Pigs Ears And Puppies

[Nushie]

Are pigs ears okay to give to pups? How big / small should the ears be?

Are they alright to give them to chew on in the morning when i go to work or do they need to be supervised with them?

Thanks

[W Sibs]

Emmy loves love them.

She got her first pig ear at 9 weeks... I cut a huge pig in half. one for charlie and one for emmy. I took it away when she lost interest in it.

For the first few times, I will supervise.

[Sandra777]

What sort/size of puppy?

[Snout Girl]

I leave my two with pigs ears when my OH and I are at work. But I didnt start until they were about 6 months and I had supervised their pig ear eating enough to know be confident they would be ok

[tlc]

Mine all had pigs ears from about 10 weeks, I never leave mine unsupervised with any treats that are long time chewing such as pigs ears, raw hide, bones etc.

[Bundyburger]

Emmy loves love them.

She got her first pig ear at 9 weeks... I cut a huge pig in half. one for charlie and one for emmy. I took it away when she lost interest in it.

For the first few times, I will supervise.

You cut a pig in half? Lucky puppy :rolleyes:

Bundy was eating whole pigs ears from the time he came home, but he wasn't super tiny. Only ever had them supervised.

[W Sibs]

Emmy loves love them.

She got her first pig ear at 9 weeks... I cut a huge pig in half. one for charlie and one for emmy. I took it away when she lost interest in it.

For the first few times, I will supervise.

You cut a pig in half? Lucky puppy :rolleyes:

Bundy was eating whole pigs ears from the time he came home, but he wasn't super tiny. Only ever had them supervised.

you know what I mean

[koalathebear]

We bought Elbie a pig's ear and he loved it. He ate about a quarter of it - by that time we'd googled that pigs' ears are very high in fat and not very healthy for puppies. ;)

He wasn't very happy that we took the pigs ear away. Then for the rest of the day, we had to deal with incredible foul, eye-watering, room-clearing dog farts. So for us, even though he loved the pig's ear and it kept him occupied, we are never going to give him one again I don't think our noses could cope even if we covered his crate with the Better Marriage Blanket

[WreckitWhippet]

Give the pups a chicken wing or a nice meaty bone to chew on instead.

[corvus]

There are some good alternatives to pig's ears for puppies. Lamb ears are not hard to get hold of, and there's an ebay seller that sells cow ears. The ebay seller naturally dries all the ears and rawhide treats so they are not treated with chemicals and so forth.

We like the cow ears. They are cheaper than pig ears and thinner, but bigger than lamb ears. Our dogs crunch through them in about ten seconds. We also have beef twists and dried tendons. The tendons are pretty hardcore, but nothing compares to the cow hooves we also got from ebay. One cow hoof lasts months around here. We put them up and then get them out whenever the dogs are in a chewing mood or need something to do.

[Mystiqview]

I normally cut my pigs ears in half and give half at a time.

[Mim]

Just keep in mind that pig ears are very fattening. It's much better to give something with nutritional value like a chicken wing :D

Edited May 15, 2010 by Mim

[whippets]

Pigs ears are a once every couple of weeks treat for my dogs. They tend to get runny poos if they get pig ears on a regular basis.

[becks]

They are to rich for my dogs, so they don't get them. Cow ears have been OK but quite pricey and rarely found. They even do vegetarian 'ears' now!!

My dogs get tripe sticks, cow hooves (which last a few days if lucky!), carrots etc.

[mita]

I'll never again leave my dogs alone, unsupervised, to eat rawhide treats like pigs' snouts & pigs' ears.

On a recent public holiday, our 10 yr old tibbie girl, gulped down the last bit of a pig's snout & it became lodged in her oesophagus. It was horrible to watch her try to dislodge it...tongue extended.

Raced her to the vet emergency hospital. The vets told me all the dangers of something stuck there....right next to the airways to the lungs. Also the potential for it to permanently damage the oesophagus walls. It's also hard to get at to remove because that part of the gullet is firmly protected by the ribcage. They took x-rays & you could see the bulge of the piece of rawhide.

They first tried an anti-emetic to try to move it along. If it could get into the stomach, then the digestive juices would take care of it.

She was put under a general anaesthetic so they could put a camera down to see where it was....& as delicately as possible try to move it.

They found it had moved already into her stomach....& commented that sometimes the total relaxation from the general anaesthetic allowed the thing to move.

She still needed treatment for any site damage & had to drink some mushy stuff 1 hour before each meal in the following days. She also had a course of antibiotics.

Cost: over $1,000. Would have been more if the 'bit' hadn't moved on to her tummy & the vets had to get it out.

The vets pointed out to me that dogs tend to gulp things down...& so manage to get all sorts of things stuck in their innards. Like rocks & sticks....& she's even seen a case as a student, where the dog swallowed a knife (& lived!).

[Miz J]

Agree with you Mita, rawhide scares me. Both of my boxers have had problems with pigs ears, probably because they are piglets, scary when it gets stuck. I ahave been lucky. One of them vomited it up and the other I was fortunate enough to be able to reach.

Go for the turkey neck or bones, much better for the dog.

[mita]

Go for the turkey neck or bones, much better for the dog.

Yes, I'm sure back to them. I can see the difference as the dogs crunch the chicken necks into pieces in their mouths. More likely to be small enough not to cause a problem swallowing. But the rawhide finishes up in a piece that looks like a lump of plastic. And, as the vet said, all dogs gulp things down.

So with a gulp, down it goes. Fingers crossed it makes it to the stomach.