I bought a bag of bones from a butcher on Thursday and boiled them and gave them to my dogs. The older a staff has been sick quite a lot since and a lot of little bones are coming up can you advise me should i feed him or what thanks

Contact your vet now, without delay. There's a good chance the cooked bones (which he can't digest) have caused an obstruction. If this is the case, he requires immediate attention. It's a good rule to never give cooked bones to dogs.

Hilary: never give cooked bones to dogs. Raw bones - good. Cooked bones - dangerous. Give plenty of raw chicken wings, chicken necks, in fact whole chicken carcasses if you like. Other raw bones are fine. Raw meat is fine. Raw anything is fine within reason. Your dog will be healthier and happier on a raw meaty bone based diet.

Hi, Hilary,
Cooked small bones - eg poultry and rabbit bones - are dangerous and can cause penetration of the bowel wall as well as causing an obstruction. The best bones to give are big beef bones,raw, although even these can cause a mild obstruction if they are from a young animal and your dog gnaws away at them and ingests what is virtually 'bone sawdust!'
Sorry, but I do not go along with Richard about the latest fad of feeding 'raw meaty bones'. They provides an unbalanced diet, and small bones CAN splinter, cooked or not.
As well as vomiting bits of bone, your dog may become very consitpated when they reach the other end, and he may need some help in passing them. It was good advice to get some help and advice from your vet.
Walter

Hi Walter, I know we keep crossing swords about the bones and raw food diet, so I won't go on about the advantages yet again, but I would like to make the point that a raw meaty bone based diet is NOT unbalanced, there are thousands of perfectly healthy dogs across the world fed on such a diet, and secondly it's not exactly a 'latest fad' since it was the staple diet of dogs for thousands of years before processed foods came along! It's Hills, Waltham and co that are the latest fad, and our profession has swallowed their blandishments hook, line and sinker. Unfortunately it's our patients that will live to regret it.

Let's agree to disagree, all I can say from my own personal experience is that I have fed my own dogs on both kinds of diets, and they are definitely happier and healthier on a RMB diet. Real meat or processed mush - which would you prefer?

This thread appears to have got mixed up with the MRSA thread.
I will try and get the Webmaster to sort them out.
Walter

My english Bulldog came home sick from a 10 day stay at her vet's kennel. We were on vacaatoin and have taken her there many times. She seems to have a cold. Sneezing, weezing, nose seems to be running just like a human cold. What should I do?

Our long hair dachshund is almost 15 years old. She has recently been diagnosed with Cushings disease. For the past two days she has been coughing and not eating. She only coughs once in a while, not all the time. Do you know what this could be?

My friend's dog has always ate his food really fast and drewled while eating. But recently, we have noticed he will take a few bites then he stops eating and starts to salivate and it turns to foam. Could it be that he maybe bites himself, or could he have something wrong? If there is something wrong, what could it be. The owner has him checked regulary and he is in great shape. He is a white lab and 2 1/2 yrs old. We were also wondering if maybe he is allergic to the food. He feeds him Science Diet. He is going to call his Vet, but we thought maybe this could answer our questions.

Thanks,
Kim

Have you had his teeth checked?

My dog has had a very bad case of very loose BM's and sometimes the stolls are slimy. He can't even hold it in the night. He has not changed diets, as far as I know he has not eaten anything he shouldn't. He is a 4 mth old Rott.... any idea's here! We are going to the vet but still thought someone may have an answer of how we get him back to normal and controlled BM's.
Thank you.

Starve the dog for 24 hours and offer water only . It may be colitis which since you are going to the vet's is treatable. The vet will advise but with hold food until examined (only for 24 hours though!)

We seem to have a whole lot of mixed threads here!

Tina,
Is your dog fully proteceted by Distemper vaccine? The same question goes for Kennel Cough. Did the boarding kennel ask for sight of the vaccination certificates before thay accepted your dog?
What did your vet have to say about it? Does he/she personally supervise the kennel? At least you should have been asked to take your dog back to be seen and treated if necessary.
Walter

Paul,
Your Dachshund probably has some pulmonary congestion arising from fluid retention, a complication that your vet should be made aware of ASAP.
Walter

Kim,
Not likely to be a tooth condition in a 2 1/2 year old labrador. More likely to be a partial obstruction of his throat or gullet. It may well settle down spontaneously. If not, a thorough 'work-up' by your vet may be necessary.

