What's inside your toys?

[mtoy]

Today Millie destroyed one of our doggie tennis balls. That's generally ok with me (although I like to keep stuff like that UP when they're not being used), as I assume they're safe. Ugh, this thing was chewed up and crumbled all over my office floor, was BLACK inside and smelled horrible, like petroleum. It stunk up the whole room. I'm praying she didn't ingest any of it. Luckily Link was hanging close to me and didn't get into it. Oh, this was bought at a pet supply store, meant for pets to play with.

Anyway, take a look at the inside of your dog toys, just to be safe.

[CorgiMum]

That's an excellent reminder!

You would think that a toy from a pet store would be safe. Are you going to take it back and show them?

I do hope that Millie is ok and didn't eat any of it.

[MissGambler's+Mojo'sMommy]

I may be wrong, but don't think so, I used to play tennis, the inside of the ball, that black liner, is rubber, like in tires, so that's what you were smelling.

[mtoy]

I may be wrong, but don't think so, I used to play tennis, the inside of the ball, that black liner, is rubber, like in tires, so that's what you were smelling.

I bet that's it. Eeeew. I must be better about picking up those balls, that cannot be safe at all for furry chewers.

Millie is fine, haven't noticed any changes so I don't think she ate any.

[LuvMyFluffy]

I heard on the news today that Oprah lost her Golden Retriever from choking on a ball. "NO:": This just reminded me how careful we have to be when giving them toys. Here is a link to the story: http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=1012107
Gizmo likes soft squeaky toys, and I really like the new "TY" dog toys, they seem to hold up to lots of abuse.

[CorgiMum]

We lost our second corgi because he choked to death on a ball.

Thomas was 18 months old, Montrose was three then. We had all just come home from an outing, Thomas was playing with one of his favourite toys, a ball. He had a habit of gargling his toys, head thrown back, and he had a lot of savilva. He was my drooly boy.

I heard him begining to choke, Gary and I ran to the kitchen, we couldn't get the ball out, it was down his throat. Gary picked him up, turned him & tried to force the ball out, he couldn't. We ran to the van, I sat in back on the floor with him, Monty came with us. Just before we reached the 7 min drive to the Vet's, Thomas was gone, in my arms. Gary carried him in.

The vet said that in 32 years he had seen this happen twice. A GSD had choked to death on a tennis ball.

It was a very long time before I was able to look at a ball with out crying, and there are a lot of balls in this world.

I'm sorry that this post is making you sad, that it gives you worry about your dogs's toys. But better safe than sorry. Dylan is ball crazy too, just as Thomas was. I'm extremely careful as to what size, and the weight of the toy balls that I let come into the house. And I keep them up when I'm not around. I let Dylan have the soft stuffed toy balls to play with on his own, big stuffed ones like his football.

We lost Thomas 10 years ago next month.

Thank you for letting me share Thomas's story with you.

[Merlincorgi]

What a horrible story, but a good reminder to everyone how important close supervision is. Thank you for sharing Barbara.

[CorgiMum]

You're welcome Cheryl.

[Jespah]

Thanks Barbara, I know you think of Thomas all the time and sharing this may just help someone else.

Deb

[MissGambler's+Mojo'sMommy]

This thread just made me wake up to something, I have tons of cat balls, I'm throwing them all away! I never thought about it till reading this, but they would be the perfect size to lodge in a dog's throat. I wonder if other mixed household owners (cats AND dogs) think about this??? I'm going through all my cat toys. As for the balls for dogs, I have always purchased large ones, so safe there I guess(hope).

And thanks for sharing Barbara, you made the lightbulb go off in my head to a hazard that I had not even considered.

[Jespah]

I got rid of all my potentially dangerous to dogs cat toys when I got Riley. Even now when the cats get gifts at Christmas that contain anything that could be an issue with the dogs, I pass them on to friends that have cat-only households or donate them to my local shelter.

Delta - see if there is a shelter or somewhere that could use the cat toys.

[MissGambler's+Mojo'sMommy]

That's a great idea Deb, and the ones that are in good shape I will clean and pass on. (And since I've been thinking about it, there have been times where I know that my husband and I have included the dogs in playing with the cat toys, and when I think about some of them, they would be EXTREMELY deadly to dogs.)

