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Dog injuries, sicknesses and extreme stress

How can sick, injured or exhausted dogs love running?


Statistics tell sad stories

Lung damage

Stomach Ulcers

Iditarod exhausts dogs

Dogs suffer from extreme stress

Kidney toxicity and kidney failure

Reduction of antioxidant levels

Airborne fecal material makes dogs sick

Dogs foam from profuse sweat in freezing weather

Dogs have trouble sleeping in bitter cold

Dogs commonly get sick

Dogs are more susceptible to illness in the winter

Contagious viruses spread at checkpoints

Mushers start race with sick dogs

Sick dogs not responding to medicines

List of many dog injuries and sicknesses

Mushers force sick dogs to race

Dogs face hypothermia and frostbite hazards


Warm weather hazards and stresses for the dogs

Dogs get sick from eating spoiled food

Damage to dogs may appear after race

Diminished repair of damaged connective tissue

Dogs in pain prompt musher/physician to give up Iditarod

Dogs who vomit while racing are at high risk for illness and death

Dogs behind front-runners have greater risk of getting sick

Dogs become dehydrated

Dogs refuse to eat

Iditarod wants dogs weakened from sickness to keep racing

Harnesses encourage sick or injured dogs to pull

Booties don't protect dogs' paws

Did animal urine and feces contaminate dog food?

Straw used for bedding can be very dangerous for dogs


How can sick, injured or exhausted dogs love running?


Craig Medred, outdoors columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, told Weekly Reader Current Events (3/3/06), "It's pretty hard to imagine the enthusiasm these dogs have for racing...."

But dogs feel pain just like humans do. They are not machines.

How can dogs be enthusiastic about running when they're sick, injured or exhausted?


Do you think these dog are enthusiastic about running in the Iditarod?

"Brutal winds and temperatures to 20 degrees below zero were terrorizing those who hadn't yet made it through Rainy Pass."

"Wind chill temperatures were pushing down to 55 to 60 degrees below zero."

"Conditions were so grim dog teams hoping to continue down the Iditarod Trail were having a hard time just getting out of this checkpoint Monday night and early this morning. They struggled in the dark, wind and cold."


- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 6, 2007

[Read the information on this page about frostbite.]


"'(The winds) literally picked your whole team up and threw them off the trail.'"


- Musher Donald Smidt talking about the 2007 Iditarod
- Carlos Muñoz, Fond du Lac Reporter, December 30, 2007


Statistics tell sad stories

Dogs who couldn't make it across Iditarod finish line:


Year Number of dogs starting race Number of dogs finishing race Number of dogs not finishing race Percentage of dogs not finishing race
2002 1,024 524 500 49%
2003 1,024 381 643 63%
2004 1,391 734 657 47%
2005 1,264 585 679 54%
2006 1,328 737 591 45%
2007 1,308 564 744 57%
2008 1,517 807 710 47%
2009 1,072 575 497 46%
2010 1,136 550 586 52%

Average percentage of dogs not finishing race from 2002 to 2010: 51%
[We are rarely told what happened to these dogs.]


Race officials encouraged injured musher to continue racing tired and sick dogs
:

"Coming into the Ruby checkpoint, 615 miles from Anchorage and just under 500 from Nome, Madsen had just come through a hard run along the Yukon. He and his team had endured miles of fighting 50 mph sustained winds with gust up to 75 mph. There were places the trail was blown out.

Madsen was burned out, and the dogs were not rested. He knew they were going slowly.

Some of the dogs had been sick with diarrhea and treated at a prior checkpoint. They showed little spark after that.

Battling the winds, Madsen could practically see their body fat melting off. Not only that, the sled hit a stump on the trail forcing Madsen's upper body into the handles. An X-ray at a later checkpoint revealed a rib broken in several places."

"After two or three hours of sleep, some food and a pep talk from race officials, he felt he could go on." [Emphasis added]

- Kay Richardson, The Columbian, April 16, 2006


Dogs who finished Iditarod with lung damage:

According to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in 2002, 81 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have lung damage.

Year Number of dogs finishing race Number of finishing dogs with lung damage
2002 524 424
2003 381 309
2004 734 595
2005 585 474
2006 737 597
2007 564 457
2008 807 654
2009 575 466
2010 550 446

- Statistics come from data on Iditarod website


Dogs who finshed Iditarod with ulcers or ulcerations:

According to a study published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 2005, 61 percent of the dogs who finish the race have ulcers or ulcerations compared to zero percent before the race.

Year Number of dogs finishing race Number of finishing dogs with ulcers or ulcerations
2002 524 320
2003 381 232
2004 734 448
2005 585 357
2006 737 450
2007 564 344
2008 807 492
2009 575 351
2010 550 336

- Statistics come from data on Iditarod website


Dogs who finished Iditarod with lung damage AND ulcers or ulcerations:

Using the above mentioned studies, each year from 42 percent to 61 percent of the dogs finish the Iditarod with lung damage AND ulcers or ulcerations.

Year Number of dogs finishing race Number range of finishing dogs with lung damage AND ulcers or ulcerations (42% to 61%)
2002 524 220 to 320
2003 381 160 to 232
2004 734 308 to 448
2005 585 246 to 357
2006 737 310 to 450
2007 564 237 to 344
2008 807 339 to 492
2009 575 242 to 351
2010 550 231 to 336


Lung damage

81 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have lung damage:

"To investigate, the team of researchers examined the airways of 59 sled dogs 24 to 48 hours after they completed the long and arduous race. Their findings are published in the September issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The researchers found that 81% of the canines had "abnormal accumulations" of mucus or cellular debris in their lower airways. This accumulation was classified as moderate to severe in nearly half of the animals, according to the report. There was no evidence that the lung damage could be due to bacterial infection, the authors note. Instead, they say, it was likely caused by cooling and drying out of peripheral airway passages, resulting in injury and inflammation."


- Reuters Health,Tue Oct 8, 2002, 2:17 PM ET


Airway dysfunction persists despite 4 months of rest:

"CONCLUSIONS: Racing Alaskan sled dogs have airway dysfunction similar to 'ski asthma' that persists despite having 4 months of rest. These findings suggest that repeated exercise in cold conditions can lead to airway disease that does not readily resolve with cessation of exercise."

- Davis M, Williamson K, McKenzie E, Royer C, Payton M, Nelson S., "Effect of training and rest on respiratory mechanical properties in racing sled dogs." Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 2005 Feb;37(2):337-41 on PubMed website.


Stomach Ulcers


Serious stomach ulcers from racing as little as 100 miles:


"I reviewed a recent study about gastrointestinal damage resulting from training and racing sled dogs which appeared in a well-respected veterinary journal. Two of the more interesting conclusions presented were:

Training alone, without the additional stress of racing, results in significant, measurable gastrointestinal damage. 

and

Serious stomach ulcers and other significant, measurable gastrointestinal damage results from racing as little as 100 miles."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, President, Association of Veterinarians for Animals Rights
- Email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition on December 17, 2006



Stories of dogs with stomach ulcers:

"But the dog [Mark] was in bad shape. He was dehydrated and hypothermic. His gums were white, indicating anemia and possible shock, [Lannie] Hamilton said."

"A few minutes after the vets administered the IV, Mark vomited three liters of blood. Hamilton said that was an indication the dog likely had a bleeding stomach ulcer."


- Lannie Hamilton is a veterinarian in Wasilla, AK
- Mark is one of DeeDee Jonrowe's dogs
- Paula Dobbyn, Anchorage Daily News, March 13, 2002



"I had a dog that was just doing this horrible, projectile vomiting. It turned out it was an ulcer."

- Diana Dronenburg Moroney, Iditarod musher
- Freedman, Lew. More Iditarod Classics, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 2004


Jonrowe's dog Mark dies from surgery to repair his ulcer:

"The Iditarod Trail Committee was notified today by Musher Dee Dee Jonrowe that her lead dog Mark died during surgery to repair a stomach ulcer."

- Iditarod Race Advisory, Iditarod website, March 15, 2002


- Dan, a 3 year old dog dies; ulcers are found in his stomach:

"Race officials said preliminary findings of a necropsy performed on the 3-year-old male named Dan showed fluid in the lungs."

- Associated Press, March 12, 2001


"Preliminary aspects of the necropsy have been completed on Dan..."

"The dog's death was determined to have been caused by pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs. The only other significant abnormalities observed included a decrease in esophageal and gastric (stomach) muscle tone combined with gastric ulcerations."

- Iditarod website, March 10, 2001


Backen's dog dies from blood loss associated with ulcers:

Preliminary findings of a necropsy indicate the 7-year-old male [Takk] died of blood loss associated with gastric ulcers, according to race officials.

- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, March 16, 2004


Dr Jim Lanier's dog Cupid dies from ulcers:

"The gross necropsy performed on Cupid, a 4 year old female from the team of Jim Lanier's that died on March 12 has been completed. The cause of death appears likely to be the result of regurgitation and aspiration, secondary to the presence of gastric ulcers."

- Iditarod Advisory Update, Iditarod website, March 13, 2006


Ken Anderson's dog has a bleeding ulcer:

"It was pretty scary. He had a bleeding ulcer. I've never seen that before. I stopped and he vomited a big pool of blood."

- Ken Anderson talking about his sick dog
- Interview with Gabriel Spitzer, Alaska Public Radio Network, website, March 9, 2006


Karen Ramstead's dog Snickers died from acute hemorrhage due to a gastric ulcer:

"A gross necropsy was performed on Snickers, a six and a half year old female in the team of Karen Ramstead. Preliminary indications showed that Snickers expired as a result of and acute hemorrhage due to a gastric ulcer."


- Iditarod Advisory, Iditarod website, March 14, 2006


Other dogs who died from having ulcers



Bruce Linton's dog has black and tarry stools - a sign of an ulcer

"I rested there about five hours and was about to leave when I noticed a stool that was black and tarry next to one of my lead dogs Possum."

- Bruce Linton, Iditarod Journals, 2007



High incidence of ulcers in Iditarod dogs:


"A pilot study of dogs that were either dropped from the 2000 Iditarod Sled Dog Race because of illness or that finished the race indicated that, approximately 5 days after competing, 10 of 28 dogs (35%) had endoscopic evidence of gastric ulceration, erosion, or hemorrhage. The next year, an endoscopic study of 73 dogs participating in the 2001 Iditarod race was performed in order to evaluate a larger population of dogs. Data from 70 of these dogs could be used; 34 (48.5%) had ulceration, erosion, gastric hemorrhage, or some combination of these findings. When this group of 70 dogs was compared retrospectively to a control group of 87 dogs presented to the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, the Iditarod sled dogs had a significantly higher prevalence (P = .049) of gastric lesions."

- Davis MS, Willard MD, Nelson SL, Mandsager RE, McKiernan BS, Mansell JK, Lehenbauer TW, "Prevalence of gastric lesions in racing Alaskan sled dogs." Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2003 May-Jun;17(3):311-4, article abstract on National Library of Medicine website

- Erosion is "an eating away, destruction of the surface of a tissue, material or structure."
- On-line Medical dictionary

- "P" means P-value, which is "the probability (ranging from zero to one) that the results observed in a study (or results more extreme) could have occurred by chance. Convention is that we accept a p value of 0.05 or below as being statistically significant."
- Bandolier, a journal about evidence-based healthcare, written by Oxford scientists, website article


- High incidence of ulcers in Iditarod dogs caused by NSAIDs:

Many Iditarod dogs have gastric ulcers and some have died from this condition. Ulcers predispose the dogs to vomiting. Normally, the trachea closes the airway so that foreign material does not enter the lungs. But because these dogs run at such high speeds for such a long period of time, they cannot stop gasping for air despite the vomiting. Consequently, dogs inhale the vomit into their lungs which causes suffocation and death.

According to Michael Matz, a highly regarded expert in gastrointestinal disorders in small animals, the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is the most common cause of gastrointestinal ulceration in small animals (Kirk's Current Veterinary Therapy XII- Small Animal Practice). Aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen are just some of the NSAIDs that cause ulcers. These drugs reduce swelling, inflammation, relieve pain and fever, which allows the dogs to run farther and faster. Unfortunately, some dogs pay with their lives for the use
of these drugs.


- High incidence of ulcers in Iditarod dogs caused by stress:

Andrea Floyd-Wilson: "What are they thinking is the cause that these dogs are getting, and it really seems like a very high number of them do get ulcers?"

Dr. Paula Kislak: "That's correct. And it's almost universally known to be as a result of the amount of stress that they endure and the medication they're given. Just like people under extreme stress develop ulcers. This is the exact same etiology or cause in these dogs as well."


- On February 23, 2003, Andrea Floyd-Wilson, the host of All About Animals Radio Show, interviewed Margery Glickman, Director of the Sled Dog Action Coalition, and Paula Kislak, DVM, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights.


- Sustained strenuous exercise associated with 61 percent ulcer rate postrace compared to zero percent prerace:


"Sustained strenuous exercise was associated with an increased frequency of gastric erosions or ulcerations seen endoscopically (0% prerace versus 61% postrace). A significant postrace increase occurred in the median lactulose to rhamnose ratio in both serum and urine (0.11 versus 0.165, P = .0363; 0.11 versus 0.165, P = .0090, respectively). No significant differences were found in median serum or urinary sucrose concentrations when pre- and postrace values were compared. No correlation was found between visible gastric lesions and the concentration of sucrose in serum or urine samples obtained 4-5 hours after administration of the sugar solutions. We conclude that sustained strenuous exercise is associated with increased intestinal permeability, but the sucrose permeability test as we performed it did not correlate with visible gastric lesions."

