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Early in the fall, when I thought I’d have more free time, I had planned to meet a friend up in North Dakota for a hunt this weekend. Some things came up on my end which put an end to the trip. Trying to salvage the early season I planned to make a quick trip with the girls for a couple of days of chasing grouse…or so I thought that sounded like a good plan.
All summer I had been experiencing pain in both my feet with my left foot being much worse. I attributed the pain to the large amount of running and biking I was doing and chose to just gut it out. After my hiking trip in Glacier I attempted to resume my running only to experience excruciating pain. A trip to a Sports Medicine doc resulted in my left foot now looking like this for the next three week:
I have managed to inflame three nerves, weaken multiple tendons and affect some bones and joints. He wants me in this immensely uncomfortable boot all day (including sleeping) for the next three weeks. I explained my hunting addiction and his comment was, “I’m not going to tell you not to hunt, just don’t be stupid.” When I relayed this to a close friend his helpful response was, “He must not know you too well.”
With a slightly uncomfortable addition to my hunting gear I was still planning on getting a couple of days in this weekend. Thursday night the NPR show “Wait, Wait….Don’t Tell Me” was taping in Sioux Falls and Chrissy and I had exceptional tickets. By the time we got home from the show, and finished getting the truck loaded, it was midnight and I knew the alarm clock was going to be going off much too soon.
I’m always amazed at how perceptive our canine friends can be to subtle changes in a situation. There are many times I would have similarly gotten gear ready and in the truck…training sessions, vacations, going to give seminars, etc. Somehow both setters knew exactly what it meant this time. Twenty minutes prior to the alarming going off I first had Belle up on my pillow prodding me awake and she was followed very quickly by Maggie jumping on my chest. Figuring I’d catch up on those missed 20 minutes later in the day I rolled out of bed and started the process of getting ready.
It’s never a good thing when you start the day at 5am with the A/C running in the truck. By the time we crossed the Missouri River the temperatures were fast approaching 80 degrees, and much too hot for my crew. My plan was to allow each dog a quick stretch of the legs one last time before calling it a day. Maggie was on the ground first and began to heat up much, much too quickly. Not wanting to overheat a dog on the first trip I headed back to the truck. Already soaked in sweat I moved the dogs to the cab and air-conditioning and called it a day. A mere 15 minutes on the ground and my first day had come to an end…not exactly how I had envisioned my season going.
As they say, tomorrow is another day.
We have added the second installment to the Tick-Borne Disease
Interview. In this episode we will discuss the treatment and prevention
of Lyme Disease and Anaplasmosis. In addition we will have our regular
features, and Merial has once again donated Frontline for three lucky
listeners. To visit the Audio Podcast homepage, CLICK HERE.
There were two disappointed setters at our house today. This weekend was the opening of prairie grouse in South Dakota. Since I just got back from my Glacier adventure it was my Saturday to work, which left Sunday to chase birds. Unfortunately the later in the day it got on Saturday, the more apparent it became that a Sunday hunt just wasn’t in the cards. Looking back at my journals this will be the latest, first hunt of the year I will have had since moving to South Dakota five years ago. This has been an extremely odd year for me, as I thought cutting back on consulting would free me up to do more of the things I had been missing the last couple of years. That certainly didn’t happen over the summer with training the dogs, and I really hope that September’s hunting volume isn’t an indicator for the rest of the year.
For those of you who enjoyed the grizzly bear pictures, I have added a black bear gallery to the site. This beautiful bruin swam across a lake right at us and was the perfect way to start our trip in the park. See the gallery HERE.
This week we will be notifying the winners of the podcast giveaways and we will be posting the newest podcast. I apologize for the somewhat random update schedule to the site; we have been incredibly busy at the clinic, and with fall finally here, I haven’t gotten into a groove with the site.
When discussing my career choices I always claim that the only thing I ever wanted to become was a veterinarian, which is mostly true. Growing up my favorite TV show was Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. I was in awe of the varied wildlife host Marlin Perkins would encounter in such beautiful settings. Had I had the opportunity to be Jim, or tag along with the MoA crew I can guarantee there would be no gundogdoc. I think it is this early love that fostered my interest in photography, and the desire to get close to wildlife and capture a lasting image of some amazing animal.
My Dad and I recently returned from a hiking/photography trip to Glacier National Park. To say the trip was beyond anything I could have imagined would be an understatement. This park, and its wildlife, truly are the Crown Jewel of our National Park System. Each day was completely filled with once-in-a-lifetime experiences and each time we assumed it could not get any better…it did.
There are two animals that I have always wanted to see on their turf in the wild, wolves and grizzly bears. On this trip the grizzly bear wish came true multiple times with some of the encounters coming as close as I’d ever want to get. Almost all of the close encounters came in poor lighting conditions and so while the images aren’t good enough to post in the main sites Photo Gallery, I still felt the need to share them.
This big boy was encountered on the last day as we left the park:
This grizzly was the third we encountered on the famed Iceberg Lake trail. He got incredibly close, reaching a point we had to quickly decide whether to continue or turn around as he was approaching the trail in front of us. It was raining during this picture, but one I had to take nonetheless:
We spent a long time watching in awe of this sow and her cub foraging in this meadow:
This last picture is from the bear we encountered on the last day. It is uncropped and shot with my 400mm lens in low-light. When this bear looked straight at me it truly shook me. I managed to snap this frame, and you can tell from the blur I was less than steady. He quickly went back to eating and paid us no more attention. It was at that moment that I truly realized how fortunate we were to be in its presence and how careful we should have been:
We’ve updated the Ask the Vet question for the week, take a look at the new question:
Q.)
