What to do if a dog chokes?

Hey everyone,

I was thinking about what I would do if one of my dogs choked on a chew bone or a toy. It's a scary thought, isn't it? But the fact is, it happens.

See, my huskies are big chewers. Their favorite chew is a rawhide bone. Some people strongly discourage a dog from chewing these, I know, but some people don't have a problem with them. I was doing some reading on a different site and came across a topic on a choking dog. It made me wonder what I would do if Kieron or Houdini ever choked on a piece of rawhide.

Just imagine that Kieron was chewing on her rawhide and pulled a large piece of it off and tried to swallow it. Instead of it sliding down her throat, it gets stuck. What would I do?

Would I try to restrain her and pull the rawhide (or whatever she was choking on) out of her throat with my hand or something else?

I am well aware that rawhide chews are dangerous for dogs, but what isn't? Life is full of dangers, but I haven't had a problem with rawhide chews yet, thank goodness.

So if this scenario ever happened, whether it was a piece of rawhide chew, a toy, or anything else, how would I go about removing the object safely?

Thanks for any answers! Hopefully something like this will never happen and I will never have to use this information, but anything can happen. Thanks again!

-Tara

its never happened to me yet but I would also like to know what to do in an emergency.

If you cannot remove the object with your fingers (chewed rawhide is very slippery) you can try the modified Heimlich manoeuvre: http://petplace.netscape.com/article...asp?artID=2524

It is important that you do not practice this on your dog unless it is actually in danger of choking as you can do damage. Practice hand placement only.

If you ever have to do this you must take your dog to the vet even if the object is dislodged as you may have caused injury in your efforts to save the dog's life.

I have heard of too many dogs choking to death on rawhide for me to risk giving them chews. One of my dogs did start choking on a bone .. and it is something I would never want to have happen again. The word 'scarey' doesn't even come close to what you feel when you see it happening.

it is a very scary thought. On a number of times Indie has started chokin on a piece of rawhide shes chewed off, but managed to cough it out. She isnt allowed them anymore as its really scary!especially since i wouldnt be confident on the heimlich manuever.

She only has a marrow bone now, so hopefully she wont choke on that. And ive also taken all the stuffing out ofher cuddly toys as she tends to choke on that too

Thanks SB

That is a scary thought.

Luckily I've had no problems with Luna and hope to keep it that way.

Luna does get rawhides.

Our Bullmastiff choked on one of those rawhide ball things. She was around 7 months old... we gave it too her thinking she would be ok.

What had happened was she tried to swallow it whole and it had got stuck in her throat, so Ian had to turn upside down an 8 stone dog and jump and up and down to try and dislodge it, by which time i'm panicking.

Eventually he put his hand in her throat and pushed it back... which worked a treat... luckily Bullmastiff's seem to have big throats aswell as a big mouth

I just didn't want to see her pass that out the next day

But on a serious note it frightented the life out of us, and never again did we give her another.

Luna has rawhides way to biig for her to get stuck in throat or try to swallow hole

God almighty its nearly as big as the dog ... no problems there then

He he yeah its a big one

Jeanette Luna is looking good.

Choking I am not a great advocat of rawhide chews prefering the hard nylone bones (name?) cos bits don't come off them. I have had 2 choking incidents both with shapes biscuits. This is what I did . First keeping calm and speaking quietly so as not to panic the dog more than it was already I put the dog on my knee head down as you would a child and gave a sharp slap on the shoulder blades and the biscuit shot out...the second time the biscuit was across the roof of the dogs mouth at the back and wedged tightly between the teeth.I got a wooden spoon and placed it right back across the dogs teeth to keep the mouth open then pulled hard to remove the wedged biscuit. : I will not leave dogs alone with chews or large biscuites..small ones in Kongs are ok