- Davis MS, Willard MD, Williamson KK, Steiner JM, Williams DA. "Sustained strenuous exercise increases intestinal permeability in racing Alaskan sled dogs." Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 2005 Jan-Feb;19(1):34-9, article abstract on National Library of Medicine website

[The sucrose permeability test is used to detect ulcerations in dogs.]

[Increased intestinal permeablity also known as Leaky Gut or Leaky Gut Syndrome (LGS) results from an overly-permeable intestinal lining with spaces between the cells of the gut wall. These spaces allow “foreign” material (bacteria, toxins and food) to leak into the body where they should not be, placing an additional burden on the immune and detoxification systems.]



Iditarod exhausts dogs

"As late as the Elim checkpoint on the coast, only about 130 miles from the finish, he still held out hope for that small trophy [a belt buckle]. El Toro was still pulling six teammates along the trail. El Toro, John [Stewart] confessed, was doing almost all of the work.

It was on Thursday, on the march up and over a 1,000-foot mountain mushers call "Little McKinley" to White Mountain on soft trail in the heat of the day Thursday, when El Toro finally wore out."


- Every musher who finishes the Iditarod gets a belt buckle.
- Craig Medred, Alaska Dispatch, March 20, 2010


"He’s feeling good, he [Jeff King] said moments before stepping on the runners of his sled, but his dogs are tired."

- Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News - The Sled Blog, March 13, 2010


"Libby Riddles mushed her weary dog team into Nome today and became the first woman to win the arduous 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race."

- UPI, The New York Times, March 21, 1985


"There they lay, whimpering, licking their paws. Too tired to eat; too tired, even, to sleep."

- The author is talking about Rick Mackey's dogs when they reached Nome.
- Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, February 5, 1984


"Too tired even to bark, his huskies settled on their haunches, tongues lolling, and waited expectantly as the musher hacked apart a mammoth chunk of beef, tossed the red meat into the steaming pot, then added fish meal, tallow, dried dog food, and powdered vitamin compound."

- The author is talking about Eep Anderson's tired dogs.
- Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, February 5, 1984


"The dogs start getting -- at this point they're getting to the point where they're going to be falling asleep," [Emmitt] Peters said. "Just like the mushers -- they get tired, overtired."

- Emmitt Peters won the Iditarod in 1975
- Jason Lamb, KTUU-TV, KTUU.com, March 12, 2010


Dogs suffer from anemia:

-- Enzymatic and electrolyte imbalances create anemia:

"There are all kinds of enzymatic and electrolyte imbalances that create a decreased ability to form connective which is very important in repairing the damage done during the races. It also creates anemia."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, president of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights
- - Her remarks were made on the Animal Voices radio show, Toronto, Canada on February 28, 2006



"A race lasting 12-15 d[days] depressed activities for both plasma ceruloplasmin and erythrocyte superoxide dismutase in dogs consuming commercial dog foods and meats. A shorter, 3-d[day] training run for dogs fed a commercial balanced diet also depressed ceruloplasmin activities but not superoxide dismutase activities. Dogs fed the same diet but that did not run showed no changes in either parameter. Activities of a third copper enzyme, plasma diamine oxidase, also decreased after a 3-d[day] training run. In summary, blood activities of three copper enzymes were depressed by sustained strenuous exercise in sled dogs.

-
DiSilvestro RA, Hinchcliff KW, Blostein-Fujiia. "Sustained strenuous exercise in sled dogs depresses three blood copper enzyme activities." Biological Trace Element Research. 2005 Summer;105(1-3):87-96

-- Anemia is a sign of copper deficiency
:

According to the National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture & Natural Resources, copper is a helper in enzymatic reactions. "The function of copper includes: Connective tissue formation; iron metabolism; blood cell formation; melanin pigment formation; myelin formation; defense against oxidative damage. Anemia is a sign of a copper deficiency."

- Board on Agriculture & Natural Resources, National Academy of Sciences, website, 2005


-- Training and racing (exercising) cause anemia:

"Research based on racing sled dogs published in the March 15, 2008 Journal of the AVMA states: 'anemia of moderate severity was present after exercise' and 'training and racing caused progressive decreases in RBC counts.' It goes on to clarify that 'Both training and exercise caused significant decreases in PCV and hemoglobin concentration' and that 'acute blood loss secondary to gastrointestinal tract bleeding was likely responsible for the decrease in PCV.'

PCV and hemoglobin are measurements of red blood cell levels and their reductions have very real and detrimental consequences for dogs because, just when the greatest athletic burden is laid on them, their oxygen carrying capacity and other critical systemic functions are failing.

Reference is made to the fact that there was reported a dramatically significant '10% decrease in hemoglobin concentration during the Iditarod sled dog race and a 14% decrease in PCV during a 170 mile exercise.' The researchers go on to say 'we believe the exercise-induced decrease in RBC count was related to blood loss. Exercising sled dogs are known to have a predisposition to gastrointestinal ulceration.'

They further claim 'It is noteworthy that serum protein, albumin and globulin concentrations follow a similar pattern during exercise, providing further support for blood loss as the cause of exercise- induced RBC loss.'

And while red blood cells were diminishing, this research also proved that white blood cells were increasing as a result of training and exercising. Although this may sound good, it is not. The mechanism but which various populations of white blood cells increased in this study indicates an extreme stress reaction. This is not surprising since it has been elucidated in many other studies as well, including one that showed 'serum cortisol concentration was increased in sled dogs.'

[How many studies does it take (30 were referenced in this article alone), before we say enough is enough? Repeatedly there are demonstrations of the harmful and fatal consequences of sled dog training and racing. We need to proclaim that tradition and financial gain are not good enough reasons to subject dogs to such unacceptably high risks.]"


- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, president, Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, email to Sled Dog Action Coalition, May 18, 2008


Exhausted dogs may rather sleep than eat:

"Iditarod dogs have to consume enormous amounts of food during the course of the race. Recent studies have shown that a 50-pound sled dog can burn more than 10,000 calories a day while distance racing.

Yet, after running for six-hour stretches, if a dog’s dinner isn’t extremely enticing, they may decide to curl up and sleep rather than eat, and once that happens it’s the beginning of the end for that mushers chances of making it all the way."


- Joseph Robertia, Kenai Peninsula, March 5, 2006



Dogs suffer from extreme stress

Cortisol levels elevated by as much as 900 percent:

"A recently published study out of the Ohio State University clearly demonstrated the stressful conditions under which sled dogs labor. The researchers measured cortisol which is widely recognized as the major hormone that is released from the adrenal glands in response to extreme stress. They found that in dogs who raced as few as 260 miles, the cortisol levels were elevated by as much as 900 percent! At levels of just a fraction of these, serious complications that degrade a dog's immune system and deteriorate his overall health are know to regularly occur."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, email to the Sled Dog Action Coaliton on March 1, 2007


Study in 2004: dogs stressed after 500 miles:

"'Dogs get sick, especially because of stress,'" [Manjo] Pastey said. 'Without globulins, they can't fight diseases and they could pass them onto other dogs in the race. The lower the globulins, the worse it is.'

The new project stems from a previous 2004 research endeavor which featured running dogs in a simulated 500-mile race. One notable finding of the study was a significant decrease in the dog's blood globulin levels during the event."

"'Sled dogs have comparatively low globulin levels during training, and those levels fall considerably during racing,' [Erica] McKenzie said in a press release."


- Professor Manjo Pastey and Professor Erica McKenzie are working on a study based upon the 2004 research findings. Both are associated with the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State University.
- Katie Thorn,
The Daily Barometer, March 9, 2007


Sleep deprivation causes extreme stress:

Margery Glickman: "Dogs like to sleep a lot. And, maybe Dr. Kislak would like to speak about it. My understanding is that the average dog likes to sleep anywhere from 14 to 18 hours a day."

Dr. Paula Kislak: "Yes, that's correct. If we are going all the way back into the instinctual behavior of dogs, they sleep all day and hunt for maybe two to four, maximum six hours in the evening. The rest of the time is spent in the cave cleaning and sleeping. I certainly have found in my practice and with my own animals that that's probably an overestimation of the amount of time they'd really like to be sleeping. They'd really like to be sleeping much more, obviously, since they don't have to hunt. They'll typically sleep anywhere from 14 to 20 hours in a day. Which brings up the point that when the musher is sleeping [while the dogs race], of course, the dogs are not able to sleep. Not only does that create extreme stress and exertion on the dogs, but, also leads to accidents where the dogs do get strangled by the towlines and gouged by the sleds. It's completely irresponsible behavior."

- On February 23, 2003, Andrea Floyd-Wilson, the host of All About Animals Radio Show, interviewed Margery Glickman, Director of the Sled Dog Action Coalition, and Paula Kislak, DVM, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights.


"Runyan's thinking was that if the teams did their 24-hour rests there [at the Ruby checkpoint], they would be able resume the race with so much energy restored that they could catch any teams that might pass during the layover. The strategy didn't work. Runyan took so much out of his dogs that they ended up getting sick."

- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 12, 2004


Stress causes dog to lose fur:

"The McGrath vet blamed Rock's hair loss on stress." "Rock was shivering under her thinning coat, putting the dog at risk if the weather turned bad."

- O'Donoghue, Brain Patrick. My Lead Dog was a Lesbian, New York: Vintage Books, 1996
-
O'Donoghue was a reporter with the Fairbanks News-Miner



Stress causes vomiting and diarrhea:

"The inherently stressful conditions of endurance races like the Iditarod predispose dogs to vomit and and have diarrhea while racing."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, September 7, 2004 email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition


Training and racing (exercising) causes stress:

"Research based on racing sled dogs published in the March 15, 2008 Journal of the AVMA states: 'anemia of moderate severity was present after exercise' and 'training and racing caused progressive decreases in RBC counts.' It goes on to clarify that 'Both training and exercise caused significant decreases in PCV and hemoglobin concentration' and that 'acute blood loss secondary to gastrointestinal tract bleeding was likely responsible for the decrease in PCV.'

PCV and hemoglobin are measurements of red blood cell levels and their reductions have very real and detrimental consequences for dogs because, just when the greatest athletic burden is laid on them, their oxygen carrying capacity and other critical systemic functions are failing.

Reference is made to the fact that there was reported a dramatically significant '10% decrease in hemoglobin concentration during the Iditarod sled dog race and a 14% decrease in PCV during a 170 mile exercise.' The researchers go on to say 'we believe the exercise-induced decrease in RBC count was related to blood loss. Exercising sled dogs are known to have a predisposition to gastrointestinal ulceration.'

They further claim 'It is noteworthy that serum protein, albumin and globulin concentrations follow a similar pattern during exercise, providing further support for blood loss as the cause of exercise- induced RBC loss.'

And while red blood cells were diminishing, this research also proved that white blood cells were increasing as a result of training and exercising. Although this may sound good, it is not. The mechanism but which various populations of white blood cells increased in this study indicates an extreme stress reaction. This is not surprising since it has been elucidated in many other studies as well, including one that showed 'serum cortisol concentration was increased in sled dogs.'

[How many studies does it take (30 were referenced in this article alone), before we say enough is enough? Repeatedly there are demonstrations of the harmful and fatal consequences of sled dog training and racing. We need to proclaim that tradition and financial gain are not good enough reasons to subject dogs to such unacceptably high risks.]"


- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, president Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, email to Sled Dog Action Coalition, May 18, 2008


Kidney toxicity and kidney failure

Dogs at greater risk for kidney toxicity and kidney failure:

"Exercise is associated with an increase in the production of oxidants that may be instrumental in the development of exertional rhabdomyolysis."

- Hinchcliff KW, Constable PD, DiSilvestro, RA, "Muscle injury and antioxidant status in sled dogs competing in a long-distance sled dog race." Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology, Vol 1, Number 1, February 2004, pp 81-85



"Exertional rhabdomyolysis occurs when exercise, often of the eccentric type, damages myofibrils and sarcolemma, with release of the enzyme creatine kinase and pigmented myoglobin into the serum. Severe muscle soreness and dark urine are the hallmark symptoms, and renal failure may develop."

- Hammer R, South Med Journal, May 1990 (5): 548-51


"Exertional rhabdomyolysis is known to cause a form of kidney toxicity and subsequent failure."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, President, Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition, May 24, 2007



Reduction of antioxidant levels

Racing reduces a dog's level of antioxidants:

"We conclude that completion of a long-distance sled dog race involving prolonged and repeated submaximal exercise results in a reduction in enzymatic antioxidant activity in the blood of sled dogs."

- Hinchcliff KW, Constable PD, DiSilvestro, RA, "Muscle injury and antioxidant status in sled dogs competing in a long-distance sled dog race." Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology, Vol 1, Number 1, February 2004, pp 81-85


What are antioxidants?

"Antioxidants protect the body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals. Many experts believe this damage is a factor in the development of blood vessel disease (atherosclerosis), cancer, and other conditions."

- Webmd website article, May 24, 2007


Airborne fecal material makes dogs sick

"The inherently stressful conditions of endurance races like the Iditarod predispose dogs to vomit and have diarrhea while racing. Loose fecal material flying into the faces of dogs behind induces serious occular, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections with such virulent organisms as E. coli and Salmonella."

- Dr. Paula Kislak
, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, September 7, 2004 email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition


Dog poo constantly in the air:


"Because the dogs never stop running, they poo on the go and the poo bounces up into your face when they run through it, so you're constantly dodging these little poo pellets...."


- Mike Rowe, "Dirty Jobs" program, April 12, 2009

[From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: It's unlikely that the dogs know they should dodge poo pellets or that they are able to do it while running and breathing heavily. As described above, loose poo pellets flying into the faces of dogs can cause infections. Noteworthy: It's abnormal for dogs to run while they defecate.]



