Grass Awn In Dogs Foot

The height of many dogs lines up well with the location of the seed pods on the grasses and contact with the grass allows the sharp lightweight grass awns to stick to the dog.

Grass awn in dogs foot.

Grass awns are just one of the many danger your dog is exposed to when he or she is outdoors. However grass awns can also cause much more serious health problems when they enter through the mouth or nose of a dog and migrate through the respiratory or gastrointestinal tract. Foxtail plants can be risky for your dog. An awn is a hairy or bristle like appendage growing from the ear or flower of barley rye and many types of widely growing grasses.

Whether you call them awns mean seeds timothy foxtails cheat grass june grass downy brome or any other number of colloquial names to dogs they generally mean one thing and that s trouble. Movement from the dog allows the grass awn to pierce the dog s skin becoming embedded due to the barbs. The barbed seed heads of the foxtail plant can work their way into any part of your dog or cat from the nose to between the toes and inside the ears eyes and mouth they can even simply dig themselves directly into a patch of skin. Further motion enables the grass awn to migrate.

The foxtail plant is a grass like weed. The most common presentation is a draining tract between the toes. But if the seeds have penetrated the skin or have been inhaled or ingested usually pain inflammation and swelling will result. If the seeds are just tangled in the fur only matting of the hair coat may be seen.

If grass awns are not removed in a timely fashion they will lead to the formation of painful abscesses which need regular drainage of fluids.