Grass Awn's - DEADLY for your dog

J

jonnyB

Well-known member
My Golden had surgery yesterday for an infection in his ear canal. I'm posting this as an alert to all of you with dogs.

If you google "grass awns" you can learn all about what they are and where they are found - South Dakota! These seeds can penetrate the dog and can become deadly.

We have been to three Vets. including the Univ of Mn Vet. School. All assumed the dog has cancer in his ear canal. Yesterday's surgery revealed a mass/infection in the ear canal, as well as grass awns. The removed tissue is being sent to Colorado for analysis. Cancer? Not certain but they did locate three of the grass awns.

Last year (SD) we spent an hour cutting a sticky weed from the dogs skin. Couldn't brush the weed away as it stuck to the skin like glue. Not sure if this was the weed-culprit - seems likely...

I'll report the Colorado findings asap.
 
Ugh, hope he recovers well jonnyB. This is an important post. Here's a website for more info. http://www.meanseeds.com/
Here's foxtail barley green. You'll recognize it. It's all over the place, especially damp areas. Short, only maybe 12"-18" tall.
foxtail barley green.jpg

Here's foxtail dried out, when it's dangerous for dogs.
foxtail barley dry.jpg

These are both Canada wild rye. In my opinion, the worst bastards in South Dakota.
cwr big.jpg
 
Thanks for the good post jonnyB. We love our dogs and must be alert to hazards they face.
 
I hoping the grass is less of a threat that other obstacles your dog encounters while hunting. If I avoided foxtail and the wild ryes, I would have very few places to hunt. My old GSP has several lumps and bumps, I have often wondered it these could be where awns ended-up. For the last 4 years, we have been in ryes at least once every weekend during season, I would guess . Many CRP field have Canadian or Virginia Wild rye., ....include our own. Knowing what I do now, I would have inquired about a mix without these types of grasses.

How is your dog doing now?
 
Max seems to be doing OK , although tired. His right ear is sewn shut and the ear canal removed. 14 day's with a head cone won't be fun!

Will be interesting learning about the mass they removed from his ear...cancer? Dunno.

Thanks for your interest and concern.

Jon
 
Up here in ND we lump all those weeds under the name of foxtails, and they are to be avoided like the plague. They are bad juju. Not just the ears, but also the dog's nose is vulnerable.

Good post, JonnyB...
 
Labs said:
Up here in ND we lump all those weeds under the name of foxtails, and they are to be avoided like the plague. They are bad juju. Not just the ears, but also the dog's nose is vulnerable.

Good post, JonnyB...
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Any orifice, plus they can enter the body through the skin, especially feet. I can hardly stand to make light of this subject, but I'm 1/2-way tempted (in Covidworld) to require my dog to wear a mask 😷 because panting, working dogs tend to inhale stuff. I've lost 2 springers to pyothorax this way. Vet's best guess is an inhaled awn (most likely CWR) poked its way through the lung. Traveled around & lodged in the chest cavity. Massive infection. Abscess finally bursts, filling chest cavity w/ puss & suffocating the dog in a matter of hours. Even if we'd had prior notice, odds of recovery are not good.

These are chest x-rays. The bottom one is a healthy dog. All the black is air in the lungs.
The top picture is my last dog Buzz.....dead. No black. All puss.
Hunting your dogs in this stuff is a serious game of roulette.
A stupid bird no longer makes it worth it to me to hunt these grasses (noxious weeds in my book).
chest xray small.jpg

Here's how I prefer to remember Buzz, 3 weeks before he died. He was 6, in his prime. This was after about 1 hour on a little public place in our area. They'd said it was going to be 20 degrees that day w/ a 0 mph wind. Instead, it was 0 degrees w/ a 20 mph wind. But I wanted to drive by this place & check it. Lo & behold, the adjacent corn field that had been standing the previous weekend......had been picked!!
1110181504d.jpg
 
Here's how to tell if the grass you're in has "mean" seeds.
This one happens to be Canada Wild Rye.
Grab the awn at the tip of the "hair". (left side of pic)
Pulling on the hair, pull the awn/seed through the fingers of your other hand (right side of pic).
A mean seed will grab your fingers because it has barbs. It'll feel like fine sandpaper, like a bass's teeth.
So once the seed/awn enter your dog, his movements make the seed move in only one direction. It won't back its way out because of the barbs.
20200828_114429 - Copy.jpg
 
Fields that didn’t get taken out were too wet to spray, this is the most I’ve seen in central and NW North Dakota.
 
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.
 
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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A word to to the wise, lots of good folks have lost great dogs to these darn things. My dog had some serious health issues last December/January and while the cause wasn't pinpointed, part of me wonders if it wasn't an awn that poked a hole in Sage's lung. Count yourself lucky.
 
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.
Click to expand...
Not sure what is meant be "snowflake stuff" - simply review the problem two of us had with our dog(s). My first encounter was two years ago; thought it was cancer due to the discharge, turned out to be an infection caused by an awn. Snowflake stuff - $4000 for the ear surgery!
 
Thanks for the reminder guys. I have never had this happen to one of my dogs but I would feel terrible if I hunted a field that I knew had these weeds in them but thought I would risk it anyway hoping that my dog wouldn't get one of the weeds stuck to them. No bird worth the price of one of my dogs! One question I have for those with experience with theses weeds. How often do you see them around?
 
Never seen this stuff in my life.

If it does well in damp areas, I'm safe. Virtually all of the area I hunt is in the worst drought since 1988.

But I will watch for it, nonetheless.
 
goldenboy said:
Thanks for the reminder guys. I have never had this happen to one of my dogs but I would feel terrible if I hunted a field that I knew had these weeds in them but thought I would risk it anyway hoping that my dog wouldn't get one of the weeds stuck to them. No bird worth the price of one of my dogs! One question I have for those with experience with theses weeds. How often do you see them around?
Click to expand...
Joel, foxtail barley is all over the place. I know you'd recognize it. Practically any place that's moist & isn't protected (sprayed, etc.) has it. The problem is by pheasant season, it's usually pretty dry (see picture above of dry foxtail). So the seed heads are either quite sparse or have dropped off completely. So it's hard to identify. Most of the seeds are on the ground, where they're most dangerous to dogs. If I see a big patch of it around a slough or something, I'll keep Ace out of it. But more often than not, I don't even know it's there during hunting season.

Canada Wild Rye is pretty prevalent too, mostly in CRP seed mixes. It's cheap & takes hold quickly, but then dies off while the more desirable plants take hold. So if a planting is brand new, it may seem to be 100% CWR. Then each year it gets a little less. The problem is, it doesn't die off as fast as a lot of "experts" claim it does. I'll frequently see "some" in the places I hunt. But if I see a field with "lots" in it, we won't hunt it. I wish I'd known 15 years ago. There's no doubt I used to hunt fields full of it.
 
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