Should I give my dog beef bones?

Thread Title Edited from “Beef bones for my dog”

I just bought a bag of beef bones (raw) with a bit of meat on them for my dog. I’m not exactly sure what part of the cow they are from but they are about the size of my fist without the meat.

I gave him two yesterday and when I woke up this morning there was vomit all over the floor. I think he chewed through the bones and they broke into pieces a bit cause there were a couple of pieces in his vomit. The vomit was mostly just liquid.

Any ideas on what could be the problem? I though giving him bones to chew on was good for him?

Chicken bones are lighter, smaller. Beef might be too much for starters.

Also, sometimes they might not be handled properly. In case of doubt, freeze them first, defrost, then feed to doggie at room temp, maybe spread some hot broth on top, not to cook, but to “entice”.

I’m a bit worried about the shards that might come off the bones. They were frozen solid when I bought them and I gave it to him slightly thawed by using the microwave on low.

He’s a big dog. Lab/Dalmation mix. He loves to get his paws on something big and sit there and chew it for an hour or so. I think with chicken bones he would eat them in a matter of minutes.

I want to start giving him more raw meat/bones but seem to be off to a bad start.

Watch the doggie carefully, and in case of doubt, run, don’t walk to the vet.

It might just be that the beef was too “strong”, “heavy” for him. Yep, he will go through chicken bones quickly, but still his jaws will get a better workout than with common kibble. It is good that you are giving him a healthier diet, and it is going to be trial and error to see what he likes best.

He seems to be doing ok today. He went poo like 5 times yesterday. No vomit today.

I think maybe he just wasn’t used to raw meat. I just want to get a couple of peoples thoughts on this before I give him another one. Or maybe i’ll move to chicken like Icon said. Advice would be welcomed :thumbsup:

Double Post

Triple Post…WTF?!?

I bet you know about avoiding pork bones, as they tend to shatter a lot more easily than beef. Also, pork harbours more potential diseases like tapeworms and hydatid cysts than beef does, so it should be cooked before eating… which is off the menu on a BARF diet. A pity, really, as pork is so much cheaper than beef here.

Avoid chicken and duck legs too, as they’re also splintery, but wings, necks and feet should be fine.

Definitely avoid chicken bones! Bone splinters in the throat… not nice.

Don’t give your dog too many bones. My dad used to give our wolves a bone every other day, and they wore down their teeth pretty rapidly. Also caused them to have bone-dry, white turd: they’d whine and yelp and cry trying to pass those.

I can see you’re putting on weight there, Jaboney! on the BARF diet yourself?

Chicken bones are ok as long as they aren’t cooked. It also depends on the dog. My ‘purebred’ Shiba Inu sometimes vomits, and her stomach can’t handle too many bones…while Deloris, the pavement special can eat anything.

From the research I’ve done on the Net, chicken bones are ok as long as they aren’t cooked. I used to give my dog pork bones and he never had any problems before.

What part of the cow would be the best to give him? I’m not sure the parts I got at the store as my Chinese isn’t quite good enough to know that vocabulary nor do I recognize it to just see it.

I’m gonna wait a day or so and give him another one. I think it might be just that he isn’t used to it.

It’s kind of fun to give him a bone and then stand near him. He just gives me the look of “If you come any closer i’ll kill you”. :no-no: And my dog is the biggest whimp on the planet.

Pork knuckle might be OK, but not cooked. …and then you have the problem of the parasites that could be in the meat, and freezing does not always kill them, unless it’s a long deep freeze.

yes, most chicken parts should be fine but even my cats used to splinter chicken thighs and drumsticks (really big cats, though). cooked chicken bones, in fact cooked ANY bones, splinter much more easily, as much of the protein that makes bones a bit flexible is destroyed, while the mineral content remains brittle. I would probably avoid whole chicken frames as the rib bones are just bendy enough to be swallowed and then spring back open in the oesophagus. back bones, hips, breast bones OK. wings, necks, feet best.

Ours has been getting chicken backs – chicken carcases with the breasts, wings, legs and thighs removed – two or so a day, plus a helping of BARF meat + veggies, boiled eggs including shells, probiotic powder (when I can get it) and kelp powder, plus a gel cap of fish oil and another of vitamin E every few days. He also gets a half-package of chicken hearts or gizzards every few days, as long as I remember to buy them. He’s been getting this for three years. No choking, no problems, healthy dog.
For chewing bones, I give him beef longbones that I can order from the butchery dept. at RTMart. Cost very little. He eats the whole things. Dry powdery white turds, but he doesn’t yelp or anything, and I’ve heard that passing those kinds of turds helps squeeze the anal glands naturally. At any rate, his anal glands are always bone dry.
That diet can’t be costing any more than around NT$30-40 per day. Not bad for a 90-pound dog.

Last night I came home very late so I bribed my Toto with a whole, raw chicken leg. He was so hungry he inhaled the whole thing, bones, meat, skin, except the knuckle, which he chewed on for a while and got tired of.

50 nts. Not bad for a small, 8 pounds, 10 year old Maltese.

He loves chicken backs, and can also make them dissappear in one sit. Brief sit. 20 nts for 2.

Chicken hearts and gizzards: 40 nts a kilo.

Remember to give veggies, they are vital for good health and good poop. By the way, dogs that eat meat do less poop -once every two days is the norm for us- and also it is less odorous. Farts, though…

Anyone tried carrots? My Whitie is crazy for chewing them…

What the OP may have given the dog is bones from a cow’s spine or tail. These are not really good for a dog in that they are quite hard, difficult for a dog to hold and grind down, but small enough for them to just swallow them before they really should. Other than the ribs, all beef bones are pretty dense and hard, so it’s really better to give a dog the larger ones so that they’ll have to work on it for a while before swallowing it. Another reason to avoid any kind of spinal bones is that mad cow disease prions are likely present in the spinal tissue as well as the brains of infected cows.

I also find it highly doubtful that a dog can have enough bones in his life to wear down his teeth. A dog’s back teeth have evolved to turn bones into pulp. A normally developed dog’s teeth are hard as hell. What will definitely bring early decay to a dog’s teeth is starchy dry dog food and treats.

My brother breeds hunting dogs and they eat everything they kill. I’m not condoning/condemning anything he does but, well, his dogs are the healthiest dogs I’ve ever seen and they eat all their meat raw.

They also get the scraps from his table - so lots of vegetables too. If they don’t want to eat something, they don’t have to.

Cooked bones are more likely to shatter, as a couple of posters have indicated. Cooked chicken bones are a no no, but live chickens are fair game! And vomitting in dogs is not always a sign of a problem. Dogs are “programmed” to gorge themselves, with predictable results.

Don’t underestimate evolution.

Your dog just isn’t used to them because he doesn’t eat them often enough, I think. The liquidy puke is just excess acidic bile as the dog struggles to process the bones. If you feed bones more often the dog will get used to them. And you can’t feed the dog on top of that. The bone is a meal in itself if it’s the size of your fist. I have had many dogs puke after they eat a decent size bone.

marboulette

Thanks for the advice. I think it is that he just wasn’t used to the raw meat. And I gave him 2 bones the first day.