Frank, I see your post. Thanks. The kit I have came with the sterile stapler and pliers designed to remove them. It pretty much has the emergency supplies detailed by Tamid. I need to add a specific gauge needle and learn how to do a tracheotomy on a choking dog. My neighbors are vets and I'll ask them for instruction and a needle. We don't have porcupines, but I have a leatherman that would work in those cases. Frank, Abby went from 60 to 0 when she ran into concertina wire at Ft. Stewart two years ago. Troops are supposed to remove it from the field after leaving the areas. Fortunately both she and Willa wear Kevlar bay vests designed for hog chase dogs and the vest stopped the wire from cutting her up. hardcorehogdogs.com is where I got them. Great vests. Forget ballistic nylon as protection; Kevlar is tops. Both Abby and Willa are depicted in the vests in the Favorite Gun/Hunt thread a few pages back from our hunt on Dec. 8. My first encounter with hogs was when Abby was a year old chasing woodcock in thick, tall cane. She was baying hogs and surprisingly broke off the chase when I called. I was in thick cane and had gone to a knee to leash her and get her out of there. My gun was on the ground when the sow broke through the cane in a charge. She was under 10 yards when I saw her. I stood up and ran at her hollering with my arms in the air. She spun on her heels and went the other way. She must have have piglets with her. I didn't have time to think to pick up my gun and shoot. It happened that fast. Stan knows where that was.
Because of high water, we have had two close hog calls this year. Both times with Floyd's dog, Sadie. She was pointing into a brier hell. I couldn't get to her. Floyd went in from the other side. Sadie was pointing a huge boar, 5 yards away, slipping through the briers. Why he didn't bolt, no one knows why. Floyd had to drag Sadie off point. This was two weeks ago. Last week, Sadie was baying a hog. She drove the hog, close to his heels, between Floyd and I. Floyd was able to call Sadie off the chase. Both of us were digging in our pockets to load and shoot, but we didn't have to and Sadie was too close at the time. I'm not good on estimating weight, but he was taller than Sadie, a Britt, and as wide as he was tall with a long snout, barrel chest and narrow waist. It would have been ugly had he turned and fought. I keep e-collars on my dogs just in case they don't break off a chase. Abby is bad about baying them, but comes when I whistle. I've heard from Oklahoma hog hunters that their hogs have more Eurasian strain than our ferals where I hunt. Our hogs are bad enough, but the Eurasian are meaner and dog killers. Annually, bird hunters will lose dogs to them. Merry Christmas. Gil