Warning about wire crates

This came from one of my foster homes. I have used wire crates for years without this happening, but I could see how it could happen. So if you have a young dogs that has not yet found it's brain do be aware.

Olivia (hound girl) could have died tonight. I put her to bed in her wire crate (you know the black heavy duty crates that everyone's using these days) as usual. She was feeling playful & didn't want to be in there, so she started biting @ the crate. I ignored her, went upstairs, etc. Was in the shower & heard this terrible screaming noise.... She had "bitten" the crate such that her head was turned sideways @ the top of the crate & her upper & lower teeth were "caught" between the bars. Her mouth was so wide open that she had no leverage to open it further to release herself. I tried prying her mouth open further, to no avail. I tried shaking the crate (looking back a BAD call), & even turning it on it's side to try and free her using different leverage. She started thrashing & was screaming so much - I didn't know what to do but scream & cry myself. I knew she could snap her neck the way she was throwing her whole body around. All of my neighbors are out of town & there wasn't anyone around to help me free her. I didn't know what to do because I didn't have bolt\wire cutters able to cut through that crate and had no way to get the crate TO anywhere to get help. I took my smallest hammer & knocked out two (I think) of her top teeth. Blood went everywhere, but it freed her from the bars. She took off when I opened the crate door & hid. I caught her & applied pressure to the wounds in her mouth for a good 10 minutes & called the emergency vet to see if I needed to bring her in. They said as long as the bleeding subsided that she'd be okay. I gave her some ace that I had to knock her out\for pain since I couldn't do aspirin (cause it can thin blood?). I've never been so scared in my entire life. This was 10x worse than any other "dog thing" I've been through. And it lasted - the screaming & trying to free her for what seemed like 10 minutes. It was horrible. She's resting fine now & seems to enjoy the ice cubes I keep giving her to chew\suck on & loves all the extra pampering. But holy horse pucky - this experience probably aged me at least 5 years

What an awful experience!!

KNOCKED OUT HER TEETH!!!! Ohhh, NOT the way to handle that one!!! Bend the wires in for gods sake, don't smash the dog with a HAMMER!!! Pliers between the wires she was stuck on would have bent them enough to get her loose AND she would get to keep her teeth. I hope they were still baby teeth...

It's strange because I've used metal crates for years with no problem at all. Brew my pup that seems to find trouble no matter what has gotten a pad pinched in the crate and one of his tags caught on the crate! Go figure it would be Brew that figures out how to get stuck. He is always OK, his pad was just pinched not stuck and he has a break away collar but I take it off him anyway when he's in his crate just in case he figures out how to get the tag in between the bars again! Thanks for the heads up though!

omg Lori - I wold have freaked out too!!! Sometimes when something like that happens our brain freezes - - - what a scarey situation.
Hope pup is doing good

Apperently this has happened to other people as well.
I do need to clarify this was not my dog and did not happen to me. The foster was a 23 year old girl that lives alone and does not have a large variety of tools. I know knocking the teeth out sounds severe, and I too cringed when I read it, but her first concern was getting the dog loose before it broke it's neck. I have to commend her for being able to do such a thing in a situation like that. None of us know what we would do, but the dog will be fine without it's 2 front teeth, but would not have survived a broken neck. This is a heads up for all of us that use wire crates. I have never even thought of something like this happening.

Wow - how scary!!! I don't know how I would react if I was in that situation but I'm pretty sure that I would not have thought about going and finding some pliers and bending the wire (I have a few tools but also never know where they are!!).

Glad to hear the dog is going to be okay!!

Glad the dog is going to be alright. I know it can be truely scary listening to a panic-stricken dog scream. I can't believe she knocked out the dog's teeth to free it though. Of all the things she could have done to try and free the dog, causing it MORE bodily harm would not even be an option. The first thing that came to my mind was "bend the wires in", she could have used a broom handle to do that ... well, she had a hammer, that would have worded just fine. i actually thought I was going to read that she knocked 2 WIRES loose to free the dog, but was shocked to read she knocked out the dog's TEETH instead. What she did probably will be with the dog now for the rest of it's life, it'll never want to go back in a crate. Poor dog.

SO sorry about the puppy on the crate. I know Bark Kent tries to bite his cage. Can you imagine if she had locked the puppy in the crate and left for work or something and not been home? She's Lucky and so is that puppy.

wow, how aweful, I couldnt even imagine... When I was a kid, it was on my birthday. We had a german shorthaired pointer that was an outside dog tied to a chain. My parents always gave them the round circle bones you find in roundsteak and ham steak. I was told to take it to her, it seemed big enough for her to not choke. I gave it to her in the afternoon winter (Jan,10th) went outside later that evening and was taking them (had 2-3 beagles at that time outside also) some table scraps and when I went out, she came to great me and then I realizedit was AROUND her bottom jaw behind the teeth. She kept pawing at it and rubbing her face on the ground to try to remove it, but couldnt andshe was whining and wimpering adn "hangng on" to me with her paws to get me to try to help. I tried to pull it off or rotate it off her teeth. I started freaking out ( i think I was about 10-12 at the time. I ran to the house to get my dad and he tried everything he could think of to get it off, meanwhile her jaw was bleeding cause it was cutting her some. We finally were able to get ahold of the vet and they told us to cut it off with a hacksaw. Luckily my dad had something similar to a hacksaw and was able finally free her. She ran to me and "hugged" me so it seemed and I took her back to her chain.

To this day, I will NOT give any dog bones no matter what. My husband likes to give t-bones to our jack russel, "because she likes them" and I dont like it but I let her have it, and take it away as soon as the meat is off it. And he TRIES to give the round bones to the dogs, and I wont let him...I have now gotten to the point where I take the bone piece of meat and dont even let him have it!! (my husband). That way I know the dog wont get the bone....lol He tries to be so cute "but they want it, see, they like it and tries to sneak it to them anyways. I think he does it cause he likes to see my face get mad/scared. He now does not give it to them cause I leave the room and wont talk to him if he does.... If you are reading this Norm. I STILL LOVE YOU!


So long story short---DONT FEED DOGS REAL BONES, only special dog bones from pet store!!!!!!!!!!

Sucks about the puppy's teeth though. maybe it was baby teeth that will grow back---I agree with the being crate tramatized! I would be too if I had to go through that trauma-- probably tramatized by "mom " too!

Glad to hear the pup is okay. This is the stuff you can't make up.

terrible thing. i wont crate mavrick in one any more since he escaped out of one by prying it apart he split his ear in half in the process it was nice to come home to every serface coverd with blod from him shakeing his head. but hes the only dog that ive had problems with in them

Uncooked bones are much safer for dogs then cooked bones. We don't give ours many but they do get the occasional raw chicken parts (with bones) and sometimes the large beef knuckle bones. I've never been able to get a hold of them but would not have issues giving them any raw beef leg bones as they are good for helping clean teeth.

But everyone is different and has their own preferences as to bones and treats.

I feed raw, but stay away from large beef bones as they can crack and break teeth. But again like you said everyone has their own preferences and knows what works for thier dogs.

This is so scary.. I agree that she should have bent the wires and not have had to harm the dog but again her thoughts where freeing the dog..

I stopped using the wire crates for the most part because I have two dogs who always find a way to open them