(EP:35) Marsh Foot & Keeping An Eye On Your Dog In & Around the Marsh with Jeff Christensen

In this episode I sit down with Jeff Christensen and talk about his experience in the marsh with his dog Sage. She got "Marsh Foot" and it almost took her life. Listen in on things and how to watch out for and keep an eye out for this infection that seems to be getting more popular. Enjoy! 

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I like the whitening shampoo if you have a white dog in any shape or form. It really makes the white pop and does an awesome job. The paw balm is good stuff for sore feet and pads.  

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Transcript

Tyce: 0:35

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Bird Dog Podcast. My name is Ty Erickson. I will be your host. Uh, I give you a little background on me if you're new to the podcast. I've been training gun dogs professionally for the last 15 years. I do this day in and day out. I got a small team that helps me and we train everything from waterfowl to upland dogs and everything in between. We do obedience training also, but my passion and love for um. Yeah, for this has always been a good bird dog. Um, that's why it's called the Bird Dog Podcast. I love hunting. I, I've hunted with dogs ever since I was a, uh, you know, a young kid and had dogs ever since then. And now I train gun dogs professionally and for a living. We, we do this, uh, you know, ev every day. So, um, all these things we talk about in the podcast are from my. Personal experiences and training dogs. And, uh, not saying everything I do is the, the only way out there, but hopefully you guys listen to this podcast and give you some information that can help you guys out be a better dog owner, a better dog handler, and just, uh, and just give you guys some good, insightful information. Um, in this podcast, I sit down with a past client, Jeff Christensen. He's just a good, uh. Good guy, just, uh, cream of the crop type type of guy. Just, uh, um, and he loves, um, dogs. He has a couple black labs that we train for him. Uh, super passionate. And, uh, he had an experience with his dog where it's foot, um, got injured out in the marsh. And so in this podcast we sit down and talk about that experience and talk about dogs and, um, hopeful. Hopefully I can say you guys can ream some good information from that. Um. In the show notes, if you guys can jump on there and help us out, we'd like to talk, um, mention just nda, dog beds. Um, we use nda, the anodized aluminum, uh, heavy duty, heavy duty vinyl dog caught in many of our kennels. And, um, so if you're looking for a d good dog caught that you can do place work or have your dog just Elaine, LL. Hang out, lay around my words. I'm struggling here. Um, they can just lay around the house or a place for them to go onto. Check out Corona to dog beds and if you copy the link and put it into your browser and then go through there. I. And, and, and buy a cot. That's, it gives us a little kickback and helps us out and, uh, takes a lot of time to set up these shows to edit'em and, um, and hosting fees and all that. So that really helps us out. If you guys do need a cot and you buy one through there, we really appreciate that. Also, we're gonna have a, a link on there for All American Canine. They're a new partner with our, with us, and then they make some phenomenal product, um, really good ingredients and quality stuff in there. Um, they have some ALM in there that I would recommend, uh, especially with this podcast. We're gonna be talking about healthcare of feet for the dogs. We're gonna talk about that in there. And that foot balm really helps, uh, keep the pads, uh, moisturized. And especially if you're upland hunters that are gonna be out there putting a lot of wear and tear on your dog's feet. In the upland field or chucker hunters, uh, you know, that can be really hard on pads. So check out that, uh, all American canine again, we're gonna have another link in there if you can copy that link and go put that in your browser. Um, that helps us out to, um, keep producing this show. So. Appreciate you guys. Hope you're having a good summer and you're getting your dogs out, keeping'em conditioned. You're getting trained, getting the training done. Uh, you know, this is, this is the go time. This is where, you know, the, this fall, the time you put in now is really gonna pay those dividends. Your dog's, um, you're gonna get those dividends back working your dog. Now, when you take your dog hunting this fall, uh, dog training is very incremental. It needs that daily repetition where you're getting that dog out, you're putting a little more on, put a little more layer on the dog, a little more layer, little layer, little layer until, um, you know, you have your finished product and a dog that you can go out and hunt and you can enjoy. And so if you, if you skip out on that. That groundwork or that all that training in advance and you take your dog out hunting, that's where you're gonna have those breakdowns. So, you know, we got four to six months out from when the hunts are gonna be starting again. So don't, don't slack on that. You're gonna have nice, the water things are starting to warm up, so you're gonna have good water conditions. We can do a lot of water work and get your dog really a lot of practice with that. And, uh, you know, for, for us it's a year round thing. It's not just, uh, not only summer, but you know, you're, you're training also in the fall, young dogs are gonna be ready for the next fall or vice versa. Or you're running your dog for hunt tests. So you need to come outta hunting season and, you know, try to maintain standards during the hunting season. But then when you bring your dog into the spring, that's usually when your hunt tests are gonna happen. If you are into hunt testing or field trialing your dog, you're gonna want to. Have your get. Jump right into that and start training for that. And then once hunt test season or field, trial season is over. Whatever you're doing now, you're prepping the dog for hunting season or the dog is maybe through that prepping for that hunt test season and field trials. Your dog now is ready for the hunting season. And maybe now it's just a slight transition of showing your dog how you hunt. So I know that was a little long introduction, but. Um, just wanna kind of put that in your ear and, uh, man, it's so fun working with these dogs. So hope you guys enjoy the show as I sit down and talk with Jeff about Marsh Foot and, and his experience that happened with his Black Lab, Sage, and, uh, thanks for listening. Have a great day. Alright folks. Welcome to the podcast. I got my good friend Jeff Christensen on the podcast with me today. Um. He had an experience with this dog that we're gonna dive into here in a little bit, um, that happened out in the marsh with its foot, and it was something I. Personally haven't experienced. And so I wanted to get Jeff on the line