dog can't breathe

[nb11]

concerning a 6 yr old gyp.
I ran her with a couple other dogs two days ago with no problems.
took her today with three other dogs and she was having a hard time breathing. I have a dog box in the back of an old SUV and I heard panting on the way out hunting, but it wasn't so much panting that any red flags went up. We got to the field and dropped the dogs. No red flags. But minutes into the hunt, the gyp started panting pretty heavy....enough to take notice, but not concerned. Most of my dogs will pant or wheeze on a rare occasion. But the longer we were there, the more she dragged. I lost sight of the dogs in the brush. They started to circle a rabbit and she wasn't with them....when she is normally about the second dog. So, I went looking. she was walking very slowly with labored breathing and a blue/purple tongue. I loosened her shock collar for good measure thinking maybe I had it a notch or two too tight, but I know that wasn't it.
We were an hour away from home, and further than that, yet, from the vet. We loaded the dogs and started home. The place where we were didn't have any good streams for the dogs to drink out of, so we stopped at a bridge along the way and let them get a drink. She was still panting, but not near as bad.
Til we got home, she seemed relatively normal. The vet wouldn't have been around that late on a Saturday, so I was willing to leave it go until Monday.

She's had nothing new that I can think of to create any allergic reaction. Same food. No injury that I could see.

Any ideas????

thanks guys.
be careful out there.

[TC]

on heartworm Meds??????
How is her weight???
High protein Food???

[nb11]

To make it a bit more confusing...
I have been busy and haven't had her out since this happened on Saturday.
I finally got her out today. Ran her and two other dogs. perfectly fine. have no idea what her problem was the other day.
is there such a thing as a dog having an allergic reaction to something that was at that farm? That is the first time we'd ever been there, and the only time she's ever acted up like that. I didn't exactly think she was going to die, but I thought she was in rough shape.

thanks

[TC]

It could have been we have one that has an allergic reaction to sagebroom she will have labored breathing like her throat and nose swell up and can't get air.

[nb11]

how did you narrow it down to sage broom? did you have help of a doctor, or did you just figure it out on your own?

[TC]

figured it out on our own, it was the only item that was different in the area we normally ran, only thing was it was in bloom and had a lot of pollen when ever you went through the stuff it would just stick to you. And the issue always occurred when the race went into the sage broom area when in bloom, and then she would develop the issue and would last until the next day. If we stayed out of that stuff no problems.

[carl ellis]

did you happen to feed before you took them out?

[nb11]

may sound dumb.... I don't know if I fed her or not. Looking back at my original post, that was nearly two months ago when it happened. Depending on the plans for the day, I do not have the same routine for the dogs. The further I am going to be away from home, and the longer I plan to hunt them that day, I usually feed first thing in the morning before I get everything else ready to go. that gives food a bit of time to settle. If I am going close to home, I usually don't feed, as I will most likely be home for lunch before going out in the afternoon. I can give the dogs a small snack at that time.
I don't recall if I gave them food that morning or not, but I would bet that I did, as we were a distance from home that day and planned on hunting a good while.

for conversations sake... lets say I did feed her. I know I have fed her before hunting before and since, but have had no issues.