rid of some of the skunk smell. He made 4-5 good blind retrieves and we decided to go scout some of the areas we had to hunt for the next day. The next morning was no better weather wise, still in the teens with high winds. After watching the morning weather report we learned that just to the west of us they had got up to 5 feet of snow overnight. All the roads were closed, even the interstates with hundreds of thousands of people with out power.The only place we could find birds was in the sloughs with cover 4-5 feet tall and almost impenetrable. The birds were not holding and flushing well out of gun range. On the way back to the house we hunted some of he ditches and took a few birds. For the third day it was more of the same, cold with high winds. We headed back into the sloughs. We changed our hunting strategy a bit and managed to get a few more birds. If our shooting was better we would have had a few more. By this time the dogs were starting to
take a beating from hunting the sloughs from 10 am to 5 pm every day. Their feet were getting tore up and Brutus, Gezers GWP and Raz, my dads setter who had a little less coverage underneath were really getting tore up, even their gonads were raw. We came in that afternoon for lunch and cleaned the birds. I got Dachs out to remove a burr I had seen on his ear. I put him back in the kennel in the truck and was about to shut the tail gate when I noticed two drops of blood. I called Gezer over and we got him back out and gave him a good once over. To our surprise we found a big gash on the bottom of his chest. The funny thing is that he never gave us any indication he was hurt of even slowed down one bit. We laid him down and cleaned it out good and I went to try to contact a vet. The one in the closest town of 648 whole people was gone. They said he was a large animal vet with little or no experience with dogs. With such a small demand for his services he
had no office and covered a several county area out of his truck. The next closest vet a few towns away was tied up all afternoon and unable to help, this was on Saturday. We put a call into the local "witch doctor" a farmer who did castrations and things for some of the locals. He came by and looked at it and said " heck, I wouldn't worry about it, just put some cut heal on it. I have a horse laid open worse than that. If we stitch it he will just chew them out." With no other alternatives Gezer and I got my first aid kit and treated it more thoroughly. We unloaded his kennel and put him in the barn no sense bouncing him around in the back of the truck when we went back out after lunch. We hit one small slough then the ditches on the way home and got a couple more birds. The next day the weather broke and the winds had died down, with a forecast a high of 22 degrees it was perfect hunting weather. When we got the dogs out that morning you could tell
they were a little sore and tender footed but they were rearing to go, even Dachs. We put a bandage on him with vet wrap and duct tape around his chest like a big girdle. When we got out to the slough we were hunting the birds were starting to hold for the dogs. Dachs was dying to get out there and hunt so I hunted him in some of the areas where the cover wasn't so thick, tree lines, fence rows, plum thickets and around the edges of the sloughs. We had many good bird contacts and points out of the dogs that day, they were learning the birds and our shooting was improving as well. We got up Monday morning and did a quick couple passes through the slough behind the house. We returned to the house and headed home at noon. My dad and I stopped at the first vet office and had the dogs taken care of. His dog had a small tear on the loose skin of his flank that left a small flap of skin hanging, it required a few stitches. We went to a cabelas near by to kill
a few hours (and my bank account) while the vets did the surgery on Dachs. We returned at 5 pm and 36 stitches later 24 on the inside and 12 on the outside he should be as good as new in a couple weeks. Maybe Gezer will chime in here with a more detailed account of our trip and a few pics. The only ones I have are after I got home. My wife needed the camera because our trip encompassed one of my daughters birthdays and my wife's birthday. I guess I should say how lucky I am to have such a loving and understanding wife. Although she was a little upset that I brought Dachs home injured and skinny. He averaged a pound of weight loss for every day we hunted. Also, I cant end this quick recap of our trip with out mentioning our hosts. We stayed at Jeff's parents house. We all had our own rooms and his mother provided all our meals, and let me tell you she didn't skimp on anything. We woke up to a cooked breakfast every morning, had a container of fresh baked
from scratch cookies and brownies to take to the field with coffee and hot chocolate. We came in every afternoon to warm up to homemade soup and such and every dinner was like thanksgiving with the full spread, fresh baked peach cobbler, pumpkin and pecan pies. The dogs might have lost some weight but I think we all gained some. These people had never met me before in their life and treated me like family. They are truly some of the nicest most giving people I have ever met in my life and I will always have a special place in my heart for them.
