[melissa14]

I woke up this morning and discovered small pieces of chewed up rib bones that my dog had gotten into last night he seems fine this morning but I don't know what to do. Any suggestions

[excon]

Hello m:

Rib bones are fine for a dog. Just as long as they're NOT chicken ribs.

excon

[J_9]

Pork or beef rib bones?

[shazamataz]

Most importantly, cooked or raw?

Raw beef rib is fine, not the best bones for them to eat but shouldn't hurt, I give mine lamb rib all the time.

Cooked on the other hand can be very dangerous. When a bone has been cooked it takes all the moisture out if it making the bones very brittle, when the dog crunches the bone it can splinter into small shards which can in turn damage anywhere from the throat to the bowel. When the bones is raw, the moisture makes it pliable enough not to actually shatter.

Whenever a dog has eaten cooked bones the best thing to do is immediately feed them cotton balls, soak them in a little beef or chicken stock to get the dog to eat them. Alternatively you can use bread, although it is less effective the idea is the same. The idea is that it will help cushion the bones as it travels through the dogs system.

If it has been quite some time since the dog ate the bones (I'm not sure what time it is where you live) then it would be past the point of feeding cotton. I would just keep a close eye on him for the next few days.
Signs to watch out for with intestinal blockages or ruptures include:
Vomiting
Shaking
Excessive drooling
Inability to defecate
Swelling or bloating of abdomen (tightness)
Lethargy

Now that the 'formal' part is out of the way I honestly wouldn't be in a panic about it, lots of dogs every day get stuck into cooked bones and have no trouble passing them, in fact I have seen more dogs have intestinal blockages from corn cobs than anything else. However there is always that small chance that it could happen.
The most dangerous type of bones is probably cooked chicken bones... my "darling" dogs got stuck into the trash bin while we were out one day and devoured an entire cooked chicken carcass. I fed them cotton, kept an eye on them and after a few bowel movements I knew we were in the clear.