I know some of you feed it, have done a few times in the past, but am worried that she might choke on it as it becomes such a slippery ball after some chewing and it disappears in her mouth, takes her ages to eat, me observing her anxiously.
She won't hold it in her paws and gnaw on it, but rolls it round her mouth from one end to the other and when it has a size of a tennis ball, I'm just worried it could slip down her throat . Need assurance please and also maybe some instructions how to help a choking dog (heimlich any use???)

I fed it a couple of times Christine but never felt comfortable with it when it gets to the state you mentioned so don't feed it any more. Yes you can use the Heimlich manoeuvre on a dog but try not to let it get into the situation where you would need to would be my advice! You could also get your butcher to saw it lengthways in half reducing the risk of it ending up as a round ball.
sneaks off quietly cos I'm meant to be ironing

Saw ya!!!!!!

**sneaks off cause she is supposed to be working on the accounts at work**

i've fed it a few times, jack loves it, but it occasionally gets stuck to his back teeth if u know what i mean... i've been allowed to open his mouth and just pop it out with my fingers and away he goes chewing again no prob. Must admit wont feed it if i'm not there to watch now......

I fed the boys some ox tail one time. They were so excited and competative, they wolfed it down and choked. They managed to get it back up, but they were very sick with a tumm ache that night. They didn't chew.

I agree with you Sandy (I know you won't read this now as the ironing is paramount ) it is wiser not to get in that predicament in the first place than to know what to do should it happen. I had to do heimlich on my Casey one night when he choked on a rawhide piece (not in this house anymore). I shook him, manuevered him, and finally picked him up by his hind legs and swung him. The piece finally came out far enough I could get it with my fingers, and I was lucky I got it the first try. He went about his business, and I shook and cried for 30 minutes at least!!

I was also very lucky he let me do all that to him!

My fears are confirmed. I didn't give her any ox tail for a long time but was thinking about it, but I better leave it. One of my worst nightmares is Fipps choking...Angell, it must have been so horrible for you, i can imagine how shaken you must have been. Good for you, that you managed to safe him!!!

Angel that must have been so scary Damn those rawhides

When mine have a bone, what ever, bar chicken wings, I always take the last bit off them, when it gets to choaking size.

Angell, what a scary experience! Is that what a Heimlich manoeuvre means? I've never heard the term...

I've bought oxtail once on special offer, but it was sliced (not lenghtwise). Lots of fine meat, but Rhian too had trouble with the bone. She just kept sucking and mouthing the hardest bit as Christine has described, but it was rather smaller than a tennis ball. I took it away from her, but on some of the other slices she swallowed everything and I found quite large bone fragments in her poo later on.

I won't run the risk of feeding it again - there's a risk to feeding bones anyway, but no need to make it larger .... I never leave Rhian unsupervised when she has a bone.

The heimlich manuevre works better with humans. You have to give a sharp squeeze to the abdomen. The idea is to compress the lungs and whatever air is in there is used to pressure the object loose. It didn't work well with Casey as there isn't alot to get ahold of. Slapping him on the back and picking him up and swinging and shaking did as much good.

As a warning. I was very lucky I didn't push the rawhide back in when I fished it out. You have to do what you think is right at the time and I in no way recommend doing this. Like I say, I spent a long time crying and shaking when it was all over. I understood it could have also gone very wrong. It was a crap shoot.

I have to say, if you can avoid such a situation, do so. I don't feed the boys unsupervised unless it's something very safe. Maybe a kong bone stuffed with banana or peanut butter.

Thanks for the info - hope I'll never need it!

But don't mention peanut butter to me - bought it extra as a prime treat for Rhian as pupster, to fill kongs... She just said "Yucks!!!", didn't touch it...

Anyway, when I go out in the evening after feeding, I never put meaty bones on the menue, but feed one of my mixed recipes. As happened today, when I had to hurry off to hear a lovely concert of Haydn and Beethoven.

I feed my two oxtail once a week.
Ox tail or any bone can be dangerous and you need to be with your dogs when feeding any kind of bones. I don't feed my dogs bone I feed them Raw Meaty Bones (needed to add that ) lol

I buy the whole ox tail and my butcher cuts it up for me.
The bigger pieces have loads of meat on them and when the girls have eaten this and had a chew on the bone I take it off them and throw it away. Ox tail bone is very hard and jagged but a bit of it is a great tooth cleaner and jaw work out.
Girls prob don't appreciate me taking it from them but enough is enough lol
There is loads of meat on a ox tail and my two enjoy getting it off the bone.
Raw feeding in my opinion is never about how much bone they eat so I let them have a chomp on the bone and then take it off them and throw it away
The small pieces tail end I don't worry about.

I used to feed oxtail but they always used to throw up the middle boney bit a few hours later. So I gave up on it, there's easier things to feed !