What to Do if a Dog Eats Chicken Bones

While dogs and bones tend to go together like two peas in a pod, chicken bones and dogs don't mix and these bones can be very dangerous for the pooch. Chicken bones, especially cooked chicken bones, are brittle and can break apart in the dog's stomach, splintering into tiny and often sharp pieces that can lodge in the dog's stomach or small intestine and cause serious internal bleeding. There are a number of things to do if your dog accidentally consumes chicken bones.

If your dog happens to eat chicken bones, one method of protecting her from the ill effects the brittle bones may have on her insides is by overfeeding her soft foods, which range from wet dog food to cooked rice and cooked meat. While this isn't healthy for the animal if done over a long period of time, the extra food in the stomach and digestive track help to cake the splinters that may have been created by the brittle bones in the dog's stomach and intestines. It takes a few days, on average, for the chicken bones to work their way out of a dog's system.

Feeding your dog cotton balls is actually a way to pad his stomach and digestive track from the splinters associated with chicken bones after they have been eaten. There is a specific method for this madness, however; otherwise, cotton balls can do more harm than good and cause a blockage in the dog's digestive tract. Use only 100 percent cotton balls and soak them in half and half, liverwurst or something else that your dog will not reject when you feed them to him. The cotton must be soaked fully through and unable to absorb more liquid to avoid a chance of creating an intestinal blockage. The soaked cotton balls should pass through the dog in about two days, along with the chicken bones.

If you catch your dog shortly after she ate chicken bones, inducing vomiting is another good way to protect her digestive tract. Shoving something down the dog's throat to simply make her throw up, however, may create a violent reaction with the already splintered chicken bones and cause a tear in her stomach or throat. So feed her a can of pumpkin, for example, to cause her to throw up naturally. Then pick through the vomit to make sure the bones were regurgitated.

If none of these solutions seems like a viable option, calling your veterinarian is another safe course of action, though it might end up in a costly visit.