This is like my vet, she won't even suggest doing anything with a fracture until it is a problem. And she told me when I freaked about Tux's fractured incisor, that they need to chew (which I knew anyways).
Printable View
Any vet worth their salt will tell you not to feed a dog cooked bones of any sort. Cooked bones have the potential to splinter and cause gastro-intestinal blockage, perforated intestines or much worse. Painful for the dog and a very costly condition to fix. You may get away with feeding a dog cooked bones for a while, but sooner or later they will bite off more than they can chew and the inevitable happens. Why take the chance? Raw weight bearing bones can also be dangerous for the same reason. Knucle bones are a less dangerous option. Unless you are feeding raw, my advice is to stay away from these bones and brush your dog's teeth. He/she can exercise their teeth with a strong rubber bone.
We also give Lola raw frozen bison marrow bones that we buy from a couple of different pet food storess that specialize in raw food. We normally go for the smaller size, which Lola can finish in about an hour She's restricted to the deck, but we're constantly checking on her.
I have always and will continue to feed my Labs raw bones, but I tend to avoid the large hard marrow bones. The types of bones, I feed my boys are brisket bones, lamb neck bones, chicken frames, large chicken wings, turkey wings and turkey drumsticks. This is despite my youngest boy when he was a pup ending up at the emergency vet after swallowing a big chunk of bone instead of chewing on it. Greedy little bugger and luckily after vomiting and diarrhoea, he was able to bring the bone up before I took him to the emergency vet which I had phoned when he was having issues and I took him up anyway to get checked out and they gave him an injection to help with pain of all the vomitting. Luckily no surgery intervention was required, but it did give me quite a scare and I gave bones a miss for about a month with him and then restarted him on them always under my watchful eye and he has never had a problem since (he is now 5 years old). All my Labs absolutely LOVE their bones, does them wonders to be have a good old chewing session and of course does wonders for their teeth.