advice for a GSP who wont eat while hunting

[Birdhunter509]

Hi,
My dad has a middle aged GSP that just wont eat while we hunt. Last year, he ended up having at least one seizure while we were out in the field due to not eating says the Vet. We mix wet dog food with his dry food, give him treats but he eats very little. We didnt take him hunting earlier this year because my dad was afraid he would have another seizure, but we want to eventually take him again... any suggestions on how to get him to eat? thanks

[Colin]

Can you explain a little more about the condition that makes him need to eat while exercising? Are you trying to feed him a full meal? I'd be pretty cautious about feeding a full meal while working a dog, sounds like you might be setting him up for a torsion.

[Birdhunter509]

We feed them a 3/4 cup of dry food mixed in with half can to whole can of wet food in the morning to get something in their stomachs. Weve never had this problem with our bird dogs and this is going back a few generations. He just wont eat in the morning and the vet said his blood sugar gets low and thats what causes the seizures. Our other Gsp and setter do fine and will eat a little bit and can run all day. We might have

[Birdhunter509]

to retire this one.

[wildweeds]

Your dog has..... hunting dog hypoglycemia.  Get a product that comes in a tube called "Nutracal " start him with a squirt  in his mouth ,it's a paste. Call him to you every so often and give him another dose, I used to do this with an English pointer I had who was affected. Keep the tube with you at all times. Massage into gums, fastest path.

[slowhand]

Your dog has..... hunting dog hypoglycemia.  Get a product that comes in a tube called "Nutracal " start him with a squirt  in his mouth ,it's a paste. Call him to you every so often and give him another dose, I used to do this with an English pointer I had who was affected. Keep the tube with you at all times. Massage into gums, fastest path.

Great info

[Birdhunter509]

Your dog has..... hunting dog hypoglycemia.  Get a product that comes in a tube called "Nutracal " start him with a squirt  in his mouth ,it's a paste. Call him to you every so often and give him another dose, I used to do this with an English pointer I had who was affected. Keep the tube with you at all times. Massage into gums, fastest path.

Hey i appreciate your info and we will try it.

[shorthair-on-point]

I only feed my dogs the night before a hunt. Feeding the "morning of" can cause quite a few issues. During the hunt I will give them Gatorade if I want them to have the sugar or Pedialyte if I don't want the sugar.

[jagermiester]

I had a lab that needed to eat snacks throughout the day while hunting. Otherwise all his joints would lock up and he would be immobilized. The first time it happened I thought he was having a seizure. I switched that dog to a more quality food and fed him smaller amounts 3 times a day and never had another problem. I feed my dog Victor now and bring cooked liver as a little treat in the field. I bet you $10 your dog will eat a little liver in the field.

[Birdhunter509]

I had a lab that needed to eat snacks throughout the day while hunting. Otherwise all his joints would lock up and he would be immobilized. The first time it happened I thought he was having a seizure. I switched that dog to a more quality food and fed him smaller amounts 3 times a day and never had another problem. I feed my dog Victor now and bring cooked liver as a little treat in the field. I bet you $10 your dog will eat a little liver in the field.

Yeah maybe we'll try it. We'll be heading over tomorrow morning!

[wildweeds]

In case you didn't look it up, here is a very good article that explains the condition and how to work around it. Strideaway
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HUNTING & TRIALING SAFETY, SHAWN K. WAYMENT, DVM
Understanding Hypoglycemia in Hunting and Field Trial Dogs
Glucose (blood sugar) is the major source of metabolic energy in our canine athletes. The brain and red blood cells depend on glucose as their sole source of energy whereas many of the other body tissues can utilize fats or proteins as an energy source. Glucose concentrations are closely regulated in the blood stream to maintain a constant ready and healthy state. Normal glucose levels in the dog are between 70 and 140 mg/dL. Blood sugar levels are determined by intake of foods and production within the body. Production within the body can come from the utilization of proteins, amino acids, stored fats and glycogen (stored glucose) reserves in the liver and skeletal muscles.



The canine pancreas plays a decisive role in glucose metabolism by producing the hormones insulin and glucagon in its alpha and beta cells. These hormones work synergistically (insulin from beta cells decreases glucose levels while glucagon from alpha cells increases blood glucose levels) to keep the sugar levels in the blood stream between the normal range of 70 to 140 mg/dL. Insulin’s role is to get glucose into the cells for energy and for storage of the sugar in the form of glycogen and fat whereas the role of glucagon is to remobilize or release those storages for energy during times of hunger or during stressful exercise. The storage form of glucose is glycogen and it is stored mainly in the liver and skeletal muscles of our dogs.

Hunting dog hypoglycemia occurs when a canine athlete exerts itself in strenuous exercise thereby rapidly depleting their blood sugar (glucose) before their reserves can be remobilized or released from glycogen storages from the muscle and liver resulting in extreme lethargy, muscle weakness and twitching, incoordination, trembling, dilated pupils and in most instances seizures (remember that the brain and red blood cells depend strictly on glucose as their energy source).

