Solve A Mystery

[Bob_In_MN]

Saturday morning I was getting ready to go fishing. As I was packing up the truck, I noticed red spots on my driveway. The pattern appeared to follow the tracks from our van so I drove to where my wife was and looked under the van--nothing. As a precaution I told her not to drive the van until I had a chance to check it out. I also looked at the tractor to see if it was leaking--it wasn't.

Saturday night my wife calls and tells me when she was walking out back with one of our dogs she noticed the red trail went beyond our driveway to the back part of our property. Good news--no problem with the van. Bad news--something was hurt bad.

When I got home yesterday I followed the track. Here's a brief description of what I saw.

Imagine someone taking a 2-3 inch paint brush, dipping it in paint and swinging it at the ground. That's the type of pattern the blood made in the snow and on the ground. At first I thought deer, but then noticed tracks that would be made by a really large dog or a wolf (I don't think they normally come this far south).

The blood trail is at least 1000 feet in length (probably closer to 1500). There are spots where the animal seemed to stop (and the blood pooled).

At this point, I assume one of two things happened.

1. A dog caught another animal and carried it in it's mouth through my property creating the blood trail. The problem with this scenario is this--could a small animal have enough blood to create the trail?

2. A dog (or wolf) was somehow injured and walked across my property creating the trail. But--the blood trail lessens as you follow the trail. What animal could lose that much blood and still walk away. In addition, what type of injury would cause such blood loss and yet appear to stop bleeding after walking a third of a mile.

I realize I haven't provide pictures or any measurable detail, but this sure has me puzzled. With the amount of blood I saw, I really expected to find an animal at the end of the trail. Whatever it was--I hope someone found it and helped it or it's no longer suffering.

Any thoughts?

Bob

 

[Mark_in_NH]

Is there any evidence at either end of the blood trail that might provide some clues ?

 

[Bob_In_MN]

I only followed the trail to it's end--or at least until the bleeding slowed way down or stopped.

I did not find the origin, but I do know it comes from the back part of the property--I'm going to take the flash light and walk out there tonight.

I'll report back tomorrow.

Bob

 

[YanmarFever]

BoB
Look for tracks !! and any broken twigs on the branches,
see how high the broken twigs are from the ground (clue)
Hope you find it
Tracker Ernie <><

 

[riptides]

Well.

Be darn carefull. If it is still kicking it will NOT be happy.
Take a cell phone, walkie-takie or a buddy along.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[PineRidge]

Will ET please PHONE HOME /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Bob_In_MN]

Well--last night my wife and I walked down to the other end of the blood trail. It starts with a few drops of blood and gets heavier.

The area where we walked to is at the back end of our property which is bordered by a railroad track. Dirtbikes and 4 wheelers use the ditch along side the railroad so I thought maybe a 4 wheeler hit a dog or other animal, but there's no evidence of that.

The "origin" is very similar to the other end of the trail. One thing I did notice was that there was blood on the tall grass about 14-16 inches high.

After not finding any other clues we walked back to our house via a trail I keep maintained. On this trail in the snow I saw pheasant tracks and right next to the pheasant tracks I saw paw prints that appeared very similar to the prints along the blood trail.

So--I'm guessing at this point that a dog or other large animal somehow got ahold of a bird and carried it causing the trail.

The only thing that doesn't "fit" with the above statement is the amount of blood. The trail from beginning to end is as I previously stated--somewhere between 1000 and 1500 feet.

Does a bird have enough blood to make this type of trail?

So--I still am not 100% sure what happened so I will continue to keep an eye out for any other action.

Bob

 

[DocHeb]

Blood coming from an artery will shoot out in a stream, and will coalesce into droplets. This blood shooting out is also pulsatile, so it would shoot out at an interval equal to the heartrate. This would look like your "paintbrush" analogy. I've always been amazed at how a little blood goes a long way when it is spread out on the floor. An 100 pound dog would have about 3 quarts of blood, and could lose about 50% of that and still function marginally. A quart of blood would go a long way when distributed in a droplet fashion. A three pound pheasant would only have 3 ounces of blood, so it wouldn't spread blood that long and far. Also, pheasant feathers tend to matt down over a wound and wouldn't give the droplet pattern to the blood.

