When Gatsby was around 8 months old, we started buying bully sticks for him to chew on. I remembered so clearly that day I gave him his first bully stick. He was super excited! He chewed his bully stick and when he got to the tail end of this treat, he swallowed it! It wasn’t a huge piece but I was concerned. He seemed OK during the rest of the day, acted normal, and looked fine.
That night at around 3 am, I heard him gagging in his crate, then he vomited. I ran to open the crate door and saw that he thew up something. I looked closer and realized that it was the tail end of his bully stick. Danny ran to get paper towels to clean up the mess and when he wiped the crate, we saw blood! We freaked out, got dressed, and took Gatsby to the emergency vet. Thankfully the vet said he was fine and that the blood was most likely from the irritation of the throat and trachea area. We drove home telling ourselves that there’s no way Gatsby’s going to chew on another bully stick ever again! I felt so disappointed because chewing beneficial to oral health and provides mental stimulation.
The very next morning, I went on Instagram to let our community know what happened so they wouldn’t have to go through what we went through. A friend DM’ed me and suggested I buy the bully stick holder from Bow Wow Labs. I was so glad he told me about this product! The bully stick holder is simply a device that tightly secures bully sticks, preventing dogs from choking on the tail-end of the treat. That’s genius and exactly what I needed to prevent this from ever happening again.
If you give your dog bully sticks, I strongly urge you to get one of these to prevent them from choking and having to go to the emergency vet as we did. This device can help save your dog’s life!
Thanks for your review! I also love the photos of your dog!