Dogs foam from profuse sweat in freezing weather


"[Ramy] Brooks came in at 5:10 p.m., his dogs looking tired and lathered."

[From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: According to Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, lathered means "foam or froth from profuse sweat."]

- Mark Downey, Great Falls Tribune, March 12, 2002


Dogs have trouble sleeping in bitter cold


"When they got to Cripple to take their 24-hour break, the thermometer plunged to 50 degrees below zero. That made it more difficult for Swingley and his dogs to get a long, comfortable rest...."


- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 16, 2006


Back to the top


Dogs commonly get sick

" Some [mushers] were also fretting over dogs beginning to catch the inevitable stomach bugs."

- Jon Little, Cabelas website, March 8, 2004
-
Little was a reporter with the Anchorage Daily News and was and Iditarod musher


"Many mushers are reporting that their dogs are ill from tainted food or other causes, not an uncommon occurrence."

- Mark Downey, Great Falls Tribune, March 7, 2002



"[Arne Oddvar] Nilsen said, ...Bedding down where other teams have been before is increasing the risk of being infected."

- Nilsen discussing musher Sorlie's main concern of avoiding his dogs getting any gastric infection from other teams
- Nilsen is a member of the board of the 1,000-kilometer Finnmarkslopet
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 7, 2003



"'My dogs always get sick. It just seems I can't get it right on the Iditarod,' [Hans] Gatt said."

- Maureen Clark, Associated Press, March 6, 2002


"'Linwood's just had sick dogs, " Kathy Fiedler said."


- Kathy Fiedler talking about her husband's sick dogs
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 9, 2002



"The former Wisconsin resident [Todd Capistrant] who moved to Alaska this year scratched in 2003 when his dogs got sick with vomiting and diarrhea."

- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, March 7, 2004


"One of the factors in a long distance race is doggy diarrhea. Every year, there is some new stomach bug that circulates through the dog teams. It can't be helped with 79 dog teams converging on one narrow trail from all over the world. This year is no exception."

- Jon Little, Cabela's website, March 9, 2005
Little formerly wrote for the Anchorage Daily News



Dogs get sick from racing as little as 500 miles:

"'Dogs get sick, especially because of stress,'" [Manjo] Pastey said. 'Without globulins, they can't fight diseases and they could pass them onto other dogs in the race. The lower the globulins, the worse it is.'

The new project stems from a previous 2004 research endeavor which featured running dogs in a simulated 500-mile race. One notable finding of the study was a significant decrease in the dog's blood globulin levels during the event."

"'Sled dogs have comparatively low globulin levels during training, and those levels fall considerably during racing,' [Erica] McKenzie said in a press release."


- Professor Manjo Pastey and Professor Erica McKenzie are working on a study based upon the 2004 research findings. Both are associated with the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State University.
- Katie Thorn, The Daily Barometer, March 9, 2007



Dogs are more susceptible to illness in the winter

"In the wintertime, dogs are more susceptible to illness."

- Article by Petplace.com veterinarians, Petplace.com website, October, 2003


"Like people, animals seem to be more susceptible to illness in the winter."

- Oak Ridge Humane Society, ASPCA article, Oak Ridge Humane Society website, 2003


"Like people, dogs and cats are more susceptible to illnesses in the winter."

- Charles E. Brown, The Seattle Times, January 10, 2007



Contagious viruses spread at checkpoints

"[Rodney] Whaley's team, which had dropped from 16 to 13 dogs, became ill near the halfway point of the race. He suspects the dogs picked up a virus after reaching Ophir, the 11th of 23 checkpoints."

- Mike Organ, Gannett Tennessee, The Daily News Journal, March 13, 2008



"Another checkpoint complication is canine virus. Like children bringing home sickness from school, dogs from one part of the state (or from other states) may become ill when exposed to new viruses as they congregate."

- Hood, Mary. A Fan's Guide to the Iditarod, Loveland: Alpine Publications, 1996



"Many mushers in the back of the Iditarod pack have reported sick dogs. Veterinarians say it is easy for an infection to get passed because so many of the teams camp and feed in the same areas at checkpoints."


- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 11, 2003


Mushers start race with sick dogs


"He [veterinarian Terry Adkins] saw very little diarrhea along the trial from the ceremonial start Saturday, he said, adding though that John Barron of Helmville told him his dogs had it. Loose stools are a sign of ill health. Sled dogs relieve their bowels on the run."

[From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: Because the dogs "relieve their bowels on the run," it is likely that the dogs running in back of those who were stricken with diarrhea inhaled this fecal material. The bacterial material it contains could cause infection and death. Sick dogs should be pulled out of the race.]


- Mark Downey, Great Falls Tribune, March 4, 2002


"Alto, one of my experienced leaders and especially important to the team started to slow with his head low. He was in obvious distress. Only 5 miles from the start I had to stop and put him in the sled bag with severe stomach cramps. He was very sick."

"I had Alto checked by the vets in Yenta.... But when the vet checked him, she noticed he couldn't stand without hunching his back. We surmised that he may have been accidentally poisoned, perhaps automotive coolant leaked where he could reach it.
"

- James Warren, Iditarod '06 Journal, published on the Internet



"One of his dogs caught a virus three days before the start and it went dog-to-dog through his team through the first two-thirds of the race, he [John Barron] said."

- Mark Downey, Great Falls Tribune, March 14, 2002



"Zirkle, of Two Rivers, limped along the trail Tuesday morning with an ailing dog team. A few of her dogs got sick just before the race, and the bug has spread through her entire team she said."

- Aliy Zirkle, musher in 2001 Iditarod
- Elizabeth Manning, Anchorage Daily News, March 8, 2001


"Two of his [Bartlett's] veteran dogs were unable to keep running." "Bartlett suspects the dogs were suffering from a virus. They had not wanted to eat since the ceremonial start Saturday in Anchorage...."

- Rachel D'Oro, Associated Press, Wednesday, March 5, 2003
[In 2003, the Iditarod restart was in Fairbanks on Monday, March 3, two days after the Anchorage ceremonial start. According to the AP report, Barlett's dogs raced for at least three days even though they were too sick to eat.]


"One dog had a cough the day the race started and that illness spread through the team, he said."

- Terry Adkins, DVM, discussing musher Karen Land's dogs
- Mark Downey, Great Falls Tribune, March 8, 2003


"Even on Fourth Avenue [in Anchorage] I had two dogs coughing." We spent the night in Wasilla, and there were five dogs coughing and hacking."

- Aliy Zirkle, Iditarod musher
- Freedman, Lew. More Iditarod Classics, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 2004


"Jim, March 3: The dogs are feeling pretty poorly. Some are not eating with what looks to be some kind of intestinal bug."

- Jim Warren talking about his dogs before the March 6 start of the 2004 Iditarod.
- Warren, James and Warren, Christopher. Following My Father's Dream, James and Christopher Warren, 2005


Sick dogs not responding to medicines

Susan Butcher's dogs not helped by medications:

"Not so lucky was the trail virus picked up by her dogs, who were not responding to the veterinarians' medicines."

- Author Ellen Dolan talking about musher Susan Butcher's dogs
- Dolan, Ellen. Susan Butcher and the Iditarod Trail, New York: Walker Publishing Co., 1993


Paul Ellering's team not helped by medication and ran 226 miles with diarrhea:

"Looking over the team, I saw the dogs had picked up an intestinal bug. They had the runs, and it was not the kind of running that gets you anywhere."
(Paul Ellering was at the Galena checkpoint.)

"The diarrhea had taken the spark out of the team." "I hoped the medicine the vets gave me would work...."
(Paul Ellering was at the Nulato checkpoint.)

"I wanted to give the dogs six hours of rest because of the diarrhea problem that still had a grip on the team."
(Paul Ellering was at the Shaktoolik checkpoint.)

- Paul Ellering. Wrestling the Iditarod, Bend: Maverick Publications, 2005

(There is 226 miles between the Galena and Shaktoolik checkpoints. Ellering doesn't say if or when the diarrhea stopped.)


Rachael Scdoris's sick dogs don't respond to medicine:

"It was obvious from the thinness of the dogs, but the veterinarian was trying to make conversation and asked if the diarrhea medicine had helped. I was honest"

"'I haven't been able to keep weight on them, not since Takotna. That's when the diarrhea started getting bad and they began losing weight. Until now they've eaten pretty well, but it doesn't matter how much they eat, or how much fat I pump into them, it all goes straight through their systems.'"

- Rachael Scdoris talking about her sick dogs

- Scdoris, Rachael and Steber, Rick. No End in Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007


List of many dog injuries and sicknesses

"Among injuries that may befall a sled dog are generalized crippling, localized crippling, muscle or tendon tears, disc syndrome, cramping, dislocations, fractures, ice balling broken toenails, worn toenails, worn or torn footpads and dehydration. Viruses may also strike a team."

- Mattson, Sue. Iditarod Fact Book, Seattle: Epicenter Press, 2001



Dogs have diarrhea:


--Fresh blood not uncommon in dog's diarrhea:

"Anecdotally, diarrhea is a commonly reported condition in racing sled dogs, and hematochezia (fresh blood) in such stools is not uncommon. Hematochezia suggests the presence of colonic disease."

Michael Davis, et al., Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Volume 20 (2006)


"The dogs lay right down, although a few are still standing, stuggling with hemorraghic diarrhea."

- Runyan, Joe. Winning Strategies for Distance Mushers, Sacramento: Griffin Printing Co.,1997
- Joe Runyan reported on the Iditarod for Iditarod sponsor Cabela's Incorporated
- Runyan is talking about Doug Swingley's dogs.



--Many dogs get diarrhea:

"One of the factors in a long distance race is doggy diarrhea. Every year, there is some new stomach bug that circulates through the dog teams. It can't be helped with 79 dog teams converging on one narrow trail from all over the world. This year is no exception.

Diarrhea has forced several teams to pull over for their 24-hour layovers earlier than anticipated. One of them is Mike Williams, who stopped at McGrath for a layover for the first time in 12 years of racing. Despite having sick dogs and hitting a tree headfirst earlier in the race, Williams was in remarkably high spirits."


- Jon Little, Cabela's website, March 9, 2005
Little formerly wrote for the Anchorage Daily News



"It was obvious from the thinness of the dogs, but the veterinarian was trying to make conversation and asked if the diarrhea medicine had helped. I was honest"

"'I haven't been able to keep weight on them, not since Takotna. That's when the diarrhea started getting bad and they began losing weight. Until now they've eaten pretty well, but it doesn't matter how much they eat, or how much fat I pump into them, it all goes straight through their systems.'"


- Rachael Scdoris talking about her dogs being sick
- Scdoris, Rachael and Steber, Rick. No End in Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007



"Many of his dogs [Greg Parvin] were stricken with diarrhea early on...."

- Rachael D'Oro, Associated Press, March 12, 2005


"Defending Iditarod champ Lance Mackey says he'd hoped to take his 24-hour layover in Ruby instead of here, but dog troubles such as diarrhea and sore muscles forced an earlier rest."

- Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News - The Sled Blog, March 10, 2010



"'I've got four sick dogs,' he said. 'Make that five,' as another one squatted and [Chad] Schouweiler observed its output. Diarrhea."

- Jon Little, Cabela's Iditarod Coverage, Cabela's website, 2006
- Jon Little formerly wrote for the Anchorage Daily News.



"...She [Aliy Zirkle] was disheartened to see that some of her dogs started getting diarrhea."

- Jon Little, Cabela's Iditarod Coverage, Cabela's website, March 17, 2006
- Jon Little formerly wrote for the Anchorage Daily News.


'"Some of the dogs had been sick with diarrhea and treated at a prior checkpoint. They showed little spark after that."

- Kay Richardson, The Columbian, April 16, 2006
- She is talking about the dogs that belong to Steve Madsen


McGrath checkpoint person near Steer's dogs: "Do you have any meds on you?"
Musher Zack Steer: "Yeah, they're all medicated."

- KTUU website video taken March 6, 2007
[The video showed pools of fresh diarrhea under Steer's dogs.]


"And two-time champion Robert Sorlie of Norway, lagging much of the race with dogs suffering from diarrhea...."


- Anchorage Daily News, March 10, 2007


"I've a really nice team. I was threatening to charge to the front. And yesterday they all got diarrhea and got sick on me."

- Mitch Seavey is talking about his dogs.
- KTUU-TV, KTUU.com, March, 2009


Paul Ellering's team not helped by medicine and ran 226 miles with diarrhea:


"Looking over the team, I saw the dogs had picked up an intestinal bug. They had the runs, and it was not the kind of running that gets you anywhere."
(Paul Ellering was at the Galena checkpoint.)

"The diarrhea had taken the spark out of the team." "I hoped the medicine the vets gave me would work...."
(Paul Ellering was at the Nulato checkpoint.)

"I wanted to give the dogs six hours of rest because of the diarrhea problem that still had a grip on the team."
(Paul Ellering was at the Shaktoolik checkpoint.)

- Paul Ellering. Wrestling the Iditarod, Bend: Maverick Publications, 2005

(There is 226 miles between the Galena and Shaktoolik checkpoints. Ellering doesn't say if or when the diarrhea stopped.)


Dog coughs up blood:

"'He just stopped pulling,'' said the 56-year-old physician who specializes in infectious diseases. 'He's one of my best pullers too. (Then) he was coughing up blood. Some dogs, when they feel ill, cough food, water and blood. This was just blood.'"

- Craig Medred and Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 13, 2006


Pneumonia:

"Veterinarians thought Zorro had pneumonia; blood tests confirmed it."

- Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 15, 2007


Virus:

"[Rodney] Whaley's team, which had dropped from 16 to 13 dogs, became ill near the halfway point of the race. He suspects the dogs picked up a virus after reaching Ophir, the 11th of 23 checkpoints."

- Mike Organ, Gannett Tennessee, The Daily News Journal, March 13, 2008


Fever:

"When [Tom] Thurston stopped to rest the team, most of the dogs didn't want to eat. The temperature was 46 degrees below zero. A veterinarian with whom the musher consulted said several of the dogs were running temperatures and appeared to have come down with something."

- Craig Medred. Graveyard of Dreams: Dashed Hopes and Shattered Aspirations Along Alaska's Iditarod Trail, Anchorage: Plaid Cabin Publishing, 2010


Dog fights injure dogs:

Lance Mackey's dogs fight --

"In the hours before the race began, however, Mackey had to break up a scuffle between two of his stalwarts, Larry and Hobo.

'Larry looks like he's aged in the last week because of it,' Mackey said.
'He's got battle scars all over his nose. Hobo's got a few little puncture wounds up and down his forearm, which was unfortunate and something of concern.'"


- Mike Campbell, Anchorage Daily News, March 4, 2008


Tom Roig's dogs fight --

"'Tom Roig! Tom Roig! Is Tom Roig here?' a man yelled, bursting through the door of the cabin. 'You have a dog fight going on down there. They've been fighting for half an hour. There's blood all over the place.'

At minus 25 degrees, Roig couldn't simply put on a pair of slippers and run outdoors to check on the dogs. Hurriedly, he bundled up and ran to his pups. They were calm and lying down. But Jughead, one of his lead huskies, had a puncture wound on his leg and two other dogs had nasty gashes on their foreheads. And, just as the stranger said, the snow was splattered with blood."


- Kim Hone-McMahan, The Akron Beacon Journal, April 15, 2007


Martin Buser's dogs fight --

"Buser had to drop a key leader named Marlin after the dogs was injured in a fight. "

"'He wasn't using his (right rear) leg,' said veterinarian Harvey Goho from North Carolina."


- Craig Medred and Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 11, 2007


DeeDee Jonrowe's dogs fight --

"[DeeDee] Jonrowe, meanwhile said she had her hands full with a feisty lead dog named Bristol."

"'She's so happy to be on the coast that she's getting sassy and biting the dog next to her, said Jonrowe.'"


- Tim Murray, Anchorage Daily News, March 15, 1993


Dan Dent's dogs fight --

"The dog named Storm stumbled. Puker - Storm's teammate on the the gangline - snarled and grabbed (Storm) with his teeth."

"Half the team was snarling and snapping to get a piece of Storm. Blood started to fly."

- Musher Dan Dent discussing his team's dog fight in the 1999 Iditarod
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 10, 1999


Don Bower's dogs fight --

"Worse, the big males are fighting and before I can get them separated, Silvertip has cut Yankee's eye and normally docile Socks has gotten Rocky's muzzle so badly the indestructible Rock is snorting blood."

- Bowers, Don. Back of the Pack, Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000


Brian Patrick O'Donoghue's dogs fight --

"I heard a quick growl, then the other dogs turned on Denali as a group, fangs bared, and began tearing into him from every side."


- O'Donoghue, Brain Patrick. My Lead Dog was a Lesbian, New York: Vintage Books, 1996
- O'Donoghue was a reporter for the Fairbanks News-Miner and raced in the Iditarod


Gary Paulsen's dogs fight --

"It was a nightmare. The whole crazy night turning teams, stopping [dog] fights...."

- Paulsen, Gary, Woodsong. New York: Macmillian Publishing Company, 1990



Lisa Frederic's dogs fight --

"Coco had only been added to my team the night before we left Anchorage. Reno had been bitten in the parking lot. It wasn't serious, but I had made him lame and regrettably I decided to replace him with Coco."

"Shuman, my muscled wheel dog, had picked another fight that had left him with a puncture in his front leg."


- Lisa Frederic. Running with Champions, Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Books, 2006


James Warren's dogs fight --


"My leaders were tired and crabby and were fighting with each other."


- Warren, James and Warren, Christopher. Following My Father's Dream, James and Christopher Warren, 2005


Jessie Royer's dogs fight --

"My two wheel dogs, Egan & Larry, were so greedy for more food that they got into a fight over a food dish between them. Egan hurt his back leg during the scuffle and started limping."

- Jessie Royer, Jessie's Sled Dog Page, website, 2001


Bruce Linton's dogs fight --

"I woke to two dogs growling which is unusual and before I was able to get out of my sleeping bag and to the dogs they snapped at each other and one had a puncture wound on its leg."

and another set of Linton's dogs fight --

"Her [Click's] story started back before Shageluk when I was going up a steep embankment right before the checkpoint. For whatever reason, the back leg of hers got very close to another female in the team named Cobb who took a quick snap at her."


- Bruce Linton, Iditarod Journals, website article, 2007


Blake Freking's dogs fight--


He [Blake Freking] and those two dogs, Roland and Wat, then had to chase the other 14 dogs for about 3-4 miles before finding the team a bit tangled and stopped." "Einstein had been bitten by his teammate and had a slightly sore shoulder."

- Blake and Jennifer Freking's Manitou Crossing Kennel blog, March 13, 2010


Scott White's dogs fight--

"'Dogs were frustrated,' he [Scott White] said.'They were fighting and chewing (their lines). Four got loose'''

- Craig Medred, Alaska Dispatch, March 19, 2010


Dog fight at ceremonial start of Iditarod --

"'I was passing a team at the start, and one of the dogs in the team grabbed one of my team in the flank,' [Jim] Lanier said. His dog, Vaca, finished the ceremonial run with a patch of exposed muscle the size of two grapefruits, he said."

- Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News - The Sled Blog, March 10, 2010


Many dog fights--

"
Just about every male sported tattered ears and a scarred muzzle, mementos of past tangles over some furry damsel. Even under the stern gaze of their owners, a fight would erupt every few minutes - a sudden snarl, snap, and lunge that ended almost as quickly as it began. Leaving the loser sulking and the snow freckled with blood."

- Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, February 5, 1984


Seizure:

"Between Rohn and Nikolai, a dog had a seizure and was running a temperature of 105.3 degrees."

- Aliy Zirkle, Iditarod musher
- Freedman, Lew. More Iditarod Classics, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 2004


- Neck, back, shoulder, leg, wrist, ankle and foot injuries:


"Another musher was disqualified early in the race for shooting an injured dog. The animal had broken its leg in a fight with another team, was in great pain, and the driver thought it impossible to carry the wounded beast on to the next checkpoint where a veterinarian might be available."


- Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, March 15, 1983


"Homey, Pud and Dingle, had small sores on the back of their front legs. These particular temperatures and snow conditions augmented the problem because the dogs would flick up loose snow with their toes and it would accumulate on the sores - forming mini ice balls. The ice balls really bothered the dogs."


- Aliy Zirkle, Iditarod Trail Notes 2010, SP Kennel Dog Log, July 16, 2010


"I finally got into Finger Lake only to find that my hardest driving male wheel dog had hurt his shoulder in the corn snow and I was really saddened to have to drop him from the race."

- Bruce Linton, Iditarod Journals, website article, 2007


"I found that Kate had a sore tricept in her left shoulder...."

- Jessie Royer, Jessie's Sled Dog Page, website, 2004


"[Colleen] Robertia was worried she'd have to leave the dog here in Ruby because Crumb has been ailing with a shoulder injury."

- Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News - The Sled Blog, March 13, 2010
[According to the Iditarod's website, Robertia did not leave her dog Crumb at the Ruby checkpoint.]


"Musher Newton Marshall arrives in Galena over the weekend." "Marshall reported that Larry is limping a bit, but wasn’t sure he would need to be dropped.

- Alaska Public Radio, March 15, 2010
[According to the Iditarod's website, Marshall did not drop any dogs in Galena.]


"Cim Smyth, who dropped a dog with shoulder injuries off at Finger Lake, said the broken tussocks left by Iron Dog snowmachines bounced along the bottom of his sled like frozen basketballs."

- Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News - The Sled Blog, March 9, 2010


"Dogs suffered a variety of shoulder and ankle injuries that forced [John] Stewart to drop them."

- Craig Medred, Alaska Dispatch, March 18, 2010


"Temperatures in the Interior a week ago plunged to a face-scarring 45 to 50 below. Everyone struggled to stay warm. Some of White's dogs got sick. More suffered shoulder or ankle injuries on hard, rolling trail."

- Craig Medred, Alaska Dispatch, March 19, 2010


Laureli Kinneen of KNOM radio interviews DeeDee Jonrowe:

Laureli Kinneen: "I notice that you dropped some dogs. Can you explain what happened?"

DeeDee Jonrowe: "Yeah, I did. I dropped five. Yeah, I dropped five. Four of them were last year's finishers. That was definitely unplanned. They were sore. I mean, they were really sore. They were brown, what we call brown urine sore. They had unusual sore muscles and I think it was from the roughess of the trail both early on when we got into that soft trail into Finger. And then the next place that was extraordinarily rough compared to stuff they've been doing was near the Bear Creek Cabin about 35 miles. It's probably about eight miles of really rough tussocks without snow in between them and you couldn't go slow over them because it was so deep you hung up on your brakes."

- The interview took place on March 11, 2010.


Laureli Kinneen of KNOM radio interviews veterinarian named Ruth:

Laureli: "What were some of the injuries that you saw? Or some of the problems that you saw?"

Veterinarian Ruth: "At the moment, most of them are coming with joint problems, because it depends on the surfaces they going on how serious the problems with the joints are and some cannot cope so good as others."

- The interview took place on March 12, 2010.


"Bend sled-dog racer Rachael Scdoris has dropped out of the grueling, 1,125-mile Iditarod race only about 125 miles from the finish line after her two lead dogs developed a limp, friends said Friday."

- KTVZ- TV, March 14, 2008, website article


"They have some swollen feet,'' he [Lance Mackey] said."

- Kevin Klott and Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 16, 2009


"I checked Lisa and her leg was swollen."

- Scdoris, Rachael and Steber, Rick. No End in Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007


"I had stopped at the Rainy Pass checkpoint for a couple of hours to give the dogs a 'trail feed,' pick up food, drop Jake (he had a bicep injury), and have Lolo examined for some small kink in his gait. The examination of Lolo came up blank. Soon, we were off."

"We were moving along on the slight downhill between the upper part of the [Dalzell] gorge and the lower part, the part where all the bare ice is.  I was getting ready to give the dogs their food and water when it happened.  Lolo collapsed."
 

- Rob Loveman, Rob's Writings, April, 2009
- According to the Iditarod's website, Rob Loveman was at the Rainy Pass checkpoint for two hours and 31 minutes.

(From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: Lobo collapsed before reaching the Rohn checkpoint. The Rohn checkpoint is 48 miles away from the one at Rainy Pass.)


"I stopped to check him [Tyne] and found his shoulder had a pulled muscle. Knowing sometimes dogs can work through this I left him on the line. I didn't need an additional 50 pounds in the sled at this point. Soon, it was evident he needed to ride. He was hopping on 3 legs and crying out when his 4th leg hit the snow."


"Most of the dogs had shoulder or other muscle injuries caused by miles of snow holes."

- James Warren, Iditarod '06 Journal, published on the Internet


"Piko limped coming out of White Mountain and ran out of gas on the ice."

- The dog Piko belongs to Melissa Owens
- Fort Mills Times, March 14, 2008


"Vitus, my big wheel dog started limping...." "I pulled the hook at 10:30 at night and realized after about 10 miles that Vitus was limping again."

- Bruce Linton, Diary of my Iditarod Journey 2008, website article, 2008


"He finished with seven limping dogs."

- The author is talking about Rick Mackey's dogs when they reached Nome.
- Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, February 5, 1984



"[Darin] Nelson arrived in Galena, a checkpoint 445 miles away from Nome, with two dogs in his sled, two limping and only five pulling."

- Tamar Ben-Yosef, The Cordova Times, March 20, 2008


"They've gone hundreds and hundreds of miles, their feet are sore, they can hardly move."

- Bob Bright is talking about the dogs who reach Nome.
- Alex Ward, The New York Times, February 24, 1985



"I covered the Iditarod dog-sled race ten times. Walking out onto the ice of the Bering Sea in February, the Northern Lights dancing a spectacular show above, is a distinct memory. But watching those huskies' paws bleed and crack during their 1100-mile, 22-hour-a-day run across the Alaskan tundra, was heartache for a dog lover."

- Diana Nyad, The Score, KCRW Radio, November 2, 2006, website transcript



"She [Molly Yazwinski] was not moving and explained that her best lead dog broke her toe and had to be dropped and that her second main lead dog became sick and had to be dropped as well."

- Bruce Linton, Diary of my Iditarod Journey 2008, website article, 2008



"A few miles north of Eagle Island, [Dave] Monson toiled along such a stretch, howling encouragement to his team. The dogs slipped and scrambled, legs a blur of motion, advancing inch by painful inch up the immense river - torn paws leaving spoors of blood that froze instantly on the black ice."

- Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, February 5, 1984


"In another room, Rick Mackey of Wasilla, Alaska, a veteran musher at the age of 29, was rattling on about the sorry condition of his lead dog's paw pads."

- Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, February 5, 1984


"Slushy rain freezes into jagged ice, which can cut the pads of dogs' feet."

- Emily Langer, Washington Post, March 2, 2008


"As the mixture warmed, he [Eep Anderson] carefully inspected each of the 14 dogs, massaging the ears of one, whispering encouragement to another, frowning at the bloodied paw of a third."

- Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, March 15, 1983


"Norwegian Sven Engholm is reported to have run into a moose on the trail. One of his dogs has a broken leg."

