than a few minutes. But she's shown no interest in the furniture or electrical cords, so I'll count my blessings.

[SmartAleq]

Bear is a serious chewer and being a lab mix will swallow anything he can jam in his giant maw. Black Kong toys of epic size and pressed rawhide are my answer to his issue. He's two and still has a huge need to narm everything he sees, but keeping legal stuff he likes is a good prevention to ingestion of sticks and rocks. Giant rope toys are good, too. The real trick is finding toys that are big enough, the material matters less than the amount of leverage they can get on the toy, so it needs to be pretty damned huge to keep him from destroying it in minutes.

[AuntiePam]

"Leverage" -- yes. Sadie loves to put a paw on something and then pull on it with her teeth. I read somewhere that it's not a good idea to play tug of war with a pup, but she loves it, and she'll play it by herself if she has to.

I haven't tried any rope things yet, not real rope anyway. Some of the fabric things have lasted awhile -- rubber, not so much. She has a nylabone thing that we put wafers on, and she chews the wafers off and then chews the bone. It's pretty cool.

I've stopped buying the stuffed toys even though she loves them -- she has the stuffing out in minutes. She doesn't eat it, but it gets all over.

She also plays catch with herself. God, she's fun.

[Zombies!]

Well, the good news is that Hudson appears to be as chirpy as ever this morning.

I wasn't overly concerned, because as I said, we had removed the wing & leg bones to eat ourselves, so it was just the tiny, softer bones like the ribs and backbone. Also, this dog is a prodigious eater. Rocks, sticks, socks. You name it, it goes down his gullet. The only real problems he's had are socks (he vomits them back up because they won't go all the way down) and the occasional piece of fabric coming out the back end and tangling up his poops.

TBH, if I was really concerned, I wouldn't have posted on here. I would have had him up at the vets as soon as it happened

And yes, he loves to chew. His favourite toy is a thick rubber tug-toy, similar in construction to kong rubber. But he also loves rope bones, empty plastic bottles and anything else that'll fit in his maw.

[Higgs Boson]

Yay for Hudson and his stainless steel digestive system!

[Zombies!]

Stainless steel face. Apparently Arac had to prise more than one of Wesker's claws out of his face the other day