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On (not) being prepared for an emergency

By Marilyn and John Martin

Marilyn and I were on vacation in western Colorado with three of our dogs, Dickens (age 5) and sisters Simba and Twiga (ages 8), near Montrose, in the Gunnison Gorge. It is an area we had been in before and one mentioned by Cindy Hirschfeld in her book Canine Colorado. We choose to hike the “Duncan” trail, described as moderately difficult, about 3 miles roundtrip, dropping about 900 feet in elevation down to the Gunnison river as a final destination.

We were prepared with the following items:

We spent Saturday morning seeing the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, arriving at the trailhead mid-afternoon. No one else was parked there so we were the only hikers on the trail. The first mile to mile and a quarter had us traversing horizontally to a point where we could drop down 900 feet to the river in a distance of about another quarter mile. The dogs were off lead as long and as far as we could see them. Simba, as usual, took off, independently exploring, while Twiga and Dickens stayed with us on the trail. If we reached a point where we didn’t know what was ahead, all the dogs went on leads until we were relatively certain of what was ahead. There were chipmunks, rabbits and other small ground critters…and the trail, while not clearly marked, took us over some rough but manageable terrain.

At the point where the trail began to descend to the river, there was more gravel and loose materials that made the descent difficult. The dogs were off lead as it was (we believed) better for them to get their footing. After walking about ¼ mile down the hill we encountered 2 beautiful flowering cactus plants that caught our attention. It was at this point that something terrible happened. We heard one of the dogs scream out (in pain) but we didn’t know what had happened. Both girls, Simba and Twiga, were gone. It was at that point we realized we were on the edge of a cliff that appeared to vertically drop to the river, approximately 800 feet below. We couldn’t see anything.

My first instinct was that one had fallen into the river, was hurt, couldn’t swim, and would drown, or was already dead. But where was the other dog? Dickens had stayed with us so we knew he was O.K. I scrambled down the trail as Marilyn held on to Dickens to be sure he was safe. I got down the trail about 50’ when I saw them on a ledge beneath the cliff where we last saw them. Both appeared to be scared; Simba was bleeding around her head, mouth and on her right front paw. I was able to coax her over to me, secure her and then I turned my attention to Twiga. She didn’t want to come but I realized she was on the edge of another cliff. Finally, I was able to coax her to me and secure her. Twiga was scared but appeared to be O.K. However, Simba was injured but the extent of her injuries were not yet clear…Marilyn called Twiga to her and she reluctantly climbed the hill to Marilyn. I was able to get Simba up the cliff where Marilyn waited with Dickens and Twiga now firmly in hand and secured.

We believe the dogs must have spotted a chipmunk or other critter and chased it not realizing there was a cliff. We believe they fell an initial 20 – 30 feet hitting and bouncing off a rock, only to fall another 15 – 20 feet to the second ledge. Because Twiga was not seriously hurt, we think she fell on top of her sister. We think Simba was in shock and we gave her water and time to rest and collect herself. She had lost a toenail on her left paw which had to be painful but we also realized she probably had broken her right leg as it totally out of alignment and she didn’t want to put weight on it.

So here we were over a mile from the trailhead with a dog that had both front paws injured and she was barely able to walk. Yet we had to walk out. We couldn’t carry her as the terrain was too rough and she weighed too much. We looked for sticks to make a carrier but there weren’t any.

So what did we do? We made her walk and it was painful to watch but we didn’t really have a choice. If she didn’t walk out she would die. At one point we realized we could make a carrier out of our coats, which we did…we carried Simba for as long as we could but again, she was heavy, the trail was narrow and it was up to her to basically walk out. We finally reached the trailhead and our car but there was no cell phones coverage even though Montrose was less about 10 miles away. When we finally reached a point where there was cell phone coverage we used the Canine Colorado book information to find an emergency vet. The one listed no longer did emergency service but luckily the answering service we called knew of one, referring us to San Juan Vetinernary Hospital, which took care of our canine emergency.

So what did we learn and what supplies/equipment/ resources should we have had? Clearly, number one and two we should have had first aid training and supplies to be able to deal with the basic problems…we had neither! No splinting materials, no wound cleaning materials, nothing really preparing us for a canine emergency. For example, what if both dogs had been severely injured…how would we have been able cope with that? Or, what if something had happened to either Marilyn or I? What would we have done then? It was good that we had what we had but we really weren’t prepared well enough…what about a snake bite kite? What about having 2 walking sticks to possibly make into a stretcher? These are questions we have asked ourselves…we thought we were prepared but really we weren’t. Yet, still, the situation could have been a lot worse…we are so thankful the dogs survived the accident and we are able to tell a story with a happy ending.

Simba had a severely dislocated wrist that required fusion surgery (costing over $3000) on her right front wrist / paw. She had successful surgery three weeks ago and now is in a walking cast. In two – three weeks she will have the cast removed and then will only have a bandage while her recuperation, rehabilitation and recovery continues…happy to be alive! Will we go hiking again? Absolutely…but you can be sure we will try to be better prepared based on our experience. We are writing this in hopes that you too will think about the possibilities and can learn from our experience. And hopefully the Club can put on a program about dealing with canine emergencies.

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