Can a hog get to hot and die from long race?

[Wmwendler]

All this talk about heat and the danger to dogs has got me thinking.  Now I know a hog can get hot fairly easy, and does'nt have an effecient cooling system.  And I've seen hogs caught and loaded only to give it up later in the pen or on the trailer cause they just got too hot in the process.  I've seen hogs trapped and die because they got stirred up and got hot during the removal loading process.  And all of this does'nt necessarily have to be in the heat.  I've seen it happen in spring with mid 80's temps.  My question is what happens to these hogs when they get run for miles in the heat.  Just for example the last time I was hunting was the 4th of July.... we started a decent sized boar judging by tracks. This boar hit high gear from the start and we had three dogs on the ground and one fell out pretty early but the other two stayed with the hog for quite a while.  Long story short, they bayed a couple breifly a few times and once for a pretty good while but it was on a place we could'nt go.  Eventually, they came back into the farm land where we have acess.  In the end my gyp stayed with this hog close to 4 miles, for a couple hours, from temps ranging from 80-90 degrees.  When I picked her up she was still working a track across a hay patch and almost back into a corn field.   I am almost certain from the same hog he was headed back where we found him and still had atleast 3/4 of a mile through crop land before he got back to woods and access to shade and water, not to mention he was going to be facing 100+ degree temps within a few hours.  My question is do you think when hogs get run like this in the heat do they have the ability to recover and come out ok or do they die?  On one hand I know hogs are masters at pacing themselves and can go for miles when you think they would'nt but I've also seen hogs succumb to heat when you did'nt think they would.  What do yall think?

Waylon

[jhy]

Waylon,

I think about this very same subject every summer.  I am always talking about getting out run by the house and I run those hogs for hours on end.  My dogs are in tip top shape and on a summer diet that is very low in corn meal.  The hogs are spending all night eating corn, which is not a diet that an animal should be eating and then running on in the heat.  Now the hogs can put a lot of distance quickly between them and the dogs and get into some water and have 15 to 30 minutes on average to cool down until the dogs catch up with them, but they still are running a lot more than any other animal out there this time of year and you would think that they would over heat get in the water and stand their ground and fight.  However, I run them for hours in the early morning hours after they have a full stomach of corn and whatever else and still get outrun.  I am able to bay them more but cant get close enough before they break and run again. They have a thick fat layer, and plenty of hair that should cause them to stroke out.  Especially while being pursued by a pack of dogs that are in tip top shape and supplemented to help tolerate the heat with electrolytes, low fat food, and built for endurance with all the red muscle tissue.  However, that doesnt seem to be the case.  I have even started relaying dogs on the hogs and still get out run.  I often wonder how they do it and do they stroke out and die after a long race?  (I certainly hope so)

I have noticed that this time of year they criss cross bayous and other bodies of water in tighter circles and rely more on running and hiding than just flat out leaving the country.

I need to research the anatomy of a hog because I know it is very similar to ours and I wonder if they are able to cool off quickly like us and what there average body temp is?

I am sure that it happens and I have been pretty convinced that I may have made some stroke out.  I will do some research and learn more about how they regulate temps.  I know what you are talking about them over heating after being tied and put in a trailer or pen, but I believe the heat and stress gets them mostly on that.

Joey

[Wmwendler]

I think this hog bayed in a tank when he did it was for about 20 mins I tracked to them but it took me a while with old school radio telemetry and then they were on a place I coud'nt go.  Judging by google maps they were in a tank but how much did he really cool down in 20 mins. with two dogs baying him I dont know.  After that it was about 2.5-3 miles through farm land, no water until they got to another creek and I know the hog got hot on that run.  The question is did he get to water quick enough.  I've heard people say if you cool a hog too fast with water they can die and seen it happen my self, but then again was it the water or was irreversable damage done to begin with? 

Last summer I started a boar that went about 3/4 of a mile across a pasture for a duration of about 15 mins and the dogs were spinning him the whole time now I know that hog got hot.  The dogs quit him in a corn patch and that was about as hot as I've ever seen my paris gyp so I'm glad they came off as I had bayed and shot 3 hogs before that and it was late in the morning.  I still wonder about that hog how he fared in a 95 degree corn patch after being worked like that and over a mile to the nearest water from where the dogs left him.

Waylon

[Black Gold]

When I was raising Euro Boars a few years back I had a sow come into heat during the summer.  I arrived at the pen about 8am when temp was around mid 80's.....The boar began to run the sow but she wasn't ready to stand so she ran from the boar.  This went on for a few hours and I could tell both the sow and boar were beginning to stress.  When they would get around to the mud hole he would go in and cool off, but she (wanting to keep her distance from him) would run back into the brush and never got to cool off.  This was never a dead run, but more of a constant trot for a couple of hours.  Around lunch when temps were much higher the boar sat in the water for a while then called it and went to lay in the shade.  The sow for the first time was able to get in the water.....She never came out....died right there in the water trying to cool herself.  Her core temp got up too high and she was unable to bring it back down.......Waylon, I think many hogs that push it to the max in temps like we are having never recover due to their inability to bring their core temp back down.....

