femur bone warning

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

My boss purchased a couple of these to keep our dogs busy and distracted at work. They are slow roasted and smoked, not raw. USA grade etc.

So she was chewing on it quite a bit on Friday morning. Saturday morning at about 6am she threw up. It was all bile except for large a rock hard chunk of that bone. The surprising thing is that on Sunday morning about 4am she also threw up yet again and only bile but another chunk. She has been healthy and active other than that but apparently its not digestible by dogs. Or at least not by my dog.

So no more of those for us.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

No, they are not digestible, but they're also not supposed to be edible. The problem lies with the smoking and not with the bone itself. The  smoking process weakens the bone and causes it to splinter when the dog chews it. A raw or properly cooked beef femur bone will not splinter, and in fact will last forever. You can run them through the dishwasher, lol. We have lots of information about this in The Food Group. Here's a good discussion:Marrow Bones With Pictures and Instructions

I learned about smoked dog bones the hard way when JD brought up a piece of one that sat in his digestive system for two weeks, and is probably what caused his IBD. I wrote about that in TFG, too:Here's How I Almost Killed My Dog

[F, Calla & Luca]

Sadly although I did give my dogs marrow bones I haven't for some time. One time a bone did splinter although the dog did not swallow the piece that came off. But that was the next of marrow bones for us.

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

Between my dogs and my daughter's, we have had three broken teeth and subsequent surgical extractions due directly to chewing on bones. In my opinion, it is simply not worth the risk -- cooked or raw -- they have the potential to be dangerous.

I'm sorry that Georgia had issues, but glad to hear that it sounds like the chunks made their way back up. That, at least, is a relief.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I also stopped giving real bones...raw or smoked because of the danger.  Now they get nylabones or occasionally an antler to chew.

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

Glad you posted this Nancy.  I too learned a lesson the hard way. Everyone was raving about marrow bones and bought a large bag of frozen ones for a standard poodle.  The first one out of the bag - he just loved and chewed on, etc.  Unknown to me, he a small disc shape piece broke off from the bone, and the next day he was not well, and was lethargic.  After a series of xrays, the vet said the disc shape piece was stuck in the stomach at the opening into the intestines.  Fortunately, she was able to retrieve it with an endoscope to the tune of $1800!  I had insurance on him from the time he was 3 mos old and was so thankful I did.  Once a foreign body eater, always a foreign body eater! LOL That was my boy.  I am so thankful neither of my doodles ingest anything they shouldn't.

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

Georgia is fine, but surprisingly this morning I found bile another "chunk" by the back door. 10 days later! So it can stay in their stomach for quite some time.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep, as I mentioned above, a shard from a smoked ham bone sat in JD's stomach for more than 2 weeks! 

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

I know. I read about it. Thanks. They are off our list.
Although what she ingested were little rock like chunks. Rough but not splintery, thankfully. I'm just surprised she didn't pass them.