[DieselJunki]

So Moose is most definitely a gulper. He will have something half way down his throat almost whole and still be chewing the rest in his mouth then swallow it down. He did that to his quail last night. He also does that to his bully sticks. He chews them until they are soft, gets the soft part down his throat and continues to chew the hard part until it’s soft, then repeats the process till the whole thing is almost down his throat. I of course end up pulling it out once I see this happening which is why I no longer give him bully sticks. He does this with pigs ears but it’s not quite as bad.

How on earth do you deal with this? I would imagine he has a hard time ripping things with his front teeth as his underbite is about a half an inch longer than his top jaw.

[theBCnut]

I heard that someone cured his dog of gulping by attaching vise grips to whatever the dog was given to eat. The dog had to gnaw around the vise grips.

[soho]

Using vise grips doesn’t sound very safe. The vise grips could cure the dog of having any teeth as well as cure the gulping!

[theBCnut]

My dogs tend to know what they are chewing on so if I needed that trick I don’t think it would be a problem, but for a dog that would chew on anything or a dog that is clueless, it would probably be a bad idea. Fortunately I don’t know too many of those.

[crazy4cats]

Hi All-
I was the one who recommended using vise grips a while back. I have two 80 lb. lab mix puppies who are big time gulpers. They are coming up on two years old in July so they are improving a little bit. When we first got them they not only chewed every thing in sight they also swallowed it. Actually there was little chewing, just swallowing. One of them has actually pooped out three or four socks. They can’t really have any toys or dog beds for fear they might swallow and get an obstruction. Same thing with chewy treats such as bully sticks. So, anyway, I read somewhere about using vise grips with chew treats in order to stop dogs from swallowing their treats whole before they chew them up. And I have to tell you, they work great. We have been using them with mostly bully sticks for about a year and no broken teeth and no bully stick obstruction. We just take them away from them when it gets down to the nub and then give them that last little piece. Believe me they want it too! You would think we never feed them when it comes to food and snacks. 🙂

[theBCnut]

The person I know used them raw feeding. He has a huge Pit that swallowed a whole chicken thigh. He read about using vise grips on one of the raw feeding sites. It really worked for him. He says he used the vise grips for about three months and then he stopped. The dog learned to chew his bones. I’ve never seen the dog, but how big would he have to be to swallow a whole thigh!?!

[crazy4cats]

Hi Patty-
It’s amazing, isn’t it? I’m sure my dogs would have tried. I was very surprised at what my pups tried to swallow when I brought them home. I knew they would try to chew everything, but I didn’t realize they would actually swallow things whole! Fortunately, they passed everything they swallowed out of one end or the other. One of them mostly threw things up and the other again, fortunately, had their items pass all the way through. I had a lot of anxiety those days and still have some even though we’ve learned to close all doors and keep most things picked up. It’s pretty difficult, though, when I have one teenage boy still at home.

I still don’t trust the dogs with a bully stick. They get one about once a week and my husband tightly grips them tightly in the grips. So far they have not got them out of the grips and we keep an eye on them.

One of my friends has a Burmese Mountain dog. (Not sure of the spelling). Her dog ate her daughter’s whole nursing bra while she was staying with mom and dad because her husband was deployed over seas. Needless to say, he ended up in surgery and has part of his intestines removed. My oh my, what we do for our dogs!

So, I do highly recommend the vise grips to anyone concerned about their dogs swallowing instead of chewing their treats or whatever it may be that fits in the grips. Skinny treats are hard to grip. But, you do still have to keep an eye on them, of course.

[DieselJunki]

I’ll have to try the vice grips and watch to see how well they work. I’m not sure how big he’d have to be to get a whole thigh down but I wish he would have gotten it on video. That must have been something to see. I still have a few bully sticks laying around the house as well, will definitely have to try this out on those, Moose really does love them.

Now to get a pair of big enough vice grips where Moose won’t think that might be a snack as well. I found bits of a plastic fork in his poo this morning… sigh, he must have picked that up at the campground we were at yesterday.

He locked himself in the work truck 2 mornings ago (It was running and stays running all day with the A/C on for him), well my foreman (who happens to be my boyfriend which is why Moose gets to come to work) had bought a slim jim for himself and stuck it in his door where he usually puts it. I watched in horror as Moose ate the whole thing, plastic and all. It was just as I described about him getting half of it down his throat while still chewing the other half to get it down. After he had devoured the slim jim and began working on a hat and glove we finally got the door unlocked with the antenna. He is acting normal and having regular bowl movements but I am waiting for that to come back out, I’ve looked everyday, I wouldn’t think plastic could be digested and just expected to find bits of it or a long piece in his stool eventually. So far nothing…

[crazy4cats]

Oh boy, I hope Moose brings up something soon. I totally know what it feels like waiting and worrying. One of mine also swallowed a glove. My previous dog would occasionally chew things up, especially when young. But, I think my two now will try to eat and swallow anything! I try and keep them occupied with an occasional bully stick in a vice grip and also raw marrow bones. However, I do worry about chipped teeth with the raw bones, but so far so good.

Good Luck!

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