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.
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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along the Allagash to eliminate rabies in the area, not sure if that's still done
