It is every dog owner’s worst nightmare. Your dog refuses food and is lethargic. The dog’s nose is warm and dry and you know something is drastically wrong with “man’s best friend.” That scene played out for me this week.
A week ago, my 2-year-old French Brittany Laney had scheduled surgery when she was spayed. The choice to have her spayed came after considerable thought. All my life, I have had female hunting dogs, but have never bred one or had one spayed. My first French Brittany Lily passed away at age 10 after she developed a condition in her mammary glands that is common to unsprayed dogs and a reason veterinarians advocate for the procedure at an early age if you are not going to breed your female. That, and the twice a year inconvenience of dogs coming into heat, led to her being scheduled for surgery last week.
Tuesday, she had a follow-up appointment and everything was fine. That evening, however, she threw up her Purina One after eating – it was laced with black oil sunflower seeds she had helped herself to under the bird feeder. When she refused food the next day, it was obvious something was wrong, and we were able to get her to Adams Animal Hospital where X-rays showed “something” in her intestinal tract. They wanted to see what was going on the next morning, so she was returned for more X-rays, and those showed the problem was getting worse. Exploratory surgery was scheduled, and Dr. Bergantino removed a blockage of fabric that was holding back a mass of birdseed and other material that was not going anywhere.
You may remember that Laney, as a young puppy, ate 40 feet of parachute cord. That, after a dose of mineral oil, was passed, but we were not so lucky this time. As this is written (on the laptop so I can watch the patient) she is resting. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly over the next few critical days and Laney will make a full recovery.
Granted, it was an expensive procedure, but one does not make decisions about his bird dog based on cost-benefit ratio. This writer has a lot of time, money and emotion invested in this bird dog. When Lily needed surgery for a shattered femur as a young dog, the money was found and spent and she paid me back in spades. Hopefully, Laney will also turn out to be “a good one.” We have our fingers crossed.
This recent development means that Laney will be able to do any spring “hunting” on returning woodcock. As flights move back through, heading for suitable breeding cover, it is great work for a pointing dog. I know that woodcock are already moving through, but I have not been out since the return of winter weather. Personally, I do not like moving the birds in snowy conditions.
The dogs did get out a couple of weeks ago, when we did a training session at Hedgerow Hunt Club with Pat Perry. Both dogs looked good, and we were just waiting for the weather to turn more “springlike” and for Laney to recover from the first surgery. Hopefully, Dinah will get some work before the birds begin to nest, as that is when you stop running wild birds until late summer, when young woodcock and ruffed grouse are flying.
Well, with the arrival of spring, yours truly shifts into turkey mode. The toms are beginning to gobble, and once weather gets back to normal, flocks will disperse and hens will become receptive to the gobblers and the circle of life will start turning. Here in New England, that peak of activity is usually around the first week of May, but breeding activity can be from mid-April to the end of June.
Things start a bit earlier in Kansas, and my “visit to my sister” will happen in mid-April. That hunt is quite different from here in Massachusetts, as the large tracts of agricultural land give the turkeys a good view around them, and mature gobblers prefer to display and gobble in the open. There, they can be seen by hens and can see any threats coming a long way away. It is frustrating when you hear multiple toms gobbling off the roost, but cannot work them successfully. It is a challenge, but a lot of fun, and the wildlife viewing, which includes whitetail deer, coyotes and tons of songbirds is great.
Locally, diehard turkey hunters will soon begin “roosting” toms by listening and using various calls to try to get the birds to gobble off the roost as they fly up at dusk or in the pre-dawn and dawn. The dawn is usually more productive, but entails those 4 a.m. wake-ups. After that, you can do some trout fishing, once the stocking trucks begin rolling and you can get info on the MassWildlife website (www.mass.gov) to see what waters are stocked near you. Once spring actually feels like spring, there will be lots of things to do!