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Something stuck in throat

This is a dedicated place for all of your questions and answers about Raw Diets. There are also some really cool groups like "Raw Fed" on the topic you can join. This forum is for people who already know they like the raw diet or sincerely want to learn more. Please remember that you are receiving advice from peers and not professionals. If you have specific health-related questions about your dog's diet, please contact your vet!

  
Benji- Knockout

Always searching- for my next- meal!		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '12 10:38am PST 
So Benji being only 2lbs get very small portions... And I thought it was a good idea to cut a young chicken wing in half for him because the whole thing was too big and I was sure it was too much bone... Well... mommy thought wrong and I'm sure he swallowed it at an unhealthy size... He was chewing it but I turned around for a moment to grab something and next thing I knew it was gone...

At the next meal I gave him a chunck of boneless breast and when he swallowed it he got wide eyed and screeched like he was choking. He started sliding on the floor... Because my floor is time he slides everywhere and scooting away from me as I tried to grab him and then he stopped, got up and continued to eat...
He looked as though he was going to vomit for a while, was pawing his mouth about 3-4 times, I checked his throat didn't see anything and he was yawning a lot for the next hour and then settled down.

He's had no problem eating since then although to be honest I've been giving him the premade ground just to be on the safe side.

He's been eating, drinking and pooping normally... Sometimes after he drinks he looks like he is going to throw up but otherwise he's been okay... I've been contemplating taking him to the vet but could something honestly be stuck in his throat this long? Could he have damaged something??
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Kodiak

Rabbit Control- Expert		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '12 11:04am PST 
My pup once swallowed his food wrong (when still on kibble and very young), and it got stuck somewhere instead of going down. He acted funny, kindof how you are describing, for the better part of a day, but totally fine and normal in between brief spells, so on the last episode of acting like something was stuck, I decided it was time for the Heimlich and/or the vet! Hoisting him up by his back legs and (not too roughly!) pushing my fist in just behind his ribs did the trick! He didn't seem to throw up in the sense of bringing something up out of the stomach, but out came 3 water-logged bits of kibble!!! And yes, he had also eaten kibble in between that went down fine, so I'm not sure if it was stuck back near the nasal passages or something? In any case, small enough pieces appear to be able to get stuck Somewhere without blocking all the air, but not going down either. Also know someone that had trouble with a chunk of broccoli going up the nose, and I had to bring Kody in once after he (succesfully) threw back up some plastic, but started coughing again later that night. That turned out to just be a small scratch in his throat from the piece coming out sideways when he threw it up, but was relieved to have my vet be able to see that and also hear the lungs sounded fine, etc. - so no matter what the item, watch them close and get help from the vet if you're unsure about it still being stuck or if you think they might have thrown up and got it down the wrong tube. Hope your pup is okay and back into the routine of eating more normal size pieces again soon hug In the case of the swallowed plastic scratch, his appetite was still fine, so I just fed canned fish for bone for a couple days, then back to things as usual.
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Benji- Knockout

Always searching- for my next- meal!		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '12 11:23am PST 
It wasn't a small piece it was like half the size of the wing portion. For comparison... When you eat hot wings half of that size peice cut the short way. Thats what he swallowed. The piece that he made the crazy sound with was a chunk of boneless breast a little larger than a quarter 1 oz in weight.

But thanks for your advice. Tonight I'm going to feed him a chunk of meat and see how he reacts. If he still acts like he needs to throw up.. we're going to the vet first thing in the morning!

He ate the other half of that piece with little issues... I'm stumped! shrug
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Cookie

the chi-weenie		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '12 7:08pm PST 
I'm glad he's okay.
but maybe don't worry so much about cutting things up??
they say your supposed to feed them bigger than their head so they won't try to swallow. My dog is a good chewer so I don't exactly follow that rule, but with your pup swallowing things like that, maybe try holding on to the chicken wing piece and letting him chew it while your hold the other end so he can't try to down the whole thing. Does he always just swallow without chewing?
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Benji- Knockout

Always searching- for my next- meal!		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '12 8:37pm PST 
He does chew.... but he doesn't chew enough... I'm going to have to just try and guess when he's had enough because he is so small (only 2lbs) that he only eats a couple ounces a day... I am going to give him a whole chicken thigh and just watch him and see when I think he's had enough...

My answer of if something is stuck has been answered because he just threw up his dinner... shrug a 1oz chunk he swallowed whole...

