Bone Warning for all Dogs

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

Today started out like any other day. I was in the backyard taking pictures of Doodles. Mine and Elizabeth's (Bailey & Bruin). They have been staying with me for the past week while Elizabeth was out of town. She came to pick them up today and of course there was LOTS of excitement associated with her homecoming! I noticed that Lucy had a bone in her mouth and was carrying it around. That is unusual for her but I gave it no real thought. Sometime after Elizabeth and her babies left, I noticed Lucy still had the bone in her mouth and went to take it from her. Imagine my horror when I saw this:

Because her hair is about the same color as the bone, I really didn't notice it. My guess is that she had been like like that for about three hours before I really paid attention. Lucy is the sweetest most laid back dog and she never  wimpered or let me know in any way that she was in trouble. DH and I tried to get it loose but it was not budging over those teeth. I coated the bone and Lucy's teeth with vaseline and still it did not help. We put her in the car and took her to the vet which is about a 12 mile drive. When we got there, I took her out of the car and then took these pics with my iPhone. We walked about 10 feet toward the door of the vets office when Lucy stopped and appeared to be gagging. I just kept tugging on the leash telling her we were going to get her some help. When I got inside the door and explained to the vet tech why we were there, she said "let me take a look" So I bent down to show her and to my amazement, the bone was gone! I went back outside and it was lying on the ground where she was when she started "gagging". Maybe the vaseline helped her, I don't know but I do know that I never want her or any other dog to go thru that! Please don't give your dogs these kinds of bones! If you do, then you must watch them very closely. I can only assume they would have had to put her to sleep to get it off or somehow cut the bone off of her. Thankfully I will never have to find out! I will never buy these bones again!

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

Poor baby - so glad it came out without further trauma!  

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

That is so scary! I'm so glad it didn't become more serious and the bone just fell off on its own. I won't be getting those kinds of bones. Ever. Thanks for the warning.

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

Hopefully we can save some other Doodles from the same fate!

[Jennifer Tramell]

I'm so glad that Lucy worked the bone out on her own!  That happened to us a couple months ago (10pm on a Saturday) but it was accompanied by blood and crying.  The bone was stuck behind her canines and cutting into her lip & gum when she bit down.  She was fine until she closed her mouth. I held Tessa tight while my husband got a clamp.  He squeezed the clamp and the bone broke.  Tessa immediately relaxed when the bone fell into my husband's hands.  The aftermath of cleaning up the blood, poop & pee  was a welcome chore since Tessa showed no injury. (There were various bodily discharges due to the fear ;-) )

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

Oh my. How awful for poor Tessa! I can imagine it is very scary especially once they realize they are trapped. Lucy is just a VERY calm dog and really showed no fear but it also was not cutting into her gums. Glad Tessa had no further injuries!

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

This also happened with Yogi a few weeks ago. He instantly kind of panicked. He tried to run away to get it on his own. Fortunately he follows the settle command well and stopped when I said it and allowed me to loosen it. It was scary, it keeps them from swallowing. Glad Karen posted the pictures of the longer femur bones. I will switch to those. Ours was probably 1 1/2 in long.

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

Aww poor Yogi! I know I would panic if I had something stuck in my mouth. Lucy was very thirsty when she was finally rid of it.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Poor Lucy, but what a great reminder of how careful we need to be when there is any kind of bone chewing going on. I do like giving bones to mine a few times a month, as it does certainly help with teeth cleaning. Lucy has some pretty pearly whites showing!!! :)

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

Thanks Sue! Yeah I'm just going to need to get bigger bones to help them with their teeth.