Can Dogs Eat Pork Rib Bones?
Is it safe for your dog to eat Pork Rib Bones? Read more to find out.
Summer is upon us and soon people will be outside barbecuing again. This means a lot of back yard family get togethers over hamburgers, hot dogs, and those ever famous barbecued pork ribs. Someone is inevitably going to ask if the family dog can have a pork rib of his or her own. How could anyone resist those pitiful puppy eyes as they stand there looking intently at someone’s plate and smell the aroma of meat? It’s just a little piece of pork. What harm could it possibly do 
anyway?
Actually, it could do quite a bit of harm. On the mild side, eating pork could give the dog diarrhea. Or, it could cause the dog to have bad stomach cramps. Well, that would probably be unpleasant to the dog, but that does not sound too awfully bad, does it? Something way more serious that could happen is that the bone could get lodged in the dogs intestines and perforate the intestinal lining. That would be pretty bad, if that happened.
It doesn’t even matter if you cook the pork ribs or not. It is still not a good idea to give your dog pork ribs to eat. Of course, because pork meat is a cheaper alternative to other meats, many people will insist that pork is just fine to feed to a dog. As one can imagine, this makes for an often heated debate between pet owners.
Another factor to consider is that pork often carries parasites like trichinosis, sometimes referred to as pork round worm. Symptoms of trichinosis in dogs is often the result of eating contaminated or uncooked pork meat. Symptoms can range from gastrointestinal upset and vomiting to pain or stiffness in the dogs muscle tissue. A vet will often have to take fecal and muscle samples to determine if a dog has been infected with trichinosis.
Although it is unlikely that the family dog will suddenly keel over and die if they eat pork or crunch on the bone of pork ribs, but it is perhaps best to err on the side of caution and choose a better meat and bone source for one’s dog–especially one that can be fed raw without producing any unnecessary health complications.
What do other dog owners have to say about whether their dogs can eat Pork Rib Bones or not? See comments below.
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