Wood-chewers - help

[The Food Group]

Tanner LOVES wood, sometimes even more than water, which say a lot because he is a binge drinker. 

He has chewed, baseboards, door frames, window frames; taking him to potty near a tree is a mistake because he'll sit there and just smell the tree bark. When training him to go through a tunnel for agility, he wouldn't go for treats, for water bottle, for anything, except a stick. 

I have on occasion let me chew on a stick he had at the time, just to see what he did. As i expected, he eats them like leaves, just chews the bark off and then spits it out.    My question is, can dogs chew wood/or even eat it?   Secondly, are there any treats made of a wood that would be safe to chew? 

Thanks

-Nick

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

To start with your last question, there are no treats made of wood, lol. It is not safe for a dog to be allowed to eat wood, and you need to do whatever you can to prevent it. Otherwise, you can end up with a $3000 surgery bill, a dead dog, or an immune-mediated GI disease that is incurable and will require lifelong treatment.
When your dog is on a leash, it's very easy to prevent him from chewing on a tree, a stick, or anything else, so taking him to potty near a tree really should not present any problems.
If he is chewing baseboards, door frames, etc., he should not be allowed loose and unsupervised in the house. When you can't watch him, he needs to be in a crate or X-pen, or tethered to you.
It's possible he is teething; even if he's not, dogs, especially puppies, have a very strong inherent need to chew. He needs something safe to chew on. What chew objects have you made available to him?
I strongly recommend that you get him an antler. They are "woodlike", and some actually resemble tree branches. They are safe, too.
Here are some discussions about antlers, which include resources for buying them; they contain suggestions and information for other safe chew treats such as marrow bones, too :
http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/need-yo...
http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/chew-tr...
http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/dog-bon...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Rather than crating him more, I would first try spraying the baseboards and whatever he is chewing in the foyer with bitter apple spray. Make sure he has a chew object of his own, and maybe a stuffed Kong or one of those toys that dispense kibble if the dog works at it. That may keep him from getting bored, and the bitter apple may discourage him from chewing inappropriate objects.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Karen, is there any evidence that chewing on sticks, with or without obstruction, can result in an immune mediated disease?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There is evidence that ingesting something that is not digestible and sits there in the GI tract can trigger the immune response that leads to IBD. A "precipitating event" that damages or causes trauma to the GI tract is considered to be one cause. Obviously, the dog also needs to be predisposed to developing an immune-mediated disease, but there does have to be something that happens to trigger it. We (the specialists and I) believe that the shard of ham bone that sat in JD's gut for two weeks before he finally brought it up may very well have been his precipitating event. I imagine it as the same kind of thing that happens when you have a sliver that sits there in your flesh too long. After awhile, the immune system sends a whole bunch of white cells to the area to fight the foreign body, and you get the pus and the infection.  

And as you know,we did recently have another doodle here on DK who has a serious incurable GI issue, and in that case, there was surgery performed a year earlier to remove a piece of indigestible, dense bone from the GI tract.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Thanks Karen, that is interesting. I do remember bits and pieces of it from what you said before. It would make me wonder if small amounts of trauma, like a rough piece of undigested food or other material, that slightly damages the intestinal tract but passes through unnoticed, could cause the same thing. I imagine most dogs might have something like that happen. But maybe only the predisposed dog, in the wrong circumstances, might go on to have an aotoimmune attack.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think it must be the same as with inhalant allergies. I have a sister with severe Atopic Dermatitis; pollen, dust mites, feathers, wool, animal dander, you name it. It was very tough when she was a kid in the 50s without the kinds of synthetics we have nowadays. Yet I have never had an allergic reaction to anything in my life, and used to think it was all in people's imagination, lol. Same parents, same environment, same schools, same pediatricians, same diet, same exposure to everything, but clearly something was different with her immune system than mine.

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And the above explanation makes more sense to me than that it's caused by too many vaccines, which many people believe about all immune mediated diseases. 

Some people also think it's caused by deworming meds and antibiotics as puppies, too. But that would be the same thing...why does one dog get this and another one doesn't when they all get those deworming meds as puppies?  

[F, Calla & Luca]

There are definitely reasons, poorly or not at all understood, that cause differences in immune response between individuals. Peanuts are a good example. There are things we all are exposed to just by being around certain areas, pollen being a good example, but only some people are allergic and not all allergic people are allergic to the same pollens, for instance.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep. It's baffling and fascinating to me at the same time.

And I think it's the same thing with why most dogs can have small amounts of trauma or slight damage to the GI tract at some point and not have any repercussions, and another dog gets IBD from it.

[F, Calla & Luca]

That is true. I don't know anyone else in my family who can't eat shrimp. I can't go into my son's apartment because of his two cats etc.

[F, Calla & Luca]

My dogs chew on sticks all the time. They spit the pieces out and so far so good.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Nick's dog is eating the wood, though.