Mt. David

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The summit after reaching the ridgeline

Looking north to Clark Mountain

Snack break

Dave on the trail

The final climb

Looking down on the trail up

Maverick on the summit

Glacier Peak in the distance

Near the end of the hike, Dozer laid down on the trail as if exhausted. He was basically pulled by the collar at this point, down the trail until my friend had to leave him at a river because he wouldn't go any further. I went back up the trail and found dozer in the river where he was left. It took me an hour to motivate him to walk the last 1000 feet. At times, I was dragging his 130 pound limp body down the trail. He could not be carried. You can not pick up 130 pounds of limp weight off the ground.

By Monday afternoon, he still wasn't improving and I began to think he might be introuble. He was hurting somewhere on his body, I just couldn't tell where. I took him to the vet that afternoon. I had to pull my truck into my backyard and up to the porch so he could get up the steps and into the back of the truck. After dumping a bucket of water on him, he was able to get enough energy to get up and I quickly walked him up the steps into the truck.

The vet didn't know what was wrong. He didn't seem to have any broken bones so I was feeling better but it didn't explain why his entire body was limp and affected. They gave him a weeks worth of pain killers and antibiotics and that was all we could do. They also took some blood for analysis. Tuesday morning, the vet called with what they found. Dozer had an extremely high white blood cell count meaning he was fighting some sort of infection and stress. He also said a few more things and then it hit me, I knew what had happened.

Dozer was bitten by a Rattlesnake. It explained everything that happened on the trail. His behavior was sudden and at the very point he was off the trail. Looking back, I may have heard the sound of him screaming when he was bit. Dave was able to drag him by the collar the last mile but by the time dozer was 1000 feet from the car the poisonous venom had circulated throughout his whole body. When I had found dozer in the river, he had been soaking for 30 minutes. I remember his eyes looked like death as if he saw a ghost and was looking straight through me. (Later I learned a dogs pupils will dilate and the eyes will look completely black). Dozer never actually looked at me, it was more of a blank stare.

Had I known, I would have got him help sooner. For 2 days I racked my brain trying to figure out what was wrong with him. I even made the comment of a snake bite to the vet on Monday but I was just giving possible scenarios to him. He was too busy telling me I need to take it easy on dozer..."he's not a young pup any more". There was a somewhat confrontagous argument in his office as I explained what dozer is capable of and that this would have been an easy trip for him. Lets just say I reaffirmed my believe on why I don't go to doctors and vets. Anyway, by Thursday, dozer was getting up every few hours and became interested in living. On Friday, he even ventured into the woods behind our house.

Hard lesson to learn.

Dozer for 4 days