Tactics
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January 15, 2025 •Connor Merritt
With hunting seasons in full swing, many gun dog owners have headed afield seeking game birds of various species. Gun dogs are bred to work hard under tough conditions, so a good canine first aid kit is important.
Kristina Mott is a central Wisconsin veterinarian who is also an avid hunter and dog breeder. Consequently, she’s well aware of just what can happen to dogs while in the field.
“Going without any preparation is not a good option,” Mott said. “It’s good to have kind of a full-service kit in the truck or car, then maybe a smaller option to take into the field.”
Since gun dog first aid kits are available commercially, Mott focuses on necessary items that are not included in most kits.
“On hairy dogs, the first thing that we do when a wound or puncture comes in is shave the hair away and clean the wound,” Mott said. “The last thing you need is all the hair and debris acting like a wick and getting stuck in there, bringing in infection and causing more infection.”
A battery-powered beard trimmer is the perfect tool for the outdoors, where clippers cannot be plugged in.
“Sometimes you just see one big puncture, and if you don’t get rid of the hair around it, you miss the little one next to it and it never gets cleaned,” Mott added.
“Toe injuries are one of the more common problems in the field,” Mott said. “Sometimes they’ll split up the side, so a big chunk is hanging or break off the whole toenail.”
Clip off whatever excess toenail might be hanging on and use a clotting powder like Quick Stop or others to stop the bleeding. “In a pinch if you don’t have Quick Stop powder, corn starch will also work on a toenail if you pack it into the nail bed to help clot it,” Mott said.
Mott added that most such problems can be avoided by regular trimming.
Mott said: “I always tell people, if you need to put cheaters on to read a menu in a restaurant, throwing an extra set in the first aid kit is important. Knowing what you’re looking at and being able to get a good assessment so you can make the best choice for your dog is critical. It sounds like a foolish thing, but everybody who has put them in their kit has thanked me because they used them.”
Sometimes hunting dogs will have seizures from hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. It’s a good idea to keep some honey or Karo syrup on hand for the dog to absorb through their gums or mucus membranes.
Mott said, “the nice thing about that is if the seizure was caused from something else, you’re not going to hurt them by giving them that.”
“An antibiotic ophthalmic ointment is safe to use for pretty much any eye problem,” Mott said. “It will treat things like corneal ulcers, mild conjunctivitis and that sort of thing. It might not always be the right answer, but definitely the safe answer.”
Mott warns against using any kind of steroidal eye medication without prior veterinary diagnosis. You’ll need a prescription for the eye ointment, so consult your veterinarian to stock it in your gun dog first aid kit.
Another good eye-related item to have is saline solution, which can be used to wash debris out of eyes after hunts. An inexpensive saline solution used for contact lenses is fine.
“This is good used post-hunt up on the tailgate to flush their eyes out and get any seed heads or grass pieces or anything like that out of their eyes to avoid foreign bodies in their eyes,” Mott said.
Saline solution is also handy to have around to clean cuts, scrapes or punctures. “Those big bottles of saline flush have a nozzle top that you can actually squeeze the bottle and get some pressure,” Mott said. “So, you can use that to flush out a wound to get any dirt or debris out of it.”