If Your Bird Dog Is Hurt in the Field: Loss During Montana's Upland Season

For many families around Billings, fall means bird season. Pointers, setters, Labs and spaniels who have waited all summer finally get to do what they were bred for, working the coulees, CRP fields and creek bottoms of eastern Montana. Those days are some of the best a dog and a hunter can share.

They also take place far from roads, clinics and cell service. Most seasons pass without anything worse than burrs and sore paws. But every year, some hunting dogs are seriously injured or die in the field. If it happens to you, a little preparation can make a terrible day more manageable.

Before you go

• Know where the nearest veterinary clinics are along your route, and save their numbers in your phone, including any after-hours emergency line.
• Carry a basic canine first aid kit and know how to use it. Your veterinarian can suggest what to include.
• Bring extra water. Dehydration and overheating can still happen on warm early-season days.
• Keep a blanket or tarp in the truck. It can serve as a stretcher, a wrap for warmth, or a covering if needed.
• Let someone know where you plan to hunt and when you expect to return.

If your dog is seriously hurt

Stay as calm as you can; your dog will read your voice. Keep them still and warm, and be careful handling them, since even the gentlest dog may snap when in pain. If you can reach a veterinarian by phone, call for guidance while you get your dog to the truck. A coat or tarp carried between two people can move a large dog over rough ground.

We are not able to give medical advice, and every situation is different. The single most important step is usually getting your dog to a veterinarian as quickly and safely as you can.

When a dog dies in the field

Sometimes there is nothing that can be done: a sudden collapse, an accident, an injury that proves fatal before help can be reached. If your dog dies far from home, take a few moments. There is no need to hurry. Many hunters say they are glad they stopped, sat with their dog, and said goodbye there in the grass where the dog was happiest.

When you are ready, wrap your dog in a blanket or tarp and carry them to the truck. Cool fall temperatures give you a little time, but try to keep the body out of the sun and somewhere cool on the drive home. If you are far from Billings or staying out overnight, call us. We can help you think through the next steps.

Bringing them home

Once you are back, we can collect your dog from your home or your veterinarian's clinic, at any hour. Many hunting families choose private cremation, so that all of their dog's ashes come home and can later be scattered in a favorite field or kept close. Some keep a portion of the ashes and scatter the rest. If you plan to scatter on land you do not own, ask the landowner or the managing agency first.

Grieving a working partner

A bird dog is more than a pet. They are a partner in a shared passion, trained over years of early mornings and long drives. Losing one in the field can bring a tangle of feelings: grief, shock, and sometimes guilt about the risk of the work. Those feelings are normal. Your dog lived a life full of the thing they loved most.

Some hunters find comfort in returning to the place later, in keeping a collar or a whistle in the truck, or in telling stories about the best points and retrieves. However you choose to remember them, we are here to help families across Billings and the Yellowstone Valley, day or night.

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