A transcript of the video is provided below:
Today, we’re going to be talking about proper chew toys and the importance of why we have these recommendations. When we make our recommendations during new puppy exams we tell our clients, “Don’t give hard bones.” The best chew toys for dogs, the only chew toys we recommend, are anything that are soft enough that you can depress your fingernail into. If you can depress your fingernail into it, something like a hard rubber toy, then that is great. However, we all want to give our dogs these hard bones and hard chew toys because they love it. It enriches their life and also there’s the thought that it’s going to help clean their teeth. The thing is, these hard bones and hard Nyla bones can actually do major damage to their teeth, and Elke here is a perfect example of what happens when they get these hard bones.
When they have a hard bone, they’re chewing on it, they’re loving it, they’re having a great time, but they chew so hard that it’s not the toy that gives way and chips off, it’s actually their major teeth in the back. They’ll get what’s called a slab fracture, and you can see that by lifting back their lip and looking at that tooth. You’ll actually see the chunks of the tooth that have separated out through the middle. So you’ll have an exposed nerve which is really, really painful, and we have to go in and either perform a root canal, or more commonly what we end up doing is actually removing the tooth, and that’s a pretty major tooth in their mouth. That’s why even though they love it and it’s potentially a very good enrichment, it’s a major problem when their tooth does break off because they have to undergo general anesthesia, have a major tooth pulled, and it’s a big ordeal. So we only recommend any toys that you can depress your fingernail into. The hard rubber toys or rope toys or anything else that will actually have some give to it so when they chew down, they don’t break their teeth.
If you have any questions about this, please give us a call, 760-633-2254.
I really appreciate your blog and videos. Would you post an article with your thoughts on giving dogs bully sticks? I have been giving my two lab/mix dogs, Free Range Eco Naturals Moo Bully Sticks since they were young and chewing up everything in sight. They are now both 7 years old and have not experienced any adverse effects, so far. But, I still worry that someday it will come back to haunt me.
Thanks for the input and my apologies for the delay in responding. I don’t think you need to worry about long term effects from giving your dog bully sticks. There have been reports of bacterial contamination from bully sticks and I have seen some dogs get diarrhea from eating them, but if you have been giving your dog a bully stick for that long, I wouldn’t expect many problems from them. Just make sure they don’t get overweight from the extra calories and they will be fine. And thanks for the suggestion about the blog post, I will try and get one up soon.