problems with raw bones - Page 1

I just talked to a friend of mine that had to take her boxer to the vet. It seems that she was feeding a raw diet veggies, raw meat and bones ect ect...... but the dog was having problems breaking down /passing the bones and became impacted.

I have not heard of this before has anyone else?

Could this be why vet are so against raw diets/bones?

Impaction typically occurs when the dog ingests too many green bones. The majority of the bone is not digestable, and the softened fragments are passed in the stool. The stomach's acid softens the bones to a "rubbery" state and extracts some nutrients from them, but they are never completely broken down. The danger is when many softened peices clump together and form a plug (impaction) that cannot pass through the small intestine. 

I think it is one of those things where one must be prudent and observe the size and quantity of bone fragments ingested by the dog. Of course some dogs may not produce enough stomach acid to perform the task, or may swallow the bones in very large pieces.

Regards,

Bob-O

Which creates a question for those that feed raw.  Would using the big knuckle type bones for recreational chewing and keep teeth clean, then using bone meal for mixing in the food be a good alternative?  No small bones to worry about sharp edges or impaction.  Big bones to keep teeth clean.   What are your thoughts?

Thanks Bob-O  I will pass this on to her

you learn something new everyday or at least I do

I have feed RMB's for many years now and currently have 9 (the least dogs we've had a for a long while).  My dogs don't get large knuckle bones because they keep their teeth clean chewing the the food they are given.  They also receive nutrients from these bones.

Also the harder load bearing bones can be very tough and break teeth.  That said I know dogs love to gnaw on a big bone so if I wasn't giving them lovely chewy food would probably give them a big bone if I could get them. 

Going back to the original subject some dogs do have a problem with too much bone.  I have one that gets constipated even if she has meat with ground bone in it.  She gets fed meat without bone and a lot more of the rich stuff like lung, liver, kidney and tinned oily fish than the others do.  With this diet as with many their is no 'one size fits all'.

Jess