Your Pup----

Al Hansen

Well-known member
I was looking at some of my duck hunting pictures yesterday and came across this series that made me think of this question. As I watched Chili about to enter the water on the third frame I thought, "I wonder how many times she has done this very thing and has yet to be injured?" Some of the places that I hunt could easily hide broken glass or a rusty can. Other places have many sharp sticks. So far she has been exceedingly lucky or fortunate not to have been hurt.
Have any of you had your pup hurt while retrieving or has your retriever been lucky like Chili?
Al

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Al,
The beaver ponds I hunt have lots of "sticker" just under the water. Bella has been stuck but not seriously injured. I do run a vest on her as soon as its cold enough for it not to be uncomfortable to help deflect some of the sharps.

She has a bald spot on a paw where she cut it but other then that we have been lucky.

Its a concern though I always try and setup where she has a clean entry to the water.
 
Yes, while throwing a dummy in my back yard my blf Lilly made a small yelp and after returning the dummy licked her upper leg and i noticed blood on her nose. She had a cut/tear about 8-10 inches long from her knee to her groin. Very little blood. We looked but never could find what she cut herself on.
 
Years ago I hunted a yellow lab named Tori. She once cut herself quite badly in a little pond and I never found what caused it.

She also cut a paw open on pond ice. Neither time slowed her down and she had to be taken from the field to get her to stop.
 
Al,

In the 1970's three of us were hunting sage grouse. We had three dogs along. The oldest female was retreiving a bird when one of the younger dogs bumped into her and pushed her into a sharp object (a stick from a beaver cutting we think, but not sure, we were at a series of springs that the beaver had turned into a pond). That object punched a hole 1.5 inches deep and 3/4 in diameter in her neck. We did not realize that is what happened as she still brought the bird to hand. After she delivered the bird she turned towards me and I could see blood running down her chest. A minor artery had been cut and blood was beginning to spurt from her neck by the time we got her in the truck. It was 75 miles to the nearest vet. We laid her across the laps of the three of us in the pickup cab and the owner put pressure on the wound. It was a crazy drive to find a vet. The bleeding stopped before we got to town.

She was OK and the vet left the wound open to drain and heal and started her on an antibiotic. A crazy morning though.

Matt
 
Surprisingly, the two labs I've had have only had minor cuts and scratches over the years. Old Ms Wilson cut her foot pretty good once and we had to stitch her up at a friend's house. She was really steady about it - no anesthetic at all. She also got whacked on the face by a muskrat pretty bad a few years ago. She was trying to dig him out of a bank hole and I guess he figgered he'd go down trying.

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I had a hound dog long ago in Manitoba and that feller was always getting cut up and bruised. He just didn't look where he was going when he was on a hot trail. I watched him get tangled up in barbed wire, bounce his melon off trees, and dig his way into the nastiest willow swamps. He impaled himself on a beaver stick once, low in his belly. I heard him yelp but he didn't slow down. It wasn't until after we went home a while later and I was doing the post hunt check over that I noticed a big gash in his skin and a puncture through his abs. Lucky dog.

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Mike
 
It is amazing the trouble that they don't get themselves into. The mystery gashes, and chunks missing leave you wondering. Yesterday Pete tangled with a woodchuck who was holed up under the deck.

I'll never forget the hour and a half drive to get Pete to a vet after his rattlesnake bite.

T
 
My best Lab ever jumped off the front of the boat years ago to retrieve a downed duck. It was still fairly dark when I yelled fetch. As she jumped off the bow I heard her cry and stop in mid air, then she cried again as she continued to try and launch off the bow. She had the bow kleet stuck in her rear leg between the skin and muscle, every time she pulled forward she tore it more and more. When I got her to the vet it looked like I was skinning her. Lots of stitches and antibiotics for that Louisiana swamp water.
 

So far at 2 1/2 years old the only injury Jet has received while retrieving is a fishing lure attached to his leg by the treble hooks. He allowed me to remove it without to much fuss. I am constantly amazed at how they can tear through what can sometimes be a hostile enviorment and not come back injured. Professional athletes have nothing on a Labrador!
 
I have a big crazy chocolate lab that is always getting little cuts and bumps. The only serious ones have been a fish hook in the nose and a nice gash on his pad from a piece of glass. He was pretty little and very crazy when the fish hook happened. He kept biting the lure and pulling the hook deeper and deeper. I had to take him to the vet for that one. The cut foot happened last Sept. while rail hunting. We were walking an old railroad bed on a flood tide and I didn't realize there were broken bottles everywhere. I was lucky he only got one cut.
 
Well Al,

I've been very fortunate over the years. I've never had a dog get injured enough to miss a hunt. A splinter once in a while, little cut or sprain. Up until recently that is...

While not really while Duck hunting, but my 16 mo old Lab pup tore her ACL a couple months ago during a training session. We had it repaired several days ago. While the issue was sure in doubt for the first night, she's been a trooper ever since. Luckily for us, the "well experienced" Dr. told us, it was one of the best she had ever done. She said, surgically, inside, it was perfect. I don't know what that will mean in the long-term prognosis, but it's nice to hear that at the start.

Looks like I will be "solo" this season. I am not sure she'll be healed up enough to chance it.

Night of the surgery.

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My first lab Bear hunted with me several times during icy conditions in the 90's and had several pad cuts from the rocks and ice. It never slowed him down. But then, he once pulled a 30 foot tree down on me and two clients wanting to get to a flock of mallards the landed outside the decoys. He was tough. He also tried to best some porcupines over the years, never did win one of those matches.

So far Knight, my current lab, hasn't had those misfortunes. I do go out of the way tpo avoid hunting spots that have beaver sharps sticking up. Not good for the retriever or waders. Always have to think safety first. Not just for the gunners.
 
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