WARNING - Check your Kongs

Had an awful fright this morning with Cain. He managed to he his lower jaw completely and utterly jammed in his Kong Thankfully he wasn't home alone (although I often DO leave him alone with a stuffed Kong as I thought they were meant to be one of the safest toys around ), my mum was there. However he was so stressed by it and bucking around like a bronco that she couldn't get it off. She rang my dog trainer in a panic as Cain was getting so distressed, he scotted over and he couldn't get it off We were getting worried about him breaking teeth or cutting off circulation to his jaw. We decided to give him a bit of time to see if he could get it off himself, otherwise it was goingt o be down the vets to be knocked - which would have been a serious trauma for Cain.

Thankfully, within about 15 long horrible minutes, Cain managed to get it off himself. Needless to say, the Kong is now in the bin.

We are unsure exactly why it happened, we think two factors. One - I has jammed some heart chunks inside and frozen it. I think one of the chunks was too big and he couldn't get it out so he shoved his jaw in. Two - the rubber around the hole of the Kong had started to degrade slightly, enough to make the hole slightly bigger and more flexible.

We were lucky that he got it off. I googled this and some dogs have had to be knocked out by vets to get it off, one case a dog apparently even died from complications to do with a trapped tongue and loss of circulation

So please
1) Check you have the correct size Kong
2) Monitor carefully for wear and tear
3) Don't put treats inside that are too big.

I have to admit, I never leave Hen alone with his Kong, I bought him the biggest one and he got his jaw caught in it once, fortunately he lets me do anything to him and I was able to manipulate it off.

I do let him have it but I watch him constantly when he is playing with it...I also thought they were safe to use unattended, as no-one else had mentioned it I thought I had bought the wrong one for him

Oh gosh, how scary for you! I think I'll only leave mine alone with the teething stick now....there is no way to get trapped in that. Thank you for the warning, I hope Cain recovers quickly!

Sorry to hear the same thing happened to Henry Glad you got it off easily. I have read that buying a size too large can cause this problem. Cain's was the correct size for his breed, I just guess the slight degradation of the rubber made the hole flexible enough he could get in it. He had never had a problem before.

Thanks, he's fine now, bit of a shock for us all. My dog is a total utter accident magnet

I hope you have calmed down by now. Man, I would be in a state. I thought Kongs were so safe too......guess we shouldn't take anything for granted really!

How awful! I'm glad Cain is okay. I've never left Rupe alone with a Kong because of how easily he's destroyed them in the past. I've often wondered about the safety of frozen kongs after reading about how dangerous those toys with just the one hole are (having just one hole creates a vacuum, dogs tongue gets stuck). The Kong has a hole each end so no vacuum is created but when it's stuffed and frozen is that hole not completely blocked?

Not one of the supposedly "safe" toys is actually 100% safe.

OMG Amanda watching him going round like a bucking bronco with his jaw stuck in that would definitely have sent me into headless chicken mode that's for sure! Jeeeeeze, of all the things to happen. I tell you, it's definitely a jinxed day today that's for sure. Thank goodness he got out of that himself poor, poor Cain I bet he's all shaken up now bless him.

The only kong I'm using at the moment is the soft, rubbery bone shaped one with holes either end which go all the way through, thank goodness! I'm binning my others now, coz 2 of them are too small and I worry she's going to swallow them, and the other 2 sound like yours!

Email them (form on their website) - worth letting them know. I had bother with one completely splitting in two an hour after I bought it recently - they're meant to have a replacement one sent in the post for me which I haven't got yet.

Poor Cain he does seem to have lots of accidents Glad he's ok now though

Ted has got a kong but he only uses it when i'm about as he won't try to get the bits at the bottom so i have to knock it out before it goes all horrible.

No, I know everything has a risk but Kong really was the one thing I thought he was safe to be left alone with. I'm glad he wasn't alone this time. I mean it was an unfortunate accident and I'm certainly not going to overreact and declare Kongs unsafe, I just wanted to raise it so others are aware and careful.

I know, it really has been one of those days. This was first thing this morning and the day hasn't got any better, I should have stayed in bed this morning!!! Your day didn't seem much better either!

I think I will email them. Not to complain as such but just to make them aware of the incident and see what they have to say. I know it's not the first time this has happened to a dog, but normally it's when incorrect size Kongs are used

I know, he really is a disaster area First he chews off his feet, then he gets a knife thrown at him and now this!!!! My OH said "if Cain was a child, social services would have taken him away by now!" Im going to so a canine first aid course because he's that accident prone. If I chose to replace the Kong sometime (undecided) then I will be more careful about stuffing it. I wanted to mahe it challenging but obviously it was too hard.