Anyways, I did lots of research about Greenies. If you're unfamiliar, they're a small toothbrush-shaped 'treat' you give your dogs that helps clean their teeth. It's not a hard treat but bendy and flexible and it's mostly made of wheat.
I'd heard the cautionary accounts about Greenies which ranged from 'my dog got sick' to 'my dog had to have emergency surgery because this thing got stuck and caused intestinal blockage'. As with anything, on the flip side, there are thousands of people who have no problems and their dogs love them. So what do you do? I went to Greenies website again yesterday to read about what they said about them, which in short is that Greenies are good for dogs, safe for dogs, with one important disclaimer that stands out to me: as long as they're chewed up correctly.
The dog is supposed to chew on this thing and, ya know, chew it up, not bite it off and swallow it (ergo, intestinal blockages.) So I gave one to Josie last night... and she ate it in three chunks. Not cool. I tried to reach in her mouth and grab out the last piece, but it was no use. Then I began to worry a little. Thankfully, she showed no signs of illness within an hour; she hadn't vomited, she wasn't acting lethargic, and she wanted to play. We went to bed as normal, and I was praying she'd be okay, or that if she was going to get sick in the middle of the night, I'd wake up for it. She made it through the night and went to the bathroom this morning like normal. Yay. All good signs.
I held back her breakfast just to be on the safe side. She was very confused and followed me around the kitchen a lot, hoping that one of these times I'd realize I forgot her breakfast and would go and get it haha. Poor thing.
I thought we were in the clear but then around 11:00 she vomited. It was like it hit her all at once: she stopped dead in her tracks, head down, and eventually threw up. I called the vet and explained and they said to bring her by. We did blood work and an x-ray, which thankfully all came back fine. But based on her having a fever, plus large pockets of gas in the x-ray, the doctor said she probably has inflammation and gastritis. I've got some meds for her to help with her tummy and I'm going to watch her for a while and make sure nothing else crops up, plus encourage her to drink so her fever comes down sooner.
Needless to say, I'm not buying Greenies again and I'm going to return the two individual ones I have left. I hate to be yet another alarmist on the internet, but I wouldn't recommend these anymore either. Right now I'm kind of guilt-tripping myself as to why I ever thought this would be a good idea. I've been hesitant about these for a while, and I should have just stayed that way, steered clear, but it's over and done. No use dwelling on that. I'm thankful that Josie is okay and her problems aren't any worse.
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