knick knack paddy wack DO NOT give a dog a bone

contrary to belief, dogs should not have bones. i'm not kidding here.

yesterday greg and i decided that we would give darling Olive a nice rib bone that we salvaged from our yummy barbeque dinner at the Salt Lick in Austin, Texas. we brought this bone all the way back from Austin to Fort Worth and we are incredibly excited that Olive would have such a treat. I had to work yesterday so I told Greg to call me when Olive at the bone because I was so excited about it.

well she gobbled down the bone and everything seemed fine. later that evening Olive used the restroom inside of the house- which never happens. i know that some people's dogs aren't house trained, but Olive definitely is. So that was warning sign number one.
she was also acting anxious and nervous the whole night. i thought it might just be because of the storm.
the next morning she threw up and experienced other stomach problems. Greg and I started to worry because Olive has always had such a tough stomach (I mean, she's had her fair share of hard plastic and has even swallowed some razor blades). So we decided to take her to the vet and see what they had to say.

two hours, some xrays, and some blood tests later- we found out that thankfully Olive has passed or is passing the bone and that she does not have pancreatitis (which is where you pancreas can not process fat if there is too much fat to process). But from that one bone we ran the risk of:
1. it lodging in her stomach or intestines and blocking vital organs
2. it splintering inside of her and puncturing organs
3. pancreatitis, which would mean she would have to be hosptialized

instead we found out that Olive's stomach was incredibly upset from the bone and that it had probably scraped against her intestines and stomach some. but other than that- she is ok. she's on some medications and has to go on a bland diet for a couple of days.
all of this because of a bone.
and we were lucky.

moral of the story is:
so don't give your dogs bones.