Black Labs nose turns pink after hunting

[Scott M]

So, my 5.5 year old's nose is turning pink. I hunted her hard on Saturday, let her rest Sunday, then was out of town Monday until tonight. I finally see her and it's like the outer edge of her nose is pink and the black is flaking!

I found this thread about lab noses changing colors...sounds like its just something from hunting hard? It happened one time last year, but in that case it happened the day after hunting and went away in a few days.

I guess I should be happy she's working so hard. She seems fine healthwise, very happy in her disposition. I kept her well hydrated and fed before and after the hunt and she's in really good shape.

Anybody else have this happen?

[Dave S]

My first Black Lab did the same thing. He was a bulldozer in the cattails. By the time we were done hunting for the weekend, his face would be bald, his nose pink and his face scarred under his eyes. If I would have given him a bucket of ice to stick his face in, he'd tip it over and do it all over again.

[Todd Caswell]

Perfectly normal for there face to get beat up, it will be back to normal after the season..

Quote:

I kept her well hydrated and fed before and after the hunt and she's in really good shape.

I NEVER feed befor, way to high of risk for bloat. These dogs are like pro atheletes and they certainly don't eat before a game, think of how you feel after dinner?? Ready for a nap right? Sled dog racers always feed the night before never the day of. I always try to feed after they have cooled down at the end of the day. When not hunting I geed 2 times a day but again always after training never befor..

[charliepete]

I'm with Todd...you don't feed a hunting dog before a hunt. Gastric torsion is a real issue that can kill a dog. Excess water consumption (like letting an extremely hot dog drink a half gallon of water and then hunting it afterwards) will do the same thing. To put gastric torsion or bloat in visual terms think of a pool ball inside a sock. If you grab both ends of the sock and crank your hands around in a circle like you were cranking up a trailer you will see how easy it is to get the sock to roll on itself. That is what happens to the intestines of some large breed dogs when they hunt on a full stomach. If you catch it in time you can pay 5,000 to have some intestine cut out and re-sectioned. If you don't catch it, it will kill the dog.

The dogs nose won't always go back black. My buddies yellow lab started out with a black nose, and after several seasons busting brush in the uplands her nose never returned and remains a constant pink year round.

[Scott M]

Easy guys, I'm talking about feeding her when I woke up at 5 in the morning to make the drive to SW MN! She's not one to really lap up the water; in fact I was actually happy she took something because she has had a bad habit of rejecting water in the field, then going home and lapping it up and playing catchup. I can't imagine being dehydrated for a couple days after a hunt feels good, but she seemed to do it a couple years ago no matter how often I put the water in front of her.

Thanks for the responses - I figured I wasn't the only one with the weird nose things but google didn't get me very far.