Fish bone

A fish bone is not a poison, it is a puncture risk. The American Kennel Club puts it plainly in its guidance on feeding fish: fish bones are small, brittle, and dangerous, they can lodge themselves in a dog's mouth, throat, stomach, and intestines, and they sometimes even perforate the organ wall. AKC repeats the point for salmon specifically, which harbors small brittle bones that are a choking hazard. Cooking does not soften them. Baking and grilling dry them out and leave them sharper. Where the bone stops determines what you see and when. In the soft palate, tonsil or under the tongue it is immediate: gagging, drooling, pawing at the face, refusing food. In the esophagus you get repeated unproductive retching and ropey saliva. Past the stomach, the dog can look completely normal on day one and then show repeated vomiting, loss of appetite, a tense painful belly, bloody stool, fever and collapse a day or several days later. By that point you are looking at possible perforation and peritonitis. Normal at bedtime is not the same as safe. Not all bones are equal. Pin bones from salmon and trout, and the rib bones of snapper, bass and other whole roasted fish are the ones that do damage. Canned salmon and sardine bones are different, because retort processing under heat and pressure leaves them soft enough to crush between your fingers, though those cans still carry added sodium and oil that make them a poor treat. There are three things not to do. Do not feed bread or rice to push the bone down. It is folk advice, it drives the bone deeper into tissue, and it makes endoscopic retrieval harder. Do not induce vomiting; a sharp bone traveling back up tears more than it did going down. Do not go in with fingers or tweezers, because you cannot see how far the buried end goes. Do this instead. Write down the fish, the rough size of the bone, and the time, then call your veterinarian or an emergency animal hospital right now. Radiographs and endoscopy are their call, and many fish bones are poorly visible on X-ray, which is another reason the history you give matters. Prevention is simple: debone and fully cook any fish you give a dog, keep the carcass and heads in a lidded trash can, and never leave a plate of whole fish where a counter-surfer can reach it.