# Obstruction with Raw Feeding?



## RustyStickers (Mar 13, 2011)

I recently joined this forum and have enjoyed reading about dog food & feeding. I don't feed raw and one of the reasons is fear of an obstruction. I work in a Veterinary clinic and yesterday a dog came in who recently started on a raw diet. He was very lethargic and vomiting. Xrays revealed 2 chicken bones stuck in his colon. Fluids, enema, nothing would make those bones move. Right now, he is in surgery. For those who feed raw, aren't you afraid of an obstruction? My guess is his family will stop feeding raw and return to kibble. After seeing him suffer and spending alot of $$, feeding raw is just too risky to me. Just curious what others think?


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Were the bones from raw chicken? 

What kind of dog?

What kind of chicken bones? 

How old is the dog? 

I've never heard of an obstruction from feeding raw until now. And it honestly doesn't make me worry about feeding raw because I know my dogs are healthier now because of it. I won't ever go back to commercially processed foods.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I don't fear obstruction with raw feeding. A million things can cause an obstruction, and when people fear it it makes me wonder if they also make for certain that every sock, underwear, or stuffie are picked up all the time, too, because things like this are far more common to cause blockages. Chicken bones are HIGHLY digestible, but that doesn't mean that 1/1000000 won't have an issue. Some people are allergic to sunlight. Weird stuff happens. 
I'd be far MORE afraid of: choking on kibble, (it happens!) being subject to a pet food recall due to tainted ingredients, kibble trapping harmful bacteria in my dog's system, ongoing digestive issues, allergies, reoccurring diarrhea, ear infections, itchy paws and groin, malnourishment, yeast infections, nutrient absorption issues, and all the other problems that come with feeding a commercial diet. Nahh, I'll take raw "risks" any day of the week. I'm about as afraid of my dogs getting a blockage from it as I am becoming allergic to the sun. Can it happen? Sure. But I am not losing any sleep!


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## RustyStickers (Mar 13, 2011)

He is an 6 year old Neutered Pitbull. He was feed raw organic chicken on his raw diet. The bones, not sure where on the chicken they are from, are stuck in his colon. The Vet gave him 24 to pass them and after one final exray, nothing.


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## 3Musketeers (Nov 4, 2010)

Details, details. Need to know all the details. Maybe the dog got into the trash and ate some cooked chicken bones, maybe the owners tried to "defrost" the chicken in the microwave, cooking the bones. There are so many things it could have been, which just don't happen on a properly-fed/researched raw diet.

Raw bones are very digestible and while a newly started dog may have trouble with them, they are generally very soft and dull. Not to say it is impossible, anything is possible, heck, a dog is *MUCH *more likely to get an obstruction from rawhide.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Do you know if these bones were given as raw meaty bones? Or bones that were bare of meat? 

There's a chance they did everything by the books. But honestly the chances of this happening to someone doing everything right are rare at best. Like Linsey said there are many things that cause blockages that people let lay all over the house that dogs commonly eat, and get blocked. Not saying that this is a justification for this dogs dilemma. 

I guess the "risk" of something like this happening is not big enough for me to put my dogs at an absolute risk of dental disease, chronic ear infections, big stinky loose stools, decreased muscle mass and dull lack luster coat. 

I'd love to help the people that this happened to. Is there any way you can get them to join up here?


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## Mike916 (Apr 28, 2011)

I started my 5 month old on raw this week and yesterday she passed a whole chicken bone from a back. Is that normal?


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

PuppyPaws said:


> I don't fear obstruction with raw feeding. A million things can cause an obstruction, and when people fear it it makes me wonder if they also make for certain that every sock, underwear, or stuffie are picked up all the time, too, because things like this are far more common to cause blockages. I'm about as afraid of my dogs getting a blockage from it as I am becoming allergic to the sun. Can it happen? Sure. But I am not losing any sleep!


I've lost two dogs that bloated from a stomach full of kibble. I'm much more paranoid about them eating kibble then them eating anything raw. At least I know the raw is going to digest and come out if I give it time. 

When I was working at the vets, we had a Bassett that seemed to routinely come in to have foreign objects removed from him. I can't remember ever removing a bone from a dog though.


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## RustyStickers (Mar 13, 2011)

You are right about Bassets. They will eat just about anything. Mine swallowed a rock several years ago and had to have emergency surgery. It was stuck in his small intestine. We call it the "Mastercard Rock"


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Mike916 said:


> I started my 5 month old on raw this week and yesterday she passed a whole chicken bone from a back. Is that normal?


What kind of bone was it? A long one? What kind of dog do you have?


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## Celt (Dec 27, 2010)

I'm a regular nervous nelly about things, but i can honestly say that i've never worried about raw causing an obstruction. Lots of other worries but not this one. Although being the person i am, i could visualize a bone being gulped down, ending up sideways in the intestines and being unable to be passed. Kinda silly thought, i guess.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

The stomach does amazing things to break down and digest raw meaty bones. My dogs are all guilty of not chewing well and later throwing up a few pieces of bone that were not digested. What can I say about them? They are soft & pliable. Unlike a cooked bone that would be sharp & jagged. 

Without knowing the entire story, it is unfair of us to judge what happened. We do not know the exact cut of meat these people fed their dog, nor do we know how well the dog chewed. We don't know if it was an inappropriate sized piece, or if the dog happened to get into some cooked chicken bones. There's a lot of IF's. 

I bet you can ask everyone of us here who have fed raw or have been feeding raw, and I don't know of ANY of us here who have had an emergency due to something raw related, especially obstruction. And that says a lot. 

Have I been worried about obstruction? Yes. But has it happened to us? No. 

