True! But I just find it hard to give him those treats after hearing these stories! It almost makes me feel like a bad mommy if I give him one!

Well then don't give him any treats or toys b/c nothing is safe.

With the exception of food, and medicine, there are no safety regulations for pet products. The industry regulates itself.
http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=15561

Keep it in perspective. Greenies are great for their teeth. and Yorkies need all the help with their teeth that they can get.

I know there can be dangers with everything that goes in their mouth, even the food they eat (they could choke). But that doesn't mean I'm going to deprive him of the joy of a squeaky toy or chew toy. I just ment that I won't be giving him any greenies because I feel I would rather be safe than sorry on that issue. But that is just my opinion on it. He will still get treats but just not those.

I have bought several greenies and she goes through them within a day. She has never had any problems yet. I hesitate, still, even before reading these posts, to give them to her. For good deeds done we usually stick with the puppy cookies, they are very small, so she isn't getting alot of junk, and she only gets one or two at a time.
We bought a beehive shaped kong toy, and have put peanut butter in it, but she refuses to have anything to do with it, even though she LOVES peanut butter!

Thank you for the information.

Thanks for the info on the greenies. I have actually only given Louie one once and he ate it way to fast and it freaked me out so i never bought them again....I do however buy him the "busy bone" and the "jumbone". He really loves them and it keeps him busy forever! :aimeeyork

Rosi is not a gulper, she chews on them occationaly and when it gets small i throw it away !

You know why they love greenies so much? They put something in there that makes it addicting! And, the greenies (just parts of them) stay in the intestines forever. They are only 85% digestable! What do you think happens with the remaining 15%?

When I found out all of these things, I stopped using them and threw out a whole new bag of them! I had been giving those to my babies for a couple of years now. I just hope they never have a problem . I will never forgive myself if they do.

There are plenty of treats to give them to clean their teeth. Milkbones and the like do it. Also, never give them bread and they won't have any teeth problems. Also, they have breath sprays, which I use for them. My girls are 6 yrs old and their teeth look great! :thumbup:

Who said that there is something in there that's addicting and where are the numbers from? 15%? 85%?

They are not addicting to my dogs they wont chew them. If they did I would give them to them. Anything thats chewed on just needs to be supervised.

I am so torn about this. :confused: My Nikko adores Greenies!!! I was actually able to comb him the other day because he was so busy chewing on his greenie that he completely ignored the brush!!!! (I have posted on here regarding Nikko being a notorious brush biter :p ) Maybe I can just give them to him when he is getting brushed and take them away afterwards. It is such a shame because he really loves them.

I certainly don't have any advice. I don't give them, though. I found this:

Our wonderful dog, a healthy, 4-year old rescued Miniature Daschund named, “Burt”, died July 25, 2005. He died from a pet treat called a Greenie.

Burt was promptly admitted to an emergency hospital after vomiting blood, bile and collapsing on the local vet's examination table. The doctor suspected an intestinal blockage and recommended exploratory surgery. What the doctor found inside of Burt was 3 1/2 feet of necrotic (dead) small intestines, as well as the "foreign body obstruction" behind the problem. The “obstruction” was none other than a well-chewed, partially digested portion of a Greenie.

Both the large mass of dead intestines and the Greenie were surgically removed from Burt. The Greenie was saved and later placed in my hands. It was rubber-like and spongy. It had absorbed liquids and had expanded in size about 25-35%. It was the "toothbrush" end. My wife recognized the ribbed contours of the toothbrush immediately. But, it took me a bit longer to recognize it because it was well chewed (like they say it has to be).

Burt tried as hard as he could but he just couldn’t hang on. He turned septic, got pneumonia and died 48 hours after the surgery with my wife and I by his side - after his 3rd cardiac arrest. The trauma was indeed too much for him and unfortunately the damage caused by the Greenie had already been done. Burt died from a Greenie. His problems would not have happened if it weren't for the wretched "treat" obstructing his intestines in the first place.

Prompted by our outrage over the unnecessary death of my dog, we immediately contacted Greenies and they investigated. We shared medical records with them. They spoke with our vet and then with me. They can't find any fault in our actions, or the doctor’s actions, or the timeline of events - at least that's what Dr. Brad Quest (Greenies on-staff veterinarian) told me over the phone. I voiced my strong concerns about the product and among other things, I told him that the product needed to be recalled and reformulated. To this day, they have not responded to this request.

And all this from a product that comes with veterinarian recommendations and "highly digestible" and "edible" claims on its packaging and website. We read the packaging. We followed the instructions. We unfairly lost our dog.

Burt died 3 years to-the-day that he came into our lives. He is dearly missed by his family. He is not replaceable. Burt will not die in vain. Neither will the other dogs and their owners that I am aware of that have suffered from this product.

Please think twice about this product. Make smart choices for your pets. Why take any risk at all. Our new motto for the company is this: Greenies: your dog can live without them.

http://quikonnex.com/channel/item/16161

This was another story:

We did our first agility trial in El Paso where she won two blue ribbons. We were schedualed to compete in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Las Cruces, New Mexico and Odessa, Texas. but then I made tha fatal mistake of giving her that wretched greenie. She was always such a happy little girl. I had been giving her these things for about 7 months without any ill effects and so trusted using them. I had not taken the time to do a Yahoo or Google search as to any problems. An hour after giving her the final greenie, I found her on the floor. Her body was completely inert, but still warm. I tried mouth to mouth, CPR and the heimlich and rushed her to a nearby dog training center for more knowlegable help. It was futile. We at that time did not know the cause of her death. The next day our vet did an autopsy and found a chunk of that wretched greenie lodged in her trachea.

http://quikonnex.com/channel/item/15842

omigod, that is so awful. I don't think I could live with myself if something I gave him would kill my little boy. What is a safe alternative to these things? Is there something completely digestible out there that I can give him that won't harm him? He is still teething and needs to constantly be chewing on something.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/greenies.asp

Origins: Greenies are a brand of green, toothbrush-shaped dog treats developed to keep dogs' teeth and gums healthy and control "doggie breath." Dogs have to do a lot of chewing to get through one of the biscuits, which helps to keep their teeth clean and control tartar, and the ingredients are touted as providing better nutrition and bad breath control than other alternatives (such as rawhide chews).

In November 2005, the above-quoted e-mail began circulating, warning readers that Greenies did not appear to be fully digestible. A 15 November 2005 consumer investigation by Seattle's KIRO-TV reported that Greenies and similar products could "pose a real danger to dogs." KIRO offered three accounts from dog owners whose pets had to undergo veterinary treatment for intestinal obstructions after being fed Greenies or other teeth-cleaning biscuits; two survived after surgery, and the third died. All in all, they found nine people who claimed their dogs had died after eating Greenie-like

products.

S&M NuTec, the company that produces Greenies, sent KIRO a statement asserting that "millions of Greenies are sold and enjoyed by dogs, every week without incident," and that "though injurious incidents are rare, more often than not, the pet is not fed according to our feeding directions." The warning label on packages of Greenies does caution consumers, "As with any edible product, monitor your dog to ensure the treat is adequately chewed. Gulping any item can be harmful or even fatal to a dog," but as most every pet owner knows, trying to monitor your dog (or cat) the entire time it's chewing anything is a near-impossible task.

A number of different pet products — from teeth-cleaning chews to doggie biscuits to chew toys — can potentially injure or sicken dogs under certain conditions and circumstances; we don't yet have enough information to know whether Greenies pose a greater than normal danger to dogs under ordinary use than other similar products, or whether we're just seeing a confluence of exceptional anecdotal reports.