My nephew was at my house last night and brought his usual chicken dinner. My dog managed to snag a drumstick bone and inhale it before I could get to it.

So how long do I need to worry about the dumb mutt and watch him for problems?

Thanks.

The problem with eating splintering bones is you can't make them vomit them up, because they splinter and could tear the esophogas. Typically, you'd wait 4-7 days. You may see them coming out again, you may not.
Signs to look for if there are problems are: Vomiting, Diarrhea, Lack of stool, inappetance, lethargy, fresh blood in the stool or dark and tarry stool. You can get him xrayed every few days to make sure its moving along, but that won't help get it out again.

If this ever happens again (most foreign body ingestions really), you can give a tbsp of metimucil powder right away and that helps stick to the whatever it is and move it out faster. Other than that though, you don't want to force anything in either direction. If its any comfort, this happens all the time, and more often than not, there are no problems.

Rabid_Child is right....about symptoms to look for and the fact that this happens all the time, usually without incident. When I was a vet tech, we had people calling all the time worrying that their dog had swallowed a bone....but I can't remember any of them having any problems.

A few weeks ago my stepson let one of our dogs lick a corn cob......and he bit off a big chunk and swallowed it. Out came the trusty peroxide! I had to use a turkey baster to get it down his throat, and he was NOT pleased with the projectile vomiting it caused, but we got the corn cob out of him! LOL!

Rabid_Child is right....about symptoms to look for and the fact that this happens all the time, usually without incident. When I was a vet tech, we had people calling all the time worrying that their dog had swallowed a bone....but I can't remember any of them having any problems.

A few weeks ago my stepson let one of our dogs lick a corn cob......and he bit off a big chunk and swallowed it. Out came the trusty peroxide! I had to use a turkey baster to get it down his throat, and he was NOT pleased with the projectile vomiting it caused, but we got the corn cob out of him! LOL!

I hope you performed this procedure outside ;) that'd be quite the mess.

Thanks. This dog has eaten more inedible things than I can keep track of, so you think I'd be used to this. But I was worried about the chicken bone because I've read that's one of the worst things for dogs to eat.

When I had to give one of my mom's dogs peroxide after he ate cherry pits, they told me to mix it in milk. Much easier than the turkey baster! He's really old and I'm not sure how good his eyesight is anymore. We've learned not to put our hands near his mouth at any time because he assumes you have food and will latch on to a hand and not let go. For his age, his teeth are in very good shape. Last time I mistakenly handed him a dog biscuit instead of dropping it in front of him, I ended up with bruised fingernails. :p