when he talked, uh, about his dog having this issue with its foot while it happened out hunting. And so if any of you guys encounter similar, a similar situation with your dog that hopefully you can know how to address that and kind of how to move forward and how to get your dog. Um, healed up. So, um, that's kind of a brief overview of what we're gonna talk about here. So hopefully this will be informational, it'll help you guys out, um, with with your personal dog. So, hey Jeff. Thanks for coming on the podcast. It's gonna be fun talking with you. Hey, thanks Ty, for having me on. I appreciate it. Hey, so it's just so our listeners can, uh, why don't you give us a background how, maybe, uh, let's first talk about how, how we met. Why don't you give us a overview on that? Yeah, for sure. Um, so maybe you can remember how member of the year is better than me too. So how long, how long it's been? Well, it's, it's been about, uh, let's see, 11 years, I guess. I. I got a dog from Jared Matson down there in St. George and mm-hmm. Um, that, that dog, li, Lily, and, uh. He's the one that suggested that I get ahold of you. I was asking him about training and That's right. So I guess that's been about, yeah, that's been about 11 years ago. That was one of them. Gunner gypsy dogs and yeah. Um, oh, she's been great. I put a master hunter on, put a master hunter on that gunner dog, and I can't remember what gypsy, I think I just put a junior hunter on her or something like that. But anyhow, yeah, you put, you got a, the A PLA. Title for Lily as well. Did we just do the CPR title on her? Is that what we did? We did, we did because she ended up getting a, like a, a uterus infection, I think. I can't remember. It was Pyometra. Pyometra. Pyometra. He did, yeah. I didn't, I don't know if I realize that. That's a bummer. Short. Yeah, shortly after she got that, that title. So, you know, I had to get her spa and stuff. So yeah. Pyometra folks, if you guys don't know, um. That's something since we're, this is, this podcast can be a little bit about health of the animals. Pyometra is where the female, I don't, they somehow, they get a little bacteria or something up into their body and it gets up into the uterus and cause an infection and basically the female needs to be spayed, um, or the dog will die. It's just, it's kind of one of those things. It's almost like they go septic and. According to my understanding and knowledge. If there's any vets out there that say, I'm, I'm wrong on the exact details, uh, please reach out and let me know. But, um, we've had one dog with a pyometra first time that ever happened, and that was a bummer too. But I. Um, you know, some, and I actually know another client that just, um, wasn't a dog we had trained, um, but it was, I just ran him, ran into him at the Western Hunting Expo and he actually lost a dog from Pyometra. Um, so you gotta kind of be around you. Obviously if you're around your dog, you should know, but at least, and Jeff, maybe you can tell me your, um, experience too. But my female, she just started acting kind of lethargic and not herself. And, and I was like, ah, something's going on. You know, and dogs just aren't. Themselves just like humans when we get six, you know, it's good to get'em checked out and try to figure out what's going on, but, um, but we had our, I had to have my female spayed. What did, what was your experience with that? Yeah, my experience with that was, um, I guess she was, she must have been about two years old. She'd had a, you know, a few heat cycles and stuff. And we, we had moved, I lived up in, uh, west Haven area and. We had moved down in the Salt Lake Valley here, and my wife, Julie, her, her cousin, he's a vet in California and he was there visiting and I'm, I'm really grateful that he was there because she was starting to act kinda sick and I remember right. I think he saw, maybe he saw some kind of discharge or something, or he, something he recognized that wasn't right there and then, um, yeah, she started. Really rapidly getting sick, like lethargic and stuff. And, and he's like, Hey, you gotta get this dog in. And so yeah, with just in a matter a day or so, she was in the vet and getting spayed. Do you remember, is it, I can't even remember my, I wasn't too long ago in that female half, probably a year and a half ago. Did they, do they do blood work? I think they checked the white is the white blood cell count. They check or I can't remember how they. Diagnose that, but it seemed like it was a fairly easy diagnosis. They're like, oh yeah, this is what's happened, or, yeah, I, like I said, I was, I was lucky to have him around and then so when I, I went into the vet, um, I, whatever he recognized, I'd have to talk to him, but whatever, whatever Julie's cousin recognized, um, I, I brought that to the vet, you know, and I don't remember, or back then. Yeah, they might have done some, they, I'm sure they did do some kind of test or something. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So, yeah. And then Lily, how old's Lily now, you know, she is, uh, or, well, she's 11, so I guess that, oh, 11, I guess it was 10 years. 10, yeah, 10 years ago. She'll be 11 this month. So, and tell me about her cancer stuff, what they recommended or she had going on with that. Yeah, this is another crazy story. Kinda see, two years ago she had, it was right after we, you know, like October November we'd been out, uh, feather hunting a couple of times. Mm-hmm. And she had the door form form up on above her shoulder blades. And I was like, yeah, maybe she got cut on the fence. And we kind of, it kind of festered up a little bit and we treated it and, uh. Just at home here, you know? Mm-hmm. Stuff kept, kept, it cleaned out and everything and it just never got better and never got better. So how big was the, so, oh, I would say was just like, it got to be where it was big around as a quarter, but it, it festered up and then it would leak out, you know? And Hmm. Just a circular shape. Uhhuh. Yep. Okay. And it was kind of hard feeling. And so I took her, I really just thought she got cut up going under a fence or something. Sure. She's a hard hunting dog. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I took her in, um, to the vet and they, they just treated it with antibiotic and said, oh yeah, this just an infection or whatever, and well just never went away and never went away. So I took her back and they did a biopsy of it, and they came back and said, well, we need to, we need to remove this. It's. If it's cancerous and we'll do the best we can do. And they ended up sending the stuff off to the pathology and everything and it came back and it was, uh, they have the paperwork, it says something like MAs cell cancer. And they, they told me that, well, we hope we got it all, but if we didn't it, she probably only has one to four months to live. Hmm. That was two years ago. And she's still. Still going. She hunted with me a couple times. Yeah. Hunted with me a couple times this year. Well, we just boarded her. Yeah. The other day. She actually looked pretty good too, I thought. Yeah, she looks great. Yeah. Yeah. Very 11-year-old. She's doing good. Yeah. My three, my 3-year-old pup sage, she has a more gray face than Lily does, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of interesting. Yeah. So well tell and then, so yeah, so we, so we trained Lily years ago and put some titles on her and then Sage, you, you wanna tell, tell her about, tell him about Sage so I'm not talking that time. Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. Sage. Sage is a dog that I got from Ty. Um, uh, she's a, she's a pup from his dog river. Mm-hmm. And I, I guess Li Lily was about six or seven years old and. At the time, maybe it will see stages three and a half. So I started realizing, well, I need to get another dog, you know? And, uh, so I, you know, knowing how Tyson's operation works and how he works and his honesty and his just a good, good nature. Or, I gave him a call and asked him if he had any pups and he happened to have some, and, uh, out of this river dog and I, I, I've seen that river before and everything. Mm-hmm. And so I was super excited about that. Yeah. Uh, it's a master hunter grand Master pointer retriever. She's a good dog. Yeah. Yeah. Did I tell you I lost her? She passed away. I don't know if you knew that or not. No. Mom passed away. Yeah. Yeah, she made it. She was, she was 12 and a half. I lost her a little earlier than I was hoping, but'cause her mom lived at 13 and a half. But yeah, she just, all of a sudden she was doing pretty good. I mean, she was pretty arthritic, you know, she'd hunted hard and stuff her life. Yeah. But. Then she kind of went downhill just real quick. But anyhow, that was, that was, that was a bummer. You never realize how attached are these dogs until they pass away to a point. Then you cry like a baby over'em. So I know when we, like that, Lily, when we found out she had that cancer, you know, we, we were, it's all, all, all, she's our family dog as well, you know? Mm-hmm. So, yeah, my wife and my daughter, we have, we've been, every time she like. You know how labs are or whatever, they'll eat whatever. And anytime she's ever picked up anything, got a sick stomach or anything, we're like, oh my gosh. You know what? Mm-hmm. Is this the end? You know, this it, you know? So, yeah. I understand. I understand. That keeps going. That's good. She's still still going strong, so Well, tell me, tell me about, oh, go ahead. You go ahead. Well, I was just saying, I keep going back and forth here, but yeah, I'll get staged. So we got sage from Ty and then. We sent, sent, uh, Sage back to you to train and I think you had her for three or four months, and then she came home and, um, you know, we did all the hunting and all that kinda stuff. And then, uh, that next year, and then I just like, you know what, I, I need a dog that I can direct out in the marsh. I hunt ducks quite a bit and stuff, so. Mm-hmm. Uh, my, my buddy has an airboat, so we weigh out in there. I am tired of chasing down three or four ducks and not up to my knees, you know? Mm-hmm. So we sent her back to you and, and got the advanced training and man, it's been great. So yeah. Yeah. Say, uh, Lily, we didn't do the handling work right. Just did more of the marking dog and the pointing stuff. She's a pointing loud, right. Juice. We didn't manage that. Oh, we didn't, we didn't get up into that upper handling stuff, but it's been, uh, has it been pretty fun with Sage having a dog? It's nice to have that handling once you have that, huh? Oh yeah. It just makes it so much Well, it's just so much more fun if that's even possible, you know? Well, it's, it's teamwork, which is cool'cause you're actually handling or guiding the dog and the dog's listening to you. You know, and you'll be able to point it and assist it and guide it to down Bird. So it's a lot of fun where. You know, the training, what we call our foundation level, it's, it still gives you a hunting dog, but it's more of a marking dog. Like, Hey, you wanna put the dog in a spot where you can see the bird go down, you know, and, and then you can send the dog out to go make the retrieve or obviously upland game, they're gonna do your upland for you. But as from in a waterfowl standpoint, you get'em up to that senior hunter master type level where they're handling and doing all that stuff. It's, it's, it's just, it's kind of different ball game. It's just, it's once you learn how to handle'em and. Stuff and you feel pretty comfortable with it. It's pretty, pretty dang fun. So, yeah, I, I mentioned that I do a lot of, uh, duck hunting, but I also just to get my dogs out, I usually buy, you know, 50 or so 60 birds a year from, I go up to Cash Valley to this guy r Rigby Ranch. I don't know if you've ever heard of that place, but mm-hmm. I go up there and buy, buy pheasants from him every year, and he'll just let me come up. I can, I can take anybody I want or I can just ask him to put out 10 birds or whatever. That's cool. Yeah, and go up several, several times a year. But in that handling stuff, since I gotten sage, man, it's been great for that too because you know, she's, I. You know, she's crazy. She has some energy. She's, you know, yeah. Tons of energy and, uh, it's really nice to be able to whistle stop her, you know, or mm-hmm. Uh, have a couple, couple of friends that go with me and we shoot two or three birds at a time. It's, it's nice to be able to. Or on the peasants even, you know, so, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You can, or you shoot'em down across, into the water or out across the, a, a ditch or something like that. Yeah. I mean, any, anytime you need to guide the dog from point A to point B and assist them or guide them to something they don't know is there, or what, you know, a bird that they don't know is there. It's just nice to have that. So, so Jeff, tell me. I know we've known each other for a long time, but I don't know if I know your whole hunting background. And pretty commonly, I like to just, it's fun to hear where people got into hunting, if it was, you know, we've had some, we've had some people on here that they're late to the game when it comes to hunting, and then people that are, you know, they're born and raised doing it. What's your background on that? Yeah, I, so I, I grew up in Idaho Falls, so I, I lived in falls till I was 30 and then. Moved down this area, but I grew up in Auto Falls and that's, we just grew up doing that. My, my grandpa was big into it and my dad, my dad did it too, but he, I don't think my dad loved it as much. You know, I think he just did it.'cause we love, I loved it. Mm-hmm. And, uh, but yeah, I, I grew up hunting big game and, and hunting birds and all that kinda stuff. Um, I think they got my first dog. I got a chocolate lab. Oh, I was in high school, I guess. Okay. And I mean, we always had dogs growing up and stuff, but my