Mmmmm...marrow bones.

We've always been hearing from fellow dog owners that marrow bones are the cat's meow. For dogs. They love the taste, it keeps them occupied, and they're just all around awesome.

So, we finally broke down and bought one for Miles. It REALLY helps with the chewing, and it literally kept him occupied all night last night.

However, I definitely had a moment of panic when I realized that he was able to chew off chunks of bone from the side instead of just hollowing it out. I had heard that it's really dangerous to feed dogs bones because they splinter in their stomach, and that's exactly where my brain went, and I was like "WEHAVETOTAKEITAWAYFROMHIMRIGHTNOWORHE'SGOINGTOGETSPLINTERSINHISSTOMACHANDDIE!"
Rob, the cooler head of the two of us, said, "I really don't think that's going to happen, but we can take it away if you want."

So, of course, when my husband and I have such polar opposite reactions, because he's had a family dog before that he can remember, I always have to find out why he's right. It turns out that only cooked bones have the splintering danger, and Miles wasn't chewing off huge chunks, so it wasn't a big deal. Crisis averted. Chew away, Miles. Chew away.


The big thing that I want to talk about today is antibiotics. Over the past few years, I have really adopted an anti-antibiotic stance. I try to avoid them at all costs for myself, and so does Rob. They do terrible things to humans, not the least of which is diminishing ability to fight infections on our own. Animals are no different. Miles is now on his fourth round of them since we've had him, and knowing how much antibiotics can damage humans, and my research about how damaging they can be for dogs, naturally I'm pretty worried about it. I am also starting to realize that the lesson here is to check him whenever he comes home from daycare for cuts and clean them immediately, because that's how two of the infections have happened. We generally don't have to put him on antibiotics for very long (one course was three days, two were five), but this time the infection was bad, so we have to give them to him for fourteen days.

We have been feeding him probiotics with his food (alternating with the antibiotics, and with breakfast and dinner when he's not on antibiotics) in order to promote healthy bacteria growth in his gut, and it seems to be serving him just fine. But the idea of prevention of these infections is more compelling to me, because I would really like to not have him on antibiotics at all if I can help it. It can cause a whole host of problems, like bloat, food allergies, and secondary infections because of lack of good bacteria, just to name three of the laundry list I've found.

So, I think that solving this issue is going to take a plan from two angles: Checking him whenever we get home from anywhere for cuts and to clean them immediately, and looking for natural remedies so that we can avoid antibiotics altogether. It looks like I'm not the only dog owner who's worried about this, and this blog looks like a great start. :) I'm going to also talk to my vet and do some more research to figure this out.

For now, I will leave you with an adorable picture of Miles chewing on his favorite thing on earth, his marrow bone.

He's such a good boy.