[WestTexasCurs]

Yes,I have seen a pack of Running Walkers run several hogs to death.Hog would be killed over dead,3/4's of the pack would be sitting back 10 feet still baying. Never ran one to death myself,that I know of.I have put some in the pen after we caught them,and they were dead the next mourning.I dont know If that counts.Most of the time its the dogs that will stroke out first here.Not alot of places to get to water in this country.

[JJT]

we cought a sow the other day and when we got her back to the truck and put her in the trailer she died a few mins later, so ide say they can die from gettin too hot.

[jhy]

Heat combined with the stress of being caught will kill them quickly.  I sure hope that they do because I have really put some on long races in high heat.  I hope they are dying, so that I dont have to run them again, but I get on them in the same places a week or two later and they run the same route, bay up in same water holes, etc.  So either these hogs have a universal escape route or I am running the same hog and the heat isnt killing him.

Joey

[JJT]

you know ive had the same thing happen to me and ill jump the same boar hog on the same hill but he runns the same path and the dogs loose him. we have runn this hog at least a dozen times and cant get him stoped, even tried switching it up, still cant get him . Ive seen the hog run past us with dogs on his heels but still out runns the dogs.

[hogtied]

never had one die that was being chased... that i no of anyhow, but have had several die while tying them and after putting them in the pen afterwards, I think it has alot to do with stress as well as the heat, more die on me in the summer time so my opinion is the heat plays the major role in it

[mex]

We caught 3 shoats 2 days ago and when we got home 45 minutes later they were dead.Think it was a shock factor more than anything?

[txmaverick]

I watched some walkers run a boar to death in this kind of heat a few years back.

[hogtied]

gotta be heat and stress both i think, we caught one and it died tied in the back of the truck, that big boar we caught last week died in the trailer the next day...It was raining and was not that hot.

[txmaverick]

The boar that the walkers ran to death died without anyone laying a hand on him. He laid down under a cedar tree about 200 yrds ahead of the walkers and never moved after that. He didnt have a tooth mark on him anywhere. No stress from catching, I watched him die from about 50 yrds. He was run to death.

[hogtied]

its hard to pin it on one thing or the other, dont have to be caught or tied to be stressed...im sure a pack of hounds chasing him was stressful enough...like I said im sure its got to do with both cause it dont happen to me as often in the wintertime...that big boar we caught the other night was struck, bayed and caught in less than 100 yards and in about ten minutes, and he just kicked the bucket five minutes later... they get stressed out easier in the heat, and i noticed it happens to boars and barrs alot more often than sows, and bigger hogs instead of smaller ones???

[txmaverick]

Call it what you want but when hounds run a boar for 6 hrs in the summer time during daylight hours its still "running one to death".
The question that was asked is can they recover, yes given time to cool off and rest just like anything else but on 90-100 degree day when hounds are pushing them not giving them time to rest or cool off they will die from the heat just like a dog will.
Stress is caused from catching one either by dogs or human caused during the fight. One dieing while in a race that the dogs never really even bayed is death from heat.

Today we all use cur type catchy dogs that dont give a hog the chance to over heat, but cause stress on the hog from the fight causeing death combined with some amount of over heating.

I have seen hogs die over the most minor thing and on the other hand live through the worst thing you can do to them.

Can they recover? Yes, and most I believe do recover
How long will it it take? Your guess is as good as mine

[hogtied]

a 6 hour race will overheat and kill the dogs, hog, and me too in 100 degree weather ... but looking at the whole picture I have had them die like that in 40 degree weather too, just not nearly as often as in hotter weather... I dont hunt hounds anymore, all my cur dogs are fast, silent and gritty like you said, they sneak in, find them, and catch them pretty quick...and they still die sometimes...ill never be convinced that the heat alone does it, they are pretty durable, just my opinion but I think the heat along with the stress causes it. I agree with you about the recovery tho, just like leavin one tied too long and cant walk, most will recover but no tellin when... If they get overheated and you get them to a cool spot and get them some water they will come around sometimes... Me and a buddy tied a big boar around 300# back in march, he stopped fighting and stopped breathing for a couple minutes... we said hell he is dead and started to untie him, then he just went ignorant again... that was a first for that for me cause he was DEAD!!!! he woke up and bit my buddys finger off dam near it, we left him tied in the woods for 8 hours or so, went to the emergency room, came back the next day and he was still kicking!!! had him in the trailer for a week or so afterwards, so they can definately recover if you ask me!!!