Rawhide bones

Do any of you give your dogs these - http://img.hisupplier.com/var/userImages/old/huahui/huahui$517121822.jpg

Friends bought one for Woody and he absolutely loves them, so we stocked up on a bag of them.

The other day though he swallowed abit that was too big and struggled to swallow it. He ran around the room yelping as it was obviously working it's way down.

Now I'm scared to give them to him in case he chokes.

Are they OK? Was this just a one off? Any safer alternatives as he really does enjoy them (as do we as keeps him occupied for hours!!)

Can't see which one hes had, but I never leave Toro un supervised with anything like that, she is a greedy gorger so doesn't chew and can choke quite easily, I'd just keep a close eye on him xx

I can't get the link to work but if you paste it it'll come up. It's the knotted bone ones.

I would NEVER leave him alone with anything like this and watching him is fine, but I just can't relax now, especially as I have no idea what to do if he was chocking on it!

I don't give mine rawhides at all. My first dog did what Woody did a couple of times, and I have heard lots of horror stories since about dogs choking on them, plus they get so soggy and sticky they get all glued up in their beards and leg hair.

Selkie does the same thing and I have fished more than one icky soggy bit of half chewed rawhide out of her throat. But she still loves them and I just make sure I take away the last knot. She can have first knot and the long bit, but then Pharaoh finishes the last knot. (He likes it a bit chewed up).

Jobie doesn't get rawhide as it invariably makes him throw up for days, he swallows it in huge chunks
There is a heimlich maneuver you can do for dogs, but I'm not sure if Woody would be a bit small for it, and there is a danger of breaking their ribs/damaging internal organs.

I haven;t given mine rawhide chews since our bcc broke her teeth on one - cost £300 in surgery bills to remove the broken teeth.

That was one expensive chew.....

I am slowly going off them!!

I wonder what else there is that's similar, but not so bloody lethal!

Have you tried Nylabones? Not the edible "greenies" ones they do, but the plastic ones? Our youngest loves them and they are difficult to get big bits off (Airedales have HUGE teethies and she hasn't managed to do any harm with a Nylabone so far). They do various ones with different tates for different size dogs/teething stages.

my dogs love them-they have a mini one each night as they go to bed as it helps keep their teeth clean and when i go out for longer than normal periods i always leave the dogs with a big one each-
didnt realise there had been some horror stories
they get big bits all claggy and soggy then swallow and regurgitate(sp?)