Drain tube in place.

Some of the discharge that continued for two days.

With only two days left for the Iowa pheasant season, I was fortunate to get out one last time.  Terry was very gracious again and invited me to tag along with him and the dogs for this final hunt of the season. Late season Iowa roosters are always a challenge, and any bird in the bag is always a trophy.

The first pass we made through a food plot was unproductive, as the snow decimated much of the area cover. With our grass options limited, we decided to push the willow thickets that ran along the river. Shortly into the push, pheasants started erupting in front of the dogs, and as is typical of late season hunts, the majority of the birds were hens. As we neared the end of the strip, one tight-sitting rooster took off to my right, and I was treated to my first bird of the New Year.

We continued to push the tree strips with similar results…a lot of tight-sitting hens but not any roosters. As we finished up the area, we ended near where we had started the first willow thicket and decided to push it back to the vehicle. This proved to be a wise decision, as one of the labs put up a rooster who tried to wait it out a little to long, and Terry had his first opportunity of the New Year as well.

With conditions the way they were this late in the season the day was definitely a success. We decided to give a couple of other spots a try and see if we could scare up a few more roosters. The same story replayed itself at the next two spots, a lot of tight-sitting hens and no roosters. One hen sat a little too tight and had burrowed into a switchgrass tunnel, Emma promptly delivered to hand and I hoped her soft mouth didn’t negatively affect the hen as I released her.

Although our opportunities were few and far between, it was great to get out one last time in Iowa and watch some great dog work, even if the majority were hens. After hunting half the day and being soaked from the snow Terry and I parted ways and headed back to South Dakota and listened to playoff football on the radio.

You’ve likely noted Maggie’s absence from this hunt. Unfortunately, my injury-prone pup had another brush with disaster this week. After one of our last hunts she had a very small lump on the side of her chest, but with no pain, no temperature and no discharge I had little to be concerned about and elected to monitor it for a few days, figuring she had banged herself up in the field.

I had been away on business earlier in the week and I arrived home to a very sick setter whose lump had gone from nickel-sized to covering a large area of one side of her chest. With an elevated temperature and the lump now feeling like a pocket of fluid, I knew we were now dealing with an abscess. I shot a few x-rays to make sure her chest cavity was not involved. With a clear lung field and normal bloodwork, we put her under and drained and flushed the abscess and placed a drain tube for two days. Likely at some time during the last hunt she had a penetrating injury that her body had walled off for a while and then became overwhelmed. I can't stress enough the need to constantly monitor these dogs and to be aware of injuries, no matter how minor they seem at the time. After a week on antibiotics I’m happy to report she’s on her way to mending nicely. I keep telling people if I wasn’t a veterinarian, I could never afford to own this little setter.