I am going to ask my vet but thought I would pose my question here as well. I have a 1 and a half year old Choc lab in his first year of hunting. He has already proven himself a good bird dog at such a young age. When hunting its cold, sometimes snowy and he constantly has his nose in the bush while running around trying to flush pheasant. I have noticed that during the day and especially towards the end of the day his poor nose is rubbed raw, chapped, and sometimes bleeding. My guess is the vegetation we are running through is pretty rough on him. My question is what should I be doing to address this post-hunting? Should I be applying some type of ointment, vaseline, or bag balm to help out his nose? It does not seem to bother him but it sure looks a little painful to me. Some of his fur around his nose is getting rubbed off which does not help the problem.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I have a German shorthair that would hunt till he died. He bleeds all the time around his face and his feet. Ice is horrible on his feet. Isn't so bad on a lab though. A lot of times in the snow it is like trailing a deer. You probably should put something on it but we don't and he seems to be fine

you can try the bag balm,or vaseline, but he will probably lick it off, same thing with any thing else you put on. as long as your not the one pushing him to hunt let him go. ive got a lazy lab, but when it's huntin time he goes and goes, sometimes he's limpin by lunch, but he won't quit unless you make him.

same with my dads german shorthair/brittney spaniel goes crazy when its time to hunt and runs off when were not hunting....prolly chasing stuff that dog never quits