Bogie is almost 14 years old. Since the average life of a Shar pei is about 10 years, that is impressive.
But Bonnie and I wonder that he has made it this far. He has had at least 4 narrow escapes so far: One day we came home to find that he had swallowed a handful of Bonnies presription pills for high blood pressure. Vets at the emergency room induced vomiting, and he came out just fine. Then, he had an attack of "the bloat," in which his stomach virtually tied a knot in itself. Emergency surgery fixed that, and he again recovered just fine. Not too long ago he started to choke on a piece of rawhide chew--Bonnie's quick application of the Heimlich maneuver saved him. Today, he was chewing on a large piece of dried sting ray tail and, of course, tried to swallow it. The Heimlich did not work; we rushed him to the emergency vet, who extracted it. So Bogie survived again. We are, of course, relieved and thankful. Bogie survives to continue a long and happy existence.
Bonnie and I have learned our lesson, though. Chewing is the natural precoursor to swallowing. Swallowing is the natural consequence of chewing. You cannot count on a dog to reduce a piece of rawhide, or anything else to a digestable size before he tries to swallow it. So all of the 'edible' chew toys are now banished from our house. Other dog owners would be wise to follow the same course of action.
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