This article describes the dangers of what can occur if you throw sticks for your dog.
*I did not have to go to work today as the school term started again and I chose to walk my children to school. My friend walked in front with her children and a lovely family Labrador called Milly (there are a lot of family dogs called Milly!) I am never really off duty as we were halfway to school when my friend Louise rushed up to me with a very distressed Milly pawing at her mouth and salivating frantically. I handed Louise my children as we were on a busy road and immediately prised Milly's mouth open. I made such a satisfying immediate diagnosis - a stick stuck across her top palate between her back teeth. I removed it and Milly was relieved and back to sniffing out another one to chew in true Labrador style. The stick was not actually thrown for Milly, but this illustrates one minor problem that sticks cause.
*A few cases I have seen have been far more serious and caused by owners throwing a stick which their compulsive stick-chasing dog has leaped into the air to catch; only to end up with them at the vet a day or 2 later as their dog had stopped eating and had a lump under its chin.
*Splinters of certain sticks caught in a dog's mouth can penetrate the back of the throat or under the tongue and then sit below the skin and cause a nasty infection and inflammatory reaction. The tissue in the mouth has a great power of recovery and often the holes that the sticks have penetrated in the mouth have closed up after even only a day.
*X-rays are usually taken with your pet fully anaesthetised, and I remember a Border Collie many years ago where the stick that had penetrated its mouth must have been the length of a small ruler and it sat just next to the dog's trachea or windpipe - it must have been so painful.
*It is a cruel topic to write about as I know how many dogs out there live to chase sticks, but when I have lifted one (after careful inspection that it is not a splintering stick but a young, thick, flexible stick) to throw for our dog on a walk; I always remember the patients I have seen with a stick stuck in their throat.
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