- Alaska Public Radio Network, 1996 Iditarod audio files



Outdoor Life Network Announcer: "One of Buser's dogs has a broken leg."

- Outdoor Life Network (OLN), Nikolai checkpoint, Iditarod, 2005



"I finally got to into Finger Lake only to find that my hardest driving male wheel dog had hurt his shoulder in the corn snow...."

- Iditarod musher Bruce Linton, "Bruce's Journal - Part I, " Burlington Free Press website, March 26, 2007



"The dog (Swenson's dog) suffered a severe neck injury...."

- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, March 10, 2000



"'Our speed required all my strength to manhandle the sled. I hit a tree, breaking the sled's main runner. This made it impossible for me to steer properly, resulting in two dogs spraining their backs.'"

- DeeDee Jonrowe talking about an incident in the 2000 Iditarod
- Grace Fox, The Salvation Army War Cry, February 16, 2002



"One [dog] pulled too hard and injured its back, another was injured jumping over a bale of hay in a checkpoint and the third wore out."

- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, March 13, 2001, writing about Rick Swenson's best dogs.


"...Her [Barrie's] last decent front-end dog pulled a shoulder on the trail between Ophir and Iditarod."

"Tim Triumph's best leader, Victory, pulls a shoulder in Farewell Burn."

- Bowers, Don. Back of the Pack, Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000


"Land's leader, Pig, was one of several dogs in her team to suffer strains or sprains to a shoulder or wrist, he said."

- Terry Adkins, DVM, discussing musher Karen Land's injured dogs
- Mark Downey, Great Falls Tribune, March 8, 2003



"His [Ken Chase's] dogs were bummed after cutting their feet on the icy trail out of Knik."

"His [Roy Monk's] dogs' feet were too sore to continue."

"After 275 miles on the trail, three of my [Brian O'Donoghue's] dogs had troublesome cuts or splits in their pads."

"Doc diagnosed Skidders's [O'Donoghue's dog]
limp as resulting from a sprained toe."

- O'Donoghue, Brian Patrick. My Lead Dog was a Lesbian, New York: Vintage Books, 1996
- O'Donoghue was a reporter for the Fairbanks News-Miner


"The only injury was to one of her [Rachael Scdoris] dogs, which had wrapped a line around its leg a day earlier. The leg started to swell on the next day's run."

- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 10, 2005


"Clint Warnke of Fairbanks massages ointment on the sore front leg of Cobalt."

- Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 8, 2007


"All was going well until the 48-year-old veteran [Martin Buser] hit a tree stump...."

"Buser lost his best lead dog, Hot Foot, because of this stump. The impact was so powerful, it "bummed out" her shoulder, he said."


- Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 12, 2006


[Sound of a dog crying]

Rick Swenson: "Oh yes, your foot is so sensitive."

Annie Feidt: "Swenson rubs a clear gel on the lower leg of one of his lead dogs and wraps it in it a red neoprene-like material. He holds up the tiny bottle and calls it the magic ointment."

Rick Swenson: "That's like 25 bucks. We buy it by the case-- about like drinkin scotch, good scotch."

- Rick Swenson was a musher in the 2006 Iditarod
- Annie Feidt interviewed him for the Alaska Public Radio Network, March 16, 2006, website.


"...dog named Elton, had a swollen Achilles tendon...."

- The writer is talking about Tom Thurston's dog.
- Joel Reichenberger, Steamboat Pilot & Today, April 5, 2009


"Dottie was one of my young 2 yr olds and an extremely hard pulling dog. She worked so hard through the soft snow that her back leg was sore."

"Chase had a sore back leg."


- Jessie Royer, Jessie's Sled Dog Page, website, 2001


Dogs get blisters on their pads:

"They [the dogs] had gone through a river overflow and gotten their paws wet, which lead to blisters on their pads."

- Nancy Russell, whose dogs raced in the Iditarod
- Laurie Arendt, Greater Milwaukee Today, November 24, 2003

[From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: The blisters can easily become infected.]


Broken tooth:

"Weasel has a broken tooth and has very sore feet."

- Bowers, Don. Back of the Pack, Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000



Dogs injured by moose:

"A cow moose that wouldn't get out of the trail near Nikolai ended up running over his [Dallas Seavey] dogs.

'It just ran right through the middle of the team,'' he said. 'We didn't even hardly slow down.'

The moose, however, did knock over two dogs. Seavey eventually had to drop both -- one because of the moose injury; the other from a sore shoulder."


- Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 15, 2009


Dogs injured by stepping in moose holes:

"...But 10 miles out of Ophir a dog stepped in a moose hole and was injured."


- Discussing Musher Juan Alcina's dog
- Staff report, Anchorage Daily News, March 17, 2000, website article


"The most insidious moose-generated problems don't even require the perpetrator to be present. A moose walking on a trail tends to punch through the hard crust with its hooves. These holes become traps for fast-moving dogs, who can dislocate shoulders and even break legs by stepping into a foot-deep moose print."

- Bowers, Don. Back of the Pack, Anchorage: Publication Consultants, 2000


Soreness and tendinitis:

"Defending Iditarod champ Lance Mackey says he'd hoped to take his 24-hour layover in Ruby instead of here, but dog troubles such as diarrhea and sore muscles forced an earlier rest."

- Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News - The Sled Blog, March 10, 2010



"As far as dog injuries and soreness go, this is the worst of any Iditarod he's run, he said."

- Boulding, musher in 2000 Iditarod
- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, March 11, 2000



"The punchy trail, he [Martin Buser] said, caused several dogs to develop tendinitis in their wrists."

- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 12, 2004


"[Sonny] Lindner said the trail this year was soft and punchy in spots and some of this dogs were suffering from soreness early in the race."

- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, March 6, 2007



Vomiting:

"This guy in the wheel if you can check him over. He threw up a little while ago and it was like he had straw and it looked like there might be a little blood in it."

- Musher Ramy Brooks
- Outdoor Life Network (OLN), Iditarod, 2005


"When we pulled in Lycos had caught a bug, vomited on the trail, and was running a fever."

- Eric Rogers, "A Rookies Journey - Race Synopis," 2006, R Northbound Dogs website


"I guess my hiccup is how it seems like it's always early in the race coming for a remote kennel here about three days into the race we get massively sick and then so I felt I was, you know I, I actually stopped at Ophir and then I stopped at Rainy and then I stopped again at Rohn, which was unplanned and then I stopped at Salmon River and I stopped at McGrath and I stopped at Ophir and then I camped again on the way to Iditarod just trying to keep my team together because they were just really throwing up, really sick."

"It was hard to get them to eat, because they couldn't keep anything down."

- Musher Ed Iten talking about his dogs
- Interview with Steve Heimel, Alaska Public Radion Network, February 28, 2006


Laureli Kinneen:
"So, what types of problems, what types of injuries have you been dealing with?"

Jason Barron: "It all kind of started back in the John Beargrease in Minnesota in the end of January I raced and I had a lot of nicks and cuts coming out of that race. And I kind of patched them up but they're all breaking loose on this race. And then about the time I was just establishing a decent healthy core group around Cripple my remaining dogs were just ravaged by this sickness that came through-- and don't want to eat, and when they do eat they can't really hold it down very well, so I mean I essentially had to pull all the plugs on my race plan."


- Laureli Kinneen of KNOM radio interviewed Jason Barron on March 16, 2010 in Unalakleet.



Harness irritation:

"Brooks also said he had to drop one dog, which had lost weight earlier in the race and had developed chafing problems because its harness no longer fit correctly."

- Joel Gay, Anchorage Daily News, March 11, 2003



Weight loss, illness and injuries:

"As temperatures plummeted to 45 or 50 degrees below zero, things only got worse. Both John and the dogs suffered in the cold. The dogs started losing weight. John [Stewart] dropped some due to illness, others to injury."

- Craig Medred, Alaska Dispatch, March 20, 2010


Coughing:

"They had a virus with a fever, and they were coughing mucus.
"

- Aliy Zirkle, Iditarod musher
- Freedman, Lew. More Iditarod Classics, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 2004


"I heard Jamie's dogs, and they sounded like a convention of pleurisy victims. Hack-hack." "Jamie went on to finish with all sixteen of her starting team."

- Musher Paul Ellering talking about Jamie Nelson's dogs
- Paul Ellering. Wrestling the Iditarod, Bend: Maverick Publications, 2005


Kennel cough:


"Kate was also coming down with kennel cough which was going around the other teams too." "Souix was a young two year old dog that had also come down with kennel cough on the way to Rohn and was not eating good."

- Jessie Royer, Jessie's Sled Dog Page, website, 2004


Cuts:

" My oldest dog, Skitters, got cut when the sled caught him, a pretty nasty looking cut."

- Brian O'Donaghue, Iditarod musher and former reporter for the Fairbanks News-Miner
- Freedman, Lew. More Iditarod Classics, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 2004



Constipation:

"His dogs had eaten some straw in White Mountain and were bound up in their bowels."


- Paul Ellering is talking about Dan Govoni's dogs
- Paul Ellering. Wrestling the Iditarod, Bend: Maverick Publications, 2005


Stiffness:

"The dogs were stiff in the hindquarters, he [Tollef Monson] said."

- Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 11, 2007


Many different illnesses and injuries:

"[Susan] Butcher started with the maximum of 20 dogs, but most of them got sick and had to be dropped. She finished with eight, the minimum allowed.

Four of those eight were Iditarod rookies, and two of the eight weren't pulling their weight."


- Natalie Phillips and Tim Murray, Anchorage Daily News, March 15, 1994


"Siirtola started the race with 16 dogs, but finished with only eight, as soreness and an intestinal virus sidelined half the team."

"There were a couple of times that Siirtola thought about pulling out of the race, especially when the intestinal virus forced her to use only eight dogs, who carried on for the entire second half of the race."


- Gordon Weixel, Bismarck Tribune, March 17, 2008


"Two dogs have been dropped because of minor shoulder strains, one was coughing from a low-grade infection; dogs, like people, catch bugs from other dogs...."

- John Schandelmeier, Valdez Star, March 5, 2008
- Shandelmeier is talking about Rich Corcoran's dogs


"But her shoulders were sore. She had diarrhea. She ran with her head down, aware only of her own misery."


- Rachael Scdoris talking about her dog Pia.
- Scdoris, Rachael and Steber, Rick. No End in Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007


Undisclosed injuries and illnesses:

"Another dog, an important leader named Tony, got sick."


- The writer is talking about Tom Thurston's dog.
- Joel Reichenberger, Steamboat Pilot & Today, April 5, 2009



"The 36-year-old musher [Jason Barron] told race officials his dogs were ill."

- Associated Press and Great Falls Tribune Staff, March 6, 2008


"The tussocks were really bad. The grass clumps, some of them were eighteen inches high and there's big holes between them. And it just beats the dogs up and they fall in holes and fall down."

- Iditarod musher Cim Smyth, KTUU-TV website video, March 8, 2007



"That's where [the Finger Lake checkpoint] Roig noticed two of his dogs, Sunny and Only, were showing signs of illness and injury."

- Kim Hone-McMahan, The Akron Beacon Journal, April 15, 2007



"The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is over for Rachael Scdoris. The legally blind woman from Oregon scratched Wednesday in Eagle Island."

"She apparently decided to call it quits for the well-being of her team -- her dogs are sick."


- Lars Peterson, KTUU-TV, Anchorage, KTUU.com, March 16, 2005



"Some of his [Shane Goosen] dogs were sick."


- Jon Little, Cabela's website, March 9, 2005
Little formerly reported for the Anchorage Daily News.



"I've got three leaders hurt and pups in lead."

- Sue Allen, talking about her dogs two days into the race
- Jon Little, Cabelas website, March 8, 2004
- Little was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and was an Iditarod musher



"Matray indicated that his dogs were sick and unable to continue."
"Barron indicated that his dogs were sick and unable to continue."


- Iditarod press releases, March 6, 2003, Iditarod website


"
Veteran musher Charlie Boulding scratched Sunday in Anvik because his dogs were ill."

- Rachel D'Oro, Associated Press, March 11, 2003


"A dog from the team of five-time champ Rick Swenson was injured on the trail to Rohn after apparently colliding with a tree." "Sketchy reports suggested that the dog collided with the tree hard enough to break the gangline."

- Staff report, Anchorage Daily News, March 9, 2000, article on website


"Accounts of the trail, like Dee's [Jonrowe], report [that] some dogs are injured slipping on glare ice."

- Runyan, Joe. Winning Strategies for Distance Mushers. Sacramento: Griffin Printing, 1997


"Dr. [Tom] Knolmayer finished the race with nine dogs out of his original 16-dog team. The others were sent home at various checkpoints along the route because of illness or injuries...."

- Capt. Amy Hansen, 3rd Wing Public Affairs, Airforce Link, March 21, 2005


"After finishing 48th in his rookie attempt in 2004 and being forced to scratch from the competition due to a sickness that ran rampant through his dogs in 2005, [Scott] Smith entered the 2007 Iditarod confident he and his team could break into the top 40 and perhaps even the top 30."

- Ken Waltz, Knox County Times, February 29, 2008


"OLN announcer: 'The race moves to day two. Dogs begin to have issues' 'There's a retirement.'

Unidentified person at checkpoint who's walking with a dog: 'He's just eleven years old. He just can't go through this.'"

- Outdoor Life Network (OLN), Iditarod, 2005


"When time came to feed and get ready to go I found they were definitely very sick and not thrilled about running." "With meds from the vet I medicated the dogs."

- Warren, James and Warren, Christopher. Following My Father's Dream, James and Christopher Warren, 2005


Tangled lines injure the dogs:


"The dogs can injure their feet in the lines, or strangle when they wrap around each other."

