Dogs and the Internet - What You Don't Know Might Kill Them And You

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/05/19/caution-bones-can-kill-your-dog-find-out-which-ones-are-safe.aspx

The title of this page is "Bones Can Kill Your Dog - Find Out Which Ones Are Safe".  The following is posted on this page:

“Some people think it’s safe to give dogs large bones, like those from a ham or a roast,” says Dr. Carmela Stamper, a veterinarian in the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. “Bones are unsafe no matter what their size. Giving your dog a bone may make your pet a candidate for a trip to your veterinarian’s office later, possible emergency surgery, or even death.”

Dr. Becker's Comments:

The FDA doesn’t make clear whether their warning extends to all bones or just cooked bones, so I’ll assume for purposes of the information I’m about to give you they’re discussing only bones from food that has been cooked.

Reading the above, I have the following thoughts:
1. The use of the words "may", "candidate", and "possible" in the last sentence of Dr. Stamper's quote make that sentence suspect.  For example, consider this sentence: Eating peanuts may make you a candidate for heart transplant, possible surgery, or even death.  While this is a true statement, it is highly unlikely that simply eating peanuts will cause serious health risks for you.  When trying to find out if a bone will hurt my dog, this quote does not give me any information that I can base a decision on.  Except that some of the doctors who work for the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine are vague and unhelpful.

2. Dr. Becker's comments state that the information regarding bones isn't clear.  Then, Dr. Becker goes on to "assume" information from the unclear information.  The assumption that Dr. Becker is making, that the FDA is speaking about bones from cooked food, is neither implied nor suggested from the comments.  What is implied is that ALL bones are unsafe, including cooked, uncooked, semi-cooked, over-cooked, and Robin Cooked.  The reason it's implied can be found in the sentence, "bones are unsafe no matter what their size".  The implied word before the word "bones" is "all", not "cooked" or "uncooked".

So I go looking elsewhere.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110613191505AAgwHLt

This website asks what should you do if your dog eats pork bones.  The best answer, as voted on by people who frequent the website answers.yahoo.com is as follows:

Watch for signs of gastric upset vomiting and diarrhea, if this happens call your vet. You will also need to watch for signs of impaction/perforations look for vomiting, diarrhea, not eating (or slowing down eating), lethargy, restlessness and pain... all of these could indicate an emergency and require immediate care

Source:

vet tech 17 yrs

 

Thoughts I have about this

1. This answer has been given by a vet tech of 17 years.  Think about where you work.  Do you work with an idiot?  I do.  And many of the idiots I work with have been working at their current job for 17+ years.  I do not want to take advice from the idiots at my job, especially the kind of idiot who would answer questions on answers.yahoo.com.  Would you like to take advice from the idiots at your work?

 

2. It is suggested that I call my vet if there is vomiting or diarrhea.  It does not tell me how long the symptoms should persist prior to my contacting my vet.  So, the moment the dog has diarrhea I should contact my vet, as this "could indicate an emergency and require immediate care".  Think about diarrhea in humans.  If I have diarrhea, I may have eaten corn.  I also may have rectal cancer, Ebola, AIDS, the flu, or republicanitis (aka, inflammation of the colon). 

 

 

So I keep looking.

 

 

http://www.mothering.com/forum/347-pets/1121944-my-puppy-swallowed-bone-should-i-worry.html

 

This website says it's the home for natural family living.  I am happy about that, because nothing says "Natural Family" like a dog, a bone, and me checking her shit.  Natural family!  member allbrightmama posted the following question:

 

We have a 15 wk old puppy (retriever/aussie mix?) who swallowed a raw lamb chop bone. It was too big to swallow so I gave it to her to chew the yummy bits off and figured I would take it back in a couple of minutes. She wouldn't give it up and she always gives stuff up. I can take kibble right out of her mouth. I offered her some chicken and she swallowed the bone with difficulty and took the chicken. I was surprised and worried.

All of my internet searching has been completely conflicting. I have come to the conclusion that she will either digest it completely or need emergency surgery. She is drinking, peeing and playing but she does seem a bit "off". She seems to be more hyper and distracted than usual alternating with laying in her crate. Usually at this time of night she is calm and active.

At what point do I worry? How urgent would it be if there is a problem? Will I need to get up and check on her during the night? Is there anything I should be doing for her? Would someone without an anxiety disorder be this concerned?

