Dog Tails with Foxtails and Bumps on their Noodles!

These are NOT a few of my favorite things!





We like to take Walter and Henry to these dusty little bike trails in the nearby parks where they can go off leash and go exploring in the bushes and chase bunnies. It’s fun for them and it’s a nice, pleasant walk for us. It seems harmless enough to let the boys run free and wander around to sniff out the nooks and crannies of the park. But the truth is - a real danger lurks in the high, dry, wheat-like grass that grows in abundance in this part of the country. I am talking about "foxtails". They call them foxtails because of their resemblance to a real fox tail. They look soft and billowy and harmless as they sway in the summer breeze but the truth is, they are like fish hooks. Once they attach themselves to your dog, their little deadly barbs dig in and catch the skin and make it extremely difficult to remove them from your dog without the help from a Vet.

Henry got a couple embedded so deeply into his butt, they became infected and painful before we were able to have them removed. And the scariest part is, these deadly things can get into their eyes and their nose and their ears where they may not be detected until your poor dog is in terrible pain with infection.

Walter has frequent yeast infections in his ears because he is allergic to so many things. It is something we have become accustomed to and so we constantly clean his ears and give him ear drops. So, when he was scratching at his head near his ear, it was not that unusual. But one time he scratched so hard that a bloody lump started forming on his head near his ear, we took him to the Vet. Lo and behold, it was not the lump on Walty’s noodle that we had to worry about. The Vet looked in his ears and found a foxtail burrowed deep in his ear canal. Thankfully, she was able to reach in with tweezers and remove it without harm to Walter's eardrum.

So, after all this, we now do "foxtail checks" on our boys after they are exposed to areas that have this deadly grass growing. We also use the “furminator” to comb their coats and remove burrs and other debris from their fur. Keep an eye out for excessive sneezing or extremely teary eyes or infected looking bumps. It could be a foxtail making its way deeper and deeper into your beloved pooch.

We didn’t have foxtails in the mountain paths of Colorado, but then again, we had rattlesnakes. So, I guess all regions have their own hazards! We just have to learn what they are and try and keep our curious and carefree pups safe when they are out having fun.