a caution against feeding frozen food

Status
Not open for further replies.

Stub

Completely Boxer Crazy
Gus has eaten frozen meats lots of times with no troubles. But yesterday morning I gave him (without thinking) about half a pound of meat straight from the deep freeze downstairs. He chewed it apart and ate it. A few minutes later he was pacing around looking like he had to vomit, but he never did. Then he started shivering violently. I quickly warmed (just lukewarm) some raw goats milk and gave him that to help thaw the mess in his belly. Later in the day we went hiking in the woods and he pooped a black, bloody mess. With bright red blood as well. I was pretty upset, thinking I had totally destroyed his gut by 'freezer burning' the insides. And there was NOTHING anyone could do about it if I had. I fasted him overnight and gave him only a little chicken broth at intervals this morning. Later we went for a walk and he pooped. A very tiny amount considering he hadn't eaten for 24 hours by this point, but the good news was it was normal color and solid. I still fasted him (except for broth and a little goats milk this afternoon) until tonight, when I gave him a TINY (like, 1/4 cup) bit of meat in his bowl. If he does OK with that he can go back to normal meals tomorrow. But I will never EVER feed him frozen meat again!!!!!
 

Kisaq

Super Boxer
Poor Gus!! That must have scared the be-hoozy out of you.

I'm glad he seems to be feeling better.
 

Jan

Reasonable Moderator
Staff member
Poor Gus! I hope he is feeling better today.

From what I understand a lot of people feed their dogs frozen food. It is not anything that I would want to do. When I fed raw, I always thawed it first. It may have occasionally been a bit icy. :(

Did the meat have bone in it? I wonder if it could have scratched his tummy. The think the black would indicate that he bled in the stomach or upper GI tract and the bright red would indicate bleeding much lower down, near the exit. :( It doesn't make sense to me why he would bleed in both places if it was from the food being frozen. Hopefully, it was nothing serious and he has fully recovered.
 

chrystel

Boxer Insane
awwwwww... Good thinking on your part for warming up some fluids to give him!

I never gave anything frozen, thinking it wouldn't have any flavor.

Glad he is better now! lovicon and thanks for the warning! always appreciated! :)
 

Stub

Completely Boxer Crazy
Did the meat have bone in it? I wonder if it could have scratched his tummy. The think the black would indicate that he bled in the stomach or upper GI tract and the bright red would indicate bleeding much lower down, near the exit. :( It doesn't make sense to me why he would bleed in both places if it was from the food being frozen. Hopefully, it was nothing serious and he has fully recovered.

there was no bone, it was just ground venison. I'm sure the freezing of his stomach caused irritation all through his gut. My poor baby! I still have not given him a full-size regular meal. Last night I gave him a little more venison about 6 hours after the first tiny bit (no bone or anything else added) and he is doing fine. This morning's breakfast was goats milk and broth. We haven't walked yet today due to rain (and, lets face it, sheer laziness on my part. It's my first day off in 3 weeks!) but I am going to take him out in a little bit and see if he poops and how it looks. Not that there is much in him to go through!

I'm still pretty upset that i caused him hurt just from not thinking!!
 

TysonCheeto

Completely Boxer Crazy
Poor Gus! I hope he is feeling better today.

From what I understand a lot of people feed their dogs frozen food. It is not anything that I would want to do. When I fed raw, I always thawed it first. It may have occasionally been a bit icy. :(

Did the meat have bone in it? I wonder if it could have scratched his tummy. The think the black would indicate that he bled in the stomach or upper GI tract and the bright red would indicate bleeding much lower down, near the exit. :( It doesn't make sense to me why he would bleed in both places if it was from the food being frozen. Hopefully, it was nothing serious and he has fully recovered.
This is the first I've seen your avatar change Jan, LOVE IT!

I'm so sorry about Gus!!! While I was reading I found myself holding my breath! That's so awesome your so knowledgeable. I would have freaked out for sure.

Don't beat yourself up too bad :) your good to him!! At least you knew what to do! That's Definitely more then I can say I could have done. Sounds like you have made him comfortable :)

I understand the guilty feeling, one time I gave my 16 month old niece sour milk in her little cup, she was throwing up for the rest of the afternoon. :( I felt awful!! The date on the milk was good!!! But when she got sick....it was clearly sour milk from the smell so I smelled the gallon and it was absolutely sour!!!! Everybody said not to feel bad
, but every time her little body got sick I wanted to cry!

But you love him...So understood!! But they always recover faster then we do, they always forget about it but we're still left upset about it :(
 

Roge

Boxer Insane
Wow I didn't even know that you could feed frozen.. That was some fright to get but you handled it well id have been pacing the house in tears if it were me..
Hope he recovers soon.
 

Stub

Completely Boxer Crazy
Thanks everyone! I am happy to report that last night he had a full regular meal with no trouble. And even a couple cookies at bedtime. So it looks like he is good to go. No more frozen ever. If he has to wait a few hours or miss a meal, so be it!!!!

That was the original problem, he refused the food that was thawed that had fish in it. He HATES fish but had been eating this mince. But over the last few meals he had been more and more reluctant. So when he refused breakfast even with an egg in it, I went downstairs to sort out the deep freeze and see how much I had left and what other meats I had for him. That's when I found the little package of venison and gave it to him, not thinking about how it was the deep freeze. He had eaten lots of frozen meals from the little, not-so-cold freezer over the fridge, in the past. But no more! I'm going to keep giving him broth and goats milk with his meals for awhile, just to make sure he's healed up. Goats milk has lots of probiotics as well, I think he might need them after being frozen inside!
 

LILYLARUE

Boxer Insane
I feed frozen ribs, or things I know they have to really chew up. If I have a pack of frozen chicken pieces, I thaw enough that I can separate the pieces. I don't feed frozen bone-in pieces unless they are chewable ribs or entire legs like deer legs where they can't swallow it whole.

I would think that ground meat has a lot of room for air and chunks to freeze solid and cause more sharper edges within the mass. More solid chunks of meat has less air space like a roast or loin.

Frozen chunks of meat are safe, I just make sure it's a large chunk that they need to really work at it, that it can't be swallowed whole, and needs to be chewed apart first.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top