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  1. #1
    Senior Dog Georgia's Avatar
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    Raw bone question

    When Sam was a puppy, his trainer told us to boil raw bones for 10-15 minutes before giving them to the dog. I did this a couple times and Sam was fine. Then I started reading on here that you shouldn't give your dog any sort of cooked bones so I stopped boiling them. The first time I gave Sam a straight up raw bone, he got raging diarrhea. It took a week of metronidazole to clear up his issues. Do you think boiling a bone for such a short time is "cooking" it? If I recall correctly, the marrow was still pretty red. It's been suggested several times that chewing on a bone might help Sam's anal gland issues. I don't know what to do. I'm afraid to try again.
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  2. #2
    Senior Dog BaconsMom's Avatar
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    I have been wondering the same thing. Would like to add some raw bones to Bacon's diet.
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  3. #3
    Senior Dog charliebbarkin's Avatar
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    To help firm up Sam's stool, you want to use a boney raw meaty bone like turkey necks or chicken backs.

    No I would not boil any type of bone and give it to my dog.

    The marrow can cause loose stools, could be what happened to your Sam. A marrow bone would be a rec bone, something to give occasionally. A raw meaty bone is fed as part of a meal and should firm up the stools. Both types of bones are great for exercising the jaw and the brain.
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  5. #4
    Senior Dog charliebbarkin's Avatar
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    One thing that might help with the anal glands is adding a probiotic/digestive enzyme to Sam's diet. Something like Animal Essentials. It's usually a white powder. Diggin' also makes a powder called "firm up" which is like dehydrated pumpkin.

    Keep in mind the type of bones you are adding to Sam's diet as some might cause loose stool. As I mentioned, the marrow can cause it, it's possible that fattier cuts of meat will also cause lose stool, or pieces of meat with fat and skin still attached (like chicken leg quarters).

    I believe Blue Ridge Beef is distributed out in VA and is reasonably priced, if you would want to try a raw food diet. Several of their formulas have bone included in their grinds. They also offer cuts of meaty bones for recreational chewing. If I wanted only to supplement occasional RMBs I would start with turkey necks and they are typically digested easily and are a lean boney item.
    Charlie and Burton


  6. #5
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    You can scoop the marrow out before giving him the bone, raw bone.

    FWIW I can't see how the tiny amount of bone scraped off a marrow bone is going to have much effect on anal glands. Oban basically just licks the ends of marrow bones. Maybe a more enthusiastic chewer would get more out of the boney part.

  7. #6
    Real Retriever SCDoug's Avatar
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    We used to give Lola frozen beef marrow bones that we got from the natural food place. Once we found out she was allergic to beef, we found frozen bison bones at pet store that sells raw dog food. Lola loves the bones and can clean the marrow out in no time. We did find that her stools were perfect (much firmer than usual) with the raw beef bone, but hit or miss with the bison bones.

    We also add FlortiFlora priobiotic to Lol's meals on a regular basis.
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