What to do if your dog eats glass

[snopes]

Comment: After an almost incident with our new pooch I found several
articles online saying that if a dog eats glass you should feed them a
couple cotton balls. It says that even vets use this method. I am new to
dog ownership and a bit too embarassed to ask my vet about this one,
although if the need ever arises I will certainly ask.

It's not a silly question AT ALL. Being prepared ahead of time for various types of emergencies is not silly, it's smart and it can save your pet's life. And believe me, dogs will eat Christmas ornaments, light bulbs, tinsel, you name it.

* If your pet ingests glass, broken plastic, staples orother small, sharp objects, call your veterinarian.

In the meantime, you can give your dog supplemental fiber in the form of whole wheat or other high-fiber bread, canned pumpkin or Metamucil, any of which can help bulk up the stools the help the foreigh material pass through the dogs digestive system. Dosages depend on the size of the dog. For Metamusil, try a teaspoon for a small dog, a tablespoon for a big dog. For pumpkin, feed one-quarter to two-thirds of a cup. Some folks recommend feeding the dog cotton balls to help pass the foreign objects, but others in the veterinary field caution against this since cotton balls can compound the problem. Source: Partnership for Animal Welfare

Like this organization says, I would be concerned that the cotton might ball up with the glass in the intestines and cause a blockage. I'd call your vet and ask.

my dog ate chicken bones a couple months ago, so i called my boss (a vet) and she confirmed my decision to feed him a bunch of bread. the bread followed the bones down almost immediately which means the hit the digestive tract around the same time. the bread cushions the sharp ends of the bones. i imagine that would work with glass, but if my dog ate glass the first place id call or go is the vet or the emergency clinic.

[Floater]

Originally Posted by brendaal

my dog ate chicken bones a couple months ago, so i called my boss (a vet) and she confirmed my decision to feed him a bunch of bread.

Are chicken bones really that dangerous for dogs? Foxes have a habit of eating chickens when possible and they seem to thrive on it.

[Nick Theodorakis]

Originally Posted by Floater

Are chicken bones really that dangerous for dogs? Foxes have a habit of eating chickens when possible and they seem to thrive on it.

They probably don't cook them first, though. Cooked bones are more brittle and apt to splinter.

Nick

Originally Posted by Floater

Are chicken bones really that dangerous for dogs? Foxes have a habit of eating chickens when possible and they seem to thrive on it.

It is the leg and thigh bones that are the problem, as I recall, because they are hollow and splinter easily. Other bones do not pose the same danger. And at that I seem to recall my grandmother saying that chicken bones are OK but not Turkey bones.

[Floater]

Originally Posted by Nick Theodorakis

They probably don't cook them first, though. Cooked bones are more brittle and apt to splinter.

When I think of it it's probably not the cooking but the fact that they have been dead for a while as opposed to a freshly fallen fowl.

Originally Posted by Sly Dog

It is the leg and thigh bones that are the problem, as I recall, because they are hollow and splinter easily. Other bones do not pose the same danger. And at that I seem to recall my grandmother saying that chicken bones are OK but not Turkey bones.

All bird bones are brittle, a side effect of their structure, which is a side effect of them being as light as possisble (what about ostrich bones? one might wonder), the leg and thigh bones are just the biggest ones and easiest to observe. However, I do recall when we had a BBQ party and a passing bull terrier was offered a turkey thigh bone which she ate with a good appetite with no splinters stuck in her throat and her owner didn't protest.

[Xia]

When my dog ate cooked chicken bones (as we discovered because we were trying to x-ray her spleen!) my vet suggested feeding her quantities of white bread to cushion them as they went through her system. I have also heard of feeding dogs cotton balls soaked in milk for ingestion of sharp objects (the milk makes the cotton balls more appetizing, I assume.)

Originally Posted by Floater

Are chicken bones really that dangerous for dogs? Foxes have a habit of eating chickens when possible and they seem to thrive on it.

Dogs will eat many things but not bread - unless you put meat broth on it.
And dogs don't usually chew their food - they inhale it, so maybe their digestive system can handle sharp items - occasionally? If U know your dog ate Christmas tree ornaments, or whatever, watch him/her closely for a few days. Look for blood in the poo, or any other illness symptom. Bring to vet....
Wild dogs DO eat bones, but MAYBE they don't live very long lives, I wonder if anyone has ever done a study of the eating habits and results of those eating habit on wild dogs? .......

I know this is quite an old thread, but I stumbled across it yesterday when I was googling something, and I felt the need to correct it.

Wild dogs are wolves, considering their DNA is 99.8% identical. Wolves have average lifespans as dogs equivalent in size, being 12 - 13 years on average. Dogs and wolves are BOTH carnivores. Their bodies were designed to hunt, kill and digest prey. Wolves do eat bones, but there is a difference between cooked and raw as someone has already stated. Cooking the bones makes them brittle and sharp and less easy to digest. When a dog eats raw chicken bones, they are already digested before they enter the intestines, so there is no risk of internal tears/cutting. I've found it's hard for people to realize that commercial dog food has only existed for a little over 100 years, while dogs, themselves, have existed for hundreds of thousands of years. Dogs were built and evolved to eat and consume prey caught and killed in the wild, and because our dogs are not far removed from their ancestor, they gray wolf, practically at all, their systems are ALSO designed to eat the same food.

We are beginning to find, however, that as a result of human interference in breeding and poor breeding in general, dogs are evolving to have weaker and weaker digestive tracks, many requiring some of the nutrient found in kibble, others being incredibly allergic to most kibble. As a general rule, however, most dogs can still thrive on a natural diet of raw food and bones, which is healthier than any kibble can be. One of the advantages of feeding raw food is clean teeth! Wolves in the wold keep their teeth and they never go to the vet to get their teeth cleaner. This is because of the bones they chew that act as natural floss in a sense.

So, to answer the question of bones, dogs can eat raw bones, it's cooked bones that cause issues. Also, the cotton ball technique DOES work. And whoever said dogs won't eat bread is stupid, I'm sorry. But dog kibble is loaded with grains identical to those in bread. Of course they will eat it. Some won't, however, because they don't like the taste. For example, my husky likes bread but hates pretzels (probably because of the salt). Dogs enjoy different foods in the same way people do.