We’ve been having some gorgeous
weather here on the Sunshine Coast, and that means that the trails are rife
with roaming Rovers, and the parks are full of frolicking Fidos. There are few things in this life that I find
more contenting than taking my dog, Lemon, through the trails and to the park
for some hiking and play-time. One of
Lemon’s favourite games is Fetch, and every time I throw the ball (with my
trusty Chuck-It) she explodes into an all-out run that inevitably results in
over-shooting the ball, tripping herself into somersaults, and then the
triumphant joy on her face when she finally gets a hold of it. Unfortunately, Lemon doesn’t always
understand the last part of that game; sometimes she brings it back to me, but
more often she lifts the ball up in the air as if to say “I got it!” only to
drop it back on the ground and come running back to me without it. As a result, and because we often play this
game in the bush and by the ocean, we lose a lot of balls. Lemon gets the Chuck-It Whistle Balls and the
Ultraballs, which are not exactly a dime a dozen, so when we lose them, it’s a
little frustrating. Some people tell me
to just stop playing in the bush or by the ocean, but seeing as that’s where
Lemon has the most fun, I figure that a couple of lost balls is an acceptable
consequence. The other option I am most
often presented with is: Just buy tennis balls.
They’re cheap, they float, dogs love them, so why spend extra money on a
fancy rubber ball?
Here’s
why: tennis balls are bad for a dog’s teeth, are a possible risk for a foreign
body, and are a possible risk for choke.
Now what on earth could a tennis
ball do to a dog’s teeth? It’s soft and
squishy, so there’s no risk of tooth breakage, and it’s covered in fuzzy stuff,
just like any other toy. Right? Wrong!
The fuzzy covering on a tennis ball is there for several reasons, but the main
one that concerns us here is: Friction.
Tennis ball fuzz is very coarse and helps the racket “grip” the ball for
better control; dimples on a golf ball provide the same effect. That same fuzz that helps grip the racket can
also act like sandpaper on your dog’s teeth.
This isn’t something that will happen overnight, but over the course of several months or
years (depending on your dog’s chewing style) the teeth will wear down until
the pulp becomes exposed. The picture on
the left shows a relatively mild case.
The pulp of the tooth is where the blood supply and nerves live, so if
that becomes exposed, it can be painful, and it can provide oral bacteria with
direct access to the blood stream which puts Fido at risk for local infections
(like tooth abscesses) and systemic infections (like septicemia).
Tennis balls are also
relatively fragile, and dogs have very strong jaws, so it’s pretty easy for a
determined chewer to rip the ball to pieces.
If the dog can rip it to pieces, he may also decide to swallow it, and
that piece of tennis ball is indigestible.
Instead of getting broken down in the digestive tract like food does, it
will pass through intact, and may end up getting stuck in the intestinal tract
somewhere. This is a very serious
condition that requires emergency (and life-saving) surgery. The picture on the right shows half of a
tennis ball that was swallowed whole, and is now stuck in the intestines. Even if the dog is unable to actually rip a
tennis ball apart, they can still compress it in their mouths and that may
result in choke. If the compressed ball
pops open in the back of the throat it can become lodged there, and cut off the
airway resulting in respiratory distress and death.
So does this mean you should run
home right away and have a big bonfire in your backyard to get rid of any trace
of these menacing tennis balls and their diabolical green fuzz? Of course not. You just need to be smart about it. Make the tennis ball exclusively for the game
of fetch; this means the dog runs, picks it up, brings it back, and drops it in
front of you. There should be no games
of “keep away” and it should not be an unsupervised chew toy. Make sure the tennis ball is an appropriate
size for your dog. It’s unlikely that
Floofy the Pomeranian will be able to rip a tennis ball apart or aspirate it,
but Butch the English Mastiff could easily do both those things, so make sure
the tennis ball (or any toy for that matter) is size appropriate.
A better alternative is to replace
your tennis balls with Kong, Chuck-It, or otherwise dog-friendly, size
appropriate toys. Yes, you may be
cringing a bit when your pooch loses something that is more expensive than a
tennis ball, but it will be better for your dog's well-being in the long run. As for me, I will continue to buy and lose the
Ultraball for the ocean because it floats and is super bouncy, and the Whistle
balls for the park because…well, because they whistle when you throw them, and
when you have a dog with radar dishes for ears, it’s really amusing to see the
ears follow the ball before the rest of the dog does.
Lemon seems to think that whenever she loses a ball,
that it magically comes back to me…
~By: Lisa Horne, RAHT
|
No comments:
Post a Comment