Frozen Treats

[forkin14]

The weather is FINALLY starting to get warm (70 degrees here today!!) so I was wondering if anyone had any great frozen treat ideas for when your dogs are outside? I usually fill up a metal bowl with water and freeze it so Cadence can just lick it for a while. Or just throw ice cubes in her water bowl (but she eventually ends up dunking her whole snout in "bobbing" for them and blows bubbles!).

I have a Kong toy for her, the one that has two holes at each end and is shaped like a dumbbell. But I'm not exactly sure what frozen things I could do with that.

[Fundog]

You can stuff a Kong with just about anything, and freeze the "anything:" meat and vegetables, peanut butter, cooked oatmeal, or even what I do with broth is first stuff the kong with some solid stuff (like frozen vegetables), set the Kong into a small bowl small end down, and trickle some broth over the vegetables, then lie the Kong on its side in the bowl and put it in the freezer. There is no limit-- whatever you can imagine up, you can do it!

[Noobs]

You can put the Kong toy IN the metal bowl and flavor the water with a little broth. Then she'll have to lick off the ice to get to the toy. Fun!

[emmabeth]

Not sure about using a metal bowl.... risk of dogs tongue getting stuck to it if you give it straight out of teh freezer..

But empty icecream tubs, yoghurt pots, I know people who have giant breeds use washing up bowls!..

Fill with water, a little fruit juice, clean hard wearing toys such as ragger ropes, kongs, kong-on-a-rope (whatever thats really called), chunks of fruit, dog biscuits - you could get really clever and pre-freeze some yoghurt (let it down with a little water so it will freeze harder), low salt gravy, blended veggie 'mush', fruit juice... then toss those into the bigger pot once the ice has already started to form on it and freeze again..

Block up the small hole on a kong with a chunk of cheese or a fatty cube of meat, or a bit of hot dog sausage, then fill with whatever, add a little juice or water or stock... freeze that.

Be as inventive as you like!

[forkin14]

Emmabeth, I don't let the ice get COMPLETELY frozen, I figured dogs tongues could stick to it or get "burned" from licking something too cold. I guess I need to either buy the classic shaped Kong to make it easier to freeze things inside, the one I have would be much too difficult

[mselisabs]

I love to cut up a banana and freeze the chunks. Then I'll chuck them into the yard so she has to find them. I think I'll try apples this year too. I'll also cut up little pieces of hot dogs and put them into a container so it freezes into a block of ice.

[forkin14]

ooo I never thought just freezing fruit! And that picture is what Cadence would look like

[Jessirue]

Cross posted from another list ....

---------------------
This was posted on another board with permission to cross post in the
hopes of saving another dog from having to go through this awful
experience.

=======================================
Hello Everyone,
I am writing this in hopes that some may learn from what I just went
through.

Well anyway it did not work out that way. After showing we went back to
our site/set up and got the dogs in their crates to cool off. After
being back about 30min. I noticed **** was low on water. I took a hand
full of ice from my cooler and put it in his bucket with more water.
(Note: I use a small Playmate cooler at ringside with ice water in it
also. Have for over 15 years now) I use small 2qt. buckets in my crates.
He had maybe ½ a bucket when I placed him in his crate after coming back
from the ring. We all then started to get all the dogs Ex'ed and food
ready for them.

I have an 18 foot trailer with AC and set up, as a rolling kennel it
fits 7- 42" crates, and MY express Van holds 1- 48", 1- 42", and 3- 36",
crates. All the crates in the van have 24 " box fans over them. I had
**** in his 48' crate in the van because that is the place he loves to
be. He loves to be able to see everyone and everything. After checking
the dogs and thinking they were cooled off enough we fed everyone. As we
were walking around removing the feed dishes from the crates, one of my
friends stated that **** seamed like he was choking. I went over and
checked on him and he was dry heaving and was drooling. I got him out of
the crate to check him over and noticed he had not eaten. He was in some
distress. I checked him over from head to toe and did not notice
anything. I walked him around for about a min. when I noticed that he
was starting to Bloat. I did everything I was taught to do in this case.
I was not able to get him to burp, and we gave
him Phasezime.

