Remember to check for grass seeds

[heatseeker14]

Morning all,
I regularly comb our dog but missed a grass seed. It started to make his paw sore, bless him. Found it when I was clipping his claws when he started to get upset at me holding his paw. Found a few small seeds that hadn’t embedded themselves between his toes. I thought I was doing a good job combing him. 🙄 Have started to use a nit comb on his feet once I’ve brushed them to make sure I get everything. No harm done, but I thought I’d share my story for new owners. If I hadn’t found it, he would have needed the vet to take it out. When checking you need to gently separate the toes to look.

Don’t just check toes! My dog got a grass seed under her arm (well, front leg) which did what grass seeds do: stuck in her fur, wiggled in and migrated. Two vet appointments, one scan and one operation followed by 14 days bed rest to protect the stitches (and she had to wear the cone of shame). Thank goodness for insurance. Some breeds are more prone to this than others, apparently, but she now has a very short coat so I can find seeds more easily and hopefully before a repeat performance.

Oh no @Theoscargoesto 😐. I’m worried our dog will snort grass seed up his nose or something. I spend at least 20 minutes per day combing stuff out of his coat. He has a thing for running through those bloody sticky ball things at the moment.
Sorry if this thread came across as a preachy one. I’m sure the majority of people check their dog regularly.

My old girl got one stuck in the tear duct in her eye a few years back. They’re nasty little things!

We're having a nightmare with them at the moment and have a boy on antibiotics and painkillers. We're doing regular checks and hoovering all the time but they get irritated and infected so quickly.

Ouch @40somethingJBJ, that sounds nasty.

@thisisbobbins, they are such a pain. I’m constantly checking for them. I’ve started to clip our dog a bit shorter to make things easier, but it is still a pain. Hope your boy feels better soon.

I don’t know how I missed it 🙁
Emergency call out last weekend. Horribly ulcerated eye. Fortunately vet was able to remove nasty, barbed grass seed before it migrated.
A few days later after drops and antibiotics - DDog is as good as new.
Horrible things. You can’t be too careful.

One of our dogs gets covered in these every day and the awful sticky ball things too, I find it easier to just run my hands over him than a comb, he enjoys the stroking more than a good brushing haha our other dog has never once had one stuck in his coat though.

I have no idea what these are! I'm off to google! Goodness I'm learning new scary things every day.

It’s not the round sticky ones so much as the torpedo shapes ones. They are apparently designed to burrow and they are hard to get out of curly fur. Mine now looks like Shaun the sheep in an effort to locate them before they get stuck

Ouch @Heronsnest 🙁 Horrid blasted things. I couldn’t believe I’d missed the one between our dog’s toes. It must have caused him a fair bit of pain. I felt guilty too that I’d missed it.
I can pick the sticky balls out okay, but the grass seeds are not as easy to pluck out of his wavy fur.
I remember seeing a sign in the reception at the vets warning about grass seeds. I thought it won’t happen to our dog because I groom him regularly. 🙄 It’s amazing how much trouble the little things can cause.

My total bill was £150 emergency vet (it always happens on a Sunday...), £60 my own vet, and for the scan and op about £2,750. Not only are they nasty little horrors, they are expensive. And in certain coats, hard to locate and get out. We asked the vet who operated if there was anything we could have done and he shrugged and said, don’t walk her where there are seeds, and you can’t do that, it’s just one of those things. Which made me feel better so I pass it on!!

That’s a lot of money!😮 I couldn’t restrict our boy. He loves bouncing about in the fields near us. I just internally groan when he zips out of the undergrowth with a load of plant material stuck to him.

Our grass is terrible and we have lots of grass seeds. We were told to mow more often and water the grass every day which softens them. Nothing you can do about the park apart from check them when you get back.

Absolutely yes, a lot of money. Thank goodness for insurance!

No matter how much I check, there are times of year when I am nervous!

are these from the fields? where are the seeds more prevalent?

what about lawn grass seed?

@Sennetti, the grass seed that caused an injury was from the fields near our house. I’m not sure about lawn seed. It’s not sharp like the wild seeds. I guess it could still get in ears and eyes if they rolled on it. I still took the precaution to cover seeds in our garden when fixing patches. Also to protect it from the greedy pigeons!

Last summer both our spaniels had seeds in their ear, cost about £300.
This year only one of them has had one and that cost £160 for removal.
I bought snoods for them, but the younger one won’t wear his. Just shakes his head and it’s off.
We have bought some other ear protector hat things but haven’t used them yet. We are just avoiding the barley fields, they are the worst.

I doubt our dog would want to wear one of those snood things @Twospaniels. Bad enough having to get him to wear a medical suit after he was neutered.

All my dog walking friends keep talking about this and I know some who have had them burrowing in their ears and had surgery but I must admit I have no idea what they look like/what I am checking for??

Those small bullet shaped grass seeds is what you’re looking for. Hard to find in some costs especially spaniels poodles and crosses of those breeds (mine is a cockerpoo). I first noticed a v small sore patch under a front leg, Initially thought her harness had rubbed her. I had a poke and got one seed out but another had wormed it’s way under her skin and the next day I could feel a small lump up in her armpit. I gather ears are another favourite hiding place for seeds especially in floppy ears.