# Rawhide



## Amandarose531 (Aug 9, 2010)

Okay, so we've agreed generally speaking rawhide isn't ideal for our babies.

But my Godric LOVES to chew and it was the only thing I could grab on my way home today so I figured he has plenty of water and doesn't chew fast so he should be okay just to nibble for a bit while I cook dinner.

I forgot to take it away after dinner and I ended up nodding off shortly after state of the union started till I woke up to a HORRIFIC squeeling and Godric hunched over on the sofa.

All I can think is that he got it chewed down small enough to swallow and it hurt, when I picked him up he was still squeeling but then gave a huge burp and he seems to be mostly okay now playing with his sister.

The problem with that is I don't think it'll deteriorate in his stomach.

Anything I should watch for? Alert the vet in the morning?


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## Dragonfly (Jun 6, 2010)

I wish I could be more help but HOW scary that had to be for you! I hope little Godric is doing well still!!


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## amyalina25 (Jan 10, 2011)

omg! i didnt realise rawhind was bad? that sounds terrible  
My chi`s wont be seeing a rawhind chew again! whats best to give them?
I really hope Godric is ok x


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## omguthrie (Oct 13, 2009)

I give rawhide quite a bit. I think the key to rawhide is to give appropriately sized pieces and monitor them while chewing and take it away when it starts getting too small. I buy large 10" rolled rawhide for the border collies and once one of them has a roll started and it is more chewable I give it to Lilo the chihuahua and give the border collie a new one. Lilo will happily chew on that for forever and there is no way she can make it small enough to swallow.

As far as Godric goes. I would watch for him to start vomiting and having diarrhea and not being able to keep anything down. I don't mean vomit or have a little diarrhea one time but really not being able to even keep water in his stomach. If he does that and starts to feel yucky or his stomach gets all swollen and painful I would seek vet attention.


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## flippedstars (Dec 16, 2009)

I give the thick rolls of rawhide sometimes...but never chips/twists, etc. for the very thing that happened to Godric...the thick rolls they really cannot even eat any of it, we have some that have been around for 6+ months. From what I understand it can take up to a week for a blockage to become apparent, and you will know because he will be all hunched up, moving will seem painful, his belly will be very hard...MOST LIKELY he will just poo it out. It turns gooey and soft in their stomach and what can happen is it can cover an "out" door, ... but, hopefully it won't. It is common enough we are very careful, but, less common than you'd think, for rawhides to be a problem.


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## flippedstars (Dec 16, 2009)

amyalina25 said:


> omg! i didnt realise rawhind was bad? that sounds terrible
> My chi`s wont be seeing a rawhind chew again! whats best to give them?
> I really hope Godric is ok x


bully sticks are much safer because they are digestible


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## Amandarose531 (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks ladies.

Yes, we usually do bully sticks but I was in a hurry from the market to get home and I hate not having something to keep him busy while I cook and clean at night because if not he's under my feet and getting into trouble, plus he enjoys his bullies.

I wont do chips ever again, the bag went into the trash. Usually chips are fine because we generally do them when my OH and I want to watch a movie without a chihuahua war on the sofa so they go to their corners and enjoy but we are there to monitor when they get to small.

I kick myself for nodding off last night. Godric has gone this morning, nothing unusual yet but I will keep an eye out.


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## ShilohAcres (Jan 26, 2011)

Besides rawhide, I would not feed the pigs ears to my dogs either. The best tasty chews are either the bully sticks or dried tendons. Nyla bones are great but you have to get them started as a puppy on those because they don't taste as good.


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## gypsyeye805 (Sep 26, 2009)

With rawhide The size of the piece only matters in terms of choking, but then again that applies to any chew toy or food in general with little dogs. What makes rawhide so evil is that it's 100% completely NON digestible....It would be the equivalent of one of use taking a bite out of our favorite high heel leather pump or loafer. The tougher outer layer of the hide is what they call leather and the softer inner layer is the rawhide. It's not a food product, it's a textile and it's processed as a textile would be. Have you ever seen leather garments that have a sort of soft furry look/looking to the inside (furry may not be the right description), it's called unfinished leather. Well the part thats referred to as "unfinished" is actually rawhide. The first 4 steps in creating a rawhide chew are the EXACT same steps used in any leather processing; splitting, stripping, degreasing, and bleaching (the last 2 are done with chemical detergents and peroxide so that it doesn't smell like death, it's also what gives rawhide it's color), they stop short at tanning and the drying process is different, thats the only thing that separates rawhide from a cool pair of chaps.


