My Dog Ate Chicken Bones — What Should I Do?

This is one of the most common panicked calls vets receive, and the good news is that most dogs who eat chicken bones pass them without any problems. However, it's right to be concerned because cooked bones can splinter into sharp fragments.

Cooked bones are more dangerous than raw bones because cooking makes them brittle and prone to splintering. Raw chicken bones are softer and more flexible, bending rather than breaking into sharp pieces. This doesn't mean raw bones are completely safe, but the risk profile is different.

After eating chicken bones, do NOT induce vomiting — sharp bone fragments can do more damage coming back up through the esophagus. Do NOT try to retrieve them yourself. In most cases, the stomach's strong acid will soften the bone fragments, and they'll pass through the digestive tract in 24-72 hours.

To help the bones pass safely, some vets recommend feeding a bulky meal (bread, pumpkin, or cooked white rice) to "cushion" the bone fragments as they move through the intestines. This is a reasonable precaution but not guaranteed to help.

The main dangers are: esophageal puncture (symptoms: drooling, difficulty swallowing, neck pain), stomach or intestinal perforation (symptoms: vomiting, bloody stool, severe abdominal pain, lethargy), and intestinal obstruction (symptoms: repeated vomiting, inability to keep food/water down, no stool).