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This page questions the SAFETY of feeding whole BONES to dogs. Feeding raw foods such as meat, eggs, fish, fruit and vegetables can be tremendously beneficial to dogs and cats. Raw foods retain many health-enhancing benefits that cooked foods may lack. ThePetCenter encourages pet owners to look into the advantages and disadvantages of feeding raw foods. If you "do it yourself" by composing a homemade diet for your pets you must be very careful that the amounts and ratios of nutrients are correct. The eventual effects of deficiencies, imbalances and over-supplementing a diet may not show detrimental effects in an animal for months after an improper diet has been fed.
There are people who will tell you that feeding bones is natural and healthy for dogs, and that feeding bones promotes clean teeth and aids the nutritional status of the animal. Well, mushrooms are natural, too, and certain kinds will kill a dog if eaten. Pine trees are alive with vital cellular nutrients of all kinds, but does that imply that we should grind up pine trees and feed them to our pets in order to provide their "vital nutrients" to our pets? It is my belief that feeding bones to dogs is not perfectly safe to do. Many experienced and knowledgeable veterinarians feel the same. Yes, there are some veterinarians who encourage the feeding of raw, whole bones. Pet owners must decide for themselves what really makes sense and what just seems like a good thing to do. Lets go right to the first x-rays, below left, and I will show you a case that was presented to Dr. Ray Goodroad in Rhinelander, Wisconsin in December, 1998. This hound of about 75 pounds was found by his owner feeding on a dead deer carcass. The dog became very lethargic, attempted unsuccessfully to vomit and pass stool, and was dehydrated. This dog was feeding NATURALLY on RAW BONES and you can see the results.
This dog was straining to pass stool, was weak and dehydrated when presented to the veterinarian, and had a history of raiding the neighbor's garbage cans. Both dogs required four days in the hospital, anesthesia and sedation, repeated enemas, iv fluid therapy, antibiotics, and additional x-rays. If this treatment approach wasn't successful, major surgery would have been necessary to save the dogs from an agonizing death. Now, for those of you who state with confidence that "Wolves in the wild eat bones all the time; so it must be OK for dogs to do the same", I would ask you this... How can you state with authority that wolves are NOT occasionally harmed by a bone splinter? Hardly anyone ever sees even a healthy wolf, how much more unlikely would it be to happen upon a sick wolf when being a "sick wolf" is equivalent to a swift death sentence! We don't get many opportunity to do autopsies on dead wolves.
As well as creating the chance for major problems, such as death, gnawing on bones often results in the cracking of the tips of the 4th premolars. These cracked teeth can lead to root infections and SUBORBITAL ABSCESSES that require tooth reconstruction or extraction. the nutritional benefits from feeding bones to your dog are derived from the soft tissues attached to the bone such as meat, cartilage, fat and connective tissue... Bone is composed of minerals that are common in many ordinary foods. The scant protein matrix in bone is mainly collagen and dogs can't digest and assimilate collagen! So where's all that great nutritional benefit that is supposed to be coming from the actual "bone" really coming from? It comes from the meat, cartilage, fat and connective tissue that happens to be along for the ride.
Very nutritious foods are available, some have ground bone as part of the recipe and the ground bone poses no threat. The photos below (click on them to see the full view) show a common occurrence where a bone fragment has broken and lodged between the upper molars. These dogs are in acute stress and need attention immediately. Fortunately, these cases resolve easily simply by removing the bone manually.
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