things dogs eat

Chupa Cabras · 11-15-2007, 12:58 PM

I'm amazed at the things this puppy will eat. And I'm concerned

Butternut squash: he munches on them regularly. Okay, or not?

Sticks and wood: he actually swallows the pieces, and since he spends a good amount of time outside, I can't stop him. Will they splinter and pierce intestines?

Fabric and stuffing: he shreds toys, blankets, etc. and I can't tell how much he actually swallows. Does this kind of stuff pass through safely?

Wiring: I've found a couple of pieces of plastic-coated wire in his vomit. I know that's not good, but I can't figure out where he's getting it.

Just trying to figure out when I'll make that emergency run to the hospital due to ingesting some bizarre item.

Please share interesting (and frightening) stories you might have.

poodleholic · 11-16-2007, 04:04 AM

Quote:

I'm amazed at the things this puppy will eat. And I'm concerned

Butternut squash: he munches on them regularly. Okay, or not?

I give mine squash, but it's cooked! LOL

Quote:

Sticks and wood: he actually swallows the pieces, and since he spends a good amount of time outside, I can't stop him. Will they splinter and pierce intestines?

BAD, bad, bad. And yes, they could perforate his intestines, and damage his esophagus. You CAN stop him by restricting access, and/or cleaning up your yard so it's free of wood and sticks.

Quote:

Fabric and stuffing: he shreds toys, blankets, etc. and I can't tell how much he actually swallows. Does this kind of stuff pass through safely?

Not always. It can cause a bowel obstruction, which will cause death without surgical intervention, and even then, there's no guarantee. The surgery runs around $2,300 - $3,000.00.

Quote:

Wiring: I've found a couple of pieces of plastic-coated wire in his vomit. I know that's not good, but I can't figure out where he's getting it.

Crate your puppy when you cannot supervise him.

Quote:

Just trying to figure out when I'll make that emergency run to the hospital due to ingesting some bizarre item.

At this rate, it won't be long.

Quote:

Please share interesting (and frightening) stories you might have.

I am happy to be able to say that none of my dogs or cats have ever had emergencies due to ingesting non-edible items. I've puppy-proofed my home, but did learn a valuable lesson when my 4-month old puppy opened the sliding door of my bookcase headboard and chewed my very expensive eyeglasses while I was asleep! I've had friends whose dogs have swalled socks and other items, resulting in expensive surgery. Some lived, others did not.

Chupa Cabras · 11-19-2007, 12:20 PM

Well, in that case, I guess he'll have to spend 90% of his time in his crate.

thanks for the response. I'll let you know when I make that run to the ER.

MegaMuttMom · 11-19-2007, 12:33 PM

My dog is a very serious stick and bark chewer. It really is impossible to stick proof a yard, I know, I've tried. We have too many trees that hang over. Plus, you can't stick proof our forest in Vermont or the one he runs in every day. He will stop to gnaw on the ends of downed trees! Does your dog break off pieces and inhale them? Many labs don't chew and swallow. I have a friend that just had to have one removed from her dog. Cherokee actually chews before he swallows.

When he unstuffs a toy, I am there to watch. He usually spits out the pieces of fabric and stuffing. Most things like that are hard to chew so it is easy to get the pieces out of his mouth as he's trying to figure out how to chew and swallow.

The sticks are a problem that I have learned to try not to worry about too much. If he didn't chew, I would be a nervous wreck and I suppose his life would become one only on leash and supervised in the yard. He and I both would be very unhappy. He needs to RUN!

If you figure out how to solve this problem, please let me know!

Betty · 11-19-2007, 01:52 PM

Carolina likes to try to eat whatever she gets a hold of, so she has to be closely supervised until she learns...which is really hard to do! She's ingested bits of squeakers, the cardboard corners of a board game, she's mauled the carpet, and tries to eat her toys.

She chowed down on Barney the Purple Dinosaur, and when it came back out, caused her to have blood in her stool. Barney was polyfill and fluffy fabric. I called the vet, and I was told to watch for vomiting, lethargy, and other warning signs. The blood was from Carolina straining to poop the stuffing out. Luckily she came out OK.

