I have been catching hogs with dogs since the 80's. We went again on Saturday and I had the most expensive hog hunt of my life. The dogs struck him fairly quick and the chase lasted about 1/2 a mile. We knew it was probably a pretty good hog or the chase would have been much shorter. They had him bayed up several times but this joker just kept breaking. He was in some really thick stuff so he had every advantage. On the next to last bay we heard a couple of dogs that sounded like they got cut. We got to the last bay and the hog was in a creek that was about 3 foot deep and basically under a tree that had grown out over the water. My buddy Josh and I could not see the hog. My brother-in-law ( the guy in the picture ) walked about 15-20 feet further up the creek to where he could see. He hollered back he is a good'en and has plenty of teeth. We turned the bulldog loose and the whole thing was over pretty quick. We pulled him out of the creek, which ****ed near killed all 3 of us, took a few pictures, and start trying to find the other 2 dogs that were not there. I found my Kamikaze dog and she had fat going out of her stomach. I checked her and there were no intestines just fat. The fat was covered in dirt, leaves, and sticks so I just cut it off. I put my finger in the hole to see if it had cut her through the muscle but could not find a hole. She did not act like she was in bad shape and was walking around. Found my brother-in-laws dog about 100 yards up the creek. She had a hole that started in her chest and exited behind her front leg but it did not puncture the chest cavity. We carried both dogs out roughly a mile. Got home and when I took Kazi out of the box some of her intestines were coming out. I quickly took her to the emergency vet in Tyler. The vet tech started with we need to make a decision. Are we going to do surgery or put her down. I was thinking lady if I was going to put her down I would have shot her in the head at home. I would not have made her suffer for an additional 45 minutes to drive her up here. I had to pay $4,000 down with the bill expected to be between $4,000 and $8,000. Turns out the dog had 3 broken ribs, a 4+ inch hole in her diaphragm, and her intestines out....but the intestines were not damaged and once they got her diaphragm repaired and the air pulled out of the chest cavity she was fine. Total bill ended up only being $3,856.85. In all these years of hunting I have never had a dog killed in the woods but this one got fairly close. The other dog is also doing fine and has started putting a little weight on her leg per my brother-in-law. The picture sucks but we were kind of in a hurry. I would guestimate he weighing about 300 pounds. Some pictures make an animal look extra large. This one made him look extra small. I have caught a lot of hogs in my life and contrary to popular view very few wild hogs ever make it to that weight. He was a tank. Glad to catch him but hated that the dogs got hurt. Our dogs will stop one from running but will not try to catch anything on their own that is over 100 pounds. They wait for the bulldog. In this case they were just in a bad thick spot and got caught but both should live to hunt another day..
-john
-john
Comment