Bones are BAD for dogs!

I was speaking with a veterinary colleague who had a long day in the surgery and spent over two hours working with one specific patient that I'd like to tell you about-

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier had been brought to the surgery just after Easter weekend. He was vomiting up blood and small shards of broken bone, crying and straining. When my colleague examined his abdomen he screamed in pain and she could feel a very hard, concrete-like mass in his rectum. This poor dog had been fed the left-over from Easter Sunday lunch which was basically COOKED LAMB BONE. Now the crunched up pieces of bone had impacted into a hard mass in his rectum.

He was admitted and anaesthetised. Xrays of his abdomen revealed lots of small pieces of bone in his stomach and a 'concreted' mass of bone in his rectum. He was put on intravenous fluid and given a soapy enema that took 1.5 hours to fully soften the faeces and allow it's removal. My colleague was really worried about the damge to the rectum from the sharp pieces of bone and concerned that it may perforate and lead to an infection of the abdomen. Thankfully this didn't happen. Over the next few days the small pieces of bone in the stomach moved through and the discomfort was controlled with pain medication. Happily the Staffi made a full recovery.
HE WAS LUCKY.

Perforation of gut by sharp pieces of bone can happen and can result in death. Pieces of bone can become stuck at any point along the gastrointestinal tract, causing inflammation and pain, possible obstruction and possible perforation. Obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract causes severe debilitation and must be corrected surgically. This is of course a horrible experience for the dog, distressing for the owner and also expensive.

So, please DON'T feed your dog BONES of ANY description. Lets PREVENT problems like this from happening in the first place.


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