Joey’s Pet of the Week – Bingo’s Bothersome Bone

By Scott Lackenby | Dated November 19, 2015

Hey everyone! How are you all? It’s been pretty hot, hasn’t it!! Being a mostly black cat, I certainly feel the heat. It’s a good excuse for me to be a somewhat lazy clinic cat and lounge around in the comfort of the air conditioning though. Did you read through my Summer Safety Tips the other day? If you didn’t, be sure to have a read. Summer can be a dangerous time for animals. And not just pets like me. Our lovely wildlife can suffer when the mercury climbs, so with summer fast approaching, maybe think about having some wildlife friendly water dishes around so our native friends can have a drink and a cool bath.

Not long now til Dr Gen leaves to prepare for the arrival of her baby. If you wanted your pet to see her before she leaves, be sure to call to make an appointment. I can’t wait to meet her new little bundle!

My star this week is the cheeky Bingo, a 6year old Spoodle (Cocker Spaniel x Poodle), from Gordon who came in to see Dr Sam Lackenby quite distressed after getting a bone caught in his mouth. Bingo had been scratching and pawing at his mouth and came in with blood all over his paws and mouth. Luckily for Bingo, Dr Sam was able to remove the bone without having to give him an anesthetic. The bone was quite a big one, around 3cm and it was cooked, which is part of the reason why it was lodged in so well. Cooked bones become super hard which has the potential to cause a whole heap of problems. They can get stuck in the mouth like in Bingo’s case, they can cause nasty slab fractures to teeth and in severe cases can cause perforations to the intestines. It’s a good reminder to NEVER feed cooked bones to your pets. And to make sure that if you are putting cooked bones in the bin, that your pet isn’t a bin thief and can get to them! Once the bone was removed, Bingo was sent home with instructions to only eat soft food for a few days to let the roof of his mouth heal, and to stay away from cooked bones!

Well, better go. It’s time for me to have a nap, I mean do some work! Meows for now, love Joey xoxo