 

My thoughts after reading this:

1. The woman has an anxiety disorder and has not taken her medications.

2. The woman off her meds has found the internet to be as contradictory as I have.

 

Sailor posted this response:

 

I feed my dog raw - bones included. Next time this happens, you can just let her have the whole bone (so long as it's raw). Eventually, she'd probably have chewed it down herself.

I wouldn't worry yet. An obstruction is not hard to diagnose - usually there are obvious signs: fever, lethargy, inability to poop, lack of appetite, vomiting.

I'm pretty sure hyper and distracted aren't symptoms. Don't worry - I'd probably check on her once during the night, simply because I'm cautious like that. But, otherwise, chances are high she'll just digest it.

 

Excellent.  Now I feel guilty about not feeding my dog raw.  I am a horrible pet owner.  Thank you very little, "Sailor".  Through my guilt, I continue down the page.  ScarletBegonias responds:

 

from what i've learned raw bones are okay for dogs, even chicken, but ANY cooked bone can be extremely dangerous.

glad she's settled down!

 

Dammit, that sucks.  Because I cooked my bone, trying to rid the food of harmful toxins, such as botulism, that could be fatal to my dog.  Now I'm really screwed, and my dog is surely dead already.  I continue reading.  Nicole915 responds to Sailor's earlier post:

 

Wow, either you've been in practice as a DVM a LOT longer than I have, or you have the super psychic diagnosis power... I want me some of that! Obstructions can be very difficult to diagnose properly, especially when dealing with raw food items.

Hyperactivity and distraction, along with self isolation can be signs of pain. Every animal is going to react to pain a little differently, and hyperactivity is certainly within the range of reasonable behavior to expect.

It doesn't matter what the substance is, if a swallowed object is mechanically too large to pass through the GI tract, it will cause an obstruction.

Please monitor your dog closely and seek your vet's advice.

*I'm not your veterinarian, and this isn't medical advice*

 

I like the way Nicole915 leads with sarcasm.  One thing I learned from reading "How To Win Friends and Influence People" (besides how to brainwash strangers into liking me and doing my bidding) is that I should lead with sarcasm and insults.  That way, people will want to like me and have sex with me and my dead dog.  Wait... no... maybe I was supposed to lead with candy and orgasms and save the sarcasm for afterwards.  I can't remember anymore.  Crap.  Now I'll never brainwash strangers into doing my bidding, as the name of the book implies.  Ultimately, however, Nicole915 shirks off responsibility for her answer as well, telling me I should seek my vet's advice, and that Nicole915 is not my vet and she is not giving me medical advice.  I feel a little foolish now, taking advice from somebody who wasn't giving me medical advice, who isn't my veterinarian, who doesn't give her credentials on an anonymous internet thread, and who leads with brainwashing techniques.  I'm an idiot.  I wonder where my dog is now...

 

Look, I'm only curious about all this bone crap because my puppy won't poop.  I noticed she pooped yesterday, and today, she's not pooping.  She bent herself into the poop position today 3 times and she didn't poop.  So my wife is concerned.  And now I'm concerned because my wife is freaking out about no dog poop.  I've also noticed the placement of dog poop can have differing effects on my wife: if the dog takes a solid poop outside, she's fine; if the dog takes a liquid poop outside, she freaks; if the dog thinks about pooping inside or moves her body in a way that might produce poop inside, my wife freaks and leaves the state for one hour.  I call those times The Lonely Hours.

 

After reading many, many more websites-- yes, mom, some of them are dedicated to pet health, while some of them are dedicated to people talking to each other... you just gotta get the whole picture and then weigh the information you have-- these are the things that are consistent:

1. Every dog is unique and nobody can accurately diagnose my puppy because they haven't seen my puppy and haven't talked with me.

2. Chocolate is harmful to dogs.

3. Don't get your dog drunk or stoned, not because it's unhealthy for the dog, but because the dog hasn't given consent and doesn't know what's going on.  

4. If I let homosexuals marry each other, straight people will want to have sex with my dog.

 

Regarding this last point, I will not let people have sex with my dog.  Because I'm going to purchase a gun and stop them.  Because, from what I've read on the internet, the only way to stop a bad guy with a penis and a hard-on for my dog is a good guy with a gun.  I'm working on being a good guy.  I'm hoping purchasing a gun will put me over the top.  Cue Kenny Loggins' song "Meet Me Halfway", theme from the Sylvester Stalone movie Over the Top, which taught me that deadbeat fathers who break the law can win the respect of their sons if only they win arm wrestling tournaments after driving across the country in a semi-truck.