I no longer let my girls have bully sticks...Abby became very sick last winter from one. She had chewed this one in "strands"...not little pieces but like long strands ...same idea as those long mozzerella cheese sticks??...anyways...the next day after doing this she became very ill....had the runs, vomiting, runs, etc...she just wanted to sleep...by the third day she became lethargic...whining as if in pain...and wouldn't eat...not even a treat.....she never turns down treats...I had to carry her outside to do her business ...still with the runs....so off to the vet we go....he checked her allover and said her temperature was good....everything looked fine...gave her meds to stop vomiting and having the runs.....well she wouldn't keep those down either....told me to just feed her tiny bits of canned food several times a day...she did keep the little bit of canned food down but just wasn't herself....by about the 5th day she started feeling better and had huge poops.....the result was the bully stick strands were finally being digested through her system and she was getting rid of them...I was so scared for her....she had the same symptoms as my mini schnauzer I had years ago...she had gotten into the trash and ate a corn cob...she ended up with blockage and needed to operate to remove it.....with Abby thankfully the bully stick broke down and passed through her system.....
So just a note of caution for all those little puppers..
Poor Abby! Thanks for sharing this Cheryl. Hallie works her bully sticks from the middle until she can pull those strands off too. I didn't know if they would really cause any damage but obviously they can, I have not let her chew them on her own I hold them so she has to chew them from the end, but lately she doesn't want to chew anyway. So glad Abby was ok!
Yikes - scary !!!! I haven't had any in a while, but the last ones I had didn't have the strands...they chewed down really well.
Will definately watch them closely !
Barb when they eat them like proper little men and ladies :thinik: I don't think they get the strands, at least with my 3 they never did. But what Hallie does is instead of holding the stick upright in her paws and chew the end, she puts it on the floor and holds it down with her fuzzy slippers :angel4: one on each end, then works the middle until she can get a long strand going and pulls it off. I stopped letting her chew sticks on her own because I was afraid she'd hurt her neck pulling like that but now that I've heard Cheryl's story I'm glad I stopped for 2 reasons. I will still hold them for her if she wants to chew.
Mine chew on them from the ends-they still give them the runs if they eat too much of them (they're pretty rich), but luckily, they don't get the strands.
Dee Dee...that's exactly what Abby did and Roxie does it too....it looks like they're peeling bananas.....what happened in my opinion was that all these strands ended up in nest in her gut and couldn't move...so she couldn't get food down and vomited right after she ate.....she was a mess for about 5 days...me too! So it took that long for it to digest and get out of her system.......
Yep exactly. My last 2 kids chewed from the ends also. Makes you wonder how many do peel them like ours do!
My guys hold them between their paws or stash them in their blankies so the blankies are holding them and they chew them from the ends. No pulling strands out by my guys.
Hilde like to pull strands, too. She's never had a problem, but then she doesn't down the whole sitck in one sitting. I won't let her have one if I'm not there. I don't like for her to have them when they get too small. Glad your baby got better. :heart:
Darcel