- Wood, Ted. Iditarod Dream, New York: Walker Publishing Company, 1996



"It's been tangle after tangle, and going down wrong trails...."

- Musher Kris Swanguarin

"One of the tangles led to injury of his [Swanguarin's] best leader...."

- Fairbanks News-Miner, undated 1998 article on website


- Dogs injured by passing sleds:

"On the trail out of Knik there was an icy sport and a lot of teams passed me there. It was a bad spot where their sleds were getting by and hitting my leaders."


- Brian O'Donaghue, Iditarod musher and former reporter for the Fairbanks News-Miner
- Freedman, Lew. More Iditarod Classics, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 2004


- Dogs injured by being mashed against a tree:


"'I had the wrong foot on the right side of the sled. By the time I changed it, it was too late,' [Spenser] Thew would say later.

Of course, that is not what Thew was saying at the time as his dog sled missed a curve at the top of the hill and went off a snow-covered cliff.

The only thing that kept it from rolling 75 feet to the bottom was the cottonwood tree. Thew ended up with his team partially on the trail, and his sled hanging from its gangline around the tree with his wheel dogs mashed up against it and yelping."


- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 9, 1993


- Dog injured by snowmachine:

"Jennifer Freking of Finland, Minnesota and her husband Blake had stopped on the Yukon river to feed their dogs, when they heard machines approaching.

'They heard snowmobiles coming for quite a distance, and he just didn't slow down, and ran through their team,' related Freking's sister Cindy Elkins, who runs Jennifer's website. 'She felt like she was watching half her team die as it happened.'

The snowmobile killed Lorne, a 3 year old female Siberian Husky, and injured Aries, a male."


- Dana Thiede, KARE 11 TV News, March 12, 2008, website article


Warm weather results in dogs becoming sick and getting injured:

"Rookies usually have rookie dog teams, and Parvin's was not prepared for the warm weather they found at the start of the race. That forced Parvin to drop four younger dogs and dampened the others' appetites."

"Parvin was doing his best to keep his Iditarod dream alive, even if meant slowing down and nursing his team back to health."


- Joel Gay, Anchorage Daily News, March 8, 2005


"'Across the Alaska Range right now, all the way through the Kuskokwim and all the way up to the banks of the Yukon, we have quite a warming trend. And along with that, we have a low-pressure system. That means a lot of snow falling. And at the same time we have rain,' said Iditarod Spokesperson Chas St. George.

That combination has turned the Iditarod trail into a thousand miles of slush and ice, which is causing big problems for the health of the dogs.

'Feet: problems with the snow building up, and wrist injuries. And if the snow is punchy, if the dog is going through the snow, they can hurt their shoulders and their wrists a lot easier,' said Jason Uitvlugt of the Manitou Crossing Kennel, Minnesota."


- Andrea Gusty, KTVA-TV, Anchorage, March 5, 2008, web article


"Fresh, deep snow and warm weather – about 30 degrees and sunny – slowed the race between Willow and Rainy Pass, about 150 miles into the world's longest sled dog race. The dogs, whose bloodlines stem from several arctic breeds, prefer running in colder weather.

'It was real soft and punchy,” said Paul Gebhardt, of Kasilof, who's running his 10th Iditarod. “The dogs go slower and you get a few more injuries because they start falling in holes.'”


- Jeannette J. Lee, Associated Press, March 6, 2006


Dogs get nasty stomach bugs:

"Gatt and Burmeister crossed their fingers that dogs that had gotten a nasty stomach bug would recover in a day."

- Jon Little, Cabela's website, March 9, 2005
Little formerly reported for the Anchorage Daily News


"Sørlie, a former Iditarod winner, is only in 16th place and has had trouble along the way, with stomach problems plaguing his dogs."

- Stein-Erik Kirkebøen, Aftenposten, March 9, 2007


Wind-swept and hard-packed trail damages the dogs:

"The 48-year-old [Martin Buser], one of three four-time champions hoping to join Rick Swenson of Two Rivers as the race's only five-time champion, expects a wind-swept, hard-packed trail. That means sore muscles and bruises for dogs...."


- Staff and wire reports, Anchorage Daily News, March 5, 2007


Mushers force sick dogs to race

"'I'm still dealing with some diarrhea issues that I can't seem to get control of for whatever reason,' said [Lance] Mackey, speaking about his dog team's health and performance."

- Kevin Wells, KTUU-TV, March 7, 2008, web site article


"The intestinal virus that was plaguing the team earlier continues.

But, after talking to friend and fellow dog owner Kathleen Holden, [Heather] Siirtola apparently decided to keep going."


- Tony Spilde, Bismarck Tribune, March 11, 2008


"One mile out of Nome, Harley began staggering. I stopped the team for about 10 minutes. He stood motionless with his head low but wagged when I called his name. I showed him the lights of Nome across the ice covered sea. We pressed on. I was hoping he could make it. As we neared the snow ramp up onto Front Street he was staggeringly badly."

- James Warren talking about his dog Hartley in the 2004 Iditarod
- Warren, James and Warren, Christopher. Following My Father's Dream, James and Christopher Warren, 2005

[From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: Warren could have carried Hartley on his sled.
]


"I heard Jamie's dogs, and they sounded like a convention of pleurisy victims. Hack-hack." "Jamie went on to finish with all sixteen of her starting team."

- Musher Paul Ellering talking about Jamie Nelson's dogs

- Paul Ellering. Wrestling the Iditarod, Bend: Maverick Publications, 2005


"Two of the MANY (emphasis added) mushers who battled viruses in their dog teams and placed well below their expectations were Vern Halter...and John Baker...."

- Lew Freedman, Anchorage Daily News, March 17, 2000


"... (The dog's) recovery in the checkpoints was slowed by some sort of virus."


- Doug Swingley, the 2000 Iditarod race winner
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 14, 2000


"Around Nikolai, about 350 miles into the race, some of his dogs caught a virus." "'They had some bad discomfort'" said Swingley. "'It was hard for me to manage them.'"

- Doug Swingley, the 2000 Iditarod race winner
- Lew Freedman, Anchorage Daily News, March 15, 2000


"COAXING SICK DOGS: Linwood Fiedler, DeeDee Jonrowe's Willow neighbor, finished just ahead of her in 19th and had to nurse sick dogs much of the time."

- Staff report, Anchorage Daily News, March 17, 2000, article on website


"I just couldn't keep fluids in them," the musher said. "I'd get in the checkpoints, and they'd look good, and I'd get out and they'd lose their hydration."

- Jason Halseth, musher in 2001 Iditarod
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 15, 2001


"Although one or two dogs in his [Ramy Brooks] team attacked their food bowls with gusto, most poked at their chow or ignored it."

(From the Sled Dog Action Coalition:
According to the Iditarod website, Ramy Brooks was at the Unalakleet checkpoint with nine dogs. The race ends in Nome which is 260 miles from this checkpoint.)
- Joel Gay, Anchorage Daily News, March 11, 2003 report from Unalakleet


"With another, he [Lindwood Fiedler] opened its [the dog's] mouth and fed it antibiotics to fight an infection. 'Better mushing through pharmacy,' he quipped."

Joel Gay, Anchorage Daily News, March 12, 2003


"It was my first Iditarod; I had to finish the ding-dang thing. The dogs all had fevers. The vets gave them a poweful antibiotic."

- Aliy Zirkle, Iditarod musher
- Freedman, Lew. More Iditarod Classics, Kenmore: Epicenter Press, 2004



"Parvin was doing his best to keep his Iditarod dream alive, even if meant slowing down and nursing his team back to health."

- Joel Gay, Anchorage Daily News, March 8, 2005


"He [Rick Swenson] bellowed at photographers who tried to take his picture there [Takotna checkpoint], and told race officials he planned to take his team the 23 miles back to McGrath and scratch."

"Veterinarians in Rainy Pass on Wednesday, a checkpoint 176 miles before McGrath, said that Swenson had talked about his dogs picking up a virus."


- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 10, 2005


"I guess my hiccup is how it seems like it's always early in the race coming for a remote kennel here about three days into the race we get massively sick and then so I felt I was, you know I, I actually stopped at Ophir and then I stopped at Rainy and then I stopped again at Rohn, which was unplanned and then I stopped at Salmon River and I stopped at McGrath and I stopped at Ophir and then I camped again on the way to Iditarod just trying to keep my team together because they were just really throwing up, really sick."

"It was hard to get them to eat, because they couldn't keep anything down."


- Musher Ed Iten talking about his dogs
- Interview with Steve Heimel, Alaska Public Radion Network, February 28, 2006


"Some of the dogs had been sick with diarrhea and treated at a prior checkpoint. They showed little spark after that."

- Kay Richardson, The Columbian, April 16, 2006
- She is talking about the dogs that belong to Steve Madsen


Paul Ellering's team ran 226 miles with diarrhea--

"Looking over the team, I saw the dogs had picked up an intestinal bug. They had the runs, and it was not the kind of running that gets you anywhere."

(Paul Ellering was at the Galena checkpoint.)

"The diarrhea had taken the spark out of the team." "I hoped the medicine the vets gave me would work...."
(Paul Ellering was at the Nulato checkpoint.)

"I wanted to give the dogs six hours of rest because of the diarrhea problem that still had a grip on the team."
(Paul Ellering was at the Shaktoolik checkpoint.)

- Paul Ellering. Wrestling the Iditarod, Bend: Maverick Publications, 2005

(There is 226 miles between the Galena and Shaktoolik checkpoints. Ellering doesn't say if or when the diarrhea stopped.)


"Jim: Rohn: Both King and Cookie had been ailing since the 'snow holes' and to make matters worse several other dogs were ailing which shifts the burden to the others."

"Jim: Nikolai: After 6 1/2 hours we left for Nikolai. King was ailing even more and now we were pulling him."


- James Warren, Iditarod '06 Journal, published on the Internet


Rachael Scdoris's dog Karelan was sick at the Rainy Pass Checkpoint. Scdoris raced this sick dog for 322 miles before dropping her at the Iditarod checkpoint. Dutchess was also sick at the Rainy Pass Checkpoint. Scdoris raced this sick dog for 490 miles before scratching at the Eagle Island Checkpoint.

Rainy Pass Checkpoint
"I noticed Dutchess and Karelan had picked up a bug and now had runny diarrhea."

Rainy Pass to Rohn - 48 miles

"Their diarrhea had not improved, and I could tell they were not as healthy as at the start of the race."

Rohn to Nikolai - 80 miles
"Dutchess and Karelan nibbled at their food."" Dutchess and Karelan and Kitty still suffered from diarrhea and a couple of others had sore wrists...."

Nikolai to McGrath - 48 miles

"The veterinarian expressed her concern about the virus sweeping through my team. She said I needed to keep a close watch on Dutchess and Karelan...."

McGrath to Takotna - 18 miles
Takotna to Ophir - 38 miles

Ophir to Iditarod - 90 miles
"When we were ready to leave [Iditarod] I dropped Karelan.

Iditarod to Shageluk - 65 miles
"I started crying because my dogs were sick and skinny and I had lost the bootie bag."

Shageluk to Anvik - 25 miles

Anvik to Grayling - 18 miles
"There were long stretches when noting seemed to change. I knew that for a team of sick dogs this might prove to be our undoing."

Grayling to Eagle Island - 60 miles
"Angel was the only dog in my team that seemed the least bit interested in leading and she was now my thinnest dog." Bernard, Ned and Dutchess were nearly as skinny."

"It was obvious from the thinness of the dogs, but the veterinarian was trying to make conversation and asked if the diarrhea medicine had helped. I was honest. There was really no sense in trying to be deceitful. My team was in trouble.

'I haven't been able to keep weight on them, not since Tokotna. That's were the diarrhea started getting bad and they began losing weight.'"

"When I saw my spent team and saw the way they were curled up on the straw, how skinny they had become from the diarrhea-causing virus, my decision was made for me."


"All that remained of my 2005 Iditarod run was to make it official. Jim got a piece of paper and a Sharpie. He wrote my name and the words 'Scratched in Eagle Island.' I signed it."

- Scdoris, Rachael and Steber, Rick. No End in Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007


"Dalek was still sick to his stomach." "I decided to keep Dalek in the team for a little longer and just watch him closely."

- Jessie Royer, Jessie's Sled Dog Page, website, 2001


Laureli Kinneen: "How are your dogs looking coming into the coast?"

Jason Barron: "Well, we've been dealing with sickness and injury for the whole race, so I'd say they look good, but it's kind of irrelevant to the problems I've been having."

Laureli Kinneen: "So, what types of problems, what types of injuries have you been dealing with?"

Jason Barron: "It all kind of started back in the John Beargrease in Minnesota in the end of January I raced and I had a lot of nicks and cuts coming out of that race. And I kind of patched them up but they're all breaking loose on this race. And, then, about the time I was just establishing a decent healthy core group around Cripple my remaining dogs were just ravaged by this sickness that came through-- and don't want to eat, and when they do eat they can't really hold it down very well, so I mean I essentially had to pull all the plugs on my race plan."

- Laureli Kinneen of KNOM radio interviewed Jason Barron on March 16, 2010 in Unalakleet.


Dogs face hypothermia and frostbite hazards


Examples of sub-zero temperatures the dogs face:


Willow, Alaska - March 4, 2007 - Iditarod start


"Today...Wind chill readings 20 below to 35 below zero in the morning.

Tonight...Clear. Lows zero to 10 below except 15 to 25 below north of Talkeetna. North wind 15 to 30 mph. Gusts to 50 mph through broad pass. Wind chill readings 25 below to 40 below zero after midnight."


