We have given our 8 year old labrador elk antlers periodically over the past few months. He chews on them off and on over weeks at a time, and when it gets too small we throw it away. We gave him a new elk antler this evening, approximately 6"x2". After about 15 minutes of hearing him chew on it in another room, we checked on him and the antler was no where to be found. We looked all over the house, asked him where it was (normally he would go right to it if he still had one around), and couldn't find it all. We suspect maybe he swallowed it! We're hoping that maybe the particular elk antler we gave him was more brittle for some reason, and perhaps it crumbled some. Does anyone have much experience with these? This was probably the 3rd one he has been given, and nothing like this has ever happened. We're scared to death and keeping a close eye on him, and at the first sign of anything off we'll be running him to the vet. Hoping that maybe somehow it will still turn up and that he didn't swallow it, but we suspect he probably did since we can't find it anywhere. Any info that could be provided would be appreciated. Thank you!!
I can understand you being worried. Try not to panic about it though. Labradors (and dogs generally) do have a pretty good capacity to vomit up stuff they have inadvisedly eaten, so, if he has swallowed it, hopefully it will come up again. Antlers are very hard and I don't think one would crumble. Possibly bits could be split off, but that's about it. Keep an eye on him and if he shows signs of being restless, lethargic, not eating or drinking, looking at his tummy or appearing to be at all uncomfortable then take him to the vet right away. Fingers crossed that you'll find the antler and/or he'll puke it up. Ps. Antlers really wear out teeth so this might be a good opportunity to stop giving them
We tried antlers for a while, but they were so hard we worried about our dogs teeth. Besides they are very expensive here, even though elk are native to our area. I can't imagine a dog going though a 6"x2" antler in a few hours. They lasted for weeks here, and our dogs are power chewers.
