HUNTING Tragedy in S. Dakota pheasant season

Dozens of dogs died after hunting in unusually high heat.
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL STAR TRIBUNE
Along with limits of pheasants, many hunters departed South Dakota with heartaches last weekend.
Narrowly avoiding tragedy was Dr. Phifer Nicholson, whose Labrador, Jack, was one of perhaps hundreds of dogs felled by heatstroke in the unusually warm first days of the South Dakota pheasant-hunting season.
South Dakota veterinarians estimate that 100 or more hunting dogs died in temperatures that at times exceeded 80 degrees.
Proving deadly were the animals' heavy coats and inability to readily dispel body heat, combined with temperatures in grasslands and cornfields that were at times scorching.
Work til they drop
Additionally, South Dakota's abundant pheasants provided incentive enough for some dogs to work until they literally dropped.
"I was afraid we would have a rash of these cases, and I tried to warn hunters to keep their dogs' time in the field very short," said Dr. Woody Franklin of Brookings (S.D.) Animal Clinic, where one Labrador died.
Nicholson's dog avoided a similar fate, perhaps because of his owner's medical training. The 3-year-old Lab collapsed after 30 minutes in the field.
"Suddenly he began panting and staggered and fell," said Nicholson, a vascular surgeon. "His tongue turned a shade of purple and blue I'll never forget. My initial reaction was to run him to water, but when I picked him up he was so limp he couldn't breathe."
The pheasant opener annually draws 145,000 hunters and their well-trained dogs, whose values can exceed $10,000.
With the season open only 45 minutes, a Springer spaniel was carried by its owner into Dr. Eric Heath's office in Winner, S.D. The dog's temperature was 110 degrees -- about 8.5 degrees above normal.
"Actually, the dog's temperature might have been higher. But that's as far as my thermometer goes," Heath said. The dog was euthanized. Heath's clinic treated 12 dogs for heatstroke last weekend. Four died.
Overweight, out of shape
"The problem," said Dr. Sam Lukens, a Sioux Falls, S.D., veterinarian, "is that many of these dogs are overweight and out of shape. And even if they're not, for every mile a hunter walks, their dog might run three miles. That, combined with the higher temperatures . . . can mean trouble."
But the danger that heat stroke poses to dogs extends beyond an animal's initial collapse, veterinarians say.
"The after-care is very critical," said Dr. Jill Butkovich at an animal hospital in Mitchell, S.D., where two of eight dogs were treated last weekend for heatstroke died. "Nearly 100 percent of these dogs experience a variety of problems the following day, because nearly every organ of the body is affected."