Swentna and Finger Lake - March 5, 2007

"Some mushers will stop to rest in Skwentna. Others will push on another 45 miles to Finger Lake to rest their dogs there. Wherever they stop, mushers can expect a frigid night. The National Weather Service was forecasting wind chills down to minus-40 after midnight, with temperatures on Monday not getting far above zero."


- Anchorage Daily News on the National Weather Service report, March 5, 2007


130 degree below zero temperature:

"In 1973, during the inaugural Iditarod, the wind chill plummeted to 130 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, making the first race the coldest."


- Emily Langer, Washington Post, March 2, 2008


Mild to moderate hypothermia leads to prolonged internal and external bleeding:

"We compared hemostatic changes during 72 hours of mild to moderate hypothermia with data in normothermic [normal body temperature] dogs."

"CONCLUSION: Long-term hypothermia induced platelet dysfunction, leading to decreased platelet aggregation and prolonged coagulation time."


Ao H, Moon JK, Tashiro M, Terasaki H. Resuscitation. 2001 Oct;51(1):83-90


Cold water causes hypothermia:


"Don’t forget to consider water temperatures; dogs can suffer from hypothermia."

- Sally Elliott, Lynchburg News Advance, March 16, 2009

[From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: During the Iditarod, dogs are often in icy water.]


Dogs can get frostbite during the Iditarod and when they are tethered outside:


"All dogs reach their cold-tolerance limit at some temperature, the Cornell husky-trainer said. 'If it's so cold that you can't go out without extreme cold-weather gear, your dog shouldn't be outside at that temperature either.' 'Bring the dogs inside then' he advised."

- Arleigh Reynolds, D.V.M., Ph.D. was an assistant professor at Cornell
- Cornell University Science News press release, Dec. 9, 1996, on its website



Penile frostbite, frostbite of the flanks and other areas:

"While massaging tired muscles, tending to bloody paws and treating a case of penile frostbite (emphasis added) suffered by one of his lead dogs, Bramante said he was fighting the urge to scratch."


- John Bramante, M.D. raced in the 2002 Iditarod
- Paula Dobbyn and Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, April 1, 2002


"The other problem is frostbite of the flanks and frostbite of the penis."
(emphasis added)

- Runyan, Joe. Winning Strategies for Distance Mushers. Sacramento: Griffin Printing, 1997


"He had a painful frostbitten scrotum (emphasis added) and just couldn't run."

- James Warren talking about his dog Duke
- James Warren, Iditarod '06 Journal, published on the Internet


"Frostbite can occur on a dog's paw but do not usually occur in this area. Frostbite is more commonly seen in area where the hair covering is sparse and the circulation is poor, such as the ear tips, tail tips, and scrotum." (emphasis added)

- Dr. Vern Otte, DVM, DABVP, Critter Connection website, January, 2003


"'There's a particular thing that happens with these sled dogs in certain snow conditions where the hair is lost off the back of their wrists, exposing the flexor tendons to potential frostbite. It was a lot of work for me to take care of my dogs,' said his dad, Mitch Seavey." (emphasis added)

- Kevin Wells, KTUU-TV, KTUU.COM, March 17, 2010


Dogs frozen to the ice:

"Her [Beth Baker's] dogs had curled up, their fur frozen to the ice. They couldn't move."

- Natalie Phillips, Anchorage Daily News, March 24, 1994


Severe frostbite causes blisters, tissue death, open wounds and gangrene:

"In more severe cases of frostbite, blisters may form. In even more serious cases however, the deeper tissues become involved, and patches of skin may shrivel and die, sloughing off to leave raw, open wounds. In the most severe cases this may result in gangrene. It is often difficult to distinguish mild and severe cases of frostbite for the first few days...."


- Dr. Linda Aronson, DVM. VetSpeak Section of the Shaggy Sentinel, November, 1997



Dogs brave temperatures pushing 50 degrees below zero:


"He [Peter Bartlett] braved temperatures pushing 50 below on the way to Cripple...."

- Jon Little, Cabela's Iditarod Coverage, website ariticle, March 11, 2006
- Jon Little formerly wrote for the Anchorage Daily News.

(Therefore, Bartlett's dogs also braved temperatures pushing 50 below zero, exposing them to frostbite.
)


Icicles dangle from dogs snouts:

"Temperatures rose to minus 15 Friday afternoon when Iditarod rookie Bryan Bearss pulled into Cripple. Bearss set his hook. Some dogs shook off icicles dangling from their snouts...."

- Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 12, 2006


Dog becomes a block of ice:

"[Matt] Anderson's team was full of puppies."

"Maddie received the worst of some of the poor conditions when a river cracked with Anderson and her on top of it, sending water surging onto them. It was at the top of his boots and over Maddies' head. Anderson said she was just 'a block of ice' when he got her out."

- Maddie was one of Matt Anderson's puppies.
- Eric Mandel, The Daily Iowan, March 29, 2007



Kim Darst's dog suffers severe hypothermia:

"The Warren County resident [Kim Darst] was halfway to her goal of becoming the first New Jerseyan to finish the Iditarod when a blizzard Monday left one of her dogs, Cotton, with a temperature nearly 20 degrees below the average 101.3 for dogs."

- Mike Frassinelli, The Star-Ledger, March 19, 2009


"She was in rough shape," [Blake] Matray said. "Her eyes were starting to roll back a bit, and she was starting to convulse."

- Blake Matray was talking about Kim Darst's dog Cotton.
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 28, 2009



Dr. Packer's two dogs froze to death:

"He said, 'the wind was (so strong it) was picking up pieces of ice and throwing them.'

Packer assessed distances, recalculated and decided he and the dogs had a better chance of making the woods ahead than the woods behind, so he turned the team around again. That's when he noticed one of his dogs -- Grasshopper -- really struggling. He unhooked the dog from the gangline and put it in the sled and started forward again.

'The sled just kept falling over and he looked really bad, and then he died,' Packer said. 'I sat there and held him. Horrible.'

There was, however, nothing to do but keep going or everyone was going to die. Packer pressed on. Then Dizzy started to falter.

'I felt his shoulder for hydration, and ice crystals in the skin is what I felt. I think those two guys probably froze to death in the high winds,' Packer said. 'I didn't think it possible.'

'Then Dizzy, he died. It was horrible.'

Both of the dogs had been wearing coats to protect them, and one of the dogs was a thick-coated husky of old, not one of the thin-coated animals that have become common as mushers contend with warm winters. Necropsies conducted by veterinary pathologists have found no obvious causes for the deaths, but hypothermia has not been ruled out."


- Dr. Lou Packer talking about his two dogs dying
- Kevin Klott and Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 17, 2009



Back to the top


Warm weather hazards and stresses for the dogs

Overheated dogs became dehydrated:

"The overheated dogs became dehydrated and collapsed in 30- and 40-degree temperatures last week between Anchorage and Ophir, 90 miles from the halfway point in Iditarod."

- Donna Iacoboni, Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 13, 2005
- The dogs were on Lt. Thomas Knolmayer's team


Soft trail causes strains on dogs' paws:

"...He [Kjetil Backen] feared tendinitis might be developing from the constant and uneven strains on the dogs' paws caused by the soft, punchy trail between Nulato and Kaltag."

- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 14, 2004


Dogs have difficulty cooling off:

"Dogs have difficulty trying to cool themselves at such temperatures [in the 30s]...."

- Medred is discussing the high temperatures during the 2004 Iditarod
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 14, 2004


Warm weather results in dogs becoming sick:

"Rookies usually have rookie dog teams, and Parvin's was not prepared for the warm weather they found at the start of the race. That forced Parvin to drop four younger dogs and dampened the others' appetites."

"Parvin was doing his best to keep his Iditarod dream alive, even if meant slowing down and nursing his team back to health."


- Joel Gay, Anchorage Daily News, March 8, 2005


Running in soft snow injures dogs:


"Fresh, deep snow and warm weather – about 30 degrees and sunny – slowed the race between Willow and Rainy Pass, about 150 miles into the world's longest sled dog race. The dogs, whose bloodlines stem from several arctic breeds, prefer running in colder weather.

'It was real soft and punchy,” said Paul Gebhardt, of Kasilof, who's running his 10th Iditarod. “The dogs go slower and you get a few more injuries because they start falling in holes.'”

- Jeannette J. Lee, Associated Press, March 6, 2006


Dog overheating:

"This year, with the mercury hovering near 40, Swenson charged down the Kuskokwim River and across the huge, snow-covered swamps where the trail portages overland to cut the oxbows.

It was so warm that Marble, one of Swenson's larger dogs, started to overheat."


- Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 6, 2008

Many injuries in warm weather:

"'Across the Alaska Range right now, all the way through the Kuskokwim and all the way up to the banks of the Yukon, we have quite a warming trend. And along with that, we have a low-pressure system. That means a lot of snow falling. And at the same time we have rain,' said Iditarod Spokesperson Chas St. George.

That combination has turned the Iditarod trail into a thousand miles of slush and ice, which is causing big problems for the health of the dogs.

'Feet: problems with the snow building up, and wrist injuries. And if the snow is punchy, if the dog is going through the snow, they can hurt their shoulders and their wrists a lot easier,' said Jason Uitvlugt of the Manitou Crossing Kennel, Minnesota."


- Andrea Gusty, KTVA-TV, Anchorage, March 5, 2008, web article


Dogs lose their appetite in warm weather:

"Aliy Zirkle, a former Quest winner who was 10th into Nikolai, said her dogs had lost their appetite in the warm weather."

- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, March 10, 2009


Dogs get sick from eating spoiled food

Contaminated food gives dogs a virus:


"Sue Allen sat with her sickly dog team on a lonely stretch of trail between Cripple and Ruby during the 2004 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, unsure of what to do next.

Beset with a virus brought on by contaminated food, her dogs refused to move."


- Ron Wilmot, Anchorage Daily News, July 8, 2007


Dogs get runny stools and bloody diarrhea from eating spoiled food:

[The Iditarod Trail Committee does not insure the safety of the food the dogs eat. Consequently, dogs often get sick from eating spoiled food.]

"My food [for the dogs] was all spoiled...." "There has been a number of teams that has had food that has thawed and been refrozen and the food doesn't seem to be good and when you push dry food heavy to them they tend to get runny stool too."

- Musher Keith Aili talking about spoiled dog food
- KTVA.Com, KTVA TV11, Anchorage, AK, March 7, 2002


"A vet admonishes Doug [Swingley]- as if he needs it. ‘Don't trust the feed because it got warm here.' Doug's dogs still have bloody diarrhea, a bad development and probably caused by the meat in Ophir."

- Runyan, Joe. Winning Strategies for Distance Mushers. Sacramento: Griffin Printing, 1997


Vet says thawed and re-thawed meats cause digestive and intestinal problems:

"He [Stu Nelson, Iditarod head vet] reports that meats that have thawed and re thawed with last weeks warm weather have raised havoc, with many teams reporting intestinal and digestive problems."

- Runyan, Joe. Winning Strategies for Distance Mushers. Sacramento: Griffin Printing, 1997

Dogs vomit after eating bad food:

"Boulding said his dogs began to vomit after he fed them a bad batch of food." "Boulding's dogs became ill after he fed them some freeze-dried food that had gotten wet."

- Charlie Boulding, musher in 2001 Iditarod
- Associated Press, March 8, 2001


Dogs get food poisoning:

"He [Palmer Sagoonick] believes the dogs got food poisoning at the Finger Lake checkpoint because mushers' food drops somehow spoiled there, he said, perhaps by thawing."

- Mark Downey, Great Falls Tribune, March 7, 2002


Food thaws on airplanes:

"Fortunately, the 'dog food' is stored outside and is normally frozen solid. Now and again, however, a harried IAF [Iditarod Air force] pilot forgets what he's hauling and turns up the cabin heat, resulting in a near in-flight emergency as acrid, eye-watering fumes from fish or seal oil waft forward from the thawing bags."

- Don Bowers, Iditarod website article, 2000


Did food go bad during the 2008 Iditarod?

There were sustained temperatures in the 40s:

"But the biggest factor affecting his dogs were temperatures that have reached into the 40s, ...."

- Associated Press, March 6, 2008


"He also struggled with dogs stricken with diarrhea and slowed by unseasonably warm weather that marked much of the trail."

- Associated Press, March 12, 2008

The USDA recommends throwing out meat and fish that have thawed and been held above 40 degrees for two hours.

- USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Fact Sheet, September 6, 2006


Damage to dogs may appear after race

Andrea Floyd-Wilson: "Let's take a look at a dog that is days into the trail and perhaps not in good shape to begin with, and now being asked to pull a heavier load [because dropped dogs cannot be replaced]. What kind of physiological changes will we be looking at in their bodies?"

Dr. Paula Kislak: "There are a number of them. There would be hemorrhaging in the lungs and there would be a breakdown of the muscle tissue. When that muscle tissue breaks down and gets into the blood stream, it creates a very severe toxicity to the liver and the kidneys which can fail either suddenly or slowly. And, because of the stress on the heart, there can be sudden heart failure or there can be irreparable damage to the heart muscle, that doesn't manifest itself until after the end of the race like many of other the deteriorating conditions that occur from the extreme prolonged exertion."

- Andrea Floyd-Wilson is the host of the All About Animals Radio Show. On February 23, 2003, she interviewed Paula Kislak, DVM, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights.


Dimished repair of damaged connective tissue

"There are all kinds of enzymatic and electrolyte imbalances that create a decreased ability to form connective tissue, which is very important in repairing the damage done during the races."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, president of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights
- - Her remarks were made on the Animal Voices radio show, Toronto, Canada on February 28, 2006


Dogs in pain prompt musher/physician to give up Iditarod

Physician knows dogs are hurting and won't run the Iditarod again:

"The Kasilof physician [John Bramante, M.D.] and father of two won't run the race again, he said, because of the wear and tear it inflicted on his dogs.

