Those of you that have been following the site for some time may remember when we nearly lost Maggie to a Canada Rye awn that had migrated into her chest. Thankfully she fully recovered without any ill effects. As a result of that posting I have been contacted by dog owners from all over the country with similar experiences, and in some cases much, much worse.

In the summer of 2008 we had an incredible crop of foxtails, and in late July, we started to see a number of dogs in the practice with foxtail issues. Below are some of my write-ups on the cases:

Foxtail in the Eye

One busy Monday I was greeted by a golden retriever with severe eye inflammation. He had been into the local emergency vet a few days prior and was treated for a corneal ulcer (think of it as road rash of the eye). The owners reported on Monday that they had progressively gotten worse and that the dog seemed very uncomfortable. In this first picture you can see how irritated and swollen the tissues of the eye are:

Upon closer exam I could see the edges of what appeared to be plant matter. First I’ll show you the closeup:

Initially I could just see the obvious plant material to the left of the eye in the picture. However, if you look closer, in the other corner of the eye you can see a small bit of plant material. In the following picture the black arrows illustrate where some of the plant material was located. Also, if you look at the yellow line and then come back to the picture above you can see the edge of the ulcer. Essentially the plant material was rubbing a portion of the cornea off the eye. If you’ve ever had an eyelash stuck in your eye you know how painful it can be, just imagine plant seeds:

In the end we removed four different seed bodies, only two of which we could see initially. Likely when the dog initially went into the emergency hospital the eye was too inflamed and swollen, and the seeds too deep, for the veterinarian to see the seeds. By the time I saw the dog they had begun to migrate out:

I rechecked the dog on Friday and the eye was much improved and the dog much more comfortable. The ulcer had completely healed, and I’m happy to report he was back to normal.

Foxtail in the Ear

The dog in these pictures is not a sporting dog; however, the condition I treated him for is by far one I absolutely dread in sporting dogs. This year’s combination of a cold wet spring and a humid summer have combined to produce one of the worst crops of foxtails I have ever seen in the five years that I’ve lived in South Dakota. While plants and seeds appear harmless and often provide cover for the very birds that we pursue, they can also harbor deadly consequences for our dogs.

I had an appointment on the schedule that was listed as a “check ears.” Since summer is a time when we see a lot of ear and skin problems, I didn’t give too much thought to the case prior to walking in the room. After talking with the owner it sounded like the dog had been outside and all of a sudden started having problems with the right ear. On exam the left ear looked completely normal; however, when I shifted to the right all was not right. While the ear did not look like an infected ear, the dog would go absolutely crazy with me just attempting to look at the ear. At this point I strongly suggested we sedate the dog to take a look.

After sedating the dog, the external portions of the ear still did not look too irritated after I was able to lift the ear flap:

Upon deeper exam I could only see what looked to be “odd” hairs that were protruding from the ear drum. I inserted an alligator forceps through the scope to remove the out-of-place hairs. A terrible sound imminated as the object came back through the ear drum. As I got the material out I was in shock to find a migrating seed awn that had penetrated the ear drum:

I had to go back in and remove several other pieces of the seed. It was the only awn present on the dog after a thorough exam, but had it been left to migrate any further could have had devastating effects.

Ironically the morning of this incident found Maggie aggressively licking at a rear foot. Upon closer exam she had an area that appeared to be a ruptured abscess between two toes, very likely the result of a seed awn migration. On Sunday we had trained in an area loaded with foxtails. I had heeled the dogs around the area and closely examined them after the training session, but sometimes with even the best defenses these plant awns can sneak through.

Foxtails in Other Locations

During the same time period as the above cases I had a very nice hunt-test Labrador come in to the clinic. He had been seen a week and a half previous at the emergency hospital for an abscess along his prepuce. The abscess was cleaned and the dog was placed on antibiotics but an area over the center of the swelling just would not heal. With the number of cases we had seen I decided to go in surgically and explore the area. In this first picture, just prior to placing the surgical drape you can see the degree of swelling present:

I made my incision over the hole and started to explore the area. There was a tract that extended forward for a considerable distance and I assumed the plant piece would be in that direction. After spending a frustrating amount of time looking and removing scar tissue I decided to investigate in the opposite direction and found the offending plant piece:

It was extremely small compared to the other plant awns we had seen, but was definitely responsible for the issues we had been seeing. I removed as much of the affected tissue as possible without causing further damage to the area. In this last picture you can see how much of the swelling I was able to remove at surgery:

Maggie's Chest Seed

Since we didn't transport over the old blog cases I thought I'd share, as they appeared, the blog write-ups when Maggie had a migrating Canada Rye seed through her chest.

January 9, 2005 – Day 49
[Joe's note: I left out the details of the hunting segment of this entry] Unfortunately, my injury-prone pup had another brush with disaster this week. After one of our last hunts she had a very small lump on the side of her chest, but with no pain, no temperature and no discharge I had little to be concerned about and elected to monitor it for a few days, figuring she had banged herself up in the field.

I had been away on business earlier in the week and I arrived home to a very sick setter whose lump had gone from nickel-sized to covering a large area of one side of her chest. With an elevated temperature and the lump now feeling like a pocket of fluid, I knew we were now dealing with an abscess. I shot a few x-rays to make sure her chest cavity was not involved. With a clear lung field and normal bloodwork, we put her under and drained and flushed the abscess and placed a drain tube for two days. Likely at some time during the last hunt she had a penetrating injury that her body had walled off for a while and then became overwhelmed. I can't stress enough the need to constantly monitor these dogs and to be aware of injuries, no matter how minor they seem at the time. After a week on antibiotics I’m happy to report she’s on her way to mending nicely. I keep telling people if I wasn’t a veterinarian, I could never afford to own this little setter.

January 27, 2005—The reason there hasn’t been a day 50. [Joe's note: Every year I attempt to get at least 50 days in during the fall.]
Well, this won’t be your typical BLOG entry but will be more of a place for me to share the near tragedy we had during the past two weeks. You’ll notice in the last BLOG entry that Maggie had developed an abscess on her side, which was drained and flushed. Well, about two weeks into the antibiotics, she again developed a firm swelling over her ribs, and I was highly suspicious of a migrating plant piece.

I scheduled to perform surgery last Wednesday with my good friend, Dr. Tom Rentshcler, at his clinic. Shortly after I made my incision, I knew things were not good, as there was so much damage and inflammation that nothing was identifiable. In short order, I was between her ribs and at that time handed things over to Tom. We ended up removing a large amount of