Dog Hairballs

[i am a giraffe]

I've given my puppy soft chew toys since I got him at 7 weeks. He'd always chew on them, but his little teeth were never able to do much damage. He's 6 months old now, and he can chew and swallow bits and pieces off his stuffed toys pretty quickly; if left alone with one he'd probably polish off the whole thing in about a hour.

I always figured he just pooped the cloth he swallows out, but the other day he threw up a bunch of the cloth material he ate. Kinda like a cat's hairball. Some of the stuff was a few days old.

My question is whether or not this is okay. Cat's vomit up hairballs all the time, but I never heard of dogs doing it.

On a side note, I want to give him stuff to chew on, because he likes to chew, but I don't feel great about bones. I know raw ones don't tend to splinter, but I still don't like it. Any suggestions on a particular brand or type of toy that's really sturdy? I have a few kongs and they work great, but I'd like to get other stuff too.

 

[bubbatd]

My dogs never ate stuffing .... just pulled out ! Stuffed toys aren't to chew ... just to play with . Dogs need bones .

 

[Beth82]

It is NOT okay to let him eat his stuffed toys. The cloth and stuffing could cause a serious blockage, and he would need surgery to remove it.

For chew toys, I stick with Nylabone (the Durable and Galileo bones) and Kong. The Kong company makes a lot of other toys besides the original "Kong". I also like Planet Dog toys. All of these are pretty tough.