Tiny worms on treats? What shall we do?

Hello. For the last several weeks we have been giving Chloe dried venison tendons. She loves them and used them to play - bury them somewhere. dig them up again etc etc. Just this morning I noticed a few tiny worms on one piece that she dug up from the garden. Not good news. My questions: 1. Do cavvies get affected by worms from the garden, and if they do, how badly? 2. Anybody has had similar experience and how best to handle this? 3. I suppose this means goodbye to this type of treats and change to others, or limit the treats to inside and perhaps in the car when travelling? Btw Chloe got given deworming tables from time to time, the last one was a week ago actually. Thanks!

Dogs have pretty strong stomachs but I wouldn't want to risk them eating something like that. Depending on where you live, there is also the risk of lungworm http://www.lungworm.co.uk/scripts/pages/en/home.php

I would keep her indoors to have the treats, so that she is not able to bury them, just to be on the safe side

Ditto what Nicki said. Any burriable treat, inside only (unless you are outside with her, let her burry it as you watch and then just take it back out and throw away).

Good things for outside are chicken necks (I forget who on here uses pliers to hold them), if you or pliers hold them while they finish them...no chance of burying.

When Brooklyn gets beef or kangaroo tendons inside, she can only chew them on her mat. I take out the treat and say "on your mat" or "mat" (at first I had to lead her there) and now she knows to go on her mat to eat it. When she used to try to run away with it, I would put a short leash on her tied to the table so that if she tried to run, she would still be sorta on her mat and I would take the tendon back and say "mat" and she would settle again on her mat. That way...no mess on my carpet! Now she knows, if she even hears the rustle of the tendon bag, she runs to her mat ;-P

Thanks for the replies. Brooklyn mum, thats clever! We have read about that from where we get the raw diet from and its high time we train Chloe to do so. Yeah cant remember who it was but she did suggest using pair of pliers, though I do not mind holding it, after all it is fresh organic chicken neck. The chicken neck seems to be her favorite so Chloe would not go and bury it, rather eating it straightaway. Must dash to work, have a very good weekend all.

It's me that uses the pliers :grin:

I'm not great at handling raw meat :grnyuk: [I'm vegetarian and have live chickens in the garden LOL so it's not my favourite thing!] but really started the pliers because Tommy bit through my nail and into my finger :yikes when I wasn't concentrating.


You did a good job training Brooklyn :grin: Mine run to the puppy pen and have a competition as to who can get in there first!

I just wanted to relay some information I received from a family member who is also a veternarian. He was seriously against giving any dogs rawhide, tendions, bones ( unless pressure cooked and able to mash easily) or similiar items. He told me he had spent more then one evening doing emergency operations on dogs because pieces of raw hide etc. had caused intestinal blockages. Bones, especially chicken bones, will splinter and can puncture intestins. Now I'm old enough to remember when we actually bought bones for our dogs, but never fed them chicken bones,( or raw chicken because of chance of bacteria. I wipe everything in my kitchen with chlorine bleach after handling raw chicken) but after listening to horror stories of the vet my dogs get no bones unless pressure cooked first.

Hello Nicki! Thats cool, fresh meat is not to everyone's likings as for me try to stick to seafood and vege normally, but I do not mind cutting up chicken pieces etc so I am ok with handling those. I wish, and I hope to be able consume strictly vege but maybe I'l make that my resolution for 2013, especially after this well written book called The China Study. We will start training Chloe soon to only eat on one particular mat, maybe a towel easier to wash and dry. That's the next project. At the moment when she knows food coming she'll go to her water bowl, so thats a start.

lscott, it seems that there are differing of opinions amongst vets themselves. From what I read cooked chicken on the bone is the riskiest as the bones are brittle and break into small sharp pieces. If mashed after sometime in pressure cooker that'd be a very safe option. So far we have only given Chloe chicken necks and we stay to watch - she finishes one neck in about 2 minutes or so. We have never fed raw hide, so will not start on that. Thanks for the info. We may have a chat with our vet next time we see him.