Grass seeds - please be careful

[Unmanned]

Having just lost our beautiful 18 month old girl to this, please be careful at the moment. It appears she ingested grass seed, this led to an abscess which in turn led to a very high temperature, then a blood clot that led to a coronary

She was due to have surgery this morning to remove the abscess, but we weren't aware that a side effect of the abscess could have been a blood clot. Unfortunately she suffered a coronary before they could prep her for surgery.

She was our world, so please watch your dogs around long grass etc this season xx

[BiteyShark]

So sorry

[lululemona]

Unmanned, I'm so sorry for the loss of your beautiful girl

Very considerate of you to take the time to share this, I was completely unaware of the danger. Thank you.

[Unmanned]

@lululemona she was my daughter's dog, but I sat for her regularly, so if it saves even one person going through this shit....

We have been dog owners for years, and were also totally unaware. Knew about grass seeds in pads etc so always looked out for that, but not about ingestion

[StinkyDora]

Thank you so much and I am so sad for your loss. I had no idea this was a problem other than getting stuck in paws. I will be much more careful from now on as my little dog loves to jump through long grass.

[missbattenburg]

@unmanned I am so sorry - how heartbreaking for you and your daughter.

To add to this, just for awareness, battendog is currently under sedation having a grass seed removed from his inner ear where it apears to have perforated his ear drum. Symptoms: shaking ear excessively and blood coming fom the ear canal.

Hopefully he should recover.

Sorry again, OP.

[BessieBumptiousness]

I'm so sorry to hear this. Can I ask what symptoms you saw please? I'm a bit concerned about my dog at the moment and I have spent a lot of time picking grass seeds from her coat (she's short haired, so not too difficult but time consuming). I'm almost certain that she will have swallowed some whilst playing.

[countrywalk]

I am so so sorry 😞

[Floralnomad]

Sorry for your loss , sounds like an unfortunate series of events but sadly completely unavoidable unless you are never going to let a dog off lead near anything other than a lawn . Sometimes these are the risks you take to allow your dog to have a good , fun life . 💐

[Xiaoxiong]

MissBattenburg we had a very worrying December thanks to a grass seed stuck in DDog's eardrum that must have been there for months but she never showed any serious symptoms, a few ear shakes every once in a while but no blood, pawing, etc, vet couldn't see anything. Then she went in under sedation to have an adenoma off and while she was in the consultation room she shook her ears and blood cane out so I asked if while she was asleep if they could have another look down there and they pulled out a 1.5 inch long massive barbed thing. How it fit down her ear canal I have no idea. She is absolutely fine now so sending to your dog for a full recovery.

I asked if there was anything I could have done, for that or inhalation, and they said just to avoid long grass and check all over after walks for seeds (and ticks as well) as they can travel over a dog's body.

[Xiaoxiong]

Unmanned I'm so sorry for your loss

[Xiaoxiong]

Sorry my last para should have read that the vet told me that there was nothing I could have done to prevent it, even with checking after walks and avoiding long grass it still happens and is just one of those things.

[lorisparkle]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss. After reading some of the posts it has got me thinking. Our ddog is having ear problems and I was dubious about them being investigated under sedation but now I think we might go ahead. He adores long grass but I think that might be off the agenda for a while.

[missbattenburg]

Thanks @Xiaoxiong. The vet just called to say he thinks the eardrum is intact (good) but he has a nasty ear infection and they have removed the "organic debris".

He shook his head a lot the day it happened but I looked well and couldn't see anything so just watched him. The shaking reduced and stopped within a day or so and so I wondered if he'd been bitten or stung and it had worn off. I then checked his ears each day but couldn't see anything and he seemed fine with it. It was only because I noticed he flinched this morning when ruffling his ears that I took another look deep inside his ear in bright sunshine, and could see it looked darker than I might expect. I ran my little finger inside it gently and could then feel the blood (his ears/fur are dark brown so it was camoflaged).

Poor little bugger. I feel rotten for him because I could have taken him a couple of days ago if I'd known he was in pain.

[Unmanned]

Thank you all for your replies - I took her food/toys etc to our local dog shelter today

The first sign for her was she was off her food and very lethargic (ball obsessed border collie!) so they took her to the vets. They said she had a really high temperature so gave her fluids etc, they couldn't figure out what was wrong and it wasn't until she went to the big vet hospital in Bristol that they figured it out, but unfortunately too late