This forum is for those seeking medical advice or general beagle health information. Everyone is welcome to respond, but if you are a licensed veterinarian or other animal health professional, feel free to share your credentials!
im steve from vermont, and just had my 14yr old female beagle die. i also have a healthy 2 yr old. they are (were) kept outside in a pen, with a good, insulated doghouse, with a flap at the opening. there is always plenty of straw inside. there is free-choice food, and always water in the heated bowl. my wife now, because of the death (remember, my female was 14) thinks that leaving the 2 yr old outside in the winter in inhumane. it can get well below 0 in central vermont. i dont know anyone who bring thier beagles inside in the cold, but i do need good, honest educated opinions....please!
thank you..and please email me at keykeyrun2@aol.com
been there, heard it and still hear from some...i double up my hounds and make sure they have a flap and plenty of straw to help keep the body heat.(above ground kennels)..my single run hounds (ground runs) i will bring inside to a crate when it gets into the 20's here....if you have a dog house on the ground and you pack it with straw...the straw will still get wet when snow blows through or is tracked into the dog house by the dog....the snow will melt and then it can freeze up when the temp. drops...that makes it difficult for the dogs body heat to keep the dog house warm because the underlayers of the straw are frozen....you may need to replace the straw often...i just ran into this problem...i put my hand inside the dog house to see how warm it was inside when the dog is in it...air was warmer than outside..but i noticed that some of the straw was wet and some was frozen...didnt like that too much...brought my male inside tonight and have one that stays inside...i am concerned about the cold just like you....this is just my opinion....
Are you saying that your 14-yr old froze to death? That's a horrible way to die. While a 2-yr old dog is generally less likely to succumb to the elements than an elderly dog, you should also consider how many times the dogs were possbily a few hours of suffering away from death in the past. If it's cold enough to kill a 14-yd old, it's certainly cold enough to make a 2-yr old suffer greatly. I wouldn't leave a dog outside for even a few hours at near 0 temps unless it was keeping its body temperature up through exercise. Horses are tough SOBs, but they run around like crazy when its cold just to keep warm. A dog's instinct seems to curl up and try to keep warm that way. As it is, there's always the recommendation on the TV news to take pets indoors whenever the temp is going to remain in the 20s overnight.
You may want to buy two cheap outdoor thermometers and attach one to the inside of the doghouse (just make sure it's not somewhere where the dog can get at it and chew on it) and leave one outside to see exactly how much warmer the doghouse actually is. And if your straw is on the ground, you need to account for the fact that you may have moisture in the straw that is going to have a strong cooling effect on the dog. Water absorbs heat 4 times faster than air does.
Boomer, I didn't take him to say that his 14-year-old dog died from freezing to death. I took him to say she died because she was 14. They die at 14 years of age in the spring, summer and fall, too. They die at 14 yrs. of age in front of the sofa. You asked him to clarify how his dog died, and without giving him a chance to answer, you convicted him of something horrible and then painted an accusatory, graphic picture for everyone. This is the sort of thing the AR people thrive on. If I'm the only one that had a nerve hit with that response, I do sincerely apologize. Sometimes I read things that aren't there.
Hunting Beagles fare quite well in zero degree weather given a proper box and bedding. That's what that heavy undercoat the show folks pick off them is for. I can only assume you don't keep hunting beagles. I responded to this question on a different site. I will copy to here:
Steve S, One of the most common reasons for dying from the cold is dehydration. If they have decent shelter (a place out of the wind) and you have heated water bowls, then you'ved covered those bases. It gets pretty cold here - down to 6 degrees last Sunday not counting wind chill factor. We'll have occasional days of zero or a few degrees below before winter is out. We don't have heated bowls, but I carry fresh water to dogs of a morning and we pour lukewarm water over their food of an evening. They will eat the food and water at once. That way we know they are getting some water before it freezes again. Haven't had a problem so far. This would be a perfect time to get another beagle. They can cuddle for warmth and your two-year old could probably use the company now. Beagles are better in multiples. Good luck!
Steve sorry to hear that your 14yr old dog died.I feel you may have opened a big can of worms by asking advise from people who don't have a clue.I also was offened by the other post,your dog was old it's time was up.I have 7 dogs outside at this time ages 8 yrs to 14wks with temps the last few days with the wind chill well below -o and I don't even consider doing any thing different other then making sure there bedding is dry and give them some extra food I have had dogs a long time and never have lost one yet in the winter.So don't let what some of what these guys say make you do thing any different cause I'm sure you where doing just fine with providing food and shelter and dry bedding it was just time for your dog to go,and by bringing in the house might of just prolonged things futher and made the suffering harder to take.Pick and choose your free advise on this subject.
Most of us beaglers in Vt. keep our dogs in shelters where the temp gets nearly as cold as outside. I too find that if they have plenty of straw and can get out of the wind they should be fine. It's not even reseasonable to think that if we can't take the cold then a beagle can't. That's like saying, " I wouldn't run barefooted in the snow, why should my dog.' I have a friend who keeps his beagles inside ALL the time and they have more foot problems than you can imagine. Keep doing what your doing with plenty of straw. That's my 2 cents.
