CAUTION for people who hike with dogs

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Peakbagr

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As some friends here know the details, we lost our beloved lab, Bookah 3 days before her 9th birthday in late October. She's been my steady hiking companion and friend, and hiking companion of many, many of our friends from the time she was a puppy.
As she and I often did, we were bushwhacking a couple of obscure peaks. This time they happened to be in the Catskills. For those who don't hike over this way, please bear with me.

Boo picked up something tasty on the mountain, and unlike obeying the 'leave it' command as she had since puppyhood, she picked it up, ran a short distance and gulped it down. My mistake - thinking it was a deer bone or some partially rotted critter, ignored it.
A couple of hours later, near the summit she lagged a little behind me; not ahead as she always was. She was stopped and looked at me in a way I'd never seen before. As dog owners know, you can instantly tell when something is wrong. She didn't want to go on, shaking and scared and I knew we had an emergency. I was alone, on a bushwhack. I leashed and pulled her until her legs gave out. Carrying her as far as I was able, she died about 1/4 mile from the car. Her vets determined she was poisoned and there was nothing I could have done for her other that inducing vomiting right after she ate the poison. Lab owners also know that doing this every time your dog grabs something would be almost impossible.

I decided to share this painful memory as a caution to other people who hike with dogs. Bookah's vet learned from the Cornell toxicology lab that back country poisoning is getting to be more and more common. In this case all evidence pointed to deer hunters leaving poison for coyotes. I've come to learn that while few hunters admit to it, leaving poisoned bait for coyotes is far more common than I'd imagined. The Cornell people wanted to know more details, as they consulted with scientists out west where coyote poisoning is more common. And to be sure it was done by hunters. Leaving poison is becoming a problem all over the country around marijuana plots and meth labs. Attractively smelling poisoned bait is being left to kill law enforcement dogs by people running those illegal operations in the back country. I'll be watching much more carefully where I hike with our new pup, and following Tim's advice about carrying small bottles of hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting if I am unsure of what our dog gets into.
It's been hard to relive this, but if it saves a dog from going through what Bookah did, it will be well worth it.
 
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How awful! It makes my gut wrench thinking about it. I'm sorry for your loss but thank you for sharing. I will be sure to pay closer attention to where Marlie sniffs. I can't imagine what you went through.
 
So sorry to hear that. We had a black lab and most dogs of the breed simply seem to eat anything and everything. We lost ours because she ate a peanut butter covered pine cone left for the chickadees. It got lodged in her duodenum and she couldn't recover. We couldn't figure out what was wrong as well as our vet.
 
My god man. My heart cries for you And your list loved one. This story is a great warning and reminder to enjoy every moment with your dog that you can.
 
Reading this was heartbreaking and I'm so sorry for your loss.
Thanks for the heads up. I bushwhack with my dog a lot in prime hunting grounds and never would have thought about this possibility.
 
Sorry for your hard earned lesson. My grandfather used to live way out on the edge of civilization in Northern Quebec and always had a dog for a companion. He and others trained their dogs to only eat out of a bowl on command due to the possibility of the poison baits. This was over 45 years ago. Obviously its a difficult behavior to train a dog but I expect that the reason they did it was they too had learned a hard earned lesson the same way.
 
Very sorry for you loss, and the awful way it happened. I always worry about what our dogs may pick up, but this is definitely the worst.
 
So very sorry for your loss... thank you for taking the time to give those of us who hike with our dogs this information and caution. I will definitely be more vigilant hiking with Geneva.
 
Bookah had been trained with 'leave it' and it worked her entire life. From the analysis done, the bait was very attractive and instead of looking at me and leaving it as she'd always done, she ran and quickly ate it.
A favorite of method of poisoning, but much slower acting, is a sponge soaked with anti freeze which takes a few days to kill the animal that ingests it.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.743637635652765&type=1&l=4d32f24c61
 
I remember back in the 1960s there was poisoned bait (well signed but many dogs can't read :) along the Allagash to eliminate rabies in the area, not sure if that's still done
 
that is a horrible story. it sounds like it could happen to anybody. I had no idea this was going on. thank you for the warning, and so sorry for your sudden and terrible loss
 
I am not a dog person, but how awful, I am sorry for your loss and how difficult this must be, I am sure the dog community appreciates your heads up, condolences.
 
My dog ate a ton of home-made chocolate brownies one time and I tried to induce vomiting with Hydrogen Peroxide. He just swallowed it and looked miserable, but didn't puke it or the brownies up... That being said... I am sooo sorry for your loss and couldn't imagine the shock and dismay involved.
 
As some friends here know the details, we lost our beloved lab, Bookah 3 days before her 9th birthday in late October. She's been my steady hiking companion and friend, and hiking companion of many, many of our friends from the time she was a puppy.
As she and I often did, we were bushwhacking a couple of obscure peaks. This time they happened to be in the Catskills. For those who don't hike over this way, please bear with me.

Boo picked up something tasty on the mountain, and unlike obeying the 'leave it' command as she had since puppyhood, she picked it up, ran a short distance and gulped it down. My mistake - thinking it was a deer bone or some partially rotted critter, ignored it.
A couple of hours later, near the summit she lagged a little behind me; not ahead as she always was. She was stopped and looked at me in a way I'd never seen before. As dog owners know, you can instantly tell when something is wrong. She didn't want to go on, shaking and scared and I knew we had an emergency. I was alone, on a bushwhack. I leashed and pulled her until her legs gave out. Carrying her as far as I was able, she died about 1/4 mile from the car. Her vets determined she was poisoned and there was nothing I could have done for her other that inducing vomiting right after she ate the poison. Lab owners also know that doing this every time your dog grabs something would be almost impossible.

I decided to share this painful memory as a caution to other people who hike with dogs. Bookah's vet learned from the Cornell toxicology lab that back country poisoning is getting to be more and more common. In this case all evidence pointed to deer hunters leaving poison for coyotes. I've come to learn that while few hunters admit to it, leaving poisoned bait for coyotes is far more common than I'd imagined. The Cornell people wanted to know more details, as they consulted with scientists out west where coyote poisoning is more common. And to be sure it was done by hunters. Leaving poison is becoming a problem all over the country around marijuana plots and meth labs. Attractively smelling poisoned bait is being left to kill law enforcement dogs by people running those illegal operations in the back country. I'll be watching much more carefully where I hike with our new pup, and following Tim's advice about carrying small bottles of hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting if I am unsure of what our dog gets into.
It's been hard to relive this, but if it saves a dog from going through what Bookah did, it will be well worth it.

I'm so sorry about the loss of your beloved dog. What a terrible thing to happen.
Mountain49
 
Very sorry to hear of this. A guy near us was leaving hot dog pieces in the woods several years ago. I never caught him in the act, but I was ever watchful with my dogs in the area.

The anti-coyote mania among some hunters is a disgusting thing for this hunter to behold.
 
Man what an awful story. Sorry to hear about that. I have a hard time with willful killing of things, no matter how big the nuisance, in such horrible ways. I had no idea hunters did such things.
 
Gryffin ate a Nerf football once and the vet said 1 tablespoon H2O2 per 15 pounds of body weight. At 45 pounds then, three tablespoons had him tossing in about 5 minutes. Make sure you give them a bit of vigorous exercise to shake it up and get it foaming.

Tim
 
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Yes... like the Ben's 100 size. I can't recall what used to be in it... hand lotion or something we got from the hospital when one of the kids was born, I think.

Tim
 
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