Ugh foxtails: weeds of mass destruction

Thanks everyone... this is all so awful... I feel really bad, this seems like it should've been preventable. There's 20-30 solid acres of the stuff right on the other side of the fence, it's like trying to keep the rising tide out with sand bags.

Thinking about spreading rock salt in that field, it would be sallow and barren for a long time, but I'm not sure I care. It's flat, no real runoff concerns... It's straight upwind of us 90% of the time. Dirt beats foxtails, I think.

Here on the inside it's a mess, she's dripping bloody discharge all over, but that's what's supposed to happen with a tube, right? Had to fight with her to get her antibiotics down, otherwise she's been a trooper.

Jake is jealous, of course, he has reverted to a sullen state, looks like he's trying to figure out what evil has overtaken me. At least he isn't showing Brandy any aggression.

The face is such a terrible place for this to happen, I had to acknowledge the potential for paralysis and lethality before they took her back... not fun!

We've enjoyed 4 1/2 years of perfect health... too easy to take for granted!
 
mmcginty said:
Rapidly expanding infections are nothing to trifle with, so back to the vet for exploratory surgery. Apparently her antibodies had just about expelled the foreign object. They drained the abscess, put a tube in her face... she has had happier days... so have I.

Pain killers... warm compresses... more antibiotics... it's going to be a long week or two. :no:
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OMG!!! Poor Brandy!!!! I was horrified to read this post! I had no idea!!! Thanks for the education and I pray relief comes soon and never again is a foxtail to enter into your life!!!
 
I am SO sorry fellow Californian. I live in foothills of miles and miles of the stuff. We have our small dog potty area cleared, a pretty clear ring around that, and then a free for all. I am on constant alert for the husband's socks when he goes out into pasture. Don't blame yourself, there is NOTHING to do with the stuff -- unless you want to hire some goats and sheep and livestock to work on it.

I have had 3 of 5 rescues come with foxtails in one/both ears.
I have had a dog inhale it but fortunately it didn't go in quite far enough and could be pulled out with tweezers.
I have had it poke a llama close enough to the eye I had to pull it out.
I have had it embed deep into the groove between paw pads which involved me intervening.
AND when I was showing/breeding Himalayan cats one kitten sold into Scott's Valley (a central coast of California location) the kitten inhaled one and it caused a lung abscess from which the kitten died before they found the problem.

Nasty, nasty weeds -- yes, pretty much a wild barley kind of thing.
 
Oh my! I'm so sorry your little one is going through this. :(

I have two plants in my yard that have foxtails. There are none on it right now, but in the fall there are a ton. Bailey was covered in them a few months ago and I had to handpick them off her.

I'm gonna dig out the two plants. I don't want Bailey to have any issues with them.

I hope Brandy's infection clears up soon!
 
Mom2Melli said:
I am SO sorry fellow Californian. I live in foothills of miles and miles of the stuff. We have our small dog potty area cleared, a pretty clear ring around that, and then a free for all. I am on constant alert for the husband's socks when he goes out into pasture. Don't blame yourself, there is NOTHING to do with the stuff -- unless you want to hire some goats and sheep and livestock to work on it.

I have had 3 of 5 rescues come with foxtails in one/both ears.
I have had a dog inhale it but fortunately it didn't go in quite far enough and could be pulled out with tweezers.
I have had it poke a llama close enough to the eye I had to pull it out.
I have had it embed deep into the groove between paw pads which involved me intervening.
AND when I was showing/breeding Himalayan cats one kitten sold into Scott's Valley (a central coast of California location) the kitten inhaled one and it caused a lung abscess from which the kitten died before they found the problem.

Nasty, nasty weeds -- yes, pretty much a wild barley kind of thing.
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Yikes! I've had to pull them out of Jake with tweezers twice now, but he picks up way more of them than she does -- he'll run into grass almost as tall as he is without a second thought; she likes to be able to see her paws at all times.

We have a nightly stop-and-frisk program, aka mandatory belly rubs, trying to keep the weeds of mass destruction at bay... clearly not enough.

As parasitic species go this stupid plant has to be among the worst. It takes the life of the host slowly and painfully, all for simple transport and perhaps a source of fertilizer that's infinitely beyond its needs. It's designed to embed itself in the host, and the hosts' attempts to remove is only drive it deeper. Once it's into the undercoat a little mat forms around it, making it harder to detect, and harder to remove.

A nasty little organism. I wish dogs instinctively knew well enough not to eat them -- they must taste ok?
 
They pulled the drainage tube out of her little face yesterday... she doesn't look quite as much like a crash victim. There's still a significant infection so we continue with antibiotics, pain meds and hot compresses. (She gets a belly rub with the latter so she doesn't seem to mind, though she hates the iodine-in-saline wash, it must sting. I wonder if there's an alternative? Maybe neosporin or something?)
 
Arrrrggh! Foxtails are the bane of our existence here too! They line the dirt path where we walk every day so I have go thru all their paws and feathers to make sure they all get removed. Nasty. They are built to go in one way, like an umbrella, once the point is in it's very hard to get it back out.

I'm so sorry Brandy had this. Brooke got one last year somehow in her cheek - suddenly a big abscess and i went thru the same treatments. Had to flush it out twice a day. She hated it and I felt so bad for her.

Hope she's on the mend soon, Mark. :fl
 
Overnight the size of the abscess went down by at least half, maybe more... for the first time in a week it feels like everything is going to be ok. It's now easy to imagine the infection being long gone when the antibiotics run out. Not quite out of the woods yet but I can definitely see some light through the trees. :yes:
 
mmcginty said:
Overnight the size of the abscess went down by at least half, maybe more... for the first time in a week it feels like everything is going to be ok. It's now easy to imagine the infection being long gone when the antibiotics run out. Not quite out of the woods yet but I can definitely see some light through the trees. :yes:
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So happy to hear it! :smile2:
 
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