first lab, uh, chocolate lab I got in high school. And then were these hunting dogs that you had growing up, or, or were they just kind of pet or pets or what did you have going on there? Well, well, they were just more pets, but, um, and you try to take money. We did have a, yeah, we had a cocker spaniel. That actually wasn't too bad to be honest with you. Mm-hmm. But at least I, at least I thought he wasn't too bad. But sure. Now that I've got into to high, high, you know, high end dogs and stuff, it's not even comparable. But yeah, I think a lot of time back in the day, um. I don't know. I mean, that's how I was, my dad was busy, had seven kids raising us and you know, we had these springer spaniels that didn't really get the time and, you know, and or you know, pe a lot of people just, I dunno, they, they take the dog out hunting and hope the dog kind of. Figures it out, you know, type thing is I think an old, old rule, you know? And it was before ECOS and all this really good training equipment. And so just kind of take the dog out and hope they're not gun shy and hopefully they, you bump a bird or two up and they shoot'em down and then the dog smells'em, and then they start kinda piecing the game together, which they can. And that's kind of how I think sometimes. Back in the day. I mean, there's been dog trainers for a long time too, but I think a lot of people, you know, before social media or before internet is hard to find, maybe trainers and you don't know. And so you just kinda get a dog and take it out hunting and see what happened. You know? And I know we had some of those, uh, growing up, you know, in my family. So, yeah. Well, it was. Yeah, I mean, you know, you'd get on the, in the newspaper and try to find you a dog, a a KT register dog, you know, that's how I got my, my, my first couple and my, my first one was pretty horrible, to be honest with you, my first lab. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and of course I was pretty horrible as well. I didn't know what anything and just didn't have drive or When you say horrible or just annoying personality or what, what was. All of the above or you know, yeah, this, this thing, she had drive, but you'd let her out of the kennel, outta the back of the truck, and she was just gone. You know? Just so, but I, I, like I said, mostly, it was probably mostly my fault. Like I didn't what I was doing and Yeah. So, yeah. That, that dog wasted with me and all that too. Mm-hmm. I ended up finding a nice yellow lab. Got a puppy. I think I was a senior in high school, and you know, that next year I was outta high school and they, I used to do a lot of jump shooting and stuff up there. Mm-hmm. She, she got to where she was. She was, she just from her learning nothing probably I did, but she just, she was awesome with that. And we had a guitar and shot a lot of ducks. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Was there one? Was there one? Cir? Um, I always ask this question'cause there's sometimes with people, there's this one experience that really hooks you, you know, where you really get hooked into bird hunting or, you know, our big game. But we're obviously, we're talking about, you know, dogs and bird hunting on this podcast right now. But, um, was there one circumstance you can think of, like maybe when you shot your first duck or your first rooster that you're like. It kind of clicked for you. I'm like, this is awesome. Like, I love this. Can you, is there a time you can think of something like that or your first duck eject shot or something? I don't know. Tell us, tell us that story. I always enjoy hearing that. Yeah, I can, I can think of that right off the bat. Um. W we, we lived out east of Idaho Falls, so there was, at the time, I mean, there's a lot of houses there and stuff now, a lot of development, but mm-hmm. At the time I, I could leave my house on my bike and go take my gun. It wasn't even a big deal. Go walk some fields and people didn't care and Yeah. Or walk down some old railroad trucks that we used to go down all the time. But anyway, uh, I remember this was. Uh, probably actually before I got a dog, you know, and so I mm-hmm. We'd take off and go out there and I just remember that the big rooster getting up and I actually, most of the time I'd shoot and miss, but I actually, the first time I shot one and, uh, it was like euphoria, you know? I was just so excited. And, uh, I was probably 13 or so, 12, maybe. Mm-hmm. Just looking that bird and how beautiful it was and Oh. Mm-hmm. And I, I was just hooked. You know, like, that's, that's all I could think of. I can, I can remember sitting in the junior high high school and it across the street were fields. Mm-hmm. And I occasionally, occasionally could see a pheasant out there. And that's all I would think about. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh. I remember sitting there looking out the window, being, getting in trouble by my teachers or whatnot because it So you're daydreaming thinking about Rooster, so, well, I think you're, I think you're like, you're in, you're in a like-minded company because that's how I was too. It's like, when can I get to the marsh? When can I go hunt a hunt chuckers, when can I go pheasant hunt? You know, it's like, it just, I just long to be. Out there. And when they added the dog to it was that much more exciting, you know? So, oh yeah. What about, uh, duck hunting? Was there a time you're hooked on ducks or was there anything that's, that you remember your first duck or anything like that? Yeah, my, um, grandparents lived in a community called Roberts, Idaho, and it's about 15, 20 miles north of Idaho Falls and there's a lot out. Marsh and Snake River ran up through there and everything and mm-hmm. And, uh, yeah, it would. Once I was able, uh, back then, if you can believe it or not, we, we got our driver's license when we were 14 up there. I know Utah boys were always jealous of you guys. Those kids in Idaho are driving. They're 14. We, we, we gotta wait till we're 16. I, I know my daughter, I would never let her just take off when you go drive. But I don't know what my parents were thinking, but. I, uh, yeah, I had an old pickup and I would, I, I could drive a 14 and I'd go up and visit my grandparents and take my shotgun and go up there and, you know, find a, find a ditch or something, and. Some fields or something and just go jump sheet ducks and Yeah, man, I, I really love jump shooting ducks. Yeah, it is, it is, it is pretty fun. And you come right up on'em, there's a big rush. You know, there's the, the whole flock just erupts right in front of you. It's, it's kind of shooting fish in a barrel, but it's fun. It's fun too, when you could just boom, boom, boom, just pick out the Drakes, you know, especially if you come out right on top of'em, they're just like, you know, they're just rising up and it's. I mean, they're fast. It's amazing how fast they can get out of there, but it's, it is fun. Yeah. I enjoy some good jump shooting here and there too. I'm not above it. Some people are kind of a like, oh, I'm, it's kind of all, you jump shoot kind of a holier, holier than thou attitude. Like, I only decoy or whatever. You know? Like, dude, I don't care. Like for me it's half getting the dog out and getting'em on birds and walking in the field and everything, you know? Yeah, that's, that's how I was. And of course I don't do much jump shooting now'cause I, I said the guy I hunt with all the time, he had a, uh, jet, uh, an air bolt and mm-hmm. We, we, we both, I work at the copper mine here, so we have a lot of days off during the week and just to, for good scenario for that. And we just go out in the, the martial lot and yeah, he's got, he's got dog, he's got dogs as well. So yeah, it's a. That's, that's what I do now. Never hurts to have a good, a buddy with an airboat. Nope. He he's a good one too. Good guy. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's cool. Well, that's fun, man. Um, tell you have kids, I can't remember your age of your kids. How many, how many kids do you have and what are they? I, I just have one here at home. I just have one here at home and she's fi she's, she'll be 16. Coming up here. And do any of your kids hunt too, or? I can't remember if they hunted. You know, she's, she's our only child. Oh, is she? You only have the one. Okay. Yeah. I couldn't remember. Yep, yep. And she, she, uh, she's been out with me a few times. Not, she doesn't love it at all. Yeah. Which she's not hooked. Like Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. No. Makes the world go around. She's, uh. She has her stuff. She's big into softball and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Well, you never know. Down the road, some maybe, you know, maybe she'll wanna, A lot of women like to go out and just hunt for the dog, you know, to see the dogs and some of'em get hurt that way. Like, oh, I love my dogs, so I just want to go out. And sometimes they'll go, but I mean, there's some hardcore women hunters too, but there's, you know, I don't just like, there's some hardcore guy hunters and not too so. Yeah. Yeah, she definitely, she definitely loves the dogs and all that kinda stuff, but she, she doesn't, she, yeah, she doesn't, she'll go out shooting with me and stuff, but she doesn't love hunting, so, yeah. Not yet anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, she's, when does she turn? 16? Uh, July. Okay. So she's the same age as my oldest daughter too. Then, so my daughter turns 16, the end of June. So, and same thing, she'd kind of go with me when she was younger. She's actually killed an elk and deer. My daughter has, but Oh yeah. But I wouldn't say she, she doesn't like, Hey dad, when are the draws? When are we gonna put in, when are, you know, she doesn't really like bird hunting. Um, I took her out Turkey hunting a few times and she, she actually missed a bunch when she was younger and I couldn't figure it out. But she was left eye dominant. And so when she looked down the shotgun barrel, she was always aiming like. Two or three feet to the side of the target, you know? So he called this big bird one time. I'm like, all this thing's dead. Boom. I'm like, what in the heck? Like we're shooting a shotgun here and then had a couple more boom. And so I said, all right. Okay, aim. And I went home and I took some cardboard out or something, put it up. I said, shoot at that dot right there, you know, sure enough, boom, she shoots, she hits her pattern's hitting to the left, or I think it was left or right or something. And anyways, come find out. She was, yeah, so a rifle, she's having an issue'cause she closes her left eye and looks through the scope, you know? Oh yeah. So she, she's fine, but naturally, um. Yeah, naturally she just was missing things. So I think that that didn't help her, um, you know, put birds in the bag. And I don't know if that she got frustrated. She's like, I don't know. I can't hit'em. You know, so anyhow. Yeah. That's, that's cool. They're all, they're right about the same age there. Um, yeah. Okay. Well let's talk about, I want to get into, um, was it was Sage or Lily that had the foot thing. It was, it was Sage. It was sage. Okay. That's what I thought, but I couldn't remember for sure. So, um, so Jeff had texted me, how long ago was that when you texted me? Asked if I'd overheard of that. Uh, it was probably, it was in December, so 4, 3, 4 months ago. Four months ago, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he texted me if I'd ever heard anything. And I think, did you say it was Marsh Foot at that time or? Yeah. Yeah. I, I found out, uh, that's what the vet called her. I, I had no idea what it was called to begin with, but Okay. I, uh, the day she got injured, I took her to the vet right away the next morning. So kind of walk us through it, what happened and Yeah. What the story behind it and kind of everything, if you don't mind. Yeah. We were, my, my buddy and I with the, the, the good buddy with the airboats, excuse me. We were, uh, on one of our trips, and I, I don't, I've only had her back from u from she'd had that advanced training. I, I picked her up in November from U so I'd only had her back for a month or so and mm-hmm. I'd had her out on a, a few hunts and she was doing great. And, um, we, we went out, we went out way out in the marsh. We were way out there, um, set up first we thought was gonna be a good mallard shoot. You know, there was actually, if I remember, there was actually a really good flow of water through there, um, and all that kinda stuff. So we, we had thought about, well, let me back up a little bit. We, we got set up, um, we set up our blind and everything, and I have one of those mo Marsh dog stands. Mm-hmm. The final stand did have the cover or the, just the open one? No, it was just the open one. Yeah. The final stand. Mm-hmm. And, uh. Yeah, it, and it was just, it was a nice day out and everything, and I kind of put the stand kinda back behind us a little bit, um, back behind our blinds where she could see us, but, and still see the birds and stuff, and. She, she hunted all day. We had a great shoot. Um, it wasn't like a fast and furious type shoot. We were out there for a few hours and mm-hmm. She, she picked up all of our birds. We ended up, you know, um, filling up our limits. And at the very end of the day, I noticed that her foot was just really swelled up. And I was like, holy cow, you must have. Stepped on something and cut it or something and mm-hmm. She'd been out in that, out in that mud and stuff all day, you know, and just, anyway, by the time we got everything picked up and within, no, the time it took for me to notice that and like a couple hours mm-hmm. She was starting to get, get sick. Like she was just not her, not herself. And, uh, it was a pretty good drive back home until, until I acting lethargic or, or what was the, what were the symptoms of shaking? Well, she wasn't to that, she wasn't to that point yet, but I could just tell she was, wasn't feeling good. Slower, but slower than she was and I thought, well, maybe she's just tired, you know? Yeah, of course. I got, I had a first aid kit at back of the truck and we finally got back there and I. Cleaned it all up and everything, and I could tell that she, she'd cut it up pretty good. Um, I had no idea on what, and so tell me what they cut. Was it like between her toes on the bottom of her pad, or what did you, what did you see exactly there? Yeah, once I got in there, it was, uh, on one she actually had on a couple feet, but on one of her feet. It was between the pad and like, she had obviously stepped on like a piece of frag or something that went up in her foot. Mm-hmm. Okay. And it was, it was a pretty good hole. Just like a puncture wound hole type thing. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep. And when the swelling from her foot got really big, and I bet you up her leg and up through her, um, elbow. It was, it got to be about a, by that night, it was as big around as my wrist. Oh, wow. Just really swollen, really badly. Mm-hmm. On our way home from the trip, I called the vet and said, Hey, could I get her in for thing in the morning? You know, and so I, I got her through the night and woke up and she was so lethargic and mm-hmm. They were hardly standing up or. Anything. So I rushed her over there. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty scary. Hmm. Pretty scary stuff. So, what'd the, what'd the vet say when you Yeah, tell us, tell us what the vet say and what their, the prognosis was, or diagnosis or whatever. Yeah, so I got her over there, um, to the vet and, uh, he took one look at it and he said, you know, I've seen this a couple of times and it's called, uh, marsh Foot and. He asked me if I'd been out in that frag and stuff, and I said, yeah. And he said that the frag has little, kind, little tiny, uh, microscopic, maybe almost like razor blades kind of on it. Mm-hmm. And, uh, it kind of probably cut up her foot and then went up inside of her and he said that it usually causes all that mud gets up in there and causes a sta infection Hmm. Is what he originally, originally told me. Um, it. It was just horrible. And, and by by, oh, by the way, by the next day, um, her pads and stuff on her foot were starting to blister. She had blisters on them and stuff. It was really weird. Wow. Hmm. Yeah. So they immediately, they, they got up in there, you know, they, they sedated her and got up in there and cut it all out and they just had these open wound to let'em drain out. And did they find any frag or any, any foreign foreign objects in there or, or was it just more like it kind of knifed or, you know, kind of went up boom and came back out? Or would, did they say they found anything? No. Yeah, he said that, um, he did find stuff, like pieces of stuff up in there, but. But the worst part he said was like, had a, a bunch of mud and stuff packed up in there. Hmm. Okay. And yeah, so he got that all cleaned out and everything and she wore that, that cone of shame for I don't week weeks. But um, after about a week on the antibiotics, her do remember antibiotic? They put her on by chance? Oh, I'd have to look. Um. She was on a couple of different ones and I, I'd have to look guys and, um, I don't remember the names. Okay. So, um, they put her on this antibiotic and after about a week it started kind of getting better, but then the one, the worst foot just kind of blew up again. Hmm, this isn't good. So I ran her back over there and he's like, well, I wanna make sure she's on the right antibiotic. And so. They, they run the pathology on it. Of course, me, I'm like, uh, you know, you just wanna do more tests and stuff. But they, they, they ran a, the pathology on that and it actually came back as some, something I'm not, I wasn't really familiar with, but it wasn't the staph infection at all. It was called, no, uh, a bacterial infection called Nocardia. Okay. I dunno if you've ever heard of that. I haven't heard of that one or not. Mm. And, uh. I guess, yeah. It's something that can be pretty serious. And in fact, he said probably if he hadn't got her in here within a day or two, she probably would've made it. Hmm. So they, they ended up getting her on the right antibiotics, but she had to be on those antibiotics for six weeks. Oh, wow. Probably a pretty heavy dosage, I imagine. Yep, yep, yep. And so, yeah, that whatever that nocardia infection was. It was really bad, so. Hmm. So did she, so the one, the one leg Reese re swelled back up the other one you said what? So was it on her front pads, both her front feet or back feet or she had cuts on all of'em, or what did you see there? It, it was on, it was on her two front feet. Her two front feet. Yeah. And yeah, but the, the worst, the worst one definitely was on her. Left side on the front foot. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. The other one seemed to go up. He just said that other antibiotic, that other antibiotic, we were on the, the nocardia had some resistance to it so that that one, the one foot was so bad that it just kind of overpowered or whatever, the antibiotic, and so the one side kind of healed up, but the other side, it needed that. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah, I think that's uh, um, so any overtime just on that heavy antibiotics, she seemed to, that you seemed to kick the infection and she ended up making a full recovery, right? Yeah. She had to go back in one more time in between there somewhere, get it cut open again and drained again. Mm-hmm. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. Just to make sure it was completely cleaned out. Good. Hmm. It was pretty, it was a pretty serious thing, man. We were pretty worried about it for a while. Yeah, she didn't, he didn't finish up the duck season too well. But, um. Glad that she's all built up do. Yeah. Well that frag, if you got, if, uh, people that aren't listening and if you're here in Utah or maybe some of the neighboring states, um, and I think it's kind of a, it's a, it's a invasive plant that I. I'm not sure where it came from exactly. I think it was Asia or, or something, I believe. Um, I think it was brought in as a house plan or something, but it is just invasive as heck and the state's spending thousand, millions of dollars. I, I'm pretty sure, I don't think that's an understatement of trying to control this stuff. It gets in every waterway and it, and the bad thing about that frag is it spreads through the seed head and also underneath the root system. So. You gotta spray it and till it and, and it just, and if it's the ground's just a little bit wet, that stuff can, it just spreads like wildfire. So. I mean, a lot of the hunting duck clubs around here, and it just, and when it grows, it grows in so thick. It's kind of like bamboo almost. Right? It's kinda like this, like a, a smaller version of bamboo, like that woody stalk. And so what