Dogs, cooked bones, evidence based?

[otolith]

I have a casserole cooking, containing amongst other things the meat and bones from yesterday's slow roasted shoulder of lamb. I can see a large furry chap who would like nothing better than to be given the scapula from the lamb when I'm done. He's not getting it, because the orthodoxy is that a cooked bone is dangerous, but is there any clinical evidence for this?

He gets lots of raw bone and does actually get cooked bones sometimes, when I've made chicken stock and the bones are soft enough to crush between my fingers, and he has very occasionally had cooked bones I would not give him because he is a thieving bin-dipping scavenging git, but is there quantitative clinical evidence that this is risky? The junior vet at our surgery doesn't think dogs should have any bones at all, but the practice owner is an old school South African bloke who has a more robust and practical idea of pet care. I will ask him about this next time I see him, but does anyone know how evidence based the usual advice is?

[Gargamel]

No idea about evidence based scientific analysis.

Anecdotally I can tell you I feed mine cooked lamb shank bones, the occasional venison leg, and she sometimes has a chicken leg .

The evidence so far is she is fine....

[otolith]

Quite, I have friends who routinely give their dog the bone out of a roast leg of lamb - but I'm trying to get an idea of how the numbers stack up, how large the risks actually are.

I do wonder how much the perception of risk is skewed by small or brachycephalic breeds.

[Jasandjules]

Risks of splinter of cooked bones is quite high. Quite a few animals get them stuck each year (cats and dogs). Indeed, a fair few of the alleged raw fed dogs that require surgery were in fact fed cooked bones.

RAW bones however, different ball game. That is what they are designed to eat.

[otolith]

The impression I get is that there is some risk involved with raw or cooked, but the perception is that cooked is significantly more dangerous - I'm trying to get to whether that belief is evidence based or not.

I quite happily accept the risk of raw, the question is really whether cooked is like eating oysters or smoking cigarettes.

[bexVN]

I Obviously I can only tell you of cases we see, treat and sometimes lose due to bones. How many are fine compared to those that aren't I don't know.

So from.the dog that bled out from its rectum due to cooked bone fragments and died, to the one that pierced its intestines and survived peritonitis to the Westie that got a cooked bone stuck down its throat and needed referral to remove it to the mild ones that have just needed enemas to remove the impacted bones, there is a range of possible issues. You just need to decide whether you want to chance it or not.

All cooked bones the above except the constipation that has been with raw bones aswell.

Edited by bexVN on Monday 23 February 21:36

[otolith]

Bex, how many problems have you seen with raw bones, and how often were larger, "dog-shaped" breeds affected?

[bexVN]

otolith said:

Bex, how many problems have you seen with raw bones, and how often were larger, dog-shaped breeds affected?

Edited my post after this, if I remember correctly all the I mentioned were cooked bones, though we have treat
treated constipation in dogs that had eaten raw, the one lodged in its throat I can't remember so well but I think it was cooked.

All shapes and sizes doberman, collie cross, Westie, cairn.

[otolith]

Interesting, thank you. Someone really needs to collect some stats!

[bexVN]

There probably is somewhere. Not feeding cooked bones has been a known for many many years. The above are just those that sprung to mind when I read your post. I'm sure there have been quite a few more over my career that I have forgotten.

[Spitfire2]

Having seen the pain of a pet who had eaten cooked bones it just isn't worth the risk.

[Jasandjules]

OP, take a cooked chicken wing and bend it - you will see it snap and be sharp. Now do the same with a raw bone. You will see a marked difference.

There are few studies into raw- pet food companies won't pay for studies to show that natural food is better for the dogs!! But I've only heard of raw being a problem when the animal swallows something whole - small dogs and whole chicken wings inhaled for example.

BTW even raw hide can be an issue.

[jmsgld]

I've seen various "proper dogs" get impacted from eating too much bone in one sitting, especially when they're not used to it, as previously mentioned cooked bone splinters and the splinters are sharp, there's no need for any further evidence. In the same way as if you accidentally dropped a couple of needles into 20kg of meat it would not be wise to give it to the dog, sure it would probably be ok but you'd feel pretty rotten if it perforated the gut and the dog died from peritonitis...

[scdan4]

jmsgld said:

I've seen various "proper dogs" get impacted from eating too much bone in one sitting,......

We've given up with giving our dog bones for exactly this reason.

She's a big girl (45Kg) so tends to be given biggish bones, but even something smallish like a lamb bone (which lasts her 2 maybe 3 minutes) will have a pronounced effect.

She lays eggs. On the next days walk she'll take 4 or 5 steps, crouch to dump, wait, wait then yelp as the "egg" thumps on the floor. She'll then walk 4 or 5 more steps and repeat the process. If it was a big bone it would take a long time to get round the block. It clearly is uncomfortable for her and just 'not fair' on her iyswim.

The eggs are like rocks - heavy and very hard. This is from raw bones - and she clearly is a bit 'special' in this regards as none of our previous mutts has done it.