Raw bones, can they be harmful? - Page 2

I'm learning a lot here....

I used to feed the huge bones - the huge knuckle bones and/or the huge marrow bones.  Worked great EXCEPT for the 2 GSD I have now.  They simply eat them.  Fast.  Their jaws crack them and they simply eat them.  There's nothing I've tried that would last for hours, no way in heck for "months!"  I wouldn't have believed it if anyone told me but I've seen it, so now those two don't get them anymore.  The bone chips they swallow would be a disaster waiting to happen.  The other dogs love 'em, but for two of mine they're totally off limits.  I do let those two have raw chicken leg quarters, chicken backs, and oxtails, though, but no longer give them the huge bones.

Thanks for the great advice everyone. I checked and they are not weight bearing bone or marrow bones.........just good RMBs. That put my mind at ease.

She seems perfectly fine, so I will not worry. 

 

Thanks again to all who replied.

My dogs have some type of bone every day,chicken backs, lamb ribs, beef ribs or beef brisket I buy them fresh each week from my butcher and have never had a problem (say I with fingers crossed) but I never feed the weight bearing bones they just keep munching those until the knuckle is gone. Never ever heard of a dog having one of those for weeks or months.

 Back before I knew about feeding raw to my dogs I had a male who could eat a frozen cows knuckle bone in 20 minutes.  No one believed me and I won quite a bit of money betting on him.  Now I don't feed weight bearing bones to adults, only teething or younger puppies.

LOL!  I wouldn't take that bet now, but you might've won some of my own money before I had two of my own bone-chompers. 

marrow bones wear down teeth significantly (aside from possible cracking teeth), and they should only be given to teething puppies.  

chickadee:  if you don't normally feed raw, and you throw your dog a marrow bone, the marrow will cause explosive runs.  this is one of the reasons you scoop a good part of the marrow out before giving those bones to puppies.

knuckle bones are good recreational bones, and if you need them to last longer, you can feed them frozen.  just make sure the bones are cut as close to the knuckle as possible.  

ox tails are also great, they can eat the whole thing, and they're meaty.

you have to know what kind of a chewer your dog is.  not every bone will be great for every dog.  this is the most common mistake that people make.  if you don't pay attention to how your dog chews bones, you can potentially be causing a problem. it's user error...and that's why there are people (not everyone, or anyone specific, just in general) saying "i'll never feed raw or give my dog bones"

Has anyone experienced pancreasitis with a GSD from marrow bones???.

We had a Golden Retriever years ago that had a marrow bone each Saturday, he loved them but a pattern developed by early Monday morning he had diarreha and had vomited. These episodes of illness became worse each week until the last time he was in a lot of pain and as "sick as a dog" so to speak.

We took him to the vet who gave him morphine for the pain and kept him in overnight to monitor his progress. The vet asked after examining him, "has he had any marrow bones"???, which he had weekly. He explained that the marrow in the bone can effect the pancreas in some dogs and advised beef bones instead.

We never gave him a marrow bone after that where he lived to a good age of 15 years old without ever another digestive issue of that severity. That was back in 1992 and have never given our dogs marrow bones since??.