Matthew,
Some Rotties do have 'sensitive' (for want of a better word) stomachs. Careful attention to his diet, following advice from your vet, may help identify what types of food he cannot handle. Any changes need to be made slowly, no 'extras'.
Walter

I have a Bichon Frishe that is 6 months old. She goes to doggie daycare and has had all her shots and has been spayed. Picked her up yesterday from doggie day care and she seemed very tired. Just thought she played very hard. Picked her up at 4pm and she slept all last night and today and still seems very tired. This has made me concerned. She didnt eat at all last night and hardly any today. I have gotten her to drink some. She feels a little hot and her mouth when she licks feels slimy. It never felt that way before when she used to lick me. She did go potty last night once but had very loose stool. Today I cant get her to go potty at all. Any ideas what it could be. I am taking her to the vet tomorrow morning unless you think I should do something now.

my dog is a 1 year old chiwawa, he has ben throwing up, and his nerves is jumping. please tell me what u think is wrong,

Hi, Brenda,
I am sorry but I can offer no advice with so little information to go on.
See your veterinary surgeon as soon as possible.
Walter

Hi, Stephanie,
You do not say where you are calling from, but if you are having the same hot weather as we are where I live, it may be that you 6mo Bicchong has mild heat stroke!
A hot day, a thick coat, vigourous activity can all work together to produce the signs you describe.
Until you see your veterinarian keep her cool and quiet, with plenty of cold water in frequent small quantities.
Walter

hi my sister gave me dog a big chunk of banannaa and now she keep trying to eat grass to be sick and shes being doing it for about an hour but nothings happerning and she cant relax what might be the problem i think the chunk off bannana is stuck somewhere will she be okay?

Hi, Amanda,
i think it very unlikely that banana would cause an obstruction, or even gastritis.
If she does not recover very soon, get her checked by uoir vet.
W

Hi,Dave,
You dog may have a gastritis, or, possibly, a 'foreign body' which he has swallowed and is lying in his stomach. Dogs eat grass to make themselves sick. If it continues much longer, get him checked out by a vet.
W

Hi all, im new, our friends have a male labrador that is just over 1 year old. From what i can gather, this morning the dog started being sick, quite alot, and has also had diorhea (sp*). He also started to foam at the mouth and is fairly subdued. They took him took the vets and they gave him an antibiotic shot and some glucose/saline solution to add to his water. They have since been trying to get him to drink but he keeps vomiting.
He is back at the vets at 9 tomorrow morning but we are all worried about him and his progress this evening, is there anything anyone can suggest doing or what may be the problem??? any help would be very much appreciated (asap!)

thanks
J

Hi, J,

From the signs you describe I think it quite possible that this dog has a bowel obstruction - do your friends know if he is likely to have swallowed somethinG labradors are well known scavengers and will eat all sorts of things from bones to y-fronts!
I think he should be back at the vet ASAP, and possibly have an x-ray examination with a view to identifying an obstruction.
W

dog is throughing up and it is liquid the dogs tounge is white and don'tmove a lot what do i do

Hi, Roger,
You take it to the vet right away.
W

recently got puppy from pound has been treated for kennle cough but still every night she sounds like a cat trying to cough up a fur ball

Hi, Charles,

Kennel cough, like Whooping cough in children, can take 4 to 6 weeks to clear. Your vet should be able to give you more treatment which should help.

W

hi, after some advice. have a 4 and half year old mini schnauzer. he generally very fit and healthy. had gastritis in April and took about a week to totally get over it. since then i would say his stomach has become very sensitive. he keeps being sick sometimes up to four times a day. He was sick this morning after having a couple of his usual shape biscuits which has not happened before. His sick is sometimes yellow with white froth. He usually is fed just once a day but decided to halve his feed and give in the morning too so that his stomach is not empty for too long. Is this helping? Worried that contstantly being sick the acid will affect his throat. Could he have a stomach ulcer? Any advice or ideas?

Although upset tummies are very common, in your dog's particular case this might be a lot more interesting (for me at least). Miniature Schnauzers can get a condition called hyperlipidaemia (lots of fat in the blood). This frequently causes recurrent pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) of which the most common symptom is vomiting and abdominal pain. Get your vet to send blood to a lab for a full profile including cholesterol, triglycerides and lipase which will tell you if there is hyperlipidaemia and possibly if there is pancreatitis. A specific test for pancreatitis - pancreatic specific lipase - can be done to confirm pancreatitis but it may be normal if the dog is not showing symptoms. If your dog has hyperlipidaemia this can easily be treated with a drug called Gemfibriziol (Lopid) in conjunction with marine fish oils and a low fat diet, and this often stops the recurrent bouts of pancreatitis.

Most GP vets would not know about this, so don't give your vet a hard time if this is what it is. Of course there are numerous other potential explanations such as inflammatory bowel disease, liver disease, etc, but this is the first thing I would check in this breed with these particular symptoms.

Hi, my dog is being sick but is eating and drinking. he is fine in himself, playing with my other dogs, he did have this bone chew thing, it isn't bone but shaped like a bone and edible, i thought he might had a bit stuck in his stomach, as the dry food i feed him is a large kibble and he will be sick with that but i gave him some tinned dog food and he has kept it down. but i have changed he dry food so is it possible that it doesn't agree with him? also if he has got a bit of the bone thing stuck will it dissolve naturally?

many thanks

Any dog with vomiting/diarrhoea should be starved for 24 hours and then put on a bland diet eg chicken and rice for a few days then gradually have the normal food re-introduced over a few days. Sudden changes in diet are best avoided and should be introduced gradually as they may upset the stomach. Bones often dissolve or pass through without problems, but not always so if your dog persists in vomiting see your vet.