The size of the would can be suprisingly small. I had a patient brought to the ED as a cardiac arrest - paramedics reported a "ton of blood on the floor". This patient bled to death from a 1" scalp laceration. Two factors conspired to let this little cut bleed him out - Drunk (poor clotting ability due to chronic alcohol abuse and impaired clotting factors in his blood) and Location (scalp blood vessels are held in place by thick/tough scalp tissue and have a harder time contracting down to help with clotting.)

Wounds that are continually moved have a difficult time clotting, and will continue to bleed. If held still wounds have a better chance of clotting. As we say at work - "all bleeding stops .... eventually". Either the blood clots and the bleeding stops, or the patient dies and the bleeding stops. As blood loss continues, blood pressure eventually drops, making it easier for the clot to seal up the bleeding vessel. Hypothermia will also decrease blood flow to an extremity in attempts to keep the body's core temperature normal. This decreased blood flow comes from constricting blood vessels and would allow the blood to clot easier.

My theory:

A dog-like animal had an extremity injury with a small (2-3 mm) artery involved. He walked across your property with blood pumping from the artery. He continued until he felt safe enough to lay down, or was too weak to walk further. As he lay down the blood pooled. With the decreased movement, cooling, and decreased blood pressure, the blood finally clotted. The animal's compensatory mechanisms kicked in, pulling fluid into the blood vessels from the surrounding tissues, slowly increasing the blood pressure. After an hour, he felt stronger, so he continued on his way.

 

[PhilNH5]

Chris,
I was fascinated reading your physiological explaination and then your theory. It was like reading Sherlock Holmes.

Phil

 

[bcarter]

<font color="blue"> I was fascinated reading your physiological explaination and then your theory. It was like reading Sherlock Holmes. </font>

Or the doggie version of CSI. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bob_In_MN]

Thanks for the insight DocHeb.

I've hunted enough pheasants to realize my guess was probably wrong. I guess part of me didn't want to think of a dog injured and wondering around without help.

There are a lot of old/nasty barbed wire fences out back--maybe the dog caught himself on one of these. It was near one of these fences that the blood trail started.

So--I followed the trail until the blood really slowed (almost to a stop). If it was a domesticated animal--I hope he made it back home or encountered someone who helped it out.

Thanks again

Bob

 

[Heath]

I think the dog vs. barbed wire theory is probably a good one. I've got a German Shorthaired Pointer that had a run in with a piece of old barbed wire that runs the back border of my property. One day she caught her back leg on the wire and put a slice/gouge in her back leg all the way to the bone! The way the wound occured, the slice of skin that was created covered the wound to the point it was hardly noticeable. When she moved a certain way however, the slice opened up and blood came "pouring" out. I could see a wound like this leaving the inconsistant blood trail you described.
By the way, Gretchen the dog recovered just fine. She really didn't like the bandage on her back "knee" very much though!

 

[DocHeb]

Yeah, it was nice to finally answer a question concerning something I know - don't have much experience to answer tractor questions. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bob_In_MN]

Chris (DocHeb),

Thought I'd give an update to the blood trail you analyzed. While I can't be 100% sure unless I talk to the dog's owner, I think I found the source.

Most homes on our road are located on at least 6 acres and some are set away from the gravel road. One house in particular is set way back and protected by a stand of trees. There is a very large german shepard at this house and he sits at the end of the driveway each night waiting for his owner to come home. He hadn't been out for quite a long time, but last week he was out at the end of the driveway with a large funnel over his head. He obviously had some stitches or something they wanted to prevent him from biting/licking. This dog is 100 lbs plus. So I think he may be the animal responsible for the blood trail. If it was him, he seemed to be on the road to recovery with his biggest issue being how ridiculous a large german shepard looks with a big white funnel on its head.

Bob