RawHide Chews are they dangerous?

[cheri marshall]

I get soup bones from the grocery store for my dogs. They are sliced fairly thin (Half inch to an inch thick) so they can gnaw out the marrow, but they don't damage their teeth on them. After the marrow and the little bit of meat are gone, they leave the bone alone.

 

[PawPrintBoxers]

My guys only get pressed rawhide and only when I am watching. I put them up the minute I leave the room and throw them away when they start to get small and swallowable. Like others, I prefer the large beef knuckle bones and go to the butcher for them. My Boxers will suck the marrow like a milkshake through a straw...LOL.

I learned a valuable lesson about the rawhides with the large knuckles. Many years ago, Crystal was chewing on one. I left the room. I heard a sound and went to investigate it. Crystal was choking. It was so obvious she could not breathe and was trying to swallow the knuckle; it was too big.

Let me repeat: She was choking!

I freaked out and started crying what to do. I decided to try the Hymlick (sp?) maneauver on her. I pushed into her gut, just below the ribs. I made short jabs with two fingers from each hand. After the 3rd jabs, POP out flew the knuckle!! Crystal started to breathe and I just broke down into hysterical sobs :(

So while I do believe the Boxers need chewies, they only get pressed and only when I am in the room with them to supervise. They are good about it and are just thrilled to get their chewies.

 

[Jen&Scott]

Nylabone make a supposedly "safe" kind of rawhide bone called Roar-hide. They grind the rawhide into rice-sized pellets and then bake it into a bone shape. It's fairly hard, but still edible. It's sold in the aisle alongside the other edible Nylabone brand bone (carrot bones, bacon bones, etc). They're a natural leather, kind of brownish color. They're kind of expensive, I think, for something your dog is going to eat.

We used to give them to our dogs, but haven't in a long time because Oscar can't have stuff like that because of his colitis/IBD, so the other dogs have to go without :( .

The other thing I've read about regular raw-hide is about all the awful chemicals (like formaldehyde) they use when making it.

There's also a kind of hard, chewy bone made by Pedigree called Denta-bone (I think) that we've given the dogs in the past. They seem to like them. They're less expensive than Roar-hide, but don;t last as long. I think I've even seen these for sale at Walmart.

Jen

 

[Barron's mom]

I was advised by my vet to give my boxer compressed rawhide.
I have given my boxer compressed rawhide, yet supervise him when he is chewing on it and take it away from him when it gets
to the point where I feel it is unsafe.

 

[Linda/NJ]

I don't think so. We had a bad experience in the past. When Ginger was a puppy, we always gave her these rawhides. She would spit them up and I think swallowed pieces too big. The bad experience was something called "booda velvets" it was square in shape. Well you try and watch them every second but this time I did not see her swallow this one. She was sick for about a week or so, not eating, just not herself. We took her to the vet, he took an x-ray and did not see any blockages. Well he sent us home and said it should pass soon. Sure enough, 1 week later, she threw this thing up! Fine after that. Ever since that episode, I will not give her rawhide, pigs feet or anything similar.

Linda & Erik
Ginger - 6-4-97
Flashy fawn - natural ears

 

[kay85]

Another thing you have to be careful with when giving them chews is bacteria. I gave my baby a bully stick chew and it made her very very sick. I thought she was going to die. I took her to the vet and they said the chew that I had given her probably had some bacterial growth on it, which can happen to chews. I will never again give her a chew like that, or rawhide or pigs ears (he also told me pigs ears are very bad for their stomach also). I buy the natural edible chews in carrot flavor and chicken flavor, etc. I also go to the butchers and buy her rib bones, she absolutely loves them and after she is done sucking on them and eating the meat off, she is done with them. I have heard raw bones are better for them than boiled bones because they do not splinter like the cooked bones do.

I learned my lesson the hard (and expensive) way. I don't give rawhides or any other kind of chews of that nature to my baby. I felt so bad for her, she was so so sick. :(

 

[KC]

:( Problem with nylabones for me is - it takes my girls about two minutes to chew them and eat them . . . seems such a waste of $$. I had no idea the rawhide was so dangerous - I'll be removing the giant rawhide bone from the house when I get home!! But, I KNOW my girls need to chew - so what else can I try?? The only other thing I've had for my girls is a very tough boiled beef bone from Petsmart that had the consistency of concrete. Do they chip? Are they safe? I would just DIE if my girls choked!! You know, strange this is - Lexy never ate rawhides, she'd just chew until they were nasty and then I'd throw them away. Then we got Bailey Bug and she (having a starved/rescue background) ate them whole once or twice - so, Lexy started eating them to keep Bailey from getting them. So, we stopped giving the small square ones and only give the giant ones with knots on the ends - but I can see why those are still dangerous! Maybe I'll try soupbones - by that do you mean what we southern folks would call a hamhock??

 

[danelle]

I used to give mine rawhide bones all the time, but then I saw Creed in action with one. He got it all gummy and nearly choked. So now I buy soup/knuckle bones. They love those! And they are sooooo much cheaper. I can buy 4 or 5 of them for the price of 2 rawhide bones and we all know how they like to chew!

 

[Barron's mom]

I asked my new vet about compressed rawhide and she said any rawhide manufactured outside the USA should be avoided because it contains formaldehyde.