I live in southern Illinois and while we don't have the cold you do, there are many times we may have several weeks of sub-zero weather. I have a 15 year old that is in a pen by himself and a 13 year old that is doubled with another. I have never brought my hounds in due to cold weather and to this date, knock on wood, have never lost one due to cold. The main things to remember....feed a quality feed high in protein and fat and feed more during extreme cold as they will use more energy staying warm. Use well insulated houses, I use the igloo type and have had good luck with them. Keep water for them, whether with a heated bowl or give fresh several times a day. Finally, provide good bedding, straw is fine though as one post said, watch out for it freezing. I use cedar chips and have had good luck with that.
It is not inhumane to leave them out in the cold as some will tell you as long as you provide for them. You could do more harm by bringing them into your warm house and then putting them back outside when it gets above freezing. The drastic change in climates could cause health problems for them.
If you can't run with the BIG DOGS stay on the porch!
I apologize if I was unclear, but I did not "convict him of something horrible" or "accuse" him of anything. I asked for a clarification on how the dog died, because it was unclear in the email. I did not wait for a respone because some of my comments were based on the hypothetical "if" and/or simply used that scenario to start a discussion. It is my impression that this board is for information and discussion, and I thought my comments were relevant to the topic being discussed regardless of how true they were with respect to the original post. Just b/c this dog may not have died from the cold doesn't mean it's not worthwhile to point out that age can play a critical part in a dog's tolerance for the elements, that just because a dog doesn't die from the elements doesn't mean it hasn't suffered or been close to death, etc.
Also, I don't see where I painted a "graphic picture" of anything. As for your comment about "show breeders" - I've only had one beagle with any show pedigree and over a dozen other beagles, so I'm not basing my comments on show dogs. And to be brutally honest, the show-pedigreed beagle I had was the most tolerant one of them all. He took the heat far better than the rest and took the cold better than any except for one - who actually probably had the thinnest coat of them all but was just tough and very driven to being outside and scouring the property.
Boomer, I'm glad you responded. I value the input you give this board. I read and re-read your post and it just seemed you were pretty hard on the guy because his aged dog died. I can see where you may have been going with the "what if" but it didn't come thru on the post. I know sometimes when we type these responses, that a million thought processes that go through our heads never make it to the keyboard - only the high spots and sometimes they don't sound good. I do it a lot. If this board didn't have an edit feature I probably wouldn't have a friend in the world. That's why it's important that we keep communicating when we don't think our point is coming thru.
What makes it doubly hard is not knowing for sure how much dog experience each guest has. Ya don't want to insult an old-timer by giving basic advice, but as you did in your post, you don't want to risk not giving valuable information they may not have, either. Again, I apologize if i took it wrong.
Even for people who use emoticons, it's tough to convey emotions thru email/message boards. It's very tough to read someone's true feelings thru text. I did not mean to sound hard on him at all, nor was I even trying to be critical. I understood that even if the dog had died from exposure, it's not as if it were intentional, and plenty of us have done things that may have led/nearly led to the death of a dog. I just wanted to convey to any readers of the topic my opinions that (1) freezing to death is a horrible way to die, (2) very old/very young dogs are generally more susceptible to the cold, and (3) just because a dog hasn't died from exposure doesn't mean it hasn't suffered or come close in the past. Too many people think that just because Shooter has survived the past 8 winters, he'll survive this one, or that another dog should be able to live in the same conditions that Shooter did, or that just because Shooter is there to greet you after a cold night that he was ok with staying out in it. I wasn't going to start a new post topic about it, nor was I going to wait for someone to post a confirmed story about a dog freezing to death before saying anything.
Point very well taken. We had a conversation a while back about accidentally shooting one's own dog. It was a painful discussion, but I believe it did some good.
Now that we are talking some "what ifs", I wish someone would post about running their hounds close to ponds and rivers that are half frozen. It's that time of year again and I dread hearing about the hound or two that may fall through the ice and drown. Ya know, hazards are sometimes unavoidable - we know that whenever we free cast hounds, but somethings we can avoid with warnings from those who have experienced it. That same lovely pond with the cattails around it that holds a bounty of rabbits for us in the spring, summer and fall, can be a death trap in the winter. Time to run somewhere else.
im the original authur of the question. thank you all for your replies. they were all very thoughtfull, and for the most part, confirm that i am doing the right thing. to clarify a question, i doupt very much that my older dog died of the cold. it was in the high 20's when she died, and in a kennel with my other dog. i think that it was just her time. it didnt suprise me, but was sad all the same. my wife, who has good intentions and no beagle education, was concerned about ourside dogs. i do respect her emotions, and appreciate all who replied, with no exeptions. all the responces are printed for her to read. best to all......
im steve from vermont, and just had my 14yr old female beagle die. i also have a healthy 2 yr old. they are (were) kept outside in a pen, with a good, insulated doghouse, with a flap at the opening. there is always plenty of straw inside. there is free-choice food, and always water in the heated bowl. my wife now, because of the death (remember, my female was 14) thinks that leaving the 2 yr old outside in the winter in inhumane. it can get well below 0 in central vermont. i dont know anyone who bring thier beagles inside in the cold, but i do need good, honest educated opinions....please!
That's why it's important that we keep communicating when we don't think our point is coming thru. 