A coworker had a horrible experience with her shitzu - whatever the little dog ingested caused her stomach/intestines to tear. She described it as "like somebody was murdered in the house because blood came out both ends and went everywhere." The poor dog almost died but underwent surgery to sew up the lining, and is fine now.

SMoore · 11-19-2007, 02:00 PM

It wasn't one of my dogs (thank god) but it's a pretty scary story. My brothers boxer "Cooper" is usually in the house when he goes to work, etc... and he's never gotten into anything dangerous, or really hurt anything in general. So, he doesn't mind letting him have roam of the house.

One day though he ate (yes ate) an entire box of SOS pads. I'm not sure if you know what those are but here is a picture:

Anyhow, he noticed that in his poop he kept finding yellow and blue junk. He wasn't sure what it was so he took the dog to the vet. The vet couldn't see anything really wrong and figured it had all been passed. So, he went back home, fed his dog and sure enough more yellow and blue stuff in his waste.

This time he rushed the dog to the vet, paid over $3000 for a surgery to open him up and remove the rest only to find out that NOW it had all been passed.

To him it was money well spent. He loves that dog. He was pretty scared though for awhile.

Cooper is in the middle with my parents two dogs. Ozzy & Cocoa (also in my sig)

mastiffmama27 · 11-19-2007, 02:26 PM

Socks! My mastiff had a sock fetish for awhile. Thank god she passed them all without a problem. I had her to the vet I don't know how many times for it. Finally discovered that she was doing it because she had tapeworms. Had her re wormed and no problems since. Might want to have a stool sample run just in case. You never know your dog may be trying to tell you something.

Durbkat · 11-19-2007, 04:12 PM

Snoopy likes to eat anything off the floor, which I guess is a good thing in some ways as he makes me vacuum the floor more often. One time he vomited up what looked like some blue fuzz from a blue squeeky toy and some red fuzz from a squeaky toy and some unidentifiable stuff.

Shaina · 11-19-2007, 04:15 PM

There's a crappy strip of metal between the linoleum and carpet in my apartment which we put a strip of duct tape over, since the nails that held it down kept coming up and tearing sock as we passed over it.

When we got Kim we didn't think about it and just left it there...well you can see where this story is going. We left her out of her crate about a month after we got her while running to the grocery store, and returned to bits of duct tape torn up all over the place. We collected them all and threw them out, but it didn't seem like there was enough tape to have actually covered the whole strip. Kim we acting fine though, so we resolved to just keep an eye on her for anything out of the ordinary.

The next morning my dog pooped shiny gray poo. She was fine, but that strip remains un-taped.

Adrianaluv · 11-19-2007, 05:02 PM

We call Mason Puppy "The Goat" because of all the random crap he eats/tries to eat.

poodleholic · 11-20-2007, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chupa Cabras

Well, in that case, I guess he'll have to spend 90% of his time in his crate.

thanks for the response. I'll let you know when I make that run to the ER.

I'm sorry you feel this way. Having a dog is like having a perpetual toddler at home; they deserve a safe environment, and are dependent on their human(s) to keep them safe. You could spend time training your dog, teaching him "leave it, and/or drop it," for when he does get ahold of something he shouldn't have.

I hope, for your dog's sake, that you never "make that run to the ER."

Quote:

It really is impossible to stick proof a yard, I know, I've tried. We have too many trees that hang over. Plus, you can't stick proof our forest in Vermont or the one he runs in every day. He will stop to gnaw on the ends of downed trees!

I have a large back yard with several trees, including two fruit trees. I never have any twigs or sticks on the ground except when I trim branches, and those are quickly disposed of. I have my dogs "help me" when I'm trimming shrubs by putting the clippings in a yard bag! LOL Gives them something to do, and they're so proud of themselves!

My dogs love to chew, but are content with raw bones and Kongs. They also like to pull citrus rats out've the fruit trees YUK!!!!! (I live in FL where they are part of life you have to deal with when you have fruit trees.) I have the lid of an old garbage can that I use to dispose of the dead rats, so when they've snagged one, I tell them to bring it, and drop it onto the lid; then I throw into the dumpster. Ugh! By teaching "bring it, drop it, and leave it," I don't have to worry about them injesting things that could result in injury, or worse. Training allows me to let my dogs run free of the leash on the beach or when hiking in the woods, but whenever they're outside, it's always under my supervision.

