Who is worse - me or the dog?

[Lynda Kamrath]

Yesterday I took the dogs out for a nice walk with a friend.  They love the creekbed behind the Toro housing and it is a great hour walk, so we took them there.  My husband is camping down at the lake, so I knew I would have time to clean them up after the walk.  We met up with a lady with two Visla puppies.  One was only 9 weeks old and he was in a backpack, but the other was a great match for Harpo.  They ran and leaped through the grass and had a great time....until!  The Visla left and Harpo started crying.  He was shaking his head and I found two foxtails - one in each ear and deep.  Took those out and he had several big stickers in his coat (inch long and 1/2 inch wide).  Took those out and finished the walk.  Then took the dogs home and gave them baths.  I was finding foxtails and stickers (the curlique kind) all night.  Harpo actually was happy to lay with me while I pulled out stickers.  This was in the paper today, and I thought it was perfect. (Gotta change the format, post later.)

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

A serious hazard for field dogs, or any dogs in the field, are the hard seed-bearing structures of some kinds of grasses, often called "foxtails". These structures have sharp points at one end, and microscopic barbs, so that they easily move in the direction of the point, but not the other way. They "work in", but they don't "work out". They can become imbedded in the hair, especially the paws and ears, and in nostrils and even eyes. As they work their way in, they cause infection, and if not treated can sometimes be fatal. Southern California has a number of different grasses with this nasty feature, most of them originally from Mediterranean Europe, and most of them common.

The purpose of this web page is to help you identify some of the most common of these grasses in southern California. The same species are found in other parts of the Southwest, and similar species are found across North America, although sometimes with different common names.

 

The most troublesome grass is the actual "foxtail" or "wild barley" (Hordeum murinum). The individual reproductive structures are small and easy to overlook. This grass is common in weedy areas around roads, paths, and other disturbances. It is an annual, and is soft and green from January through March or April. As the seed heads dry in the late spring, they become dangerous, and they stay that way throughout the summer and early fall. Here are some closeups.

The "seed head" breaks apart into these, which imbed themselves in fur.

Several other grasses can cause problems, too (like foxtail, they are all annuals, and worst in the late spring and summer). The one with the nastiest name is ripgut grass (Bromus diandrus, left); it actually perforates the guts of cattle when they eat it, and can easily kill a dog, but it is much larger than foxtail and easier to see in the coat. Ripgut grass is common on grassy hillsides, but not common in disturbed areas. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum, not shown) is similar to ripgut, but smaller, and is common on grassy hillsides in desert areas such as Palmdale or Victorville. Red brome (Bromus madritensis, right), like foxtail, is common along paths and roads. It is often confused with foxtail and is almost as much of a problem.

 

Some California native grasses, especially the needlegrasses, can cause problems for dogs as well, but they are much less common.

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This page and all photographs copyright © 1998 by Curtis Clark. Copies may be freely distributed as long as they include this notice. Last revision Sunday, June 14, 1998

Jennifer I found the above and hope that helps, lucky for me we don't have them in Ireland (too cold!)

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

So glad you got that foxtail out of Harper's ear.  I remember how much trouble Nancie and Gracie had with those things!

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

Poor Harpo, glad you got things under control so quickly..  we don't have fox tails in MI... thank doodle!!! 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I hate the corkscew thingees even more than foxtails, if that is possible.  We stopped at a rest stop in the way to Las Vegas and Ned and Clancy walked through a patch of baby ones - so tiny and just screwed right into the coat.  I was pulling them off the entire weekend. I am so glad to hear that Harpo's ear fox tail is now history.

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Yes, Gracie got the corkscrew thingies when we visited some friends up in Escondido last Fall.  I had never seen or heard of them before but they were kind enough to show me one as they pulled it out of their SpringerDoodle.  When we got home I gave Gracie the check over and found a couple.  Nasty, nasty!!

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Wow Lynda...I hear ya on those nasty foxtails.  Remember Gracie had two surgeries on her paw within one week last August?  It is nasty business these foxtails.  I am sooo glad you found them on Harpo and that the vet was able to get the deep on out.  My vet told me that they never decompose in the body and they can travel around and in worst case scenarios they can go to the lung, heart or brain.  I don't even want to think of the possibilities but the horror stories are out there.  Gracie is going back to the dog ranch in a few weeks because we are going to Boston.  That is where she got the foxtails in her paw.  They now know she gets a full body search every night before bed.  I just  hope they really search hard.  I am shaving her way down which I hate to do but it is better than getting a foxtail.  She also goes back in July/August and that is when the foxtails are really dried out and at their worst!  Everywhere we are walking right now I am seeing foxtails which are still green but getting ready to start drying out.  They are absolutely everywhere this year.  We have them right here in the residential areas where people don't tend to the weeds in the strips between the street and sidewalk.  Gracie is always tromping through them and I am always yelling at her...lots of fun...eh? 

 

And for those of you who don't know what they are that is good...it means you don't have them.  East Coast doesn't have them.  California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas for sure and I'm sure other places like Wyoming and other states have them too.