what to do if my dog swallowed a foxtail
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There'due south zippo quite like escaping a hectic schedule and taking a long walk with your domestic dog. Communing with nature, smelling the grass and leaves, seeing the look of joy on your dog's confront – these are the moments we virtually expect forward to. Only outdoors in that serene environs may lurk a seemingly harmless weed that can literally wreak havoc on your domestic dog'southward health: the foxtail plant.
What Is A Foxtail?
Foxtail plant is a grass-like weed that's prevalent throughout much of the Western Usa. It grows in meadows and along roadsides, and is especially troublesome in drier climates.
One time the grass dries, the spinous seeds of this establish, called awns (or "foxtails"), get brittle and easily snap off, sticking to whatever unfortunate creature happens to be walking past. Dogs are most frequently afflicted (especially those with long ears and curly hair, where the awns stick more hands), but cats can be affected also.
These foxtails can become embedded in your pet's ears, optics, nose, mouth, toes, or in sensitive areas around the genitals. Foxtails can also be inhaled through the nose or become lodged in your pet's throat. Not only are they extremely painful, foxtails can work their fashion under the pare and deep into tissue, causing infection, draining abscesses, and swelling. They volition continue to cause irritation until they're removed.
Just information technology doesn't end there. Similar an entity out of some bad horror movie, once underneath the peel, foxtails are able to migrate, and can wind up in the eardrum, heart, encephalon, spine, lungs, or other internal organs. Left untreated, foxtails can even cause decease.
Symptoms of an Embedded Foxtail
If your pet has an embedded foxtail, symptoms will depend on the foxtail'southward location.
- Pare: This is the most common site for foxtails in pets. Areas well-nigh frequently affected include the feet (especially between the toes), chest, shoulders, and armpits. Symptoms of foxtails in the peel tin can include swelling, hurting, drainage from the site, redness, and hair loss (from the animal licking the affected area). Pets with a foxtail in the foot will often limp.
- Heart: A foxtail in the eye will cause severe swelling, pain, and belch. Pets will squint, paw at the centre, and effort to concord the centre tightly closed.
- Ear: If a foxtail becomes embedded in the ear, the pet will often continuously shake his caput, scratch or paw at the ear, or concur his head low and tilted at an angle. An infection may develop, causing discharge from the ear.
- Nose: A foxtail in the nose can cause fierce sneezing, and claret or mucous may drain from 1 nostril.
- Throat: If a foxtail becomes lodged in the pharynx, it volition usually stick backside the tonsils and cause a dry, hacking coughing, gagging, and/or frequent hard swallowing. The pet may also continuously stretch his neck forrard as he gags.
- Genitals: If the genital area is affected, pets will consistently lick this area, causing redness and irritation.
- Internal organs: Foxtails that drift deep into the body and lodge in internal organs may cause loss of appetite (leading to weight loss), coughing, difficulty animate, and lethargy.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis is unremarkably done based on symptoms and exposure history. Unfortunately, foxtails tin can be notoriously difficult to find, leading to meaning frustration for both the veterinary and the pet guardian! Foxtails quickly become deeply entangled in fur, and once they've migrated, practice not testify up on x-rays. However, the inflammation and swelling associated with embedded foxtails may be detectable with a CT scan, if necessary.
Treatment
If you suspect your dog or true cat may take picked up a foxtail, schedule an appointment with your veterinary immediately.
In one case the foxtail is located, the only treatment is to physically remove it. Depending on the location, sedation or anesthesia may exist required.
In one case it's been removed, most symptoms will resolve rapidly over the following 24-48 hours. Your veterinary volition almost likely prescribe antibiotics, and, one time at home, you may need to make clean and flush the area where the foxtail was removed for several days. Hurting medication may also be prescribed if appropriate.
Additionally, depending upon where on your pet'due south body the foxtail was establish, the veterinarian may recommend that your pet go home with an Due east-collar or "cone" to forestall them from licking the afflicted area.
Preventing Foxtail Problems
No matter how careful you are, yous and your pet may still see foxtails. Still, at that place are a few things you can do to reduce the risk:
- Keep your dog on a leash at all times, and away from tall, dry grass.
- Examine your canis familiaris's coat afterwards each walk, especially during foxtail season (May through Dec). Brush him or her, and look advisedly for any awns in the fur, especially effectually the armpits and groin.
- Carefully check your pet'southward anxiety, especially the webbed areas between the toes.
- Look closely at your pet's face, ears, and mouth. Run your fingers along the gum line to ensure no foxtails constitute their way into the oral cavity.
- Pets who squat to urinate are at increased risk for foxtails lodging in their genitalia, so don't forget to examine this area as well.
- Consider trimming your domestic dog's hair (particularly around the toes and ears) during the spring and summer months to make foxtails easier to run into.
- Remember, foxtails can occur in cats too! If your cat goes outside, be certain to bank check him or her periodically as well.
Concluding Thoughts
Foxtails are more than than only a nuisance – if left untreated, they can be life-threatening. If you detect a foxtail on your pet that has not burrowed into the skin, you tin use tweezers to safely remove it.
However, if it's embedded, or if the area is red and swollen, contact your veterinary immediately. Remember, foxtails won't come out on their own, then never hesitate to seek treatment for your pet if he or she is ever unlucky plenty to pick upwards one of these dangerous little hitchhikers.
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Has your pet e'er been affected by foxtails? Please share your stories with us in the comments below!
Source: https://www.goodpetparent.com/2014/11/29/foxtails-pets-need-to-know/
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