I have a 10-month old Pointer that came to me as a rescue. She is very,
very thin. We have had her checked for parasites with nothing found.
She is energetic but I am able to see her ribs and her bones seem
small. She is kenneled with my other Pointer who eats the same food the
new one is on and does well. What is a safe way to encourage the new
pup to gain weight without causing my older dog to gain weight too?
A.)
I would say that in practice it is rare to see dogs that are too thin
on a consistent basis. What I do see is that there are a few breeds
that tend to fall on the lower end of the ideal body condition scale…Click Here for More
I saw this information posted on a hunting forum and thought I’d share it with you. I worked in the pet food industry during the last major set of recalls and can assure you these should be taken very seriously:
Mars Petcare US Issues Voluntary Recall of Everson, PA Plant Dry Pet Food Product due to Potential Salmonella Contamination
Franklin, Tennessee (September 12, 2008)—Today, Mars Petcare USannounced a voluntary recall of products manufactured at its Everson,
Pennsylvania facility. The pet food is being voluntarily recalled
because of potential contamination with Salmonella serotype Schwarzengrund. This voluntary recall only affects the United States.
To read the entire release, including affected products CLICK HERE
Another dry post announcing some site updates for those of you who haven’t visited the main site for a while:
- Case of the Month — See what happens when a parasite migrates under this puppy’s skin.
- Resources — We’ve added two new links to a couple of interesting sites.
- New Blog — A good friend and fellow hunting dog veterinarian, Dr. Martin Coffman, has entered the blogosphere with a new site. He might hunt with ugly dogs, but he’s still a good guy.
The first podcast giveaway is coming to a close. If you haven’t registered for the free Frontline or Mud River Gear, visit the Audio Podcast Page to learn more. We will be accepting submissions through tomorrow midday.
We made it back from our hiking and photography trip to Glacier National Park, and I can’t wait to get the new pictures up on the site. It was a fantastic trip, and I’ll relay the details as I post the photo galleries.
Monday we posted a new Ask the Vet question if you haven’t had a chance take a look.
Tomorrow we will be making some updates to the site, and by midweek we will have the next episode of the Audio Podcasts up on the site.
Our prairie grouse seasons open this weekend and I’m DYING to get out; next Sunday night I hope to post my first hunting update of the season.
I was fortunate to sneak away for a few days of hiking with my Dad this week. We had planned this adventure last year only to have it sabotaged by Maggie when she developed hemorrhagic diarrhea and nearly died. This year’s trip almost came to an end when Lily rammed a stick through her throat the day before we left. She’s fine now and I’ll save that story for another day.
After an eternity in the car we made it West and I thought I’d offer a couple of teaser pictures. A full photo gallery update will follow when I’ve had a chance to go through these on my home computer. This is my first post from my new MacBook. The screen is small, and so it’s tough to tell how good these turned out (or not).
Less than an hour into our first hike we encountered this friendly critter:
We found him at this beautiful location:
I’ll post more later this week. Any guesses as to where we are?
I suffer from an intense affliction of puppy fever every couple of years. It had been bad this time around, because Belle was the perfect puppy (and still is). Combine that with the heart-wrenching loss of Emma, and well…
In the past when struck with this ailment, I successfully wear Chrissy down to the point of relenting to a new addition. This time around I definitely got more than I bargained for.
Lily had been with us for a very short period when I quickly realized we would have our hands full with this one. I have never gone through such a roller coaster of wanting to kill her and then being in awe of her intelligence and cuteness. We were warned when looking into the breed that cockers were characters…little did we know that this was code for they’re CRAZY.
How could you not love this face:
How about when she has just chewed a notch into the strap of my best camera? Don’t let that, “Oh this wasn’t a chew toy” look fool you, she knew.
We own exactly one piece of antique furniture and so you can guess where it is that we have to watch her like a hawk:
Thankfully she took only eight days to potty-train. Now I’m not going to say she is flawless. When she goes to the door, you better get her out, because if you miss she’s not going to wait forever. Thankfully, though, she is smart enough that she’s figured out you can just chew through the screen:
When the house and its contents aren’t enough of a source of destruction, she turns to the other dogs. Belle has been unbelievably patient with her, and I’d dare say they may be friends. That being said, there are times I swear she’s asking, “really, you’re seriously going to keep this?” In this image I’m getting the, “Put the camera down and help.”
In all seriousness she hasn’t been that bad, and despite the photographic evidence to the contrary she isn’t given free run of the house and allowed to destroy items at will. In fact, unless supervised she is in a pen or crate in the house. We’ve given her plenty of structure, various forms of confinement and controlled activity each day in hopes of molding a perfect canine citizen. However, I’m not holding my breath, as she is the most devilish dog I have ever owned. Her intelligence has been impressive, and I only hope it continues as she matures, that is if she’s allowed to mature before I sell her to the gypsies.
You’ll notice Maggie didn’t stop to pose for any of the pictures. She’s still on the fence with Lily. While she’s softened somewhat and we’ve no longer had any dog delivered discipline, she isn’t exactly her biggest fan. Belle on the other hand may have just found a new friend.