Eklectic

posted on a senior dogs list today........

'last night at agility class, a vet, who is a fellow agility student was telling us about a case she had this week. The dog ate a child's teddy bear and was very sick. When she opened the dog up to remove what she thought was an intestinal obstruction she found a huge gelatin type mess inside and the dogs intestines were black and the tissue dead. The dog will die no surgery can fix him up there was no living intestine left from stomach to colon.

This was not an obstruction. .... so she called the manufacturer of the Teddy Bear on a quest to find out what the gel was and what killed the dog. Turns out the stuffing in children's toys contains ingredients for flame retardants and mite control! It is designed to be come a gel. It is highly toxic. Now you would think a child's toy would be safe because it is for children, but they don't expect a child to eat the stuffing of the toys... huummmm that seems a bit scary too. But we all know dogs demolish stuffed toys.

So do not give or buy your dog any children's stuffed animals... some people get them at goodwill etc. The vet will be posting a warning and story and I will send any other facts as needed and as I learn more. Maybe some children's toys do not have this ingredient, but better to be safe then sorry. So meanwhile, make sure all your dog toys are for dogs. Please pass this on... it is a horrible death she described and one that can be avoided.'
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Bella's Momma

:( So sad.

Birdie

OMG I'm glad you posted this!! That's crazy, I feel horrible for that dog. I was thinking about doing that exact thing for Desmond- buying him old cheap kid's stuffies from Goodwill or something for him to play with and rip up (since I can't afford to buy him regular dog stuffies, he kills them in 5 minutes and at about $8 per toy, that's just too much). Now I DEFINITELY won't! I never would have thought that the stuffing would be so toxic.

Mister

Half the fun of dog toys is that they squeek for them...i dont even know if mister would play witha boring old teddy bear. He loves the sqeek, makes it all worth it.

plumcrazy

Birdie - I buy my kids stuffies in "bulk" from Jeffers Pet Supply. I just received an order last week (it was actually around $62 for the toys but I got a heck of a lot more than eight of them!!) They have toys for $2 and $3 and I just get a bunch of them because I know the dogs are gonna kill 'em!!

I also googled for "jeffers pet supply coupons" and got an online code that took $10 off my order (paid for the shipping plus a little...) When we get the new box, we always go through the dogs toybox and remove all the sad dead toys and replace them with the new squeaky ones (for about 20 minutes and then the new ones start to look like the old ones!!)

WonderPup

Awww thats sad. Jazz stole a teddy bear from Nicholas the other day, ripped the ear and an eye off of it. Im gad she didn't get to and eat any of the stuffing. I am not sorry she tore it up though, now I have an excuse to discard it. Her and Saleen both were playing tug of war until one of them stepped on the tummy and the thing scared them both to deal with a really creepy version of Jesus Loves Me sung in a real childs voice. Wish I had a photo of Saleen when that happened. Jazz dropped it and backed up and Saleen jumped about a foot in the air and then was fascinated by it, guess she wasn't aware that Jesus loved her?? She ended up being scared of it though and kept slinking by it like it was going to jump up and attack her. LoL. They really shouldn't do those toys with such realistic sound effects, it's creepy. Nicholas doesn't seem to like it much either come to think of it. We also have on that laughs in a real child's voice and that was is extra creepy sounding. I was thinking of giving it to Jazz to tear a leg off of or something but I guess I won't now, just in case.

One wonders though what would happen if a child did eat the stuffing... That would be extra bad I guess.

Olie

For me I just stopped giving furry stuffed toys to mine - My poms will chew through them and tought Olie how. Also I feel it has tought them to chew more - so I stick with harder, rubber toys, or the tougher fabric.

flufflvr

I think we're rather unusual. We still have the stuffed toys we've had since they were puppies. Liberty has only destuffed one toy in her life. I just throw them in the laundry when they start looking weirdly nasty. Not all of the squeakers still work though...but that's really the only reason I replace them. That and I see a really cute one and I'm kind of bored playing with the same toys after 5 or 6 years. (They don't get sick of them, just me!) I'll definitely watch out for human toys though. How sad and scary!

amerique2

How awful! Glad you posted this. I was thinking when I was in the zoo gift shop that some of the small stuffed animals would be cute toys. I was only concerned about the eyes and noses maybe choking a dog. Didn't even think about flame retardants, etc. But that does make you wonder about a child that puts everthing in his mouth, whether he would actually eat the stuffing.

Rebel chews through most things in short order, but I've found that with extra large stuffed toys (like a crab with pinchers) he only plays with and gets the squeakers out of the pinchers, leaving the rest intact. He doesn't eat the stuffing, just pulls every bit of it out. And Susie's toys (my kitten) don't stand a chance. He has them disfigured within minutes.