Bones are extremely dangerous for your dogs and should not be a part of their diet. The Animal Welfare Society of South Africa (AWS) has once again warned pet owners not to feed their furry friends bones because of how deadly they can be.
In the Facebook post, AWS asked: ARE BONES SAFE FOR DOGS?
“Placing your dog on a “financial diet” that includes bones may prove to be very costly.Cooked bones should always be off-limits as they become brittle and can splinter into sharp shards that cause a lot of damage.All bones (raw or cooked) can get stuck in your dog’s throat with devastating consequences so they should always be monitored when they are chewing on bones.
“Raw bones are generally safer than cooked but the devil is in the details so to prevent accidents from happening we would caution against feeding bones of any sort.Chicken bones are particularly dangerous and should never be fed to your dog.
“If you notice your dog chewing on a bone never try and snatch it away as that may cause them to swallow it with potentially fatal consequences.So before you succumb to those droopy eyes and drooling smiles at the dinner table and “give a dog a bone” please do consider the potential dangers,” warned AWS.
Five reasons why you should not feed your dogs bones:
- It causes fractured teeth: Bones are too hard and dense for dogs to chew on and this could easily cause your pet to fracture their teeth resulting in a lot of pain. The more dogs chew on bones, the more they wear their teeth down which could cause a painful condition.
- Mouth Lacerations: The sharp edges of bones, more especially chicken bones, tend to cut their gums and tongues which cause serious infections and lead to expensive Vet visits.
- Bone pieces get stuck in their throats: Dogs frequently choke on bones because it is not meant to be part of their diet. The rigid pieces ladder your animal’s throat and get lodged across, often leading to serious choking and even death.
- Damaging to the stomach: When small pieces of bone travel through their stomachs it gets caught in the small intestine and creates a tear to the gastrointestinal tract. Bones also get trapped in the stomach and have to be surgically removed.
- Bones can cause diarrhoea: Jagged bones grate your dog’s inside as they pass through when ingested. This can cause bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract and lead to diarrhoea with or without blood.
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