# Greenies...



## jlcase (Feb 8, 2005)

Ok, this is a question I've been meaning to pose for a while. When I first brought Charlie to the vet (he was 8wks and 1.9lbs.) she told me to stay away from Greenies. She said that the high protien content can cause seizures in the really small dogs. Has anybody else heard of this? I don't give Charlie greenies, my mom had bought some after my step-sister told her how much her shih tzu loved them. Charlie ate a little bit of one and threw up, and our German Short Hair ate one and had really bad diarhea. So no more greenies in our house. But has anybody heard of them causing seizures? I think it may have been because he was a puppy and so little, any ideas?

Thanks.


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## my3angels (Apr 15, 2004)

wow I have never heard of that warning. I will ask the vets i work with on Friday about that. 
I give my pups greenies once a week. They even sell Greenie Flakes for really small dogs.
I hope this isnt true....if it is I will stop and just brush my dogs teeth every day.
Thanks for the warning...I wonder if anyone else knows for sure.


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## luv4mygirls (Feb 20, 2005)

we sell them at our vet's office..... so i would be shocked if they were harmful.... i'll look into it though...


(you have a german short hair? any pictures??)


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## Tinker (Jan 3, 2005)

Well, a greenie is 52% protien according to their own website but since a chi puppy usually takes days to consume even a petite greenie I would think it would be very unlikely they would get enough protien to hurt them. They are composed mainly of wheat gluten so a digestive track is going to have to adjust to all the fiber (like putting a human on a high fiber diet, although it's good for them there is a bit of diaharrea and upset stomach till they adjust).


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## NoahFL (May 14, 2004)

I've never heard this before. Zeus gets one petite one about every 3 days. From what I understand, these are actually healthier then dog bones. Let me know what you hear on this. Thanks.


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## Stewart's Mom (Mar 28, 2005)

I had not heard that...I have a friend who gives them to their dogs (beagle and daushaund (sp?) ) I know we give them to Ernie our Jack Russell once in a while and have not had a problem. I have yet to give one to Stewart, I thought he had to be 6 months to be able to have it so I have held off.


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## Richie (Nov 7, 2004)

I've never heard that they are harmful, just that you should limit the consumption, but this is like with any other snacks and supplements. Mine is getting a greenie once in 2-3 weeks

Richie's mom


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## Vala (Jul 8, 2004)

:wink: Never heard of that, I've been feeding greenies to Stinky since I can remember and yes, the first one made him have green diarhea and maybe he threw up a bit but I figured it was a new snack and it probably had the same effect really greasy food has on me. :wink: He loves them and he's healthy. Smelly on the other hand, I know he likes them but he just can't stomach them...so we give him a different treat. It might all depend on the dog and its ability to process a greenie and whatever is in it. :wink:


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## luv4mygirls (Feb 20, 2005)

i know for my german shorthair pointer she had food allergies and irritable bowel disease so she was very limited on what she was allowed to eat. she did great on greenies! every dog is an idividual and their stomaches are very different as well! my pit used to eat everything and anything (even a pager, a gragoyle statue, half the rug on my stairs are you getting my point) and the only thing that messed up his stomach was greenies....


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## Gadget's Mom (Jan 14, 2005)

I gave Gadget a greenine.. he chewed on it once... and the it sat in his toy basket for a long time... He would never touch it again after the first time... 

he would rather have those C.E.T. chew sticks I get from the vet... So I haven't giiven him another one..


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## chimom (Apr 1, 2005)

Jasmine doesn't care for greenies either. I read on another pet forum a few days ago that there had been some tests run on greenies where they chopped them up really fine, placed in a container along with an acidic solution and digestive enzymes. After 24 hours, there was absolutely no change in the greenie particles, leading them to conclude that the greenies could potentially cause bowel obstructions. I have no idea how controlled or scientific this experiment was and am not suggesting that you discontinue using them, but think it would warrant further checking to be on the safe side.


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## luv4mygirls (Feb 20, 2005)

if it is chewed up and swallowed i don't see how it could cause an obstruction, now if the dog is a bite and swallow kinda beast then i could see the concern for obstruction.


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## chimom (Apr 1, 2005)

luvmypuppet said:


> if it is chewed up and swallowed i don't see how it could cause an obstruction, now if the dog is a bite and swallow kinda beast then i could see the concern for obstruction.


I don't know either - this was just what I read, and it could be just a lot of talk about nothing. Kind of like us humans - seems every time you open a newspaper or turn on the TV, you find out something else is bad for you!


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## vw3sarah22 (Jan 6, 2005)

we just came back from the vet and he said NO greenies. he said they can make dogs get sick. i don't know why they're bad, but i think i will keep them away from my babies :dontknow:


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## TuckersMom (Jun 29, 2004)

Gadget's Mom said:


> he would rather have those C.E.T. chew sticks I get from the vet... So I haven't giiven him another one..


What are C.E.T. chew sticks and are they available at petstores?


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## Gadget's Mom (Jan 14, 2005)

Tuckersmom, Here is a picture of the front and side of the box the C.E.T chews. 











this is what the chews sticks look like











You can only buy them from the vets office. They are kinda expensive this box has 24 petite chews in it and it cost me $7.95


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## Gadget's Mom (Jan 14, 2005)

I forgot to tell you it is well worth the money because he loves them. They are good for him. He lays there on the bed at night with us chewing on them.. the really nice thing about them are they make no mess.... 

It takes him about 1 week to completely eat 1 stick... 

He has had these since he was 7 weeks old and he's only ate 12 of them...


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## ilovesadie (Jun 1, 2004)

Ritz goes through CET sticks like mad, I have to buy him the large dog ones so they last more than a few minutes.


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## luv4mygirls (Feb 20, 2005)

i love the cet chews! i used the larger ones for my tasha bird (before finding out about food allergies) and she had pretty dirty teeth, a month after eating them her teeth were 80% better! with them and brushing in only 1 month there was that much improvement! even the dental tech was impressed. 


and just like with a million other things out there some vets will say something is ok and another days it's not... go figure...


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## TuckersMom (Jun 29, 2004)

I think the price sounds very reasonable, especially compared to the price of Greenies. I'll check with my vet's office to see if they can get them. Thanks, Gadget's Mom, for the info!


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## Rachael Polachek (Feb 19, 2005)

vw3sarah22 said:


> we just came back from the vet and he said NO greenies. he said they can make dogs get sick. i don't know why they're bad, but i think i will keep them away from my babies :dontknow:


We just came back from the vet and she said greenies were okay, especially for keeping Lily's teeth clean. I do know that an entire greenie (even the smallest ones) can give Lily diarrhea so she never gets to eat more than half at a time.


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## chloe (Apr 20, 2005)

luvmypuppet said:


> if it is chewed up and swallowed i don't see how it could cause an obstruction, now if the dog is a bite and swallow kinda beast then i could see the concern for obstruction.


This was the case for my husky! The day after we gave her a greenie, she threw up on my rug  Cleaning it up, we were all perplexed what this giant plastic rubbery-like thing was! We washed it off and with all its green-ness revealed, sure enough it was nearly half of her Greenie from the day before. My chi had a petite one (err, started on one!) the same day though and finished about 3-4 days later and was fine. Guess it depends on the pup!


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