Dog recovery

[TSAMP]

Curious on some feedback from folks about how their individual dogs react post hunt.

My 6yo PP has been awfully sore post hunt. I'm talking a couple hrs in the high 50s pheasant hunt and he's having trouble getting up/down stairs that evening.

I switched to Kirkland lamb and rice food a couple months back and saw coat quality improvements over the proplan and Victor Hi pro stuff. I was considering going back to Hi-pro until the recent salmonella stuff came about.

Maybe he's just getting old.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Dogs need conditioning too, especially if there feet are soft.
Yes high quality food helps.
Generally I switch them to a lower protein food during the off season. And more protein during the active season.

 

[LongWayAround]

I supplement our lab (11) with Grizzly brand glucosamine and we give him Carprofen for arthritis. He was having trouble with stairs and such, couldn't jump into the car, etcetera before.

I can tell that he feels a lot better since we got him on these.

 

[BRTreedogs]

I supplement our lab (11) with Grizzly brand glucosamine and we give him Carprofen for arthritis. He was having trouble with stairs and such, couldn't jump into the car, etcetera before.

I can tell that he feels a lot better since we got him on these.

Carprofen is an nsaid so beware of liver issues.

 

[LongWayAround]

Carprofen is an nsaid so beware of liver issues.

I asked our vet about long term health concerns and they said not to worry.

Do you have conflicting information? Any kind of liver supplement to suggest?

 

[BRTreedogs]

I asked our vet about long term health concerns and they said not to worry.

Do you have conflicting information? Any kind of liver supplement to suggest?

Ohh man.

Do do not have hard facts, but my old hound has high liver enzymes. Aka possible liver disease, and our vet was concerned we had been giving her to much carprofen.

Nsaids are bad for humans. After I got the bone scope the doctor told me to lay off them.

I wouldn't say don't ever use it. But I would also proceed with caution.

 

[BRTreedogs]

They prescribed her galliprant but idk how well it seems to work. And its kinda spendy

 

[TSAMP]

Yeah I totally understand conditioning. I hunt probably 3 days a week and run in the off season. It isnt a conditioning issue. Below are the specs on the kirkland food.

 

[KurtR]

I have had good luck with zoom dog supplements.

If you are really interested Pat burns has a couple videos with dr Arliegh Reynolds’s. Search purina master class.

Dr Jennell Appel has some great info on recovery and conditioning. Roading has to be a certain pace and planned out to see the most benefits.

While focused on retrievers this is kind of a synopsis. https://www.purinaproclub.com/about/awards/sporting/conditioning-retrievers-field-trials


Winter is tough to condition here in the winter so I am getting a treadmill along with some balance training. Last year thinking about being tired after a big swim vs what needed to be done might of cost us a pass.

 

[Procision Arms]

If you’re comfortable giving subcutaneous injections, pentosan is available through a prescription from your vet. It’s a a weekly injection for a month as a loading dose, then once a month afterwards.


It has a couple mechanisms of action that help in sore/arthritic joints, but the biggest is it slows down the progression of arthritis and helps maintain joint integrity.

I use it pretty extensively on my horses and my older GSP, you can tell when he gets his monthly shot, he’s bouncing off the walls for a few days

 

[KurtR]

A 6 year old dog should be in their prime. Being that sore and taking that long to recover seems odd. I would get some blood work done jic. Tick born diseases can cause issues like this.

 

[2ski]

It hasn't been this way all hunting season but just this time? Is that correct?

 

[WoodDuck]

There’s some good info in The Flush podcast in an episode titled “Hunting With Geriatric Bird Dogs” or something along those lines. A vet discusses options for prolonging your dogs life in the field and relieving/mitigating joint soreness.

 

[kpk]

Ohh man.

Do do not have hard facts, but my old hound has high liver enzymes. Aka possible liver disease, and our vet was concerned we had been giving her to much carprofen.

Nsaids are bad for humans. After I got the bone scope the doctor told me to lay off them.

I wouldn't say don't ever use it. But I would also proceed with caution.

I gave my last lab carprofen after hunting or training hard but that was about it. When he started getting tumors on his abdomen I'm sure the vet said he had cancer in his liver and kidneys and wouldn't make it much longer - he was maybe 8 or 9 at the time. His liver enzymes were off the charts sky high. We did a bunch of expensive meds (including galliprant) but most of them just seemed to make him sick. We went back to carprofen for pain but we gave up trying to get his liver numbers under control. He lived several more years perfectly happy and made it to 12. I'm not a vet or doctor - but my guess is that dogs handle meds a lot like people do. Some can handle them just fine while they'd be a huge problem for others.

 

[TSAMP]

A 6 year old dog should be in their prime. Being that sore and taking that long to recover seems odd. I would get some blood work done jic. Tick born diseases can cause issues like this.

Thanks Kurt. This is where my head was at.
Back in Sept we got into a load of ticks and I came out fairly ill for a couple days and ran through a course of doxy. He's up to date on shots and bravevto, but it probably isn't a terrible idea to get checked out.

 

[TSAMP]

It hasn't been this way all hunting season but just this time? Is that correct?

Correct, I've done two 4 day hunt in sept and Oct where he didn't show signs like this until day 3 or 4. Maybe he's a tad out of shape as I've been hunting deer the last 3 weeks exclusively.

 

[Dos Perros]

I know some people think it's witchcraft, but I had good luck with glucosamine w/ chondroitin. It takes a few weeks to start seeing results. I gave liver flavored tablets to both of my aging dogs, starting in August, and they were ready to go for September chickens. They came off them after hunting season ended.

 

[Muleyczy]

I’m no expert by any means but I don’t think it’s the food, sounds like a conditioning issue to me. I think it’s underestimated how hard dogs run when hunting. I road my dogs throughout the year couple times weekly, sometimes more, sometimes less but I’ll increase as it gets closer to hunting season and even then there is some first of the year soreness.

 

[S.Clancy]

IMO, it's normal. I have an older dog (8) and there are times she can hunt for days without getting too sore, then one 4 hr hunt she just gets really stiff afterwards. I think it is just a fact of she is older and sometimes she just tweaks something. A tweak when you are older hits different than when you are younger, ask me how I know....

 

[KurtR]

Thanks Kurt. This is where my head was at.
Back in Sept we got into a load of ticks and I came out fairly ill for a couple days and ran through a course of doxy. He's up to date on shots and bravevto, but it probably isn't a terrible idea to get checked out.

If your into podcast lone duck chronicles ep 153 they talk about dogs aging and tick born diseases with Dr. Joe Spoo. Some good info on there.