Last week, I came across two cases - an adult stray and a young Great Dane - both suffering from loose motions mixed with blood (Haemorrhagic gastroenteritis). Owners of both the dogs shared the information that their dogs had been fed chicken bones along with the feed nearly 24 hrs prior to the episode.
Feeding bones is a risky exercise. Normally bones are either fed raw or cooked. Raw bones are tougher and do not snap easily when chewed but they are good sources of a large number of bacteria that may cause illness in the pet. Cooking the bones takes care of the bacterial load but makes the bones fragile (particularly chicken bone) and as a result the bones tend to snap when the dogs chew them leaving sharp ended bones that may lodge themselves at an awkward location in the digestive tract causing trauma. It is a particularly tricky situation and may lead to grave prognosis particularly when the sharp bony piece has perforated the intestine or the stomach.
Ideally, the meat should be stripped of the bones and the bones should invariably be removed from the feed. This is a safe practice and it easily outweighs the advantages likely to accrue by feeding bones viz. providing a natural source of Calcium and Phosphorus.
By the way, both my patients responded to the treatment and had an uneventful recovery. :)
