Originally posted by RachelJ:
Angels, that astounds me. My understanding is that any kind of chicken bones are extremely dangerous as they could puncture the intestines.
It astounded me at first, too, RachelJ. But apparently, chicken bones (& other bones) are only dangerous when they're cooked. It's the cooking that makes them dry & splintery & then they are sharp and are likely to puncture the intestines. The raw chicken (& other) bones are what dogs would 'naturally' eat in the wild.
All the vets here have recommended raw chicken wings for some time now. First time I gave them to our dogs, I was very nervous because I, too, had thought them dangerous. Now they've been eating them for years & so have our friends' & neighbours' dogs (all on vet advice).
The vets tell us that cooked bones of any kind are dangerous...especially those chop (rib?) bones & chicken bones. Being small, they're very likely to splinter into 'needles'. Somebody gave our sheltie a cooked chop (rib?) bone recently & she swallowed it before I could get to her. So I got 3 thick slices of bread (spread with Vegemite...a product we put on toast here) and gave her that to eat in large lumps. I was told this was a good first aid if a dog eats anything sharp...like decorations off the christmas tree. Fortunately, she was OK.

I must stress that it is raw chicken WINGS that the vets recommend. They never seem to recommend any other part & I don't know if there's a reason. But I sure stick with the wings, as advised.



[This message has been edited by Angels3 (edited February 24, 2001).]