Where is foxtail found

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Dog Recovery Suits Review. Care Environmental Hazards. Thoroughly examine your dog after walks in foxtail areas. We were laughing at her antics when a fellow hiker stopped to watch. I resolved to learn more. Bring her in immediately! Detailing the Dangers of Foxtails to Dogs The two main dangers posed by foxtails are foreign-body reactions and infections, says Dr.

Foxtails can also cause tissue necrosis. Which Dogs are at Risk? The Foxtail Reality Check So how often does the worst-case scenario occur? Smoke Inhalation and Dogs. Please enter your comment! Please enter your name here. You have entered an incorrect email address! Foxtails are the seed-like structures that are found at the tops of grasses.

Foxtail can be any of the weedy grasses in the Alopecurus or Setaria genera of the Poaceae family and there are around 25 species just within the Alopecurus!

Foxtails are most commonly found in late spring, summer, and early fall. Put simply, foxtails are found just about everywhere throughout North America.

In fact, foxtails are reported to thrive in all but 7 states in the U. In western states like California, they can exist all year long. Foxtails have sharp, pointy tips and are designed to burrow. This is how they spread in nature and how they cause problems for your dog. Sometimes dogs eat a foxtail, and this can be an emergency because it can perforate the intestine or cause a severe infection leading to an abscess.

Both cases may require emergency surgery. This photo is of three foxtails after removal from a dog's injury:. This video shows how quickly and easily a foxtail can burrow into your dog's skin:.

Depending on where the foxtail has lodged, there are different symptoms to look for. The most common places for foxtails to be found are the paws, ears, and nose. They can also be inhaled. Similarly, where are foxtails located? Foxtails are most often found in open areas — hiking trails, along roadsides, in overgrown parks and other open fields — and grow at the top of grass stalks. Foxtails get their name because, well, they look like the tail of a fox, with layers of upward-facing spines protruding from the center.

One may also ask, does foxtail grass grow in Florida? Foxtail grass flourishes in all but 7 states Florida , Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia , and can be found just about anywhere you find grass.

The seeds of the foxtail are easily disturbed and can be inhaled by your pup, or work its way into their ears, feet, and mouth. Foxtail is common all up and down the West Coast but has also spread across the country, according to the U. These spiked seeds, or spikelets, are barbed and efficiently adapted for animal dispersal. Foxtail grass isn't present only in California, but the state is definitely ground zero for this injurious plant. It grows as well in pastures and lawns as it does in gravel driveways and cracks in the sidewalk.

Can foxtails kill a dog? However, they can also get into a dog's skin where they can cause serious injury, infection and even death. The torpedo-shaped awns found on foxtails are similar to bullets, as they can penetrate any part of a dog's body. Is foxtail dangerous to dogs? The foxtail plant is a grass-like weed. The danger of foxtails goes beyond simple irritation.

I hate these darn things. My vets could build a new wing on their hospital with the money I have spent on these things over the last 30 years. I have two long haired dogs, but thank God I live in the south.

Hope I never see one of these thinks! Can this monstrosity of a plant be harmful to humans? Good question, I have no idea. My son was weed eating and got one up his nose, it was horrible. I used to live in southern California, where foxtails are exceedingly common.

They are annoying to humans but not dangerous. Pretty much there are two things that can happen. Perhaps they potentially could break through your skin, but a human being will have stopped and thank heaven for fingers and thumbs reached down and removed the offending seed long before anything injurious happened. They are sharp, sticky, and they will poke you and be very annoying. I did orienteering in southern California which meant a lot of running off trail — and a lot of running through foxtails; orienteers are very familiar with them.

Strong thick gaiters can help or even just thick pants. A constant annoyance, but I never had any adverse health reaction. If you swallow a coin or marble, they will pass through your body with no problem. The newer pennies are toxic because of the zinc in the center.

If your dog swallows one, or as ours did covered raisins, give 2 tablespoons hydrogen peroxide and they should vomit their stomach contents within 15 minutes, if not repeat hydrogen peroxide. Our vet told us this and it worked. I would not ever give hydrogen peroxide to a dog which had swallowed a coin or foreign object, for fear that it would be aspirated while attempting to vomit it back up. Also, while hydrogen peroxide does work to induce vomiting, it also requires follow-up by a veterinarian to ensure that the vomiting stops and does not dehydrate the dog.