I've found. Two, you know, I've never had that experience at the Marshal. I have had dogs cut their feet on it, but it gets broken off, you know, and so you can imagine kind of, if people haven't seen it, but it's about, I dunno, the diameter of a pencil, I would say, you know? And then you break that off and you have a hollow pencil sitting there that's under the water broken. And your dog goes charging out, running through that. And those, it's gonna. And it has the possibility to put those, you know, if it's sharp on one side, splinter right up into the dog's foot. And I mean, I've even had to poke holes in waders and stuff like that, you know, so, um, so it can, it can be pretty nasty stuff. Yeah, for sure. Um, yeah, it's. I learned a good lesson on that. You know, we were looking more like, I think I mentioned a little bit ago that we, we were in a pretty good area that had a pretty good flow and we didn't think there would be, we're always concerned about stuff being in the water, you know, the mud underneath the mud. But this was a really good flow. Like it was a good, mm-hmm. Good place to set up. And there's some good feed there, some just off to the edge there. I remember there was some of that. Uh oh, what's that stuff Look a little. Seed pods on it. The duck seed. So yeah, the duck weed. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, there, there was just some good, good stuff and. I didn't, I didn't think about, you know, the frag getting on anyway. I learned a good lesson. Well, there's not really, I mean, honestly, you can't a hundred percent avoid it. I guess if you pull into a spot and the whole bays full of, you know, foot high, chopped down, frag, or they or the state's gone in and mowed it down, or the OR cattle have come in and mowed it down, yeah, it probably would be a good idea to try maybe another spot, you know, where. Um, where you're not gonna put your dog in that situation, but the marsh is just so full of everything, right? It's just so, so full of debris and branches and broken sticks and pokey stuff and stuff that can really hurt a dog. So I think the key is obviously, avoid it the best you can and, and water in the marshes. Obviously sometimes can be very stagnant and full bacteria and stuff like that. But I think, I mean, what I would, I ultimately, I think what you need it should do is after every time you take your dog out hunting, you know, just be vigilant. And I think that's, I. Obviously good on your part where you took, you know, took control of that situation fast. Um, and I think that's what obviously, you know, saved her life ultimately. But, um, I, you know, I think just check your dog's feet, check for cuts, sores. You know, after you have a hard day of working'em out there, just make sure there's, you know, no open wounds and just like us, you know, you can get a little, I'm sure you've had, I mean we all have had, you get a little, just a little cut sometimes and if you get a little infection in that or, or it gets sore and it doesn't even have to be that big. It just really. Cause your hand to go stiff or sore and become infected. And so, you know, a dog's body is really no diff, I mean, they're living in mammal just like ours, so there's no difference. But, you know, you just gotta be vigilant and check those. And, you know, a lot of guys, you can put like hydrogen peroxide, um, on some of those, you know, you know, superficial wounds. Um, I have iodine on hand. That's a really good, um. I don't know if you have any of this, but I keep iodine on hand and then I'll take a syringe and if I get a, a wound, a puncture wound or something like that, I'll take that iodine and, and, and mix it with water to like a tea. You know, I, I guess you don't want to use pure iodine. I'm not sure if it's too. It's too potent or can hurt the dog in that situation, but I've always been taught is to water it down to like a t kind of colored, um, solution. Oh yeah. And I'll take that syringe and then just flush the wound out with that. And that really works on, good on, on cleaning out infections and, and stuff like that. So, um. So that's a, that's something you can do. Plus, you know, you can put Neosporin on'em, you can, you know, just keep an eye on those, those wounds. But I think in her situation, it sounds like she had some of that. Sounds like that frag and some dirt and, and some of the bacteria from the marsh was just basically what jammed up into that foot. And then it was kind of almost encapsulated by the foot, and then it just, you know, she got some nasty stuff in there and it went, you know, to the bloodstream or the muscle tissue or whatever and caused that infection. Yeah. It was, uh, horrible. So yeah, and sure, sure glad. Sometimes I, sometimes I get a little ornery with the vet or whatever, you know? But, uh, I'm sure glad that we had a good vet to take care of her. Yeah, save her life, basically, and knew exactly what to do. So. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. I think with, and it, it does seem like they'll want to go in and obviously if you have something in that foot that's a, that foreign object or foreign material like foxtails and stuff like that, or another bad one, you know, grass seeds. Burrow in. That's something we sometimes battle in training and just in general is being in Utah, that dry climate is those foxdale, they'll just, they're like a little sliver and they'll just go into the in between those toes and just work down, work down, work down, and all of a sudden, you know, or you'll just all see and see that whole foot and it's just swollen and that's a pretty. You know, the ankle down when it's swollen, there's, it's a pretty tall tell or tell sign that, hey, there's some foreign object in there that's irritating the dog. Or like you say, the foot's been punctured and the foot's swollen. Let's keep, you know, let's keep an eye on that. Keep an eye out for infection. You know, but I think some of those things at home, if you can kind of squeeze it, I, I'll sometimes take some tweezers and kind of try to open it up if you can. And sometimes it'll be hard. The dogs don't want it, obviously messed with. And so that's why, you know, vets commonly will have to put'em under so they can get in there and, and explore a little bit and see what's in there. And then. Pull any of those objects out and then at that point, then they can, you know, let it drain or put whatever they need to do in there to clean it out. Um, you know,'cause at that point there's not gonna be a foreign object that's, you know, really irritating things. So, um, but. But yeah, I think I haven't, yeah, I hadn't experienced it sounded like the bacteria, whatever it was that she got was pretty severe though.'cause I've had some dogs get some swollen feet and like I say, we treat it and then the dog's fine. But you know, um, obviously it sounded like your dog pretty much sage, you know, almost went, it went septic on her. It sound like. Yeah, really fast. It