I take caution with what cuts I feed my dogs, supervise them and am confident in what I feed. They do just fine. If I felt raw was a danger, I would certainly not be feeding it OR encouraging it. If raw is fed correctly, it is no more dangerous than any kibble diet out there. 

Just my two cents.


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## JayJayisme (Aug 2, 2009)

Something doesn't add up about this story. I can see that if a dog wasn't properly transitioned it might end up with small bone fragments passing through it's colon from partial digestion of the bone. But "two chicken bones", as in whole bones? Sorry, I don't buy it at face value. 

Either these were cooked bones the dog somehow got a hold of, or whoever is feeding this dog has no clue how to feed raw. A dog should never be given a raw meaty bone that it can swallow without chewing it up first. If the dog can swallow a thigh whole, you give it a quarter. If it can swallow a quarter, you give it a half-chicken. Make it chew first. But even if it swallowed a whole raw thigh or drumstick, I find it hard to believe that the whole bone is intact still. Even my smallest dog, less than 20 lbs., digests chicken bones completely.


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Ya, it makes me wonder, maybe the dog was fed way too much and since it is new to raw just is taking a really long time to digest it. Hmm, idk. I've seen Paris swallow a couple of whole chicken necks and she pooped the next day fine and dandy. The poo was a bit dusty though! That was the end of me giving Paris chicken necks on their own; occasionally she gets them frozen into a 1 lb lump which she has to work on to actually eat.


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## RustyStickers (Mar 13, 2011)

That is really all the detail I have. The owners were very upset and the main goal was to get him to pass the bones. They had good intentions with his diet and it is obvious they love him. I will call the clinic tomorrow (yes, on my day off) to get an update. He is such a sweet dog. I hope his surgery went well and he is on the road to recovery.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

Please keep us posted.

And as Natalie mentioned earlier, it would be great if you could direct the owners of this Boxer to the forums. Maybe we could figure out what went wrong and help them get over the fear of raw. Because it really is fool proof if you understand the ultimate goal. 

I too hope surgery went well and this dog is recovering.


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

That is odd for a dog to just swallow whole bones and have them get stuck. When I first started thinking about raw (before this forum) I gave Tanis some knuckle bones and got a little freaked out when he pooped solid bone. But, they came out and while he struggled a little to get them out he really didn't seem phased by it at all. I guess I'm lucky that he's a good chewer. He LOVES to crunch through RMBs.


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

I had a dog that died from multiple intestinal ruptures from eating a sock... He died before they could get him into surgery. Bones... I don't worry about. They've been eating this way for thousands of years, there is absolutely no reason to believe that YES it can happen, often not hardly. will it happen again to another dog sure... there are risks involved sure, but there are risks with everything, and feeding my dog the best diet available the small risk of a blockage or puncture is the least of my worries.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Mike916 said:


> I started my 5 month old on raw this week and yesterday she passed a whole chicken bone from a back. Is that normal?


It's not uncommon for a newly switched dog to pass bone fragments. You will see less and less of them as time passes and his body adjusts to digesting real food. It's not a big deal.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Both my dogs have swallowed whole chicken drumsticks before with no ill effect. Never saw those drumsticks or any small part of them again.


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## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

RustyStickers said:


> You are right about Bassets. They will eat just about anything. Mine swallowed a rock several years ago and had to have emergency surgery. It was stuck in his small intestine. We call it the "Mastercard Rock"


Yep they can get things stuck of all kinds. My Bullmastiff when I first got her was 9 months old and would try to swallow socks, under ware and once I found my garden glove had passed all the way through, and no I didn't us it again. I was thinking I would have something get stuck but what do you do except try to keep things put up. She stopped this behavior thank the good Lord. My Pitbull jumped up in the pickup the other day and got in the garbage and ate cooked chicken bones, oh well. Did it scare me, well a little but if I fretted about everything that my dogs put in there mouth they would have to send me to the nut house.

Also when I go for walks there are all kinds of dead antelope, sheep, cattle and even horse bones where we walk. I worry much more about them because even though they were raw at one point they are old and sit out in the sun and, well cooked. Also they are not picky and chew on the bigger bones but what do I do, yell at them all the time. It makes them happy, what ever comes what may.

So it's not that I don't worry but not any more than I do for other things, and what is it that if someone does have a problem with raw they are so quick to pin it on the raw.But if the dog eats rocks well they just say you try to keep them from rocks do some training, get a hamper with a lid it's not your fault you have a weird dog. But if you try to give your dog the food it was meant to eat , well your a bad person it's YOUR, fault, see what YOU, did. Bad Bad Bad person........ Now go let your dog eat rocks. Sorry I just had to.

And I think your Basset has the cutest face. I wish mine had a more Basset face, love it. I think I have seen you on a Basset sight. I don't go there all that often.


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## Mike916 (Apr 28, 2011)

She is a 5 month old bully mix about 30lbs. I had been feeding chicken backs for the previous 3 days. When I went to pick up her poop there was a skinny 3 inch bone. Poops have been pretty dusty have to add more meat or less bone I think.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

Mike916 said:


> She is a 5 month old bully mix about 30lbs. I had been feeding chicken backs for the previous 3 days. When I went to pick up her poop there was a skinny 3 inch bone. Poops have been pretty dusty have to add more meat or less bone I think.


 Yes, I would add some chicken meat to her diet along with the chicken back, she's getting too much bone at this point, don't add a lot just some boneless meat to go along and go from there and see how her poo is.


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## TuckersMom (Apr 27, 2011)

RustyStickers said:


> That is really all the detail I have. The owners were very upset and the main goal was to get him to pass the bones. They had good intentions with his diet and it is obvious they love him. I will call the clinic tomorrow (yes, on my day off) to get an update. He is such a sweet dog. I hope his surgery went well and he is on the road to recovery.


Poor baby  I hope he's okay too!


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