Dog has just eaten chicken bone! Do I need to panic?

[tartanbuggy]

Our Golden Retriever just snaffled the remains of DS's KFC chicken portion, crunched up the bit of bone that was in it and swallowed it. The dog seems OK at the moment, no choking or anything, but I'm worried in case there might be trouble later. Is it likely to harm him? Do I need to look out for anything in particular? I think I'll be up every half hour in the night, checking on him.

Keep an eye out for any vomiting or abdominal pain ( hunched over, bloating, reluctance to move) but I'm willing to bet that there will be no noticeable effect apart from a runny poo or two tomorrow.
Chickens these days are slaughtered at 90 days old and their bones are too soft to cause a big dog like a retriever too many problems.
It used to be chickens were slaughtered when they were much older and their bones were harder.

Thanks mymumdom, that's reassuring! I'll keep an eye on him and his poo - lovely! He's an absolute nightmare when it comes to stealing things and because he's so big he can get most things off the work surfaces when he puts his mind to it. He once retrieved and ate almost a whole chocolate caterpillar birthday cake with no ill effects whatsoever! He's super excited and desperate to retrieve tonight because the kids have friends for a sleepover.

My Golden Retriever gobbled a chicken bone when younger, i immediately gave him a piece of bread in an effort to 'pad' it out - he was fine.. another thing to look out for tomorrow is if he eats grass to try to make himself sick.

Oh thanks, folks. Nice to know our silly mutt's not the only one! Good point about watching out for the grass eating - he's done that a few times after he was chewing branches and then threw up. And when he chewed some wooden clothes pegs!!

The bag of rice is conjuring up some incredible pictures . That made me laugh. What on earth was the end result like?

Our yellow lab pup managed to steal the entire chicken carcass from Sunday's roast. So far we've had no ill effects apart from chronic wind no real change there then.

Spooky my shihtzu snaffled a chicken thigh earlier and managed to get the bone wedged sideways across his palate

Oh, these are funny! Poo, sick, wind, bones and sticky rice. Don't get this trouble with goldfish.

EttiKetti, our dog got a dentastick wedged sideways across his palate and he went mental. Pawing at his muzzle, running in circles and great tendrils of drool everywhere. DH had to hold his jaws apart whilst I poked the dentastick out with a table knife. Bleurgh.

And now the hairy b-gg-r has just rushed in with an open bag of those mini Twirl bites in his mouth and they're flying everywhere. I'm talking dog, not DH, here btw.

Admittedly goldfish aren't quite as bad, but ours has been known to get the little pebbles at the bottom of his tank, stuck in his mouth.. he looks like Mick Jagger

The first time it happened was scarey, i spent a good 5 minutes wondering how the hell i was gonna get it out .. luckily he is obviously a professional spitter outer!

Golden retriever we had as a child ate anything. Most memorable was when she ate a load of polystyrene - it looked just the same after a trip through her bowels.

tartanbuggy yep, he was going crazy, took 30 mins for him to work out I was trying to help him :o teaspoon handle did the trick!!

My goldie eats anything we put in his path. Unfortunately once that was a chicken carcass (moment on inatttention and DH and i only argued over it for a few weeks )

We worried and worried for several days but he was fine. The next time we had him at the vet he gave the following advice for next time:

• Don't worry unduly because golden retrievers are big so make short work of most things (a smaller dog or a cat would be more likely to choke or be injured)
• Keep an eye out for any signs of blood in poo or vomit (and take to vet if you see any)
• Keep an eye out for any signs of extreme tiredness (and take to vet if so)
• Make sure he drinks usual amount of water

The scariest thing my goldie ever did was, when he was on his own, knock over a bottle of whisky which smashed. Fortunately he didn't walk on any of the glass and hurt himself, but he did lick the floor clean of the whisky. His breath smelled of it and he was very groggy when we got home (he was on his own for about an hour and a half, so he is a real binge drinker!). Called vet, got bollocked for leaving whisky bottle within his reach, took him in, got bollocked again, but in fact he was fine. Like us with a hangover we were told to make sure he drank plenty. Of water that is. Should just add here in my defence that the whisky bottle was only about a third full as we'd been on a bender the night before.

Hard lesson learned though. They really will eat or drink anything.

We had a similar incident with 2 pint bottles of Magners Cider, Cheria.

The dog spent the entire night lying on her back snoring and farting exactly like DH when he's been drinking then was very subdued the following day .

Mine has done this several times unfortunately - well, we don't eat chicken at home, but there are several takeaway shops around here, and people eat it in the park/street (lovely area this ) and throw the bones on the ground. Which my dog has a talent for sniffing out and crunch-swallow before I have chance to get them off him. Obviously we make him leave/drop if we spot what he's up to in time, but not always successfully. I do worry about it, but not sure what to do short of muzzling him :(

No harm has ever come of it, though occasionally he's been sick afterwards. He's a big boy too (rottie) which probably helps.

Well, all seems to be fine with daft dog today. Absolutely no signs of any discomfort or sickness so I think I can say panic over. Thanks for sharing your tales; they were hilarious. DH blanched a bit at the story of the whisky licking goldie. He has now stashed the Glenmorangie inside the kitchen cupboard at the top.

Good move ! Our whisky is now always drunk much faster well hidden away

Our dog ate some chicken bones which he snaffled from a carrier bag that someone had thrown in a ditch

Fortunately no ill effects.