chicken bones for dogs?

boxermad

I was at my friends house the other day and he threw a chicken leg out for the dog, i said to him that the chicken bones are bad for them but he said that they arent bad that its just bad for pups. this cant be true can it? i dont even give my dogs bones if they are any bit sharp.

seamus

Chicken bones are small and brittle and tend to shatter. Larger bones, if you watch a dog chewing on them, don't tend to shatter and once the bone has been licked and picked clean, the dog will drop it. But they try to swallow chicken bones.

Yes, they are dangerous for any dog of any size and age. The bones could easily perforate any part of the digestive system. You also run the very serious risk of a bone getting stuck. One of the animal rescue shows ran a case where a woman use to give her dog a full cooked chicken every so often. She never had any problems until one day a big chunk of whatever part of the chicken got stuck at some point in the digestive tract, and there was then a serious amount of chicken getting "backed up". They had to remove around 500g of chicken from various parts of the dog's insides using a camera and claw.

The dog could get a chicken leg 1,000 times and come to no harm. It's the one time that a bone goes through the wall of an intestine that's the problem. Internal bleeding and blood poisoning will follow and the dog will go to bed fine and be dead when the owners come down the next morning. Just not worth the risk.

TooManyDogs

Cooked chicken bones are hard and brittle, break easily and can splinter which is dangerous for dogs/cats etc.

Raw chicken bones are perfectly fine and make up a large part of the BARF diet. In their raw form chicken bones are soft and are crunched up easily so not a danger.I have 6 dogs being fed on raw chicken bones and never had a problem.

There's risks to everything a dog puts in their mouth so it's a case of limiting it, some people won't throw a stick for their dogs because of it splintering or breaking and the shards doing damage, others won't let their dogs play with tennis balls because of the risk of the ball going down their throat and choking them. So it's a case of making your own educated decision.

andreac

Any raw bone is fine, including chicken bones.

boomerang

Raw chicken bones - wings, drumsticks, thighs etc. are fine to feed, so long as they are size-appropriate. (For instance, you wouldn't give a big dog a wing, because they have a big mouth and might just swallow it whole.) My dogs love a raw drumstick or breast on the bone occasionally. One dog will treat it as a delicacy and eat it slowly. The other dog I have to hold onto the meat from one end or she will gulp it down too quickly without chewing! It's good for their teeth.

Chickens reared for consumption are young and their bones are soft and pliant. It's when you cook the bones that you run into big trouble - the moisture evaporates and they become brittle and break into shards - they are deadly!

wetdogsmell

raw chicken bones are fine, its when you cook them they cause problems,

CL32

Never give any sort of cooked bones for all the reasons given above.

Raw bones - especially raw chiken bones - are fine, and are the basis of the various natural food plans eg BARF and RAW.

monty_python

i am under the impression that raw chicken bones are ok as they dont "shatter" into sharp pices like cooked bones do

opti76

raw chicken bones are fone for dogs to ingest ... when there cooked they become brittle and sharp.... so raw good cooked bad

clairebearxxx

no no no i used to work as a vetinary nurse. they are very bad for dogs as they break up into shards as the dog bites them which can cause damaged to their throat and cause them to get lodged and the dog to choke. so you were right with your thought there not good for dogs.

boxermad

he gave it cooked bones, he was eating his dinner and the dog was begging and he threw the bone or the dog

andreac

clairebearxxx wrote: »

no no no i used to work as a vetinary nurse. they are very bad for dogs as they break up into shards as the dog bites them which can cause damaged to their throat and cause them to get lodged and the dog to choke. so you were right with your thought there not good for dogs.

So how do explain the BARF diet then?

Its only cooked bones that are bad, raw is fine.

Sigma Force

I was wary but have started mine on the occasional raw chicken bones, it's as said the cooked ones that cause problems.

Saying that any dog can choke on a bone or any other bit of food, the dry food my dogs get is round shaped and they eat it so fast they have had to cough it back up now and then they love the chicken bones and although they eat them quickly they still have to chew more as said feed something the right size so a big dog can't just swallow it down in one go.

I was also told to feed raw only on the days they get chicken so that the dry food isn't sitting in the tum at the same time, as the dry takes longer to digest. So if for example a dog is fed raw keep them on that for the day and if fed dry feed them dry only for that day.

You can see it yourself when you cook a chicken that the bones are more brittle and splintery.