Diagnosis can be tricky because the dog’s blood sugar will return to normal before a blood sample can be evaluated in a clinical setting.  Diagnosis is generally made by history associated with the episodes and rule out of other diseases such as Addison’s Disease, Epilepsy, Exercise-Induced Collapse (EIC is a genetic disease seen mostly in Labs), Insulinomas (beta cell tumors of the pancreas) or other metabolic/endocrine disorders. A dog experiencing any of these clinical signs should have a thorough examination and blood work done by your veterinarian.

Emergency treatment in the field is to give the affected dog a highly digestible form of glucose on the oral mucous membranes because the enzyme salivary amylase starts to break down starches into rapidly usable sugars. This can come from any source as simple as Karo syrup, jelly/jam, or maple syrup just to name a few. I like a product called Nutri-Cal that is dense in protein, fats and carbohydrates as well as minerals, vitamins and fatty acids. Nutri-Cal can be acquired from any local pet supplier or online at amazon.com. Once the dog has recovered, get them to eat and let them rest comfortably for the remainder of the day. Be careful with excessive sugars in their food because they can trigger a large release of insulin from their pancreas that can drive blood sugars back down into the low range (below 70 mg/dL)

Prevention is the most important component to hunting dog hypoglycemia. The current literature states this is most common in non-conditioned or out of shape dogs but this simply is not the truth. I’ve seen it happen in very well conditioned canine athletes.  Carb loading 30 to 60 minutes prior to exercise using complex carbohydrates such as pastas or bread can help but their stomach should not be fully loaded. Feeding these dogs a calorically dense, high energy diet (low carbs and higher protein ~ 30%/fat ~20%ratios ) is a good way to train the mitochondria to utilize fats and proteins and not rely so much on sugars. Other people have tried feeding their dogs 10% of their calculated diet every 2 hours during strenuous exercise with good success. Finally a popular product that has recently surfaced on the market is the maltodextrin products. One source stated that they’ve had great success giving 1 g/kg of body weight (or 0.5 g/pound of body weight) in the am prior to exercise and then repeat 2 to 3 hours after strenuous exercise.



HUNTING & TRIALING SAFETY, SHAWN K. WAYMENT, DVM  |  February 5, 2017
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[jetjockey]

Don’t feed him the day of the hunt.  Actually, I wouldn’t feed in the morning at all.  Feed once a day and watch the dog.  Too many people take an out of shape dog and throw it in the field on opening day, and expect it to hunt all day.  There’s not a dog in the world that can do that, or hunt all day for that matter.  I know I know, guys are going to come on here and say their dogs hunt all day no problem.  NO they don’t!  My field trial horseback dogs that are in incredible shape are good for a half a day, maybe a little more depending on the hunting.  The biggest thing is to watch your dog, and learn what it’s doing. You can tell when they get tired and out of gas, yet they still won’t stop hunting.   When that happens, pick them up.  Don’t put your dog in the situation where they can hurt themselves. . Make no mistake about it, they will literally hunt themselves to death if YOU allow it. 

[jagermiester]

Don’t feed him the day of the hunt.  Actually, I wouldn’t feed in the morning at all.  Feed once a day and watch the dog.  Too many people take an out of shape dog and throw it in the field on opening day, and expect it to hunt all day.  There’s not a dog in the world that can do that, or hunt all day for that matter.  I know I know, guys are going to come on here and say their dogs hunt all day no problem.  NO they don’t!  My field trial horseback dogs that are in incredible shape are good for a half a day, maybe a little more depending on the hunting.  The biggest thing is to watch your dog, and learn what it’s doing. You can tell when they get tired and out of gas, yet they still won’t stop hunting.   When that happens, pick them up.  Don’t put your dog in the situation where they can hurt themselves. . Make no mistake about it, they will literally hunt themselves to death if YOU allow it. 

If I didn’t feed my dog the day of the hunt he would have locked up.

This is very sound advice though.

[Backstrap]

My cocker is very active, and he’ll burn out after 2 hours if I don’t manage him right. Usually around the 1 hour mark I will stop him and feed him about 4-6 oz of cooked chicken which is souped up with a little water and a spoonful of maltodextrin. We rest for 5-10 minutes and then hunt another 1-2 hours. Then we take a longer break, like an hour or more and he eats a specially prepared meal of ground meat, egg, Dr. Tim’s kibble also souped up with maltodextrin. This gets us thru another couple hours, with breaks as needed.

The key points are he will eat his favorite foods (chicken, beef, elk) but not straight kibble. Souping it up so it’s soft makes it less likely to stress his gut, I believe. Also the maltodextrin dextrin helps replenish blood sugars. I buy it at a supplement store.

[AspenBud]

What you want to do is front load your dog the night before you hunt with a high quality performance food. So if you normally feed two cups in the evening up it by a cup or two. Then give one cup in the morning 2-3 hours before running the dog.

I’ve run a couple of my dogs for a full day hunt before with maybe an hour break total, it’s hard on them and they become far less effective after the 4 hour mark and really even after the first 2. But the one time I had one have a blood sugar imbalance was on a 2 hour hunt on a morning that the dog skipped his breakfast. I changed food and started front loading after that, no problems since.