[Penutsma]

This thread just made me wake up to something, I have tons of cat balls, I'm throwing them all away! I never thought about it till reading this, but they would be the perfect size to lodge in a dog's throat. I wonder if other mixed household owners (cats AND dogs) think about this??? I'm going through all my cat toys. As for the balls for dogs, I have always purchased large ones, so safe there I guess(hope).

And thanks for sharing Barbara, you made the lightbulb go off in my head to a hazard that I had not even considered.

I watch Delilah constantly! Since we have the 3 little dogs in the house, I make sure she doesn't play with their toys anymore than I can. (Did you know corgis can be sneaky!) Fortunately the little dogs like the big dog toys too - even if they can't get their mouths around them.....they find a string or fur or even defuzz a piece of a tennis ball in order to carry them around.

[MVons]

Erec would get those super balls, the ones that bounce very high for Halloween sometimes and they would go to the trash. It helped that he bounced the first one and it got away from him and he saw how Pepper could have gotten it. Way too small for a corgi. I think the only reason growing up our doxie didn't choke on a ping pong ball is because she could bite it. How many times we went to play and couldn't find a ball without holes!

[breezy]

Just because a toy came from a pet store certainly doesn't make it right. I had a ring shaped toy made from hard plastic, like a nylabone, one time. I had a medium sized dog and had checked to see if I could get it caught on her jaw or anything else that could be dangerous. I was sure it was safe. Then I had it at the vet one time to keep her occupied while we waited. The vet came in and said she didn't think it was a safe toy. I asked why. Well in about 1 second she had it hooked over the dogs bottom jaw via the hole in the middle of the toy. I was amazed. So, needless to say, that toy went straight to the garbage.

[sutulu]

Good reminder to check toys.

That is truly a sad story about Thomas, it must have been awful for you.

I was planting petunias last night and mulching, went thru 6 bags of mulch. I left the bags sitting alongside the garage. I started inside to get a drink of water, then had the horrible preminition that if I didn't dispose of those bags right away, one of the dogs would get into them and suffocate.

So right into the trash they went, my drink could wait.

[MVons]

I was planting petunias last night and mulching, went thru 6 bags of mulch. I left the bags sitting alongside the garage. I started inside to get a drink of water, then had the horrible preminition that if I didn't dispose of those bags right away, one of the dogs would get into them and suffocate. So right into the trash they went, my drink could wait.I'm going to have to put a pair of scissors by the trashcan so I can remember to cut open or off the bottom of bags.

[mtoy]

Barbara, what a sad story, I'm so sorry that had to happen. It's a good reminder and made me think about everything scattered around this house.

Update on Millie since her *big chew*. Last night I was doing her weekly tooth check and noticed her gums are bright red and swollen in the area close to her teeth. They are never like that. I think it's from chewing that black stuff, it irritated them. There is no bleeding that I can see, she's eating fine (that's my girl!) and she's her normal sweet to people/snarky to Link self so I'm going to wait and see what happens. Hopefully it will just go away.

[MissGambler's+Mojo'sMommy]

Mojo is a really hard chewer, just last weekend I was at the computer and she was happily chewing on her toy on the floor. Every now and then I would turn and look at her, it was during one of these checks that I had to do a double-take. It registered that the toy newspaper that she was chewing on was supposed to be white, but it had a lot of red on it, and it was blood. This is rather common for her, and it's no longer from teething, just from hard extensive chewing. (She's had her teeth examined a number of times, this dog has had sooooooo many physicals that it's no longer funny, and her teeth and gums have always checked out ok.)

[mtoy]

Yes, aggressive chewing - that's Millie! This past January she had a cracked Molar pulled because of her hard chewing. She loves it though!

[dcole]

I got rid of all of the cat-sized balls when we got Trevor.

Barbara, I am so sorry about Thomas. I actually read this thread on Friday during lunch (like I am now) but couldn't comment then - I was in tears. Good thing no one came into my cubicle right then -they would have wondered what in the world happened. +SAD+