The danger of rope toys!

Cbrugs · Feb 14, 2014

I saw on Instagram last night that a Frenchie and an English (belonging to the same family) both died from rope toys. Apparently they chewed the rope toys and swallowed the threads which clogged their intestines. I couldn't imagine losing Jax and this just broke my heart that someone lost 2 of their babies. I immediately got rid of all of Jax's rope toys. I don't know how many people have Instagram accounts, but if you do and would like to see the full post, search the user name fg_lola. :tissue:

KimB3384 · Feb 14, 2014

OMG! Bisou loves her rope toys - not for tugging, but for pulling out the strings! They're going in the garbage tonight. Thanks for sharing!

Alice Kable · Feb 14, 2014

That is so sad. We don't have rope toys because the boys shred them and they always need to be supervised when they play with them. We have nylabone rings that they play tug with. The only soft toy allowed here is Hard Core Fire Hose, and we have to watch them with those. We usually get about a month out of one. They are made out of fire hose material. NylaBone is our main chew!

Cbrugs · Feb 14, 2014

Alice Kable said:
That is so sad. We don't have rope toys because the boys shred them and they always need to be supervised when they play with them. We have nylabone rings that they play tug with. The only soft toy allowed here is Hard Core Fire Hose, and we have to watch them with those. We usually get about a month out of one. They are made out of fire hose material. NylaBone is our main chew!

Jax didn't chew on his rope toys but he did like to play tug with it. I got rid of them just to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, he has never really taken a liking to Nylabones. He loves antlers (which reminds me I have to go get him a new one this weekend). I usually watch him with whatever he is chewing/playing with cause he does tear everything to shreds eventually.

Alice Kable · Feb 14, 2014

Cbrugs said:
Jax didn't chew on his rope toys but he did like to play tug with it. I got rid of them just to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, he has never really taken a liking to Nylabones. He loves antlers (which reminds me I have to go get him a new one this weekend). I usually watch him with whatever he is chewing/playing with cause he does tear everything to shreds eventually.

I need to tell you our vet advises against giving antlers as chew toys. He has removed sharp antler shards from dog intestines before. I used to get them for my boys and they loved them, but no more. To qualify this, I live in a rural mountain area where we see deer daily so the shards were most likely from sun baked antlers found in a field by cow dogs. But I don't want to risk it.

Cbrugs · Feb 14, 2014

Alice Kable said:
I need to tell you our vet advises against giving antlers as chew toys. He has removed sharp antler shards from dog intestines before. I used to get them for my boys and they loved them, but no more. To qualify this, I live in a rural mountain area where we see deer daily so the shards were most likely from sun baked antlers found in a field by cow dogs. But I don't want to risk it.

Oh no! It is so hard to find "safe" toys and chews for our babies. Thanks for the info.

2bullymama · Feb 14, 2014

I knew of the danager and we have them in the house, but the pups very rarely play with them. I should just toss them

davidh · Feb 14, 2014

So sad for that family. We stopped giving ours rope toys a long time ago when one of our English almost choked on one. We only give Nylabones, (not the eatable ones) and Kongs for our babies to chew on.

trishkidd24 · Feb 14, 2014

Wow I guess I never realized the danger. Marge loves her rope.... Guess we will have to get rid of them now

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jessicae091 · Feb 14, 2014

Very sad.. I threw all of there rope toys in the trash last night when I saw that on Instagram

Cbrugs · Feb 14, 2014

jessicae091 said:
Very sad.. I threw all of there rope toys in the trash last night when I saw that on Instagram

I threw them away after seeing it too.

pbois · Feb 14, 2014

Bolt and the labs love the rope toys, but when we buy them I cut the fringe off the ends completely until it is just a rope with a knot on each end. They play with it for a while tugging each other around, but when one chews on it enough to undo one of the knots we toss it in the trash until we get another one. Otherwise we do keep nylabones and kongs around for chewing and playing.

Very sad about those doggies.

coolcat46 · Apr 4, 2014

My thought here is these dogs must have been left for a length of time to chew these rope toys and ingest the rope pieces. I doubt anyone who would see this would allow them to eat the string.
You need to supervise any toy your dog plays with. if I put Moolah in her crate I either give her no toy at all or strictly a nylabone that i know she cant harm herself on...Just my thoughts....