We jumped on the golf cart to take him down to the Show vet to find out
that he did not have a bloat kit, He referred us to the clinic that was
to be on call, but we found out that the clinic was closed. After
finding another clinic that was open we rushed **** to that one. We
called ahead and let them know that we were on our way. They were set up
and waiting for us and they got **** stabilized very quickly. After ****
was stable and out of distress we transported **** to AVREC where he
went into surgery to make sure no damage was done to any of his vital
organs. I am very happy to say that **** is doing great, there was no
damage to any vital organs, and he still loves his food.

In surgery the doctor found that ***** stomach was in its normal
anatomic position. The Doctor and I went over the events of what
happened up to the point of **** Bloating. When I told him about the ice
water he asked why I gave him ice water, and have I always done this. I
told him my history behind this practice and his reply was "I have been
very lucky for the past 15 years." The ice water I gave **** caused
violent Muscle spasm in his stomach which caused the bloating. Even
though I figured his temp was down enough to feed, and give him this ice
water his internal temp was still high. Dr. Vogf stated that giving
dog's ice to chew or ice water is a
big NO, NO; there should be no reason for them to have ice/ice water.
Normal water (room Temp.), or cooling with cold towels on the inter
thigh, is the best way to help cool a dog. How Dr. Vogf explained it to
me was like this: If you, as a person fall into a frozen lake what
happens to our muscles? Think about that, then compare that to your
dog's stomach.

I felt the need to share this with everyone, in the hopes that some may
learn from what I went through, I do not wish this on anyone. **** is
home now doing fine. He does not like the fact that he has to be walked
on lead in the yard to keep him from running. He hates not being able to
go out and rough house with the others, but is doing great. So please if
you do use ice and ice water, beware as what could happen.
__________________

[Horace's Mum]

Thanks for posting that, but I also think there is a big difference between ice water and frozen kongs. Drinking ice cold water obviously introduces a large quantity of something very cold into the stomach, which it doesn't surprise me that a dog can't handle - same with horses, you are advised not to let them gulp cold water down too quickly to prevent colic. But frozen stuffed kongs work differently, the effort needed in order to get the frozen stuff out of the kong means that it will be very small quantities at a time, or it will be defrosted by the time the dog gets to it. I would be careful just feeding frozen fruit etc without it being contained somehow, because again they could easily crunch down a large amount of freezing food which could cause the stomach to react.

I don't actually use anything frozen cos Horus doesn't like it (except my ice cream!) but those who do, have a think about the speed in which your chosen frozen goody can be consumed and make sure that it can't be too much in one go. Licking is good, crunching is not so good, and as the article suggested avoid icing normal drinking water unless it is only to keep the water at "room temperature" in a hot place, not to actually make the water cold.

[emmabeth]

Worth bearing in mind not to give hot dogs iced water to drink in large quantities immediately after hard exercise. that wont do many animals any good.

However, giving normal temp dogs blocks of ice to gnaw on and lick in hot weather is not the same thing as the ice will be melted and much closer to body temp before the dog swallows it (and of course the dog wont be red hot and exhausted from running around) and the quantities will be much smaller.

Cooling a dogs tongue down (by allowing them to lick and chew on cool objects) cools a dog down and keeps them cool much more safely than letting them drink vast quantities of ice water..

That cross post does also make it sound as if this dog could never run off lead again - this is not the case following bloat (once the dog has healed after surgery of course) and it is a tad misleading in that respect.

I have a dog who has bloated and recieved surgery for it - shes well and happy and can run and play like any other dog.

Thats not to say bloat is not a serious condition, it is - just to add a bit of perspective to an anonymous account.

[Jessirue]

I'm so glad I posted that now. I can't remember where it came from but since I read it I have been paranoid about letting my Goldie have ice cubes which he loves. If it's just ice water he can't have I'll start letting him have them again but not if he is very hot. Thanks for the advice

[Noobs]

Thanks for that cross-post and all the info thereafter. Very helpful indeed!