Food safe hydrogen peroxide MUST be diluted and added to drinking water prior to giving to any animal, otherwise it burns, try a drop on your hand without diluting.

I heard an expert give advise on how to treat poison oak. You must wash with a scrub brush and soap, not a washcloth or anything soft…he used car grease as a comparison of how the oil attaches to your skin.

Use cold water and soap. Hot water opens the pores and lets the oil into the skin, exacerbating the problem. Some vets will say oh that lump is only collar scars on the throat when its an imbedded foxtail dissapeared below the skin and healed over.. My sheltie had these and they caused Horners syndrome eye paralysis but the foxtails finally worked through and it cleared up. Print and save this article if needed and dont give up getting a lump removed from under the skin because it can work through the body ending up in damaging locations!

I have a full-blooded, double coated chow and we live in North Georgia. Recently, my dog got one in the webbing between his toes after I let him run around on the newly mowed hay field below my property. After I started looking online, I found all the info on Foxtail and realized that MoJo had all the symptoms so I printed out the articles and took them to my vet. And the only time he goes off-lead to run around and play is in his own fenced back yard.

There was a couple of years farmers hay crops were full of it. Our cat got some up his wee-wee! He was listless and I thought he had a UTI! The vet showed me what they pulled out. He recovered completely but it sure was a scare. Fels Naptha sp? My Forest Service son was exposed to Poison Oak many times in his career: arms and legs and hands. Nonetheless with swollen legs and a fever he ran in the annual Blooms Day half-marathon race in Spokane. Here is one fatality from foxtail… As a practicing small animal vet, I was presented with an emaciated example of a once nicely fit English Pointer hunting dog, who had had a persistent, soft cough for an undetermined time it had been so long , a low grade fever, notably elevated WBC, indicative of an infection…probably pneumonia.

Treatment started with a course of antibiotics, which produced some improvement that disappeared in a week or so. Chest X-rays showed some consolidation of the lower parts of the lungs, suggestive of a considerable area of lung involvement, but no noticable cause.

Long story shorter… The owner elected to put his hunting partner to rest, as the unspoken bond between this type owner and his pet dictates. Many of us have experienced this loss, no one likes it, especially the vets who do it, but it is both part of an owners responsibility, and a service of the veterinarian to provide.

A post mortem examination discovered but one Giant Foxtail awn, deep in one lung. The ability of this animal to have survived this long, under those conditions was remarkable, and possibly valiant. Upon this revelation, the owner recalled one of his relatively frequent off season outings with his dog, from which his dog did go home with a cough…apparently not serious enough to demand an answer, but it befell me to be the last vet he visited.

Would I have done anything differently? Hindsight suggests many things needed to have been done, but without referral to a large vet center, like a school, few facilities exist in the normal practice to provide them.

Hindsight, again. Most hunting dogs love running in fields, almost as much as hunting there. ANY bodily opening is a point of entry for even small awns…they all operate the same… a stiff, pointed end ahead of brush-like fibers that resist going backwards in hair or a blanket…ever have one stuck in a blanket? No sleep till you turn the light on and fight to get it removed! We all put our lives in jeopardy whenever we get onto a street in a car.

Feces occurs! Thanks for sharing this story. I see more and more people who have never heard of foxtails. Your story will help drive home the danger they pose and probably save the lives of some dogs. Pete, I know it has been a while since you posted! I wanted to say thanks for posting, I wish I had read these post here before my dog became hill. My Wheaten Terrier became really hill, vomiting bill and very lethargic over a few days. The vet eventually found he had water around his hart sac!

An ultrasound showed nothing else at first than the pericarditis water around the hart sac , then the next day another ultrasound a small hole appeared!. Fast forward, we told the vet to check his left front paw as he was limping and chewing a few days before, she said that nothing was found!!!!

He was given antibiotic, and we were than told that the only option was a hart surgery to investigate and fix the hole. The procedure outcome depended on if the finding ie cancer.. The Vet did not encourage us to pursue this, and was talking to us as if he was dying. We were so shocked as our dog was previously healthy and only five years old. We decided not to put him down that day, took the med and contrary to what she told us to expect our dog got better on antibiotic.

When we follow up and let her know that he was doing really good eating, walking, jumping.. Our dog got sick again when the antibiotic was done! This time, we were only offered to empty the water around the sac! We did not even get a chance to do this..

We were so crushed, and sadden.