yuk she caught a bird

[charlene104]

My dog caught a robin midflight last night and killed it. I was outside with her it happened so quick. She had the birds head in her mouth and didnt want to give it up. No growling just had the look of hey mom look what i have to play with now a new squeaky toy. Question is will she catch anything from this.

[SweetPea]

naw... i highly doubt it.

i have a westie....sweetest most submissive dog ever...under 2 years old....and she's already killed 3 field mice, a bull frog, a baby bunny rabbit, a baby oppossum, 2 chipmunks....and last week i was really peeved at her... she killed a baby fledging!

the darn birds made a nest right in a shrub in front of my shed... right out of her reach....and we were so fearful she might "find" it, so we ourselves pretended we didnt even know about it....

5 eggs, and 3 of 'em hatched...and we saw 'em grew up...then one day my doggy just HAD to go patrol the backyard early in the morning...when they were fledging....my dad stopped her just in time from killing the ENTIRE nest, but she managed to kill one... I was so upset and felt so bad for the Mommy and Daddy birds cause they were freaking out and swooping down. I wasnt home, but when I got home, my dad had gotten the other 2 fledging before she did and put them in one of Gummy's and Lily's (my parrots) extra travel cages. I locked up CoCo for the rest of the day inside and put the birdie back into their nest...hopefully the other two babies flew far far away.....CoCo takes her job very seriously!

If your dog is on a good diet (to promote a good immune system) and UTD on her shots, then I wouldnt worry much. The only thing I can thing of is from killing things like rabbits and mice is tape worms (which they get from fleas, and then is in their intestines and your dog will then have to consume the stomach contents).

It comes to the point that when she kills something, she is very discrete about it when I'm around or my sister is around....but as soon as my father walks in the door, CoCo will run to him "roo roo-ing" and running to her dead trophy....he has a nice huge garden and he likes it when she patrols the grounds for him.... yuck!

[xpalaboyx]

i dont think that your dog will catch anything bad from it...

[charlene104]

thanks guys it really was gross seeing the bird hanging from her mouth. She was so sad when we took it away.

[Husky06]

Yeah my male Husky kills birds all the time, I don't think your dog will get anything.

[lindsayanng]

There is the possibility of fleas or giardia. Those are the only things. The fleas are easy if you have frontline or something similar. Giardia is transmitted through feces, so if the dog bit the stomach or bottom end, it COULD be possible. Giardia is EASY to see, the dog would get very bad diarrhea. If you notice loose stools, bring him in and get a fecal. Its not very common, but its also not rare.

[SweetPea]

w/ giardia, it is hard to detect though.

coco had giardia when i first got her...she was very sick. coughin up blood, bloody, mucousy, diahrrea, no appetite, etc. kennel cough was easy to diagnose and treat. coccidia showed up on her fecal right away...and after three fecals, the test showed negative for everything....and although she stopped having diahrrea, her stool was still mucousy. i got a few more fecals afterwards cause i just had a feeling there was something else wrong with her... giardia finally showed up i think after the FIFTH fecal... yeap... it was one expensive first few months for us....

[wishbone]

Yeah it's just a dog thing to hunt and chase around. Sometimes it was upsetting that the poor bird or rabbit was dead but as for the dog, it was an accomplishment for them.

[charlene104]

She caught bird number two and we got her on video playing with it.

A quick video of bird dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G8BoSiz2Js

[katiem]

If you don't want her to keep doing it you should have stopped her when you saw her going for the bird! while the first bird might have been, that bird in the video was not mid-flight!

If you want her to kill birds (I don't know why you would though) then, um...congrats?

[mrandrei]

Only fast dogs can catch birds. You must have a very active dog.