Blue Green Algae & Dehydration in ND & SD This Year...

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Be mindful to keep yourselves and your dogs well hydrated while hunting ND and SD this year. Also, with the drought conditions this year anticipate blue-green algae in about any slough or stock dam you find in the field this fall. Remember your dog will cover twice as much ground as you and will not hesitate to lap up any water they come across out there.

Some of the guys who have been around awhile will likely recall 20 or so years back in SD, the opening weekend with similar drought & heat conditions that resulted in numerous dogs dying. Many thought it was dehydration alone, but as I recall it turned out to be a combination of the heat and dogs getting into water that had blue-green algae in it. Drought & BGA go hand in hand...

Dehydration can hit fast. Two weekends back I shot the Badlands Classic archery tournament west of Medora ND. This event is held in mid-August and has a well earned rep as the most physically challenging 3D shoot in ND. The conditions are usually tough, but that weekend temps were hitting 90 degrees by 0900 or so with no wind.

I shot the less physically challenging "standard" 25 target course on Sat morning. I chugged a bottle of water before going out and drank 4 more bottles of water over the 2.5 mile course. That wasn't nearly enough...

Went back the next day to shoot the "extreme" course, 25 targets over 3.5 miles in some of the roughest country the Badlands has to offer. That morning it was even hotter. This time I drank 2 bottles of water before starting plus 5 through the course. Even with that much water intake I was dangerously dehydrated by target 15 and it was all I could do to shoot the last 10 targets and walk off the course under my own power.

I attached one of the hydration charts we use at work. I was a 6 after shooting Sat, and a 7 pushing 8 when I finished on Sun...
 

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