Should I hunt him or not?

[flhtc]

Hello all, I’m new to this site and I have a dilemma. I have a black lab that we rescued in 2006, he wasn’t a real hunter at first, not gun shy at all, I took him out pheasant hunting with some buddies who had labs as well, and the next time we went out hunting it was like he was doing it his whole life. Moses lives for pheasant hunting; it’s the only thing that truly excites him. So what’s the problem? The problem is Moses has several bouts of lyme disease, he hunts hard, doesn’t stop then he is lame for the rest of the afternoon. I began to limit his time out in the field to limit his pain, as you can guess he doesn’t want to leave the woods. Now he gets some sort of spasms in his hind legs, they appear to go out from under him. He looks at me like what the heck is going on. It stops him in his tracks momentarily; he shakes it off and is hunting again. I’m sure some of you have had to deal with an aging dog; we suspect he’s about 9 or 10 now. Am I doing him an injustice keeping from the field, or is keeping him home the more humane thing to do? I have not and will not hunt without him. Your thoughts please?

[deke]

This is the same dillema every man who has ever owned a hunting dog has or will face. No answer you get is right, or wrong. All i can say is go with your gut, if the dog is in pain, maybe time to let him be a house dog?
Soon i will be in your shoes, my yellow lab is starting to stove up really bad, even after short hunts. I have made the decision that the day it starts hurting him is the day he is done. I figure that he has hunted his whole life, and he deserves a few warm morning sitting on the couch in front of the fire place.

[Fester]

get some drugs and hunt him, your vet will help you, this is all a hunting dog lives for, all the pleasure he derives from life depends on it, that and a gentle pat on the head, just my 2 cents
Fester

[1vizsla]

Has he been checked for EIC? Sounds more like that than the Lymes.

Carla

[birddog1968]

Whens the last time he was treated for lyme? did they run a whole tick panel on him?

It does kinda sound like EIC...

[Sharon]

get some drugs and hunt him, your vet will help you, this is all a hunting dog lives for, all the pleasure he derives from life depends on it, that and a gentle pat on the head, just my 2 cents
Fester

X2
My JRT was hunting a half day , 4 days before he died. Neither of us would have had it any other way.

[Wildweeds]

My guess is hip and or disk/arthritis issues in the spine.

[campgsp]

He loves to hunt. Hunt him. Don't hunt him hard or over do it couple hours a hunt is fine.

[flhtc]

Thanks for your responses, I had him x-rayed, he had mild thirties in his hips, but the x-ray did reveal someone somewhere in his life shot him with a pellet gun, a single pellet could easily be seen in the x-ray, no distortion so it wasn’t a ricochet. He had a full battery of lime treatment several times.
I have never heard of IEC, what is and what can be done for it?
The other compelling issue is he loved to play ball, now he rarely chase a ball.

[dog dr]

talk to your vet about EIC, also go ahead and get a good x-ray of his hips/spine, and talk to your vet about pain meds and joint supplements. do what it takes to keep him happy and hunting, within reason. and dont limit yourself to hunting only with Moses. I know he is your buddy, but chances are good you will outlive him and/or his ability to hunt. At some point it will be time to give another dog the same great life you have given Moses. good luck

[Ruffshooter]

What is EIC:

[ACooper]

EIC:

http://www.vdl.umn.edu/ourservices/cani ... /home.html


http://www.justlabradors.com/health-and ... retrievers

[MHWH]

EIC I think they mean exercise induced collapse
I believe this is normally exercise induced hypoglycemia. Low blood sugar brought on by exercise.
I had a Lab that had this problem. It can be mostly controlled by giving the dog honey, karo syrup, or
some other snack with high simple sugars to bring up the blood sugar. Doing a squirt every hour really helped my
dog.

Recently someone posted about using orange juice for this. I carry the OJ this year for my current Lab
but have not used it yet. I probably will tomorrow, as we intend to be out for most the day.

There is stuff on the web you can read up on all this. If your vet is a hunting dog guy he will probably
be able to help. Other vets, well, who knows.

JMHO

MIke

[myerstenn]

I am betting on HD