Friday, November 4, 2016

Daylight Savings!

It's Daylight Savings this weekend!

Don't forget to turn back your clocks 1 hour!



Wednesday, November 2, 2016

(Don't) Give a dog a bone...

Do you or someone you know still insist on giving dogs real bones to chew on?

Fragments of bones can very easily break off and be swallowed by the dog. Broken bone fragments can end up causing damage to the esophagus and stomach. If the fragments are sharp enough, they can pierce the stomach or intestines, causing infection or in serious cases, even death.

Take a look at these photos and decide if it's what you want your dogs esophagus and stomach to look like!



Bone stuck in esophagus


Damage to esophagus from bone after removal.


Ouch - sore, red stomach from bones


Big bone being removed. Yup, they will eat them whole sometimes and yes, we can usually get the out with endoscopy


Another big bone being removed


See the sharp edges the bones can have!


Erosion from bones


Sharp shards can penetrate stomach or intestines and cause infection and even death.


Sharp edges and ulcers


Big bone stuck in esophagus


Lesions after removal of esophageal bone


Look how sharp the pointed end is - like a razor blade. Scary!

Nearly full thickness ulcer from bone in previous photo. Lucky for this dog, his owner and veterinarian were progressive in getting him scoped before this perforated.

Any kind of bone can cause damage - raw, cooked, beef, pork, etc.
 Dr. Amy Allen from Animal Internal Medicine has suggested that instead of bones, you can give your dog Kongs (bone and original) or Nylabones. She says no antlers - while they don't cause foreign body issues very often, they can break teeth. No raw hides either, unless the dogs are supervised and the pieces that break off or become too small can be removed. 

There's no bones about it, bones cause damage wherever they go! Thankfully, most fragments are able to be removed via endoscopy. You can learn about our retrievers at our webstore

All pictures and captions were graciously shared with us from the 
Animal Internal Medicine Facebook
Animal Internal Medicine is a mobile veterinary endoscopy unit for the San Francisco Bay area.

If you're a vet, share this with your clients to help save a dog's life!