Grass seeds and infection

Canada wild rye - a dangerous grass, one among many you may encounter this Summer or Fall

Summer, and the time that many of us begin training dogs for the Fall season. Spring was late in the northern prairie. There has been a lot of rain/snow in most places this year and grass is high. There are a number of grasses that pose a serious and widespread risk to dogs, and this seems a good time to post again about the hazards or grass awn infections.

My setter, Ted, had a nasty infection from a cheat grass awn in his front paw last season that sidelined him for much of the season. With treatment, he recovered completely. But grass awns can kill your dog. They may be inhaled and cause disabling or fatal lung infections, or enter the mouth and be swallowed when the dog drinks and infect/perforate the walls of the stomach and digestive tract, or they can enter the dog's body through the skin and travel remarkable distances carrying infection with them. None of this is easily diagnosed or treated.

I am heading to Montana to work with my dogs on sharp-tails, young pheasants, and Huns for a couple of months at the end of July. Through Torben Hansen's thoughtfulness, I received a copy of documents by Cathy Lewis and Dr. Pat McInteer, DVM that were presented by Cathy at the Purina Pointing Dog Awards weekend last month. She has consented to my reproducing parts for her work here on Living with Bird Dogs. I'll put some links and citations at the end of this post and encourage anyone to learn more about this widespread and not easily diagnosed health risk. Here is the her (slightly edited) paper:

Grass Awn Infection, by Cathy Lewis (e-mail) and Dr. Pat McInteer, DVM

...you are your dogs best defense against this danger. Learn to recognize threats and avoid them, and carefully observe and know your dog. Recognizing subtle changes early may make a huge difference in successful treatment should your dog fall prey to a grass awn infection.

The most common grass threats to our dogs (my comments in brackets):

Foxtail Barley – if your live, train and/or compete (or HUNT) in the western United States or Alaska, especially, but this foxtail is spreading throughout the U.S.

Cheatgrass – a known threat in the Rocky Mountain states (and the entire Great Basin). Residents know that this becomes a problem when the grass begins to dry and drop its seeds, sometime around July, through the first freeze or snow.

Canada wild rye – unlike the above, this grass is actively cultivated as an effective cover crop for other, slower to establish grasses. It features a particularly aggressive awn. Popular with state and federal conservation authorities, and bird and habitat preservation organizations due to its low cost, it has become widespread through the Midwest and Mideastern states over the past ten years.

Find a full list of known problem grass species at www.meanseeds.com

Grass awn infections can manifest in multiple symptomspatterns (or combinations thereof): pyothorax (an infection in the chest cavity), pneumonia, and/or body wall or internal abscesses. Based on my experience and the case histories I am gathering, Many infections show up as an acute illness. The dog seemed fine two hours ago/yesterday, but nows/he has an elevated temperature, is lethargic, and has no interest in food…

The symptoms of a grass awn infection overlap those of other fairly common threats, such as tickborne disease. Your powers of observation may be key in making an accurate diagnosis quickly. If you have reason to suspect that your dog has been exposed to a problem grass, make your veterinarian aware of that fact and the likely manifestations. Veterinarians that do not see many working dogs in their practice may not consider the grass awn possibility in their early workup.

Treatment in most cases is costly. Even “medical management” of a pyothorax (Chest infection) is most times not a matter of simply giving some pills. With my own dogs, treatment costs have ranged from approximately $1000 to $12000...

In most cases that I am aware of where treatment has successfully resolved the infection, the dog's health has been restored to the point of returning to the field, though for competition dogs the consequences of surgery, e.g. removal of a lung lobe, ribs, and/or muscle tissue may effect performance to the point where retirement becomes advisable.

Sadly, the threat of grass awn infection appears to be rising. YOU are your dog's best defense.

Be careful out there...

Links:

Meanseeds.com (The Grass Awn Project)

Nocardia Infections in Bird Dogs, Dr. Pat McInteer, Dr. Kames Mills, and others

Speargrass, Dr. Pat McInteer

Good-bye Jesse

Jesse in better days, pointing sharp-tails in Montana

A couple of weeks ago my 13 year old setter, Jesse, started to decline food and showed signs of serious arthritis in his hips. He died this morning, laying on his bed in the shade of a plum tree.


He was the companion of many miles, always willing, and durable. He was an honest dog that would stand his birds for a very long time - waiting for me to find him. I will miss him greatly.


Good-bye, Jesse, and thanks for the thrills.

Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development

I have written about the threat of energy development on Western lands. The seemingly willy-nilly issuance of oil and gas leases has dwarfed the Gold Rush in 1849.

Go here to read more: http://www.sportsmen4responsibleenergy.org/recommendations.html

Summer camp

I have not posted in about a month... sorry. I have been busy with the business and have been making plans for the Summer.

I've been talking to Paul Garrett, making plans to go to eastern Montana for a Summer training camp. So as it stands right now I will be heading to Montana at the end of July for 6 weeks of fun training and running my setters. When we are done, I expect to spend a few weeks just bird hunting in Montana or Saskatchewan. I have never been able to spend that much focused time training, and jumped at the chance to do so... especially with such an experienced 'setter man'.

I expect to post some photos and notes, as well as get Cody green broke for his derby season, and work with Tommy and Ted on sharptails.

IB Fenway's tragic end

I B Fenway, an accomplished field trial pointer, and littermate of the late, great champion Kelly's Talkin' Smak was shot and killed in Reno, Nevada.


