Dog Chewing Options – Be Safe and Effective

Mental Enrichment Chewing:

Settling down for a good chew session is very important for a lot of dog’s mental health. Hard bones, antlers, sticks, and other hard toys often marketed for “heavy chewers” often cause enamel damage and fractures of the chewing teeth. This damage is not only painful but causes exposure to the pulp and blood stream leading to tooth root abscesses and causing increased risk of kidney and liver disease as well as bacteria spread to the heart.  You can greatly reduce the chances of this tooth injury by throwing out all hard bones, antlers, and sticks. You don’t want to give a dog a bone or any other chew today that is so hard you can’t make it give a little bit with pressure from your finger nail or a table knife.  Fractures of the chewing tooth are the number one reason large dogs have to have their chewing teeth in the back surgically removed.  While you don’t want a chewing bone that is so soft that your dog can consume large pieces of it, it does need to be soft enough that it gives way before your dog’s tooth does.

This is a slab fracture where the slab is still attached to the gums.  This is easily hidden from owners especially if there is tartar also lying on top of this fracture hiding it.	When the fractured slab of tooth is removed you can see the reactive and painful tissue that is present underneath.	This is a crown root fracture that at first glance just looks like broken tartar in figure 3b you will see that it is fractured tooth.	Lifting this tooth with a probe shows you how deep the fracture goes and you can imagine the pain that occurs when a kibble bone or toy knocks into this piece.

Being vigilant when your dog chews one of these toys and replacing them when they start to get off pieces larger than a dime is the best way to provide chewing enrichment in a safe manner.  We do not recommend stuffing these bones with food or treat material as that makes the dog more likely to want to bite off pieces and consume the bone rather than just chewing on it.  We recommend having at least 2 shapes available for variety and enrichment.  We also recommend that you choose the largest size your dog will chew as smaller sizes will get broken apart more easily and need to be replaced much sooner.

Kong -EXTREME (black color) – do not purchase non-black, non-extreme versions as they are too soft.

Oral Health Benefits Daily Chews: Good oral hygiene is one of the most important things that you can provide to help your dog live a longer, more comfortable life.  While dental chews seem like the obvious (and much advertised) choice, many of them are actually not that effective and can even cause serious issues such as weight gain, digestive upset, intestinal obstruction and tooth damage.

Many dental chews are extremely high in calorie and often are hard on the digestive system.  Rawhides and pig ears get soft enough to swallow but not to digest and then cause stomach upset or worse intestinal obstruction.  Some dental chews such as Busy Bones can contain 150-300 kcal per piece when depending on your dog’s size they should only have 20-75 kcal of treats per day.  Greenies can be hard to digest and Nylabone brand often splinters. Bully sticks cause less fractures but have other serious issues including that they are high in calories and have been proven through research to often harbor dangerous bacteria. They are dried bull penises so the bacteria is not surprising (and kind of gross to have in the house if you think about it too long 🙂

The best way to choose an edible dental chew is to ask the veterinarian how many treat calories your dog can have per day and then head to https://vohc.org/accepted-products/to choose a safe and effective product.