Cattails beat up dog's face

[Scott M]

My lab worked mostly grass for pheasant and a good mix of tag alder, popple, trails, and mixed age forest for grouse this fall. However, this weekend while pheasant hunting in SW MN we had to beat up the cattails pretty hard to get on some birds. Long story longer, my dog on Saturday had quite a crust around her eyes and finally today is getting swollen nose and lips. Her behavior is fine. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this much? Any prevention tips for the future? Vaseline around the eyes maybe?

[goblueM]

Sounds pretty standard, my uncle's golden would often bleed from her nose and soft tissue after pushing hard through thick cattails in late season. Would get a lot of chaff and junk in her eyes too. The vaseline is a good thought, although it might hold onto a lot of cattail fluff that could then get in her eyes.

I tell you what, after my uncle switched to pointers, I sure won't be going back to beating the cattails in late season - talk about a workout, especially if there's a foot of snow on the ground.

[stretch]

Thats pretty common when you work your dogs in thick brush. I wouldn't use vaseline at all cause it will attract dirt. When your done hunting for the day put some neosporan on the cuts and more than likely it will crust over the next day. Just put a warm wet towel on to soften it up and you can clean it up to make them feel better.