MegaMuttMom · 11-20-2007, 07:59 AM

I have never met a poodle with the drive to chew that my dog has. My dog LOVES his kongs and his nylabone. There is just no satisfying his drive to chew. We are glad we got him to not chew the corner of the house and the deck chairs (lots and lots of bitter apple). He doesn't chew the furniture either. We have a yard ringed with Norway maples that have been decimated by drought and gypsey moths for the past several years so, if the wind blows, sticks come down. If it rains, whole branches come down. We woud cut them down but they block our view of a very ugly industrial building. When we are in the woods and he starts to chew I call him to keep moving and he comes. It is a constant issue which I try to manage but, just like horse poop, you can't always get out that "leave it" before that stuff is in the mouth! Toddlers know how to spit things out, dogs don't as far as I can tell.......We're still working on drop it but so far he'll only trade for something he thinks is better and he doesn't think even the stinky treats are better than rotting bark. Go figure.

xxxlisaxxx · 11-20-2007, 08:03 AM

The only scary thing I have witnessed with my 2 year old cocker is getting a stick jammed in between his 2 jaws (horizontal) if you know what I mean and there is no way they can remove it without help.

The first time this happened I had no idea he had been chewing on a stick and he was lepping around the house for a good 10 mins like a loonatic. He was hopping and he was carrying on as if there was something in his ears as his paws kept going to his ears. I finally decided to look into his mouth only to see the stick totally jammed. It happened a second time some months later but at least I knew what it was straight away from his behaviour. Its the one thing I wont let my dogs play with now after seeing what happened. I have been lucky with the 2 dogs I have as far as chewing the 2 year old only ever chewed on what he was supposed to like his toys etc and my 15 week old Samoyed has not attempted to chew anything in my house. I always turn my house into a sort of creche when i get a puppy, I leave dog toys everywhere in every room and I am convinced this is why I have never had a problem as far as losing the legs of my chairs etc.

mastiffmama27 · 11-20-2007, 08:12 AM

Here's another one: Diapers. Yuck!! TG all my dogs know drop it and leave it. But like one other poster said they can and do sometimes get into something faster than you can call them off.

ozzy · 11-20-2007, 03:45 PM

Luckily my pup does not usually eat stuff he shouldn't. He likes to pic up rocks and sticks but he does not swallow them. He also loves to tear up paper, tissues, etc but doesn't swallow. I would say try teaching your dog leave it and have treats handy to get him to drop stuff. This works very well for me on walks. I can see Ozzy eyeing something and I say leave it and 99% of the time he does. Now if it is food related he is grabbing it unless I get to it first. One time he pooped and it looked like aluminum foil coming out. That scared me! I don't know what it was or when he ate it but it looked like he got a food wrapper of some sort.

the-tenth · 11-20-2007, 05:08 PM

Sandy has an ear fetish. She still licks a lot, but she used to nibble on them. She swallowed a very expensive diamond earring my wife got me as an anniversary present. It was expensive enough that I ended up mining for diamonds (if you catch my drift)

. Good news is I got it.

Durbkat · 11-20-2007, 05:10 PM

Does your wife still use the earring? lol

FilleBelle · 11-20-2007, 08:00 PM

I had an Aussie a few years ago who enjoyed eating the crotch out of dirty underwear. Just the crotch, mind you.

Kinky beast.

Inga · 11-20-2007, 08:38 PM

yuck! So far I have noticed Carsten likes electrical cords. Scary, I will be keeping a close eye on this guy.

ACampbell · 11-21-2007, 03:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FilleBelle

I had an Aussie a few years ago who enjoyed eating the crotch out of dirty underwear. Just the crotch, mind you.

Kinky beast.

I know that feeling, though my boys don't eat the crotch out of dirty underwear...they like to steal my undergarments (bra's included) and race around the house with them, especially when we have company...then throw it on the floor and roll in it...very weird!