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If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Puppy swallowed chicken wing tip whole

3 replies

Dappled · 14/02/2021 21:32

Our 10 week old puppy came to us raised as raw fed from her breeder. She's on a pre-made puppy formulation raw mince. This evening my husband gave her a raw chicken wing tip to try for the first time (having read this online as a recommendation for dogs and puppies). He was expecting her to crunch it and chew it, however she grabbed it and swallowed it whole (or at least appeared to swallow without chewing). How worried should we be? I have a video appointment with First Vet in half an hour (it's free with our insurance). But I'm fretting in the meantime. I don't know whether they're likely to advise us to take her to vet tonight or watch and wait. I have been googling (of course) dogs and puppies swallowing wing tips whole and there are very different stories/opinions about the possible risk or not of bones of this size. It was so big in comparison to her size, my husband didn't think for a minute she would attempt to gulp it down. I wasn't there so didn't see exactly what happened, but it clearly isn't stuck as she seems fine now. However, am obviously worried about stomach blockage/perforation. Has anyone had any similar experience? Thanks

OP posts:
BigWolfLittleWolf · 15/02/2021 08:20

Unless she’s a super tiny breed I wouldn’t feed chicken wing tips as they are so small, I would go with whole wings for a small puppy and hold onto it while puppy is eating so they can’t physically swallow it whole.

If the puppy proves herself to be a ‘gulper’ I wouldn’t feed her bones at all, I’d just stick to complete minces (which contain bone anyway)

As I understand it, the main risk of swallowing whole is choking.
She hasn’t choked, I would assume, especially being a puppy who has only ever eaten raw, that it will be digested and there will be no problems but I’m not a vet, that’s just my personal thought.

ZiggysPFrow · 15/02/2021 08:24

How did you get on with the vet?

Dappled · 15/02/2021 10:20

Thanks @BigWolfLittleWolf, that's all really helpful. I subsequently read online that same advice about holding on to it while puppy is eating. Wish we'd read that first! DH says he was hovering next to her watching her with it and thinks she might have gulped it because she thought he might be about to take it away.
The telephone Vet we spoke to felt that as it was within the two hour window of having eaten the food the best course of action would be to ring our Vet immediately with the hope of taking her there so that they could induce vomiting. She said she would only recommend this if the food hadn't been chewed at all (which my DH was certain it hadn't) as otherwise the bones might have splintered and cause more damage on the way back up. She did stress that there wasn't a clear cut sense of the right course of action and that watching and waiting would also be a valid and reasonable response if we preferred to do that, but she felt that she would err on the side of caution by inducing vomiting. So we rang our own Vet with the thought that we would be arranging to rush there in order to do this. However, the person we spoke to on the emergency contact line for our vets was of the opposite opinion - she felt that inducing vomiting might do more harm than good and would be invasive when possibly no action is necessary. She said that if choking hasn't been a problem the main subsequent risk is that it causes a blockage in the bowel after it's passed through the stomach - so there would be a delay before it gets to this point of at least 12 hours and possibly several days. So we're on an (anxious) watch and wait with her. She was fine and bouncy as anything late last night. We've been told what to watch out for - vomiting, diarrhoea, tummy firmness/stiffness, lethargy. Trouble with "lethargy" as a symptom is, as she's only 10 weeks old she been having enormous naps through big chunks of the day every day anyway - so she's fast asleep now after waking up early, bouncy around a bit for a short while, and then flaking out again. It's exactly what she's been doing for the last week, but it's hard not to worry now.

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