Are Rawhide Treats Dangerous For Dogs?

In short, use caution. This article talks about Lucy, a Pomsky, whose experience with rawhide caused intestinal blockage.

Rawhides have been a debate amongst pet parents for quite some time now. The debate circles around whether or not it is safe to feed to your dog and whether or not it is a good quality product. As with any chewable, rawhides pose some concerns. One of the concerns is for a blockage should a pet ingest a large enough piece.

What is Rawhide?

Rawhide is the untanned skin of animals. They are mainly made from the inner hide of beef, pigs, or buffalo.

Lucy’s Experience With Rawhide Treats

Today, we will take you through Lucy’s journey with her rawhide incident. Lucy’s case is being shared with the permission of her pet parents.

Lucy is a perfectly healthy one and a-half year- old Pomsky. She is adorable as can be and absolutely LOVES chewing on things and destroying them!

Meet Lucy, the adorable Pomsky, who looks very pleased with herself after taking apart a chew toy.

It was a Tuesday when Lucy’s mom called us to let us know that Lucy has started vomiting on and off, starting at 4 a.m. Lucy was a little quieter than usual, but not severely so. She had refused some foods, but was still eating a little. Based on what we were told, we advised Lucy’s mom to bring her in to the Clinic immediately for an urgent assessment. Regardless of our schedule status, whether it is full or not, we always do our best to fit in urgent cases that we are equipped to handle.

When Lucy arrived it was determined that she is a concern for a foreign body blockage considering that she chews on many things and tends to destroy them. Lucy had some x-rays taken and we ran some bloodwork just to make sure that there was not a different potential cause for the vomiting since the x-rays did not show anything obvious. Lucy received some fluids and anti-nausea medication and was sent home. Lucy’s parents were instructed to give us a call with an update the following day.

The next day, Wednesday, Lucy came back into the office. She had continued drooling overnight, started having very small stools, and had continued to refuse food. Lucy’s mom said that she felt better with her fluid therapy but seemed to feel worse again after the fluid were fully absorbed. Lucy’s parents remembered that Lucy was given a rawhide for the first time on Sunday. They were pretty sure she had chewed it up well and did not ingest any larger pieces but could not be certain.

At this point, Lucy was hospitalized on IV fluids while she awaited her ultrasound. We are very fortunate that the company that does the ultrasounds for us was able to make it out to us for a last-minute ultrasound. Lucy’s ultrasound did not show anything obvious but there was one area in the colon that may contain more than just feces.

Fast forward to Friday, Lucy had been hospitalized every day since Wednesday, she would improve a little but not enough to say that she is back to normal. At this point, were very certain that the rawhide Lucy had ingested was causing a partial blockage in her gut. Finally! On Friday morning Lucy passed a thick, leather-like material in her stool and took a few excited victory laps right after! She had passed a piece of rawhide!

Lucy, looking safe and happy, after she overcame her intestinal blockage with rawhide. Needless to say, she has sworn off rawhide treats permanently!

The moral of this story is to watch your pets carefully when introducing new chew-things and especially ones that may not be fully digestible. Even with fully digestible products we encourage everyone to use caution and watch their pets carefully. Take away small pieces that are a hazard for blockage!

Lucy is doing great now and has no issues from her adventure with her first rawhide. That being said, Lucy has sworn off rawhides permanently!