I bought soup marrow bones for my dog Steve. He is 5 months old. I read you can give it to him raw but is it better to cook it first by boiling it. I don't want to get him sick. If I feed it raw to him , should I freeze it first?

Hiya frl49 - There's another thread on the board about raw bones - http://www.lab-retriever.net/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2917

Hope this helps :)

Don't cook the bones. Cooking hardens the bones and removes most of the nutrional benefit. They should be fed raw. You should ensure that they have been cut small enough for your dog to handle and remove any excess marrow, as it can make your dog's stools runny.

Someone in an much earlier thread (labracorn?) suggested scooping the marrow out and replacing it with peanut butter. Its a bit messy, but better than your pup having runny poop.

As for freezing - its upto you, but I know from giving my dog frozen pigs trotters, that it was a bit of a wasted exercise.

Cheers

He just found his bone after about a week outside and he started chewing it and now he has really bad diarrhea. Should he not have chewed it from aweek ago being it was outside? It was pretty cleaned up but maybe it picked up something from outside?

Hmmm not sure about that.....alot of times Cooper won't clean them out the first try, and I don't always get them put back in the freezer....and we have never had that happen. But the ones I give him are only 2-4 inches long, so there isn't too much marrow anyway.

I would take the bone away...and put him on a boiled chicken and rice diet for a day or two...if that doesn't clear it up, I would definitely call your vet and tell what happened.

Suzie

He may have picked something up, but he may not have. I feed raw meaty lamb bones (yes - I'm a raw feeding advocate), which regularly get left outside for a week or longer, and Jag (now 5 months) just wanders back to them for a munch when needed. Personally I would not have fed the beef bones until the dog was a bit older.

As for the runny tummy, an alternative to the rice and chicken is canned pumpkin (not the dessert one) or some mashed sweet potato.

I called my vet and they said not to feed him tomorrow till the evening and only 1/2 of what he gets. I am worried.

Don't panic - he should be ok. A small amount of rice and chicken or the pumpkin/sweet potato should be fine, if you are worried about not feeding him.

Just make sure that there is lots of water available. If it persists past tomorrow evening, then a trip to the vet is in order