Grass Awn's - DEADLY for your dog

hyresmack said:
What the hell. Ive never heard of this before. Ive hunted my dog in lots of grasses, is it really a issue? Seems like snowflake stuff.
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Just because YOU never heard of it doesn’t mean a thing it is a serious issue
GREAT POST by OP
That crap can kill a dog or cripple a dog
Not a snow flake post in by any means
 
I see a lot of Canada wild rye. This was the beginning of July , the foxtail was falling off the head, the Canada rye was still green and the stuff at the top of the picture is Virginia rye. Canada rye looks a lot rattier once it starts loosing seeds from the head.
I consider myself lucky that I’ve only had to dig it out of a dogs festered toes once. Could have been a lot worse.
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Thanks for bringing this post back to the top. I will definitely be looking deeper into this.
 
Timely to bring this to the top. Thanks for the reminder. I made a conscious decision to enter a new CRP field late in the day which was warm and almost lost my Breez dog. If not for the timely intervention of a vet who recognized the symptoms right away I'm pretty sure she would not have survived. My hunting partner spent 6800 on his Brittany trying to help her at Iowa State University and still brought her home in a box. I'm not sure you can ever completely avoid it, but knowing and recognizing it are important..
 
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Is this the crap you are talking about? Sticks to your pants like Velcro in the dogs hair it roles up and get real matted up.
 
4shot said:
Is this the crap you are talking about? Sticks to your pants like Velcro in the dogs hair it roles up and get real matted up.
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No, see pics in previous posts. That's neither Canada Wild Rye nor Foxtail Barley. And I'd be surprised if that stuff has the same type of "awn" that can penetrate & not back itself out. I could be wrong. What I do know about that stuff is that if you get it in your boot laces, you may as well cut 'em, chuck 'em, & get a new pair.
 
I was at a fairly new (2 or so years old) WPA in Minnesota last weekend and saw that the DNR had planted a great deal of this on this new location. Needless to say I didn’t hunt there.
 
Don't know if it was an actual awn, but my dog had a "grain" shaped object that had stuck into her eye lid about an 1/8 in from the eye ball, penetrating parallel (1/4 inch) to the eye so I could see the depth it went in. It didn't have any barb-like structure, but was small and was hard to pull out with my finger nails.
 
Years ago my Yellow lab Drake inhaled a grass seed during a 5 day Kansas hunting trip. Roughly 10 days after the trip a softball size lump suddenly appeared on his side. I brought him my vet as soon as the lump appeared. Thankfully the vet was experienced with hunting dog related injuries and familiar with small seeds such a Canadian Wild Rye being inhaled into a dogs lungs and causing a nasty infection. Drake was very ill the morning I noticed lump. Lethargic, tailing hanging, ears down, and not eating. The vet immediately done surgery to remove puss and placed a chest in the lung to help it drain. It took 5 weeks to recover from this. I was very lucky I didn't lose him. I would highly recommend going to a experienced Vet....Not the cheapest.
 
I reported on the awn in my Golden's ear and subsequent surgery, last year.

Early this week,hunting west river, I found one in his good ear, the other was sewn shut during the surgery.

Bottom line: check your dog's ears at the end of the day, you'll be amazed at the debris that collects.

P.S. We had fabulous hunting on private land. Scouting about the previous day we saw no birds on the road, or in flight or feeding. This gave us pause and concern about the general bird status this year!
 
We got lucky and Annie survived. Kind of a head scratcher to those that question if its real. Yeah its real
 

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The springer picked one up last hunt of the year. This one didn't go very deep but traveled along her rib cage. It took a 10 inch incision and 3 rounds of heavy duty antibiotics to clean up the mess. I can't fathom how anyone thinks this is a snowflake issue kind of feel sorry for their dogs.20220213_085206.jpg
 
Tailgate checks are important. The sooner you find a grass awn, the better. And not just grass awns. Anything that may have poked & entered/broken off in your dog. My 2nd springer had a tiny piece of cattail stem enter the side of his neck, where it caused an infection & abscess. So that's where the vet began searching. Had to cut all the way around the back of neck to the other side & several inches down his side before he caught up to it. Poor dog looked like Frankenstein's monster when he was all sewn up. Migrating foreign bodies suck.
 
I have to admit that I have been negligent on tail gate checks unless there was an obvious issue. I am going to be a lot more diligent checking my dogs going forward. Awful thing for the dogs going through it.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Tailgate checks are important. The sooner you find a grass awn, the better. And not just grass awns. Anything that may have poked & entered/broken off in your dog. My 2nd springer had a tiny piece of cattail stem enter the side of his neck, where it caused an infection & abscess. So that's where the vet began searching. Had to cut all the way around the back of neck to the other side & several inches down his side before he caught up to it. Poor dog looked like Frankenstein's monster when he was all sewn up. Migrating foreign bodies
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