I was so excited about normal stools and his first few meals being a success... He's just so greedy... He acts like he's starving every time I feed him... I have trained him not to eat until I say so (in a short time I may add, Papillons are very bright!!) But once I release him he acts like he hasn't eaten in days!! I even tried feeding him more and spreading it across more meals... I just have to work with him I guess. I may even try holding the small chunks in my hand and making him tear away at those.
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Trigger

*Blackdog*		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '12 8:44pm PST 
If more went down and then some came back up it probably just scratched on the way down.

Feed much larger pieces. Refrigerate any portions he doesn't eat and pitch or grind anything that gets smaller than the size of his head.

Feeding frozen might help him not eat so ravenously as well.
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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '12 10:57pm PST 
He is a tiny pup. What if you had him feed through something big? Then he would be ripping off his own bites. Give him something like a whole cornish game hen which is probably a few days worth of food several times a day. It is big and awkward and will take a while to eat. Then for the meals when he is really hungry he can eat his fill and the meals when he isn't interested he might a couple bites. You might even find he likes a big meal and skips the next meal.

I never thought I would have a dog relaxed about food. I actually encourage interest in food because it really helps in training. Once Max was able to eat big>small I could give him a really big bit and he was able to step away before it was gone. Pretty neat really. And he is still a nut about food during training sessions.

Or try cutting the flat bit into a z or W so it is more awkward to get down. Or just cut into strips instead of rounds or chunks.

Max hasn't had anything caught in his throat, he has had a couple redos where he didn't chomp up the food enough and it didn't sit properly. Both times he picked up the offending food, did a better job of chomping and dinner stayed down! Once the redo was a boneless chunk of pork and I have made a point of cutting such meals into W or Z shapes so they are harder to eat.
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Meridian

Proud to be a- kitchen wolf!!!		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '12 11:45pm PST 
He's not "greedy" and he's not ever going to "learn to chew". It's not an issue of either. Small dogs can be a challenge to feed conceptually, as when everyone's talking about the ideal being a deer (or a rabbit as "small meal" or "whole prey"), one realizes that this doesn't really apply to their 2 pound dog, and how to proceed gets fuzzy. Reinterpreting the diet can be difficult, but it's really not. If anything, raw feeding for really small dogs is great, because everything is more or less a raw meaty bone with lots of chewing, ripping, scissoring, gnawing gloriousness!

Your diet concerns are the same, your scale is just different. Just as I wouldn't offer my 50 pound dog a chicken leg and expect it to go down OK, a portion of a chicken wing just isn't appropriate for even the smallest dog. Think big. Chicken legs parts. Cornish game hens. Quail. Just about any cut of beef, except those with really sharp pointy splintery machine-cut bits. Same with pork. Lamb. Rabbit. Bison. Ostrich. Let your mind go! The other great thing about small dogs is that it doesn't take a week's paycheck to get them a really challenging item. The idea isn't to go "smaller across meals", it's to feed fewer bigger meals.

In the future, if your dog displays any of the actions you described in your post, I wouldn't wait more than a couple minutes to administer proper first-aid and/or get to a vet. If any of the signs of pawing at his face, looking like he's gonna puke, throwing up food, and/or difficulty pooping are persisting, you should get him in ASAP. If he stops drinking water or you see blood anywhere it's off to the vet with no time to spare.
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Benji- Knockout

Always searching- for my next- meal!		 
 
Barked: Wed Jun 20, '12 6:41am PST 
Meridian when I say he's "greedy" I am saying it as a joke... Just making light of the situation... No need to correct me. Thanks. I'm sure you have referred to someone as greedy once in your life because of the way they reacted to something in a jokingly way. Lighten up.

I honestly thought he would be okay with the wing piece because he had did so well with the first few... I didn't think it would be an issue. I started cutting chunks off a chicken thigh for him so instead of continuing that I will just allow him to have the whole thing and take it away either when he is finished or when it seems like he's ate enough. I'm hoping he won't overfill his tiny tummy and I don't end up with an over fed puppy!!

Thank you for all the good advice. He's had a ground meal for the morning but for lunch and dinner I will give him the thigh and see what he does with that!
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Benji- Knockout

Always searching- for my next- meal!		 
 
Barked: Wed Jun 20, '12 12:45pm PST 
Did so much better with the whole chicken thigh at lunch today!!!

And he went to the vet and everything is all good with my litte guy =)

and FYI the pawing at the mouth was 3-4 times in the span of 30 seconds and then he stopped. I wouldn't sit back and watch my puppy die. Of course I would rush him out right away, luckiy we live within 5 min walking to an e-vet. But thanks for the concern.
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