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Chicken Bones
By
Joanne Blair and Lydia
Driscoll
(as posted to the Wellpet List)
Hello
all,
Its
been ages since I've posted to the list, but I have been on
Wellpet now for nearly a year. I've been feeding a la Billinghurst
for over a year to my four Great Danes. This post is most
pertinent to those of you that feed your dogs large chicken
pieces (or any turkey pieces) such as thighs and drums. PLEASE,
do not allow this post to start any flame wars. I am not blaming
anyone but myself. I would never criticize another's choice
in what they feed their dogs. This is meant to start a calm,
well-reasoned discussion, to open all of our minds a little
further, and to add another piece of information into our
"information tool boxes".
This
past Friday night and well into the early hours of Saturday,
I spent in the emergency room of the local veterinary teaching
hospital waiting to see if my 6.5 year old Dane bitch would
make it through surgery for gastric torsion. Thankfully, she
did...I caught it very early and rushed her in. People with
breeds prone to bloat, PLEASE know the symptoms of bloat like
the back of your hand. PLEASE know WHERE you will take your
dog if this horrible thing should happen to you. You literally
have minutes to get your dog to the emergency room. After
surgery, the weary surgeon told me she was 99% sure what caused
my bitch to bloat and torse. Chicken bones. Chicken bones
I had purposely fed my bitch about one hour prior to symptoms.
Chicken bones I have been feeding her, and her 3 other Dane
buddies for the past year. Chicken bones in the form of chicken
thighs and drums.
I
saw these chicken bones with my very own eyes after they had
made an incision into my bitch's stomach and removed them.
They were horribly sharp, not in the least bit digested....the
chicken skin was leathery....like rawhide, heck, even the
chicken meat was intact. The surgeon felt they had impacted
in her stomach which did not allow accumulated "gas"
(I put gas in quotation marks as I'm well aware that research
has shown it is in fact plain old room air which is found
in bloat patients) to escape, causing bloat, and finally gastric
torsion. My bitch is still in intensive care, but she is one
of the very lucky ones and will make it (bloat surgery and
the following post-operation complications are extremely dangerous
.... I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I remember
the survival data is about 60% -- that is, around 40% of patients
don't make it -- they die.
Now,
3 days later I am able to sit back and am willing to take
an objective look at all of the above. I'm hoping some of
you might be able to help me out here, sort through the events
and potentially reach a conclusion. What bothers me the most,
in the "blame the chicken bones theory" is that
why, after an entire year of this raw chicken feeding schedule,
did my bitch bloat now? If her stomach had been opened up
x hours after eating chicken drums and thighs (x being the
number of hours after her Friday meal of chicken, that the
surgeon opened her up) on any day of the past year, don't
you suppose they would find lots of chicken bones that had
yet to be digested? (Honestly, I can't believe I'm saying
this....must be the researcher in me ;-)).
Another
important point (I think) is that my bitch is a "wolfer"....she
only chews what must be reduced in size to pass through her
throat. My other 3 Danes chew their chicken. Perhaps it was
just my turn.
I've had Danes for 11 years without a single bloat incident.
In addition to seeking unbiased, calm, opinions, I do think
our incident should be a warning. For the past year, I along
with everyone else on this list have read nothing but..."I
have been feeding large pieces of chicken to my dogs for X
amount of time, WITH ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS". I even
recall folks stating that their dogs also swallow chicken
pieces whole, WITH ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS".
In
his book, Ian B. says something to the effect "I have
observed hundreds of dogs on this diet for many years...dogs
that are regularly fed whole chicken's, WITH ABSOLUTELY NO
PROBLEMS". These kinds of statements can create a false
sense of security in some people....people only looking to
provide their dogs with the best possible food they can. In
effect, we're all experimenting on our dogs with this "new"
way of feeding. We hope the risks we take in our experimentation
will outweigh the benefits. I'm so very sorry my bitch had
to pay for my "experimentations". In the least,
perhaps people who feed "wolfers" raw chicken pieces
should have enough money set aside for emergency bloat surgery
-- my estimated bill is $1,000.
FWIW,
I intend to plunge ahead with the "natural" foods
for my dogs. However you can bet your bippie it won't include
any more raw chicken bones (to answer the inevitable question
that wings and/or necks probably wouldn't cause this problem
-- wings, at $1.08/LB are out of my budget with 4 Danes and
necks are unavailable in my area. Besides, I don't think I
could even take the slight chance that wings/necks might cause
this problem again).
Joanne Blair
I, for one, greatly appreciate and commend you making this
post! You bring to realistic light some very important issues.
Feeding a raw food and especially raw bones diet requires
a lot of relatively intense involvement on the part of the
owner/feeder. This list has been good at reiterating that
the raw diet is not without risk, but we consider the consequences
and accept the risk as worth the results and better than the
alternatives. I agree with your statement about those "absolutely
no problems" statements creating false security. Only
ONE problem would be too many for me since it only takes once
(and I have only one dog).
It's
important we continually consider the risks when we feed.
By that I mean that we really know our pet and continually
watch and learn. Watch your dog and know what kind of an eater
each one is. Watch the food you choose to feed.
It
took me a long time to finally take the risk and give my IG
a chicken wing. I cautiously gave in to the "it's completely
safe" statements and tried it, twice. Guess what? NO
problems. She did fine. But I didn't. What I learned from
that brief "experiment" is that my little toy dog
is also a "wolfer." She broke a section in half
and swallowed it. The wing was gone in 3 cracks, in 6 pieces.
No crunching up the bones here. I took a look at the other
half about to be swallowed and it was indeed very sharp. It
was not crunched. She digested it just fine but I couldn't
do it again. I wasn't comfortable with how she ate the bones.
I could have just kept on feeding them, because, you know,
there were absolutely NO problems, but I think that would
have been wrong on my part. My dog didn't eat the bones the
way I believe she should to remain safe. I know lots of people
with toy dogs feed wings. Great! My IG will never get a wing
again. NOT because there were any problems, but because I
think the potential was there.
As
long as there are other ways of feeding those fabulously healthy
chicken bones, why push the package? I DO feed chicken necks.
I watch her every feeding and see she does crunch those up.
If I ever feel uncomfortable with that, I'll quit necks. If
I were in Joanne's position, I'd do the same. There are alternative
ways to "feed" bones. I started grinding up the
whole chicken (as well as rabbit and lamb riblets), bones
and all, to supply other nutrients not in the necks. So I
have to brush her teeth every day - big deal. Small price
to pay for a safely healthy dog.
BARF
diet is wonderfully healthy. I'm convinced of that. But not
every dog can do it right. Regardless of what they are "designed"
to eat, some do it carelessly. Regardless of others success,
as your dog's caretaker you need to know more than what you
are doing, but also what they are doing. Know your dog. You
need to know what risk you can tolerate, but more importantly
you need to know your pet.
I used to feel like maybe I chickened out on the chicken wings.
But thanks to Joanne's post, I'm happy I did! And thanks,
Joanne, for sharing a tough story.
Lydia Driscoll
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