'It's hard to watch the dogs go through what they do and feel comfortable,' the 38-year-old musher said during a rest stop at McGrath, midway through the March race.

While massaging tired muscles, tending to bloody paws and treating a case of penile frostbite suffered by one of his lead dogs, Bramante said he was fighting the urge to scratch.

'It's a fallacy to think that the dogs aren't hurting,' said Bramante."


- Paula Dobbyn and Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, April 1, 2002


Dogs who vomit while racing at high risk for illness and death

"The inherently stressful conditions of endurance races like the Iditarod predispose dogs to vomit and have diarrhea while racing."

" Dogs who vomit while racing are at high risk of aspirating (inhaling) the vomitus. The implications of the acidic and bacterial stomach contents entering the normally sterile respiratory tract are grave. Aspiration pneumonia and severe inflammatory reactions can be anticipated with only a small number of dogs showing symptoms acutely (within 24 hours). Most morbidity (disease) and mortality (death) would be expected to occur days to weeks later which, coincidentally, is when scrutiny has lapsed."

- Dr. Paula Kislak
, President of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, September 7, 2004 email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition



Debarked dogs more prone to aspirate digestive juices leading to pneumonia:

Dr. Paula Kislak: "This surgery is especially bad, because even under the best of circumstances animals, because of the messing around in the throat area, that are debarked are more prone to aspirate their own digestive juices. And when dogs are put under these intense circumstances of racing and they're gasping all the time, they're constantly aspirating or inhaling any vomit or digestive juice that comes up in their mouth, and that sets them up for life-threatening aspiration pneumonias. So that's a double whammy of the debarking."

Rob Moore: "This debarking, what is the procedure?"

Dr. Paula Kislak: "It's a surgical procedure requiring general anesthesia. There's two actual procedures one goes from the outside of the throat and one goes from the inside of the throat, but it's the cutting of the vocal cords basically."

- Dr. Paula Kislak, DVM, is president of the Association of Veterinarins for Animal Rights
- Rob Moore hosts Animal Voices, a radio show in Toronto Canada.
- This interview was done on February 28, 2006

Mush with P.R.I.D.E. promotes the debarking of dogs


Dogs behind front-runners have greater risk of getting sick

"'Conventional wisdom has always been to draw a low number [for a starting position]," Hooley said. 'The better the trail, less traffic from other dog teams, less congestion and less of an opportunity for teams to pick up bugs and viruses.'"

- Mushers with a low number start the race first
- Associated Press, Juneau Empire, June 27, 2004
- Stan Hooley is the executive director of the Iditarod


"Zack Steer, co-owner of Sheep Mountain Lodge near Eureka, isn't so sure starting late is a good idea. After numerous teams pass over the trail, it can get rough."

And dogs can leave behind germs that cause sickness in other dogs, Steer said.

"It's happened a lot. You get all those teams from different parts of the country and different parts of the world, and it's like the first day of school," Steer said. "All those germs that (the dogs) haven't been exposed to, they haven't had a chance to build up immunity. They get the canine version of the flu.


- Ron Wilmot, Anchorage Daily News, March 6, 2005


Dogs become dehydrated

"Daytime temperatures crept above zero on Thursday, but were expected to plunge toward 40-below again overnight.

Such cold forces the dogs to burn more calories to stay warm and serves to dehydrate them with each breath of cold, dry air."


- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 10, 2006


"I was concerned about Dutchess and Karelan. Their diarrhea had not improved and I could tell they were not as healthy as at the start of the race. Although they drank as much as the other dogs they were becoming dehydrated."

- Rachael Scdoris talking about her sick dogs
- Scdoris, Rachael and Steber, Rick. No End in Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007


Dogs refuse to eat

Sick dogs refuse to eat:

"I guess my hiccup is how it seems like it's always early in the race coming for a remote kennel here about three days into the race we get massively sick and then so I felt I was, you know I, I actually stopped at Ophir and then I stopped at Rainy and then I stopped again at Rohn, which was unplanned and then I stopped at Salmon River and I stopped at McGrath and I stopped at Ophir and then I camped again on the way to Iditarod just trying to keep my team together because they were just really throwing up, really sick."

"It was hard to get them to eat, because they couldn't keep anything down."


- Musher Ed Iten talking about his dogs
- Interview with Steve Heimel, Alaska Public Radion Network, February 28, 2006


Eric Roger's dogs refuse to eat:

"I was having trouble getting enough calories down the dogs and some were getting very thin."

- Eric Rogers, "A Rookies Journey - Race Synopis," R North Bound Dogs 2006 website


P
eter Bartlett's dogs won't eat:

"'The dogs just wouldn't eat,' he said Friday. 'They didn't eat Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.'

[Peter] Bartlett couldn't figure out why. Neither could veterinarians along the trail.

"'My teams are usually great eaters,' Bartlett said. 'It's really strange ... because I've got a couple dogs that would never refuse to eat anything.'

Bartlett tried lamb. He tried turkey. He tried beef, raw fish, ground fish, liver, and every kind of commercial dog food or dog treat he could get his hands on.

It didn't matter. Nobody in the team was eating."


- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 8, 2003


Blake Matray's dogs won't eat or drink:

"'They did not eat,' Matray said. 'They did not drink. It gradually got worse as time went on.' Matray, like Bartlett, had never before had a problem getting his dogs to eat."

- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 8, 2003


Some of Robert Bundtzen's dogs don't want to eat:

"...Trying to get 'em to eat the best I can. Most of 'em are eating pretty well. Some of the most important dogs aren't."

- Iditarod musher Dr. Robert W. Bundtzen, MD, KTUU-TV website video, March 9, 2007


Darin Nelson's dogs refused to eat:

"The dogs were not doing well, refused to eat and left [Darin] Nelson with no choice but to scratch."

- Tamar Ben-Yosef, The Cordova Times, March 20, 2008


Aliy Zirkle's dogs have no appetite:

"Aliy Zirkle, a former Quest winner who was 10th into Nikolai, said her dogs had lost their appetite in the warm weather."

- Mary Pemberton, Associated Press, March 10, 2009


Jessie Royer's dogs refuse to eat:


"Some of the dogs were becoming sick and didn’t want to eat their food."

- Jessie Royer, Jessie's Sled Dog Page, website, 2001


Bruce Linton's dog won't eat:

"A small young 2 year old female she pulled hard all the way and made it so far, but she just wasn’t eating enough and she was getting thin."

- Bruce Linton, Iditarod Journals, 2007


Jason Barron's dogs won't eat:

Laureli Kinneen: "So, what types of problems, what types of injuries have you been dealing with?"

Jason Barron: "It all kind of started back in the John Beargrease in Minnesota in the end of January I raced and I had a lot of nicks and cuts coming out of that race. And I kind of patched them up but they're all breaking loose on this race. And then about the time I was just establishing a decent healthy core group around Cripple my remaining dogs were just ravaged by this sickness that came through-- and don't want to eat, and when they do eat they can't really hold it down very well, so I mean I essentially had to pull all the plugs on my race plan."

- Laureli Kinneen of KNOM radio interviewed Jason Barron on March 16, 2010 in Unalakleet.


Tom Thurston's dogs stopped eating:

"[Tom] Thurston said his team of 16 dogs contracted a bug and stopped eating."

- Joel Reichenberger, Steamboat Today, June 12, 2010


Iditarod wants dogs weakened from sickness to keep racing

Steve Madsen's dogs were weak from diarrhea and battling high winds:

"Some of the dogs had been sick with diarrhea and treated at a prior checkpoint. They showed little spark after that.

Battling the winds, Madsen could practically see their body fat melting off. Not only that, the sled hit a stump on the trail, forcing Madsen's upper body onto the handles. An X-ray at a later checkpoint revealed a rib broken in several places.

Ruby was a convenient place to withdraw from the race because of regular air transport going in and out.

'But,' Madsen said, 'a musher never makes a decision without first getting some sleep.'

So after two or three hours of sleep, some food and a pep talk from race officials, he felt he could go on."


- Kay Richardson, The Columbian, April 16, 2006


Harnesses encourage sick or injured dogs to pull

"Traditional harnesses attach to the leash with a clip on the back. These old-fashioned harnesses actually encourage dogs to pull -- because a dog's natural reflex is to pull against something that constrains it. (This is why sled dogs pull naturally in their harnesses.)"

- Deborah Wood, The Oregonian, June 12, 2007
- Deborah Wood is The Oregonian's Pet Talk columnist and the author of 10 books.

[From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: Iditarod sled dogs wear traditional harnesses, which utilize their natural instinct pull, so effectively, that they often keep pulling even when sick or injured.]

"Dogs have what we call 'opposition reflex,' which means they pull against pressure."

- Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, website article, 2007


Booties don't protect dogs' paws

Accumulated snow inside booties causes pain:


"I changed dog positions, switched out leaders, and was becoming frustrated when we finally noticed their protective booties were allowing snow to accumulate inside causing them pain."

- Jim Warren is talking about his dogs' paws.
- Warren, James and Warren, Christopher. Following My Father's Dream, James and Christopher Warren, 2005


Ice crystal form on paws with booties:

"I pulled their booties and rubbed their sore muscles. They licked their feet dry nibbling on small ice that had formed around their guard hairs, and licked their paws clean."

- Scdoris, Rachael and Steber, Rick. No End in Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007


Did animal urine and feces contaminate dog food?

(From the Sled dog Action Coalition: After animals were in the dog food bags, no one tested the food to guarantee that it wasn't contaminated.)

"A former Iditarod musher, Anderson hadn't been quite so jolly earlier in the day when he had to chase off a flock of ravens that tore into some drop bags. The all-volunteer Iditarod Air Force leaves the bags of food and extra gear at most of the 22 checkpoints along the 1,000-mile trail days before the race.

These were covered with blue tarps to keep wild animals out, but the ravens saw through the ploy.

'(The tarp) was like a bull's-eye for them,' Anderson said. 'Those ravens are pretty smart.'

The big, black crows on steroids were gathered along the lakeshore singing and dancing in celebration of what they'd found Monday morning, Anderson said. Between them and the foxes, about a dozen bags had been scavenged.

Four-time Iditarod champ Martin Buser of Big Lake pulled in and immediately knew he'd been hit.

'Hello, hello!' Buser said. 'So my food was torn into, huh? Any word on Gatt's stuff?'

Buser was referring to Hans Gatt, a three-time Yukon Quest champion who had only one drop bag waiting because the plane with his other bags was stuck in Willow due to poor visibility. When Gatt arrived, he discovered 20 percent of the supplies in his one bag had been stolen by either the rogue ravens or feisty foxes."

- Kevin Klott, Anchorage Daily News, March 9, 2009


Straw used for bedding can be very dangerous for dogs

Foxtail seeds can be found in straw for bedding dogs:

"Foxtails are grass seeds that are sometimes in the straw that we use for bedding."

- Aliy Zirkle SP Kennel Dog Log, July 9, 2010


Foxtail seeds injure and may kill dogs:

"Foxtail barley is a perennial grass, commonly found in yards, fields, along roadsides, trails and in most canyon areas. They grow quickly during the rainy months, in almost any soil condition, and dry out during the warm summer months. Once foxtail grasses dry out, the seed detaches easily and sticks to clothing and fur. Foxtails can enter a dog's body in a variety of ways and once they enter, they are like a barbed fishhook: The seed only wants to move forward, burrowing into the skin. It's most common for a foxtail seed to enter a dog's body through the skin, nose, ears, paws, and eyes. Foxtails are very tenacious, painful and dangerous to your pet."

Foxtails in the ears, nose, and eyes are very serious and can ultimately be life-threatening if they are not treated promptly."

"Foxtails burrow. The outsides of the 'seedlings' contain a bacterium with enzymes used to break down vegetation.This bacterium also allows the seedling to burrow into a dog along the tunnels of pus created by the enzyme.

A foxtail can literally go anywhere in the dog. For example, they have been found inside the brain, anal glands, eyes, ears, jowls, feet, spinal cord, lungs, and vagina."

- Governor Animal Clinic website, 2010


"Foxtails can enter the dog's body through any opening and can even be inhaled. Once inside the body, they can travel long distances along with the bacteria embedded with it. Because the foxtail won't show up on an x-ray, it is hard to find, so surgical removal is not always successful.

Once embedded, the seed always moves forward. The seed head of a foxtail can burrow through the dog's skin into his body. Foxtails also cause a problem when they get between the toes and burrow into the feet. Inside the body, they can travel long distances along with the bacteria embedded with it. Because the foxtail won't show up on an x-ray, it is hard to find, so surgical removal is not always successful."


- High Valley Veterinary Hospital website, 2010


Aliy Zirkle's dog Nacho injured by foxtail:

"I examined him closely and found a swelling on his cheek. I went and found a Veterinarian to take a closer look. There was no puncture mark or cut, only a swelling. She thought it looked fresh because it was soft and pliable. Maybe it was a foxtail. Foxtails are grass seeds that are sometimes in the straw that we use for bedding. They have a pointy tip and can get imbedded in skin. This causes an irritation and if you don’t catch it, an infection. She put him on some simple antibiotics and she told me to watch him closely."

- Aliy Zirkle SP Kennel Dog Log, July 9, 2010


Back to top


Articles about the Iditarod

Dog deaths

Poor veterinary care

Mushers mistreat their dogs during race

Problems with Iditarod rules

Greed fuels the Iditarod

Abuse in kennels

Cruel dog training

Iditarod history








 
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