Return of the dreaded Grass Seed...2!!

O.K so the birthday celebration is over and all is back to normal - and by normal I mean going to the vet once again, for the second time this week to have a grass seed removed from Salvador's foot.

Last weekend I noticed him licking his paw a lot. I decided to leave it and see how it goes the next day, only to wake up to a restless and limping, very unhappy looking dog. Upon further investigation I realized this could only be due to the dreaded Grass Seed that grows in lush abundance on the farm at this time of the year(Spring-Summer).

A dried version of the plant...

The actual seeds - they have arrow-like heads and are
anything from 1-2cm long! 

They specially target breads with furry little feet like the Spaniel and the Border Collie for instance. They have long, hair-like grips to help them attach to the fur and they're spear-like heads easily penetrate the soft skin between the toes and in the ears. The seed has little hairs or fibers on the casing that makes it capable of only moving one way and that is in! No need to speculate if it is a grass seed or not either - they are pretty easy to identify by the little swelling and hole they leave in the paw.

And this is what your dog's foot will look like...
(image from Cockers Online)

According to the vet I saw, she treats dogs on a daily basis with these nasty things lodged into their toes and ears.
She removed Salvador's under a general anesthetic by using a fancy little scissor/tweezers to go into the hole and so pull it out. On Monday they were lucky to find the whole seed, but this morning they had to cut to try and find it and even then she reckoned that the seed might have traveled quite a way up his forearm or we hope it somehow already got out.
The worry is that, as I've said before, these seeds travel one way and that is onward and upwards so there is always a risk that they could travel all the way to the heart - which of course is fatal...

As it stands now, I have a very drowsy 'puppy' of a dog lying at my feet with one foot wrapped up and all the rest clean shaven so as to avoid those nasty seeds from attaching and hopefully preventing further infestations!

-Drowsy-

The vet suggested this not-so-hip cut to prevent the seeds from attaching...

If you live on a farm or in a very bushy area, this cut might be helpful to your dog. Getting these seeds removed can be rather costly and trust me, it won't just happen once! Take it from me, in this case, prevention definitely is better and much cheaper than cure! 

GOODLUCK OUT THERE !!