I received this bulletin by Dr. Charlie Hjerpe, DVM today:


During the 13th brace of the National Am Chukar SD CH in Reno, IB Fenway was lost and subsequently shot and killed by an area landowner who is a practicing veterinarian. Fenway was Runner-up Champion in the 2006 National Amateur Chukar All Age Championship, and a littermate to 4X Ch. Kelly's Laser Eye and 9X Ch. Kelly Talk'n Smak. At the time of his demise, Fenway was owned by Nard Bailey of Alturas, Cal., and was being handled in this stake by his former owner and trainer, Torben Hansen, the current 3rd Vice President of AFTCA.

Although Fenway was wearing a Garmin tracking collar, Torben  and Nard were never able to pick up a signal. In all likelihood, the Astro 220 had not been properly tuned to the specific collar that Fenway was wearing.


According to Dr. Scott A. Thompson, Fenway attacked some of his free-range, egg-laying chickens, killing 7 of them, and then "charged" Dr. Thompson when he attempted to intervene. Dr. Thompson is a 1976 graduate of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, and owns and operates a 3-veterinarian specialty practice in Reno (Feline Medical Center) that is limited to cats. The website for this practice can be reached by clicking on: http://fmcreno.com/about/

Although Fenway was wearing both a tracking collar and a regular collar with Nard Bailey's name, address and phone number on it, Dr. Thompson never contacted Nard to advise  him about what had happened to his dog. Nard and Torben did not learn about Fenway's fate until more than 24 hours after Fenway had disappeared. Apparently, Dr. Thompson did not recognize that Fenway was a pointer, because he had called the owner of "Green Feed", a local Red Rock area feed store, told him that he had shot a dog that was attacking his chickens, and inquired as to whether the owner's son might be missing a "hound". On Monday, April 18, Jarry Walton was in the "Green Feed" store buying chukar feed, and learned that a dog had been shot (the previous day) that might be Fenway.

As of the present time, Dr. Thompson is refusing to return Fenway's remains or his tracking collar, and is threatening Nard Bailey with a $4,500 lawsuit for the loss of 7 chickens. In fact, the damages may well exceed $4,500, should it be determined that the psyches of Dr. Thompson's 2 cows have been permanently damaged by the commotion caused by Fenway's actions. The dollar value of the claim is said to be based upon the value of the "organic, free range eggs" the chickens would have been expected to produce, if they had been allowed to have live out their normal life expectancies. However, if Dr. Thompson was so much concerned about the value of his chickens, why did he not catch Fenway, call the number on his collar, return Fenway to his owner, and ask the owner (Nard) to reimburse him for the value of 7 laying pullets (for which I have recently been paying $10 to $15 each). It is simply not credible that Dr. Thompson was so fearful of Fenway that he needed to kill him to protect himself. All of Fenway's former owners are unanimous in stating the Fenway did not have "mean bone in his body". Even if Fenway had growled at Dr. Thompson, veterinarians are trained in the handling of such animals, and Dr. Thompson was in general small animal practice for more than 25 years before he began limiting his practice to cats.


Shame on a man who practices small animal veterinary medicine for this belligerent and unwarranted behavior. 

When you see how bad it can get ...

My wife and I just returned from a 15 day trip through China. I've practiced Tai Chi Chuan for 7 years and the trip was sponsored by the studio where I train. We spent the first week in classes with the very best Tai Ci masters in the world and then spent the second week doing the usual tourist stuff in Xian and Beijing. My overwhelming reaction: nearly all of the enviroment that I saw was was horribly damaged. During the entire time in country I saw only a handful of songbirds, a few magpies, no rodents, no hawks. Certainly no game birds. Anything that looks green is under mono-species cultivation. Most of the country is covered by a cloud of smog from the coal-burning electric plants. 5,000 years of human occupation have left a mark on the land and the animals that will not disappear until the next ice age. So, get out your checkbook and send some money to you favorite environmental advocate group. This trip really brought home to me how much we stand to lose if we do not learn to live in a balanced relationship with our environment.

Sorrow at a loss and helpful advice

I received this sad news this morning...

It is with great sadness that I relay that Sean found Smak dead in his kennel on Thursday morning, April 7th.  It is believed that his death was caused by an injury that occurred on Wednesday during a training session at Red Rock, Nevada.    Sean had seen Smak being chased by 2 coyotes at about 300 yards.  Due to the distance and the rough terrain, it took Sean sometime to close the distance and catch up with Smak. At that time, Sean found him underneath a pickup belonging to some BLM employees.  Smak appeared to be shaken from his experience but not seriously hurt.    By the time Sean reached his trailer, Smak seemed to be O.K.  Upon arriving home, Sean noticed a small amount of blood in his crate and upon further examination he found a cut on Smak in the area where his front leg joins his body.  He cleaned the cut and doctored it.  It did not appear to be serious.  Smak was eating and drinking normally.   The next morning when Sean went to the kennel he found Smak dead.  Upon close examination, he found a small hole penetrating in approximately 4".  Sean believes it may have penetrated his lung.   Smak was 6 years old and had won 9 Championships and 5 Runner-up Championship placements.  He was admired by all who had the privilege of seeing him compete.  Frequently, field trialers would ride in the gallery just to watch him .  He was qualified to run in the Nationals and competed in the Amateur Invitational held at the Ames Plantation in which only the top 12 dogs were invited.   There are only a few dogs who have earned the right to be called great. In my opinion, there is no doubt that Smak has earned the right to be counted among those privileged few!!

Sean is a sportsman and is dedicated to his dogs. Kelly's Talk'n Smak was a truly exceptional bird dog. I saw him run many times and have run in brace with him a few times at trials. My condolences to Sean at his loss.


In light of the risks that our dogs take, I am again recommending that you take a minute to look at Birddogdoc's (Shawn Wayment) blog - he has a lot of good advice that might help us treat the inevitable injuries that our bird dogs sustain while doing what they do.


Be careful out there!