Dog Collapsed In Field

I am pheasant hunting in SD and had a scary incident with my 6 year old YLF. She has been a pheasant hunter her entire life (only ducks she has ever seen are in training and at tests) so this situation is not new to her. We were hunting on Thursday and it was 32 degrees and damp. I usually run one of my dogs at a time out here and rotate the two of them at each spot. On the second turn of the day for my 6 year old we were done with the pass through the cattails and walking through a cut hay field and she began going from hunter looking confused and then just collapsed in the field. She wouldn't move at all and was not shaking. A guy in our group had some peanut butter and I gave that to her and she responded slightly, I got her back to the lodge and got her to eat and drink and she has been doing fine since. She is a very well conditioned dog and has never had an issue in her life of going down in the heat or cold and is genetically sound. Any ideas of what might have happened and what I should do?

I have been giving her lots of food, water, and rest since the occurrence and she looks like she is getting fat so I am wondering if she should get back in the field today.

Any help is appreciated.

The possibilities are too numerous to list. Your description of apparent mental confusion and the situation suggest hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. While it can be a simple problem of utilizing glucose faster than the body can convert glycogen to glucose there are some potential underlying problems that can be manifested as hypoglycemia.

To manage hunting dog hypoglycemia feed a light high protein meal prior to hunting and carry a bottle of honey and give her a tablespoonful periodically.

A thorough physical and blood analysis should be done when you get home.

Don't rule out a seizure. I had a golden who had her first seizure at about 5 yrs. old. She would get a far away stare, her rear legs would go down, and she would lie on the floor approximately 2 minutes. No trembling, no urinating, nothing like that. When it was over, she would get up and walk away.

Ed A got it....we`ve had a few and carry gainesburgers and give small portions throughout the hunt.A little surprised tho it didn`t pop up sooner. Jim

(Assuming it's hypoglycemia and not a million other possibilities...)

Since I have one of those pesky jobs, our field work is limited to one day a week, weekend warrier stuff. I drive a million miles to the training area, train for 2 or 3 hours, often in wet and/or windy cold conditions, and drive a million miles back, usually with a wet dog. Dog comes in and out of van repeatedly as I do a set up, run her, set up, etc.

I bring several towels. I put a clean, dry towel on top of her foam crate mat at the start of the trip. If she's wet from swimming, I towel her off before she goes into her crate and exchange crate towels as they get wet. I bring a few sandwich bags half full of easy-to-digest goodies: pieces of lunch meat or hame, string cheese, vanilla wafers, that dog food that comes in rolls, etc.

I've never had her get hypothermic, but, on one of our first long club training days, when we spent too much time in wind and cold waiting in line, and she rode home on a damp crate mat, she had a case of cold tail. I try like heck to avoid that again.

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Originally Posted by PalouseDogs

(Assuming it's hypoglycemia and not a million other things

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Wow, that many? Guess I have to do some reading because I can only identify a handful. ;)

check her heart

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Originally Posted by EdA

The possibilities are too numerous to list. Your description of apparent mental confusion and the situation suggest hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. While it can be a simple problem of utilizing glucose faster than the body can convert glycogen to glucose there are some potential underlying problems that can be manifested as hypoglycemia.

To manage hunting dog hypoglycemia feed a light high protein meal prior to hunting and carry a bottle of honey and give her a tablespoonful periodically.

A thorough physical and blood analysis should be done when you get home.

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It's pretty handy to have a super experienced vet who has field trialed and hunted many retrievers over a few decades on retainer. No wait, Ed's does this for free, thats huge for those of us that are on RTF.

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Originally Posted by tripsteer1

check her heart

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Yep it could be cardiac, pulmonary, metabolic, endocrine, neurological, or genetic but when you are pheasant hunting in SD and this is a one time event play the odds. Don't overlook the obvious for the exotic until you have eliminated the obvious.

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Originally Posted by EdA

Wow, that many? Guess I have to do some reading because I can only identify a handful. ;)

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The hubster has told me a million times to stop exaggerating. ;)