If you feed your dog "Greenies"...

...you might want to read this: (click)

Apparently Greenies aren't as safe as we would like to think. They're made with a significant amount of wheat gluten that doesn't break down very well in a canines digestive tract. I guess there isn't a problem as long as your dog chews them up really well and eats them slowly, but if your dog (like mine) inhales most of the chewies that you give him/her the Greenies can cause a blockage--requiring emergency surgery.

Has anyone here had any bad consequences from feeding Greenies?

We stopped giving them to our little man as it seemed he frequently would vomit not long after consuming them.

There was never anything solid noticeable in the effluent.

I found another article describing serious complications from consuming Greenies:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/14/dangerous.dogtreat/

DANG!!! My dogs love greenies!!!

as a vet tech, i can't keep count of how many dogs have come in with them actually stuck in their throat!!! fortunately we have been able to get them out with sedation and long forceps. the best one was a pug who's owner even said he had a habit of gagging on them, but he loved them. yeah we recommend to not give greenies to dogs because of the ability to block them up gi wise or worse choke them. for an alternative try the roar-hides, they are 100% digestible and safe to eat. it's rawhide that has been compressed into extremely small pieces so that if a dog swallows a big piece, it will break down in the gut. they come in a variety of flavors too.

THANK YOU!! for helping to spread the word. I have been slowly trying to do so for years! I have worked around animals for a long time and have heard all the horror stories of how these 'treats' have been harming the dogs. Seeing the things removed from the stomachs first hand. And the thing that bothers me the most is that when you call the company they are fully aware of the problem and their answer is that they are 95% digestible so there should not be a problem. 95% is unacceptable! And people are not willing to listen when you give them the facts because it makes their pets breath smell better so that is all that matters. I'm perfectly content with picking up the toothbrush and doing it the old fashion way, but I guess I am just that, old fashioned.

Shannon McGowin

Golden Gate Geckos said:

DANG!!! My dogs love greenies!!!

Click to expand...

Mine too. I would let Kineesa have them though, because she would actually CHEW on them instead of trying to swallow them whole. Besides, she wasn't really interested in other sorts of chewies/rawhides and, well, she got whatever she wanted as long as it was safe. I felt the Greenies were safe for her, but I won't give them to the Golden Retriever. The only thing she gets is PORK rawhide. It is my understanding that pork rawhide is FAR more digestible than cow-hide. The problem is finding it. The store where I used to work carried a brand called "Scotts" that made a really killer variety of pork rawhide, but their expiration returns policy sucked so they stopped carrying it. I haven't been able to find it elsewhere. Right now, the only pork rawhide I can find is at Target. That will have to do I guess...

Shannon, it's not just the Greenies that are a problem either. Do you remember when Nylabone had to recall a bunch of their bones when they realized they were breaking and dogs were choking on chunks? Manufacturers can be really misleading when labeling dog chew toys. I've even seen a German Shepherd destroy a Kong... and those are supposed to be indestructible! ANYTHING that a dog can break off/apart and swallow is dangerous. I only worked at a small clinic for about a year, and just in that short time period, I saw a lot of dogs come in that had blockages from various supposedly "safe" toys and chewies.