was, yeah, like I said, it was her, her leg was clipped, her elbow was swollen. Like, like I said, that was as big as my wrist. It was awful. Was she putting weight on it or was she not? Not, not by that next morning, but she really, she, I had to carry her out to the truck to get her over the bed. She couldn't even really walk at all, so she was that lethargic. Wow. Yeah. That must have really been, that must have been pretty dang septic. So, yeah, I think. You know, and um, and I, you know, I want your two points if there's any last thoughts on this too, but I think the biggest thing I've noticed with. Dogs as if they're not eating or they're not going to the bathroom and they're acting lethargic, you know, obviously they can't speak, so you gotta use some of those other cues, then there's a good chance. Yeah, something's going on, you know, so if they're usually eating and they're pooping and they're. Um, and they're maybe still acting a lethargic, keep an eye on'em. They may have, maybe they'll pick up a bug and it'll just like us, you get sick for a couple days and then, uh, then you're back to yourself. You know, dogs can have that same situation being a, a living animal, but if you see a continued, um, especially if they're just sick, like they're not acting themselves and it goes 2, 3, 4, you know, three plus days, okay. You probably want to get'em into a vet and check'em out and see what's going on, you know, so. But yeah, for sure. Any other tips you can think of or anything like that for people or thoughts that come to your mind about, about dealing with this stuff? Yeah. You know, just one other thing. The, the, the vet mentioned to me is, hadn't seen a ton, ton of this, this marsh foot they call it. Mm-hmm. Um, but he said in the, in the, in the past year or two, they have seen more cases of it around here in Utah than they normally have. He thought that maybe it had something to do with, you know, just some, some warmer ears and things like that. And I don't know how true any of that is, but man, I just like to tell everybody just to be aware of that. Maybe even you can look it up on the internet and find some pictures of what it might look like and. It was just awful. Yeah. So cool. No, that's a good input. I think. Well we've had the, I think it's the cyanobacteria, right? The, we've had the bad waters where that you get the, that bluegreen algae and it's very toxic to that algae. Yeah, those algae blooms. And then you get that stagnant warm water that's not moving. Looks like we just got cut off for a second. Jeff is on his phone and somehow we got disconnected there, but we were pretty much, uh, you know, just kind of wrapping it up, but we were just talking about, yeah, the blue-green algae and kind of that sino, I think it's called the cyanobacteria. Um, that I think even, you know, dogs drink it or eat the algae blooms, it can, um, it can actually, you know, kill animals or. Be really hard on, it's more of a neurological thing. I believe there was actually a guy from Montana that had some dogs up at Lee k event center last summer that got into algae mat, and they were, they ate some algae and I think he lost two or three dogs or something from that. So I Did you hear about that? Uh, I did. I hear about the, I, I take my dogs over there and I, I train out there sometimes and. That kinda scared me off. I didn't go over there for a little while. Yeah, I did hear about that. That's horrible. Yeah, I was, I would, uh, you know, something, a good practice too with these bad, you know, is another side note. Um, when you take a dog out and you're gonna go do water work and you might be out in the marsh or summer conditions where that's where that exists, I would definitely. Take, I would take water for your dog and water'em even before you get'em in. Yeah. In the water. Or make sure they're, you know, you don't show up and they just ran five miles and they're thirsty and then they run out to that lake and just drink, you know, a ton of water. Yeah. Because that's not, obviously they're gonna drink that. They could get Giardia or they could pick up that type of stuff. But, um, I think you bring up a good point that, um. You know, with our changing water conditions that possibly, you know, I and I, that's why I wanted to do this podcast is just so our audience could be more vigilant aware of these things that if your dog does get poked and gets some of that bacteria and it could, things could change very rapidly. So I think it's, I think that's. Something to just be aware of if, hey, if your dog's foot does get cut out in the marsh, you know, just like your experience in just a, a 24 hour period, your dog's health decline so fast and that you might need to get him into a vet really quick. And sometimes, you know, it happens on a weekend and so you can't see the dog, you know, maybe it happens Friday evening and then the vets are closed Saturday or Sunday or something, you know? So, I dunno, I guess just, we just need to be aware of it so. Yep. It's definitely something to, to be aware of that even, you know, my, my, my friend that was with me, he, he hunts, geez, he hunts a lot. Like, he, he always out there hunting and he said he, you know, he is never had any of the dogs ever have anything like that, so, but just takes one time. Mm-hmm. You know, horrible to lose a, lose a good dog like that. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, we're out, like you say. I mean, I've had punctures and dogs hurt their feet and stuff like that.'cause we're out, we have these dogs, you know, working every day. Client dogs out in the marsh and there's things out there. But I've never had anything that, that sounded like it. Turn is fast for Sage that you had happen, you know, so well, Jeff, thanks man for getting on the podcast and talking, talking to through your experience and letting the audience get to know you a little bit more. It's uh, it's fun to, fun to hear, hear your background a little bit more, and also, yeah, thanks for. Sharing, sharing your information, folks, keep an eye out on your animals. Um, you know, I'd like I say, keep some iodine on hand. Keep and, uh, flush things out when you get outta the marsh. Wash those feet, those pads out. Check your dog over. Um, make sure you're keeping'em, you know, healthy and safe. And so you have a good dog for many years to come. So, um, Jeff, any other closing thoughts or. No, man, I, I, I just appreciate you having me on here and I appreciate what you do and I really enjoy your podcast and, uh, I recommend it to a lot of people and, um, yeah, lot, lots of good stuff on here and I, hopefully this can help someone out and nobody else has to go through that or lose a dog or anything. So thanks for having me on Tyce, I appreciate it. Thanks man. Thanks for the kind words. We'll be in touch. Let's get together and work Sage some more and do some handling work with her and we'll talk to you soon. Sounds good. Thanks buddy. Thanks, Jeff. Bye bye. Bye.