The dog toy aisle in pet stores kills dogs and costs this nation a billion dollars a year.
Veterinary bills of thousands of dollars a dog are racked up as balls, squeek toys, and rawhide chews get consumed and lodged in canine stomachs, and teeth are shattered on splintering deer antlers.
2 comments:
I only troll those aisles so I can see what items of destruction people give their pets, in the same way that I browse pet foods at every store so I know what's out there when people try to describe how/what they feed their dog or cat in an appointment. If people think I'm shopping, they're wrong; I'm simply keeping myself informed.
I have a rule in my household that there are no squeakers allowed. Stuffies are allowed for the one dog and they are interactive only.
Funny how my dogs are still happy without having a basket full of toys that can be shredded, cause blockages or other damage. Instead, we have appropriately-sized Kongs, Goughnuts and newer polymer toys (e.g. Zogoflex, Bionic, Starmark balls, etc) which cannot be chewed up or apart. They are also mentally and physically content, so obsessive, excessive chewing on anything is not an issue and they "gum" on things more than digging in with full jaw strength. I admit to allowing chews on Nylabones and antlers, but the potential of a broken tooth is a price I pay, am willing to own up to it and have the finances to address it when it happens. Not having to deal with the obsession with stuffies and the annoying squeaking is absolute heaven.
as a vet, i have to say that food items such as real animal bones and rawhide (leather) digest very well in the dog's strong stomachs.
while i have taken out 1000's of cotton,nylon,rubber,metal,plastic, and straw things, as well as corn cobs and other veggie based things like Greenies, and other non-food items from dog and cat GI tracts, i have never taken out a bone. though i have seen many bones digesting well on x-rays.
i have taken a rawhide strip from an esophagus (by hand) that was gulped too quickly and too large for it's breed. but i have never had to take one from a GI tract.
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