It also means there is less harmful ingredients going in as there are less toxins coming out

I have been giving my Dalmatian, Poppy some raw bones but she won't be getting any more after my experience this week. On Sunday she had about a quarter of a lambs ribcage.Quite a bit of meat left on it and she enjoyed it. On monday evening when I took her for her walk she tried to go for a poo. She couldn't pass anything and tried several times. When we got home she carried on trying to go in the garden with no success. I could see what needed to come out but it wasn't budging. When she started to yelp I decided it was time to phone the vet. He said to wait and see if she passed it. After another hour she was getting quite distressed so I phoned the vet back and he said to bring her in. It was 9.30 pm by now. He managed to remove the piece that was visible and said it was like concrete and no wonder she couldn't pass it. He got some more out and showed me it. It was full of sharp shards of bone. He squirted some lubricant into her bottom to help her pass what was left that he couldn't remove and also gave her a pain killing injection. Cost £117. She is still not going to the toilet properly and I think I might have to take her back. She can be sleeping and she will dribble some liquid poo and when we go for a walk she goes for a poo and is then trying to go to toilet another 4 or 5 times and only passing a few drops of some very liquid stuff. I'll see how she is tomorrow and if there's no change I'll take her back to the vet. I'll be sticking to natures diet sachets from now on. Sorry for the long post.

I'm sorry to hear that, hope she recovers soon.

Just a quick question........Do you feed her kibble at all, whilst feeding her raw food ?

All the dogs meat comes frozen anyway as I buy in bulk once a month. You should always either freeze minced beef or cook it before being eaten. cooked for us, frozen for 24hrs then thawed for dogs can't remember exactly but something to do with some kind of bacteria in raw mince that needs to be cooked so its safe for us, and frozen first so its safe for dogs to eat raw.
And no, I'm not an inuit

My dogs don't really like kibble but they will eat a handfull now and then. Not for a week or so though. Poppy has been eating mostly nature menu sachets (not nature diet as I posted before) pet mince from the butchers and some cooked chicken and rice. The bone was fed as a sunday breakfast treat.

Sorry to hear that ruthshaw, I do hope everything turns out ok

Ok, this is the problem that people don't consider when they mix feeding cooked food and raw food.

Raw digests at a different rate to cooked food and a different rate again than kibble.

If you are feeding totally Raw, it all digests at the same rate, therefore a slower pace through the system giving it time to distribute evenly and digest efficiently.

When you feed cooked too, maybe on a different day etc, the body cannot compensate for the different speeds at which foods are being digested and therefore rushes everything through at the same rate, hence rushing through bones before they have had time to digest properly, causing blockages.

As a general comment, I really wish people would research into HOW to feed RAW properly before messing with other foods and confusing a dog's digestive system!

That sounds like impaction, right?...One cause being too much bone, which is one reason why it should be stressed not to over do the amount of bone being fed.

Mys, if you feed Raw correctly the amount of bone should not be a problem. My lot will happily devour a pigs head each, and all that's left over is the teeth !

A quarter of a lambs ribcage is hardly anything, especially as ribs are quite a soft bone anyway for dogs' teeth.

RMB's should be given as recreational bones once or twice a week, but lambs cages are a normal meal and shouldn't cause impaction !

Hi

I know what you mean. But I guess some people don't feed it right and can go wrong and can feed to much bone. Not saying that was the case in this persons experiance though I agree that the quarter of lambs rib cage isn't in it's self what the problem may have been but what was fed before and after etc.

If my dog was passing undigested bone and concrete type poop the first thing I would look at was the amount of bone I was feeding and perhaps look into the possibility that I may be feeding to much as to me even white chalky poop denotes to much bone, let alone this concrete type that was mentioned.

Off topic, but I am slightly confused by your last paragraph...You say RMB's should be given as recreational bones once or twice a week, RMB's are the type they get every day or so, they arn't recreational bones, recreational bones are large things like knuckle / marrow bones (cow leg bones etc...)

I'm no expert though, it's just my opinion