[NAGDU] Bones and Degrees of Chewers

[Heather Bird]

When to discard a bone depends on two things. 1. What is it made of? And 2.
How serious of a chewer is your dog?

 

If you have a real bone and it is raw, even if your dog swallows a piece of
it, it is likely to be just fine. However, if it is a cooked or bleached
bone, the fragment will be harder, sharper, harder to digest and much more
likely to cause problems in the digestive track. This is the reason that a
raw fed dog can happily ingest an entire chicken quarter, bones and all, but
a dog getting cooked chicken bones out of the trash could be in very serious
medical trouble. If your dog is chewing something, be it a Nyla bone, a raw
bone, a bleached bone, an antler, etc., you have to assume that they will
ingest it or some of it. That is why, I personally, use Nyla bones in a
limited fashion, because thousands of tiny pieces of nylon, plastic, are
ingested by my dog. I work hard to pick a dog food without additives or
chemicals in it, and it seems silly to go to all of that effort and then
encourage my dog to consume plastic. I do use them occasionally though,
especially if Ilsa is going to be in public where she will be observed or if
she is being watched by someone who isn’t familiar with or comfortable with
raw meaty bones. I have a couple of Nyla bones around, the big, substantial
kind with the knots at each end. The bulk of what I give are large meaty
bones with some muscle still on them and all of the nutritious marrow
inside. I use beef mostly, sometimes pork, mostly large leg bones, but
sometimes knuckle bones. The one thing I never give are the smoked, bleached
or otherwise treated real bones. Do I want my dog eating plastic? No, not
particularly, but that is still safer than hardened, sharp real bone
fragments that have been processed and cooked. My mom gave her dogs bleach
bones for years, but they were not super aggressive chewers so they only
chipped off infinitesimal pieces. Ilsa is a super chewer. My last dog took
three or 4 hours to finish one of the long 3 foot long bully sticks. Ilsa
has it down to a two inch nub within about 30 minutes. My previous dog would
start to actively break off pieces at the edge of large marrow bones after a
week, and Ilsa starts that up a few hours after getting the bone. She would
be at much greater risk with those bleached bone style chews. Now she does
not chip much off of Nyla bones, probably because she doesn’t care for them
much. If she has no other options, she will chew one, but I think her low
motivation to chew them is what makes it safe for her. If she went after
Nyla bones the way she goes after other items, she would be pooping out inch
long pieces of hard plastic, but she just isn’t that interested. Antlers can
be a great chew, for most dogs, Ilsa cannot safely have them because she is
actively splintering the ends within a matter of minutes. An antler,
especially an elk, not a deer antler, should last a typical dog for days and
days and days before it has to be discarded. But, Ilsa has lost her antler
privileges. If I can ever find un-split antlers that are not a length wise
section, I might see if those can stand up to her chewing, but the ones I
can buy locally just don’t cut it. They have kongs in different hardness’s
and some dogs, especially toy breeds or elderly dogs can chew the very soft
ones, I think they are pink and light blue, maybe yellow. The Seeing Eye
issues the medium hard red ones. The hardest ones are black. Ilsa can take
apart a black one in a short time. Does this mean that I never give them to
her? Nope. I just play fetch with them, then put them up. I do not give them
to her to chew. If I fill a Kong with yogurt, chicken broth, pumpkin, etc.
and freeze it, I monitor her and take it away as soon as she has gotten it
emptied, wash it, refill and freeze again. So, there is no one-size fits all
answer to which toys or chews are safe, because it depends on the dog and
the material of the toy. In theory, if a handler is closely monitoring their
dog, just about any toy could be safe, but the schools have to give general
guidelines under the assumption that some handlers will be well-intentioned,
but not very observant, and some will be just plane negligent, because guide
dog school students vary widely as does the general population. So, when my
school discourages squeakers, and stuffed toys, I just smile and nod,
because I know how to supervise my dog, I know how to inspect toys for
quality of construction, and then I go home and do my own thing. Ilsa’s
favorite toy has squeaks, crinkly fabric and is stuffed, and it is still in
one piece, because we play, fetch the bunny, and shake it to death, then
give it back to mom, no laying down to systematically disembowel it. *smile*
And, that toy has lasted a year and a half. I hope some of this is helpful.

 

Heather Bird

"They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't
a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a
Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." -
Martin Niemöller

In our diverse society we must never fail to speak up in the face of Human
Rights violations lest we be the next targets of such violations.