[somebodysme]

As some of you know, my dog is having allergy issues and we are in the process of finding out what she can eat. OK so she’s doing pretty well on the food she’s eating and she needs something to gnaw on for her teeth. I bought a Red Barn Naturals brand sliced knuckle(cow) bone. She loved it and chewed about 1/3 off one day and 1/3 of it off the next…It caused her rash on her back, tail and feet to flare up BAD and it also gave her bowels a fit too! OH and it came out completely undigested like how bone meal for your garden looks.

OK so my question is, should I now avoid anything beef or do these bones have some chemicals in them? I know she can’t have rawhide but there is the question also, is it beef or the chemicals? I have no clue if Red Barn has any sort of chemicals in them at all…do you know? The label did not say. Any thoughts on the bone? I know I could try raw bones but I wanted something that she could eat in the house and not make a mess.

[InkedMarie]

I can’t answer your questions but THK makes two chew type treats. One is haddock, the other catfish.

[theBCnut]

It is possible for a dog to be sensitive to beef bone and not beef meat or beef meat and not beef liver and so on. The only way to tell if it is the bone would be to give her a clean beef bone. My dog that can’t do chicken can handle chicken liver just fine. I haven’t bothered to try to figure out if he is just sensitive to meat or bone though. It could also definitely be chemicals. Some Red Barn stuff is definitely bad. I don’t know if all of it is or not. I would hope the “Naturals” were OK, but it is only my hope.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by theBCnut.

[FreeholdHound]

Harry can’t have turkey, but does okay with turkey necks (but I don’t go over board). Red Barn Naturals are all cooked bones so I don’t buy them & some of their other products are smoked (w/all of Harry’s triggers I wouldn’t try those either).
Many people use them with no problems, it’s an individual dog thing.

[Cyndi]

Bailey loves Bully Sticks and she also has a couple of the deer antlers that she loves. The bully sticks take her about a half hour, for an 8 inch one. The deer antlers she chews on them all the time and she has barely made a dent in them.

[somebodysme]

When I bought the bone, I thought it would be harmless…HA! I wouldn’t have thought it was chew down that fast. She has another large hard white bone that she’s been chewing on for many months. She doesn’t get enough off of it to do any harm as far as allergies. She has a basket full of assorted sizes of antlers but she only wants the split ones. I don’t see any reaction to antlers either, she doesn’t really get anything off of them either. Her favorite thing to chew is a rawhide but she can’t have those since we figured out she reacts to them. It just seems like, everything that she enjoys chewing is bad for her. Bully sticks are gone in a minute with her. What I’m after is teeth cleaning.

[Cyndi]

Your best bet if you’re looking for teeth cleaning is an occasional raw meaty bone. Depending on your dog’s size, a chicken neck (for a smaller dog) or a turkey neck (for a larger dog) would be the best thing for teeth cleaning…
Since I’ve been feeding raw, my dog’s teeth sparkle. No sign of tarter or whatever it is dogs get on their teeth.

[theBCnut]

A turkey neck 3 times a week would do the trick.

At Only Natural Pets, I found some bully sticks that were not beef, can’t remember if they were bison or what. If your dog is having problems with multiple beef products, I wouldn’t give beef bully sticks anymore. At least not until you have all of her issues completely nailed down.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by theBCnut.

[FreeholdHound]

Harry just got finished w/ his turkey neck. I am tempted to try for more than once a week as he teeth are a concern, but turkey is so iffy for him.

[theBCnut]

I wouldn’t either. I would go for a pork neck bone instead, or oxtail.

[somebodysme]

So here’s the latest in our saga…I bought a split Elk Antler yesterday at Petsmart, the brand is Prairie Dog Antlers and made in USA. Supposedly 100% natural and non-allergenic. It gives no information about if it was treated or washed etc. So, she had the same reaction to that antler as she did with that bone. She broke out in hives on her back, she had little raised bumps all down her back!!!! She was limping and biting her one foot, when I looked at it she had a huge pustule inside her pads! 🙁 She has been chewing deer antlers that I buy from a local man, he doesn’t treat them with anything. I have not noticed any reaction to them BUT they don’t have as much inside marrow stuff either. I’m am just getting so frustrated! I guess this poor dog just can’t have anything. I’m just glad I didn’t buy a bunch on line like I was fixing to do! The question still remains, are they treated with bleach for cleaning? I can’t imagine that they don’t sterilize them with something. I’m going to write the companies and just ask. If I get an answer, I’ll post it here!

[somebodysme]

I have not gotten a reply from the company that sells the elk antlers! I believe that is quite telling! As for the red barn bones, I can actually smell some sort of cleaning agent on those bones. Definitely not a natural bone smell. The antlers however, do not have a smell.

[FreeholdHound]

Patty- I will be searching out pork necks. Haven’t seen them at any of my local markets so I’ll check at my Asian Mkt when I go next. Harry is happily crunching on a dried beef trachea from MPC- his eyes actually rolled back into his head – I guess he likes it! I’ve given them raw but not dried before.

[theBCnut]

I got dehydrated lamb tracheas from Hare Today and they were devoured in no time.

[FreeholdHound]

This actually took him longer than I thought it would & LOTS of chewing (yay for his teeth !!) I’m glad I ordered them on a whim – a good switch up from the turkey.

[somebodysme]

I have some frozen turkey necks that I stashed after we started on the LID foods. I’ve reached the point of trying new things and have been 0% successful so far! GAH! First the bone and now the antler. She actually had some deer antlers which I’m now thinking that were the cause of her occasional flare ups. I told me husband that I’m actually GLAD that she reacted so bad to that antler because(it opened my eyes) I had not for one second suspected that the deer antlers she’d been chewing could possibly have been the cause for her occasional flare ups but now I’m pretty sure that’s it. I know it wasn’t the cause all along because she’s only had the deer antlers for a couple months.

Have any of you ever heard of a dog being allergic to antlers? She chewed quite a bit of “marrow” out of it and by the evening, she had hives and a large raised welt above her tail. The hives were all over her back. Then she also had a huge blood filled pustule on the bottom of her foot. The good thing about her not having any treats or anything is that I can say 100% that the antler was the cause because she gets nothing else.

[theBCnut]

They do have protein in them, but what a strange thing to be reacting to. Usually it is common proteins that cause these things.

[somebodysme]

You know, since I’ve taken up all the deer antlers and a plain white hard bone she’d been gnawing at…she is finally getting all healed up with no new odd flare ups! Yesterday she didn’t lick her feet at all.

If she is in fact allergic to bones (aren’t antlers the same make up as a bone?) and not the chemicals…is there an ingredient in dog food that I should avoid? Like “meal”? The girl at petco mentioned that I should probably avoid anything labels as “meal” but shesh, what does that leave me with? Not much. Does like “lamb meal” mean they’ve ground up bones too? If so, that could be a possible explanation for the other foods that she couldn’t eat before as they all contains a sort of “meal” in them. The NB potato and rabbit just says rabbit and not rabbit meal. When she was on the old food, Pro Plan it had some poultry by product meal but she didn’t have the same rash on that stuff. I guess the chicken bones would be different than a large animal bone? I’m just thinking out loud here…HAHAHA!

[theBCnut]

Each animal’s bones are specific to that animal, so it shouldn’t be a problem, except for beef and venison. That being said, your dog could potentially be intolerant to other animals bones too, you just can’t assume that they are. I know that there are some things about antlers that are not the same as bones, but I don’t know what that means in terms of food intolerances.

[theBCnut]

Responsible breeders don’t sell puppies this way. Puppy mills do.

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