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I think she is choking but can eat/breathe

2K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  gsdsar 
#1 ·
I've searched pretty deep into her mouth, by gently pushing her tongue down while holding a flashlight up and cannot see anything. I think it is a piece of knucklebone. I know you are not supposed to give bones for this very reason I'm sorry but she's a big chewer.

This may be a completely inappropriate post to this section of the forum and for that I am also sorry, I am very new to the website and am just trying to get some secondhand opinions.

She is gagging from time to time, maybe coughing? Its with her mouth closed and looks more like a gag. She seems to be breathing alright when i put my ear up to her chest and feel the pace that she's taking air in at. She's definitely got the salivation going.

She can eat food I've given her two milkbones since she began viciously gagging at first. I then gave the heimlich (maybe too early on I just panicked) and now its been this more subtle gagging ever since.

Shes been drinking a lot of water too. She's just lying down otherwise.

I know that these are clear signs of choking and I don't have a car at the moment due to very unlucky happenstance with this occurrence but I would ask my neighbors for the car if she was acting like she could not breathe.

Any comments on where you think this bone chip could be stuck? I don't think it's in the initial airway and she is able to eat /drink but she is periodically gagging.

thanks for your time :crying::crying:
 
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#4 ·
She could have also scratched her throat when swallowing the bone. My older dog use to pull burs out of her fur then swallow them. They would scratch her throat and she'd end up doing this gagging/retching thing and exaggerated swallowing action. I'd give her some honey to help sooth her throat and by the next day she'd be fine. I also would soften her food so it wouldn't irritate things any further.
 
#7 ·
You might feel along the roof of the mouth too. My husband fed a cooked ham bone to my old male and he was acting weird and I knew something was wrong. I found a shard of bone impaled on the roof of his mouth. Shallow, but quite stuck. I was able to pull it out and I think my husband FINALLY believes me that you can't feed cooked bone....
 
#9 ·
Hey guys thanks for everyone's responses! Harsh posts were expected I know this was stupid of me.

After talking with the vet on the phone he thinks that because she can eat the treat without struggling or gagging that it is most likely made its way to her stomach. I'm worried about the size of the bone chip so I'm inclined to still bring her in.

In the meantime the vet recommended wet food only, since the slimeyness tends to coat everything in their stomachs hopefully it will coat the bone chip as well and make the exit as simple as possible. She just massacred her bowl of canidae pure elements wet food so hopefully that's a good sign.
 
#10 ·
I know that there are a lot of posts to this all over the forums but there are so many differing opinions. If your pooch has strong jaws is it just better not to do edible treats? The only thing is she gets bored of kong rubber balls and rubber bones. Her other favorite thing is rope but I know rope isn't good for digestion either.
 
#11 ·
I know that there are a lot of posts to this all over the forums but there are so many differing opinions. If your pooch has strong jaws is it just better not to do edible treats? The only thing is she gets bored of kong rubber balls and rubber bones. Her other favorite thing is rope but I know rope isn't good for digestion either.[/QUOrTE]

Giant kongs stuffed or stuffed and frozen. If she is a strong chewer I wouldn't do anything else really at least unsupervised.
Others may have different ideas.

And I am glad she seems ok. But no more bones ok?
 
#12 ·
Just for education, like people dogs have a pretty clear signal when they are choking. In people we almost instinctively cross our hands over our thoat.

In dogs, the OBSESSIVELY paw at their face.

I am glad your girl is doing ok. Keep us posted.
 
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#13 ·
Just last week my dog choked on a few treats. She and my male were sitting nicely getting treats for no good reason other than being cute and happy dogs. No signs at first and she kept taking the liver treats.

I walked away and she followed me making a weird cacking noise. I told her to "well, let it out" thinking it was no big deal and she would cough it up and she'd be fine...Like always.

Wrong. She became frantic and them after trying to locate the treat and give back blows...She stopped moving and her whites became larger and she just stopped fighting....I gave the hyhmlich to her that I remembered from a seminar I took many years ago.

After 5 extremely hard thrusts she projectile the 5-6 treats all not chewed and in a wad with foamy saliva.

Vet visit, a very scary night over and she's fine. I did notice she had a sore throat (licking and a slight cough) and the vet recommended soft foods for a few days.

Scariest thing ever.... Know how to read the signs of choking and how to give the help needed (hyhmlich). It saved my dogs life.
 
#16 ·
Didn't realize he passed. Very sad.

Weird fact, he patented the term Heimlich maneuver. Had to pay a huge amount to use it. CPR course started replacing it with "upward abdominal thrusts" to avoid the licensing fee.
 
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