Grass Seeds! 11/17/2009
  Grass Seeds are a problem to dogs Grass seeds can cause severe problems for dogs, if they enter the nose, eye socket, ears or penetrate the skin. The area around the toes and feet are very vulnerable at all times, as your dog can pick up windblown seeds even when kept away from areas know to have grass seeds. Sometimes surgery is needed to remove these seeds and antibiotics and anti-inflammatory might be needed to treat the resulting infection and inflammation caused by penetrating grass seeds. Prevention, regular inspection and avoiding known problem areas are the best management tools. Grass seeds. Recently Indigo had a visit to the local vet in Mooroopna. Indigo had been for a walk and came back twisting her head to one side and panting. Te vet removed a grass seed from deep inside her ear and all was well. If this had happened on one of our tours, I would not have had the tools on me to find the seed or retrieve it, an important reminder to me to keep her away from long grasses. What with the risk of ticks and grass seeds in ears and in the skin as in my story below, country life for Indigo needs to be kept to lawns, paved areas or our own, cleared front and back yards, for her own safety. This time of year, late spring, snakes are also emerging, and it is yet one more reason to exercise care and not just allow her to run through grassland off her lead. WIRE GRASS(aristida spp) Also known as Shive, Spear Grass or Feathertop Wire Gras, was a major problem for our dog. Wire Grass is a long, thin grass seed. The head has a narrow groove and very fine barbs at the tip. It can be identified by its 3 awns, which no other major type has. The awns may be twisted into a long column rather than being separate as in the examples shown here.Wire Grass is one of the most troublesome. Its long, slender awns easily break off and, because of their fineness, are very difficult to remove. As much as I tried to protect her, when we were camped in an area where this grass grew, I kept her hair short, inspected her and brushed her after every walk, kept her away from long grass, these seed heads were everywhere and impossible to avoid. The seeds went straight into our dog’s skin, the upper section then broke off, leaving nothing to grip to remove the grass seed and no way to tell, where they were until the area became infected. Our poor Indigo had festering sores all over, a week later and I spent a week, gradually removing the seed heads and treating her sores. It was not a kind thing to have done to her. Some dogs get so many festering sores because of contact with these disappear into the skin, seeds, that they can become ill. Indigo was ‘off colour’, and remember there is a huge expanse of Australia, for thousands of kilometres on all sides in outback Australian, where veterinary care for domestic animals is hard to obtain and very expensive. The risk to our dog, from wiregrass was such a concern to us that as much as I love some places such as Barn Hill station in North Western Australia, I will not return there, with a dog.  Comments Comments are closed. | Kathy Shell on Facebook If you enjoy Indigo's blog, would you please vote for her blog in the link below. :-), Thank you
 Kathy Shell
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