Dogs chewing on scraps

[woolfe]

Hi, I have a quick question. I've recently started doing leather working and I'm enjoying it so much I'm going to make a part time business out of it. My concern is for my dogs, I have 2 miniature shihtzus and a lab in the house. They seem to like chewing on the scraps that my new hobby produces. I'm using Vegetable tanned leather anyone know if there are any chemicals used in the tanning process that could be harmful to dogs?

THanks!!!

[bruce johnson]

Woolfe,

I wouldn't let them chew them. Tanned leather doesn't break down in the stomach to any great degree. It in fact can ball up and get even harder. If it remains in the stomach expect weight loss, vomiting, inappetance, etc. If it moves on down into the intestines and causes a blockage, expect acute pain, vomiting, and is an emergency situtation. Either way you get to pay a pretty hefty vet bill. I am pretty handy with an endoscope and have yet to fish out anything that big without surgery. I am not a big fan of rawhide chews either. Although rawhide can breakdown over time, a big piece can take a while and cause the same thing as above. In my other job I am - Bruce Johnson, DVM. Maybe Dr Nikkel will weigh in also.

[Johanna]

I'm not a vet, but I have had big dogs that liked to eat scraps as snacks. Being big dogs, most passed, but there was one time that my Jake, a 120 lb. Rottweiler, ate a piece of veg tanned and proceeded to to try get rid of the offending leather out of both ends for 2 days straight. We started closing the shop door after that. It was yucky. The female Rott once mistook a rawhide mallet for a lollipop, and it was quite soggy when we found it. We shaved it off to straight again, but it was never the same after that. She didn't get sick, but a smaller dog might have. I don't think it's worth the risk to allow dogs to chew on leather because, sickness aside, they can't tell the difference between a scrap and the masterpiece you worked on for hours.

Johanna

[Denise]

I personally had no experience with dogs or cats eating leather when I was working as a vet. Gloves, needles, coins, hazelnuts, strings, rocks, hash oil, marijuana, chocolate, excessive fat off the turkey or roast, getting into the garbage, etc. etc. and especially bones of all shapes and sizes - yup. All can cause problems. (My advice was "no bones, to any dog, ever, period.") Most of the time dogs especially seem like they can eat anything and it won't hurt them. But that isn't always the way it goes. And when problems happen they are expensive, heart wrenching for the pet owner, and not uncommonly life threatening. So if you wonder if they should be eating something, they probably shouldn't. "Leave it" is a great command to teach a dog. Cats don't listen so well...

[Shelly]

My Toy Fox Terriers get to come to the shop....have a pen set up in here to keep them out of trouble - LOL! Main reason is the local mouse population - I have a pet squirrel, and the mice like the same stuff as the squirrel, so get into Sammy's food...last week, I did a spring cleaning, revamped, rearranged the shop. Sammy now lives up high on the wall in her big cage, and the mice now can't get there. But, I still have live traps set, and catch 3 or 4 a day...hence, bringing in my TFT's - they are big-time mousers, and, as icky as it can be, love to catch and eat these little varmints...! (Just try to get one away from them - not happening, once they catch it! They know what they smell like, and can entertain themselves at length searching for these rodents...! But, I do have to watch them, as they also like to chew on veg tan and rawhide scrap when it's on the floor, and I agree that it doesn't break down well at all. Have to be careful about plush toys as well - my dogs have a mission with new toys, and that is to find and remove the squeeker as quickly as possible, and don't need to be doing surgery to remove the plastic or the stuffing of the toy from the inside of the dog!!

Shelly

[rawhider]

I don't let the dog in the shop. I do mostly rawhide, and even though she's a good girl, if she gets to eating rawhide, it's only a matter of time before she eats one of my pieces. I knew a guy who's dog ate a set of romal reins he just finished. It was hazardous for the dog, not the rawhide - the lead pill he got after eating it.

[DG Leather]

Woolfe,

I wouldn't let them chew them. Tanned leather doesn't break down in the stomach to any great degree. It in fact can ball up and get even harder. If it remains in the stomach expect weight loss, vomiting, inappetance, etc. If it moves on down into the intestines and causes a blockage, expect acute pain, vomiting, and is an emergency situtation. Either way you get to pay a pretty hefty vet bill. I am pretty handy with an endoscope and have yet to fish out anything that big without surgery. I am not a big fan of rawhide chews either. Although rawhide can breakdown over time, a big piece can take a while and cause the same thing as above. In my other job I am - Bruce Johnson, DVM. Maybe Dr Nikkel will weigh in also.

I know its awful the way leather dont digest well....I have been bunged up for days now! wukka wukka

[country girl]

Thanks to all who have weighed in here...I just have a small table in the family room, and no way to keep the Brittany out. So far, she hasn't gotten into the scraps, but has found flaky pieces I've removed by skiving that hit the floor. She's much better at finding them than I am...