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## Amandarose531 (Aug 9, 2010)

Godric has the mouth of a demon.

Rawhide keeps him busy, he blows through bullies, he annihilates pig ears and nylabones are not welcome in this house because - he EATS THEM, then barfs them back up - even the extra hard ones.

I'm just going to have to brainstorm a new chew treat for him.


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## Mom of 4 Chi's (Apr 3, 2009)

Amandarose531 said:


> Godric has the mouth of a demon.
> 
> Rawhide keeps him busy, he blows through bullies, he annihilates pig ears and nylabones are not welcome in this house because - he EATS THEM, then barfs them al up - even the extra hard ones.
> 
> I'm just going to have to brainstorm a new chew treat for him.


Lola, my little 3 pounder gets through regular bullysticks very fast too. 
I buy my bullysticks from bestbullysticks.com. 
I've been buying the regular 6" odor free bully's, but like I said Lola mows right through those to quickly, so I decided to give the 6" odor free thick cut bully's a try. 
They are perfect! I would say the thick cut last 3x's as long as the regular ones.
Maybe worth a try for Godric.


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## Amandarose531 (Aug 9, 2010)

Mom of 4 Chi's said:


> Lola, my little 3 pounder gets through regular bullysticks very fast too.
> I buy my bullysticks from bestbullysticks.com.
> I've been buying the regular 6" odor free bully's, but like I said Lola mows right through those to quickly, so I decided to give the 6" odor free thick cut bully's a try.
> They are perfect! I would say the thick cut last 3x's as long as the regular ones.
> Maybe worth a try for Godric.


Thanks Lisa, i'll give it a shot.

I hadn't been buying them from our petstore because they keep jacking their prices up and as fast as Godric eats them I can't fathom spending that much. He's so skinny I don't mind giving him one every evening but at around $5-6 each I can't compete. I think I see what you're talking about and at $1.19 each i'll hook him up for a few weeks and we wont have to worry about rawhide haha


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## Mom of 4 Chi's (Apr 3, 2009)

Yeah, it's a pretty good price. I like that we can buy them individually. 
Let me know how your little power chewer does on them.


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## Amandarose531 (Aug 9, 2010)

Mom of 4 Chi's said:


> Yeah, it's a pretty good price. I like that we can buy them individually.
> Let me know how your little power chewer does on them.


Power chewer is right! I tried the puppy nylabone, he went right through it. Okay, so I tried the regular, same thing. Then the extra hard - nope, still chewed it. 

He ate a kong ball too. 

I'm lucky, he doesn't chew anything around the house, just things that taste good.


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## flippedstars (Dec 16, 2009)

Hehe Godric sounds like Trigger...there is a reason he is called the Piglet! However, unlike Godric, Trigger only has to look at a bully stick to put on the pudge  

I do agree the thick ones last a good bit longer, although my last batch of odor free certainly was not as odor free as the last *cranky face*.


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## Mom of 4 Chi's (Apr 3, 2009)

Ha! Godric has Lola beat! Yeah, your lucky he only likes yummy tasting stuff. What a character. 

Kristi,
I received a stinky batch of the odor free bully's too!! It was the regular size, and I sent your crew some from that batch for ss. Not all were stinky, so I hope you didn't get any!!! 
BBS must have mixed them. I should have called and complained, but didn't.


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## gypsyeye805 (Sep 26, 2009)

WE LOVE bestbullysticks.com.....I've been funding the retirement of all the employes for years now, we spend so much money on that site it's ridiculous lol. 

For those of you who have little chewers this may be something they love. The Himalayan Chews are fantastic and they aren;t kidding whn they say they're long lasting. However, I don't buy the small one, not because it doesn't last but just because they're smaller and harder to see when the dog leave them lying around on the floor ...the bigger ones i can see and avoid stepping in wet dog treat. They medium or large one will last a loooong time, so plan on seeing hanging around. I will warn that they smell like rotten milk for a few minutes when you take them out of the plastic bag, but it's not overwhelming and the smell dissipates really quickly. Heres the link to it, check um out, we swear by them. 
Himalayan Dog Chew- Large | Himalayan Dog Chews

My little one Eggz also loves loves loves the Antlers Antlerz - Deer Antlers - Antlerz Chew Toy - Dog Chews and Treats from Best Bullyl Sticks which are also super long lasting and ironically enough my vet told me that was one of the best treats I could give him. He said that in little dogs there's often calcium and mineral deficiencies...and obvious tiny bones. Lots of us have really active little ones who like to run and jump (off of furniture even), the vet said theyre prone to small bone splits in their legs and often in their backs that usually don't start causing real problems until they get up their in age. He said even the BEST dog food on the market doesn't have what it takes to make up for calcium and minerals. The quantities needed to make a difference in the diet would not be able to be stabilized during the cooking/manufacturing of the food so would be basically worthless at the end of it all. and to dust the food afterwards would change the flavor making it unpalatable and change the shelf life (sorry for the chemistry of dog food lesson) ....anyway I've never actually ordered the antlers from bullysticks, we buy them in a local store that carries all sorts of crazy holistic and natural foods and treats, they even carry the kangaroo knees (yeah I'm serious...the dogs love them, but I hear they're soon to be discontinued


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## mrfiero (Sep 23, 2010)

Hazel used to do well with bully sticks, then she started to eat the cover of them in the middle rather than chew the ends. The local gourmet doggie diner (holistic pet food supplier) sold me some cows tails. They are the size of a bully stick and she starts at the end like she used to with the bully sticks.


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## LostLakeLua (Sep 6, 2009)

I recommend hooves!! They're very inexpensive, like 99cents a piece most places, and they last FOREVER. After a while they tend to get stinky and I throw them out, but they're so cheap to replace and the dogs never get tired of them. 
Also if want to keep them busy and need to 're-spark' their interest in them, we got into the habit of putting peanut butter into them and throwing em in the freezer.

Freezer is also great for any other kind of treat that has any amount of moisture. I have a lot of these little dental sticks that the dogs love; but they go through them so fast; UNLESS I freeze them first. There's just enough moisture in them that it hardens them and it takes at least twice as long to get through them.


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## Bella Luna (Jan 15, 2010)

I gave Bella a pig ear once and she ate it so fast!! WELL, shortly after she was throwing up like crazy and couldn't keep anything down. At 2 am, I had to rush her to an emergency vet clinic. They said that she may have ate something that scratched her inside and irritated her belly. Left there with a $280 bill..Now I stick with bully sticks..haha. Hope you baby is okay!!!


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## Amandarose531 (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks everyone, Godric is good. He is just very convincing when he's being a whiner. My mom says it's similar to babies when they cry, a mother always knows when the baby really needs something and when it's just an attention getter.


I believe Godric got scratched going down, but he's been good since, no stops or anything.

I've been feeding him some twist stick I forget, it might be tripe, but he loves it. I hit it with a dab of PB and he's good to go.

Also, Katie thank you so much for our SS we just got it I haven't had a chance to post about it but we really love it. The pups haven't gotten out of the bed since we set it out!


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## LostLakeLua (Sep 6, 2009)

Amandarose531 said:


> Also, Katie thank you so much for our SS we just got it I haven't had a chance to post about it but we really love it. The pups haven't gotten out of the bed since we set it out!


Yaaay I'm so glad it made it there!!! =D The Denta Stix I mentioned in this post earlier was actually the same one that we sent a few of; we always keep em in our freezer. Sorry again it was so late; but I'm very happy it arrived; I was gonna be really mad if it got lost in shipping LOL.


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## intuition (Jan 19, 2011)

sadly bestbullystick.com for me doesn't work well, shipping to alaska ends up being close to 50 dollars, I have bought from amazon though and found it to be only 15 dollars in shipping. doubtful we have many alaskans, but worth a note.


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## Pinkchi (Nov 21, 2008)

Oh poor Godric! I hope he didn't hurt himself too much swallowing the bit of rawhide, and I hope if he has it will pass naturally without any problems.

Louie won't touch plain rawhide for some reason. He has a little rawhide shoe but he isn't interested in it what so ever. I normally just buy him Pizzle (Bullysticks) or pigs or cows ears. He also has a Stagbar antler he absolutely loooves.

I'm sure Godric will be non the worse for wear xx


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## Amandarose531 (Aug 9, 2010)

Kitty&Kahlua said:


> Yaaay I'm so glad it made it there!!! =D The Denta Stix I mentioned in this post earlier was actually the same one that we sent a few of; we always keep em in our freezer. Sorry again it was so late; but I'm very happy it arrived; I was gonna be really mad if it got lost in shipping LOL.


Hah, yeah. Unfortunately Godric has the stomach of sensitivity galore, I split one of the dental treats in half for them, Godric barfed them all over the new bed. Oh well, I halfway figured he'd have some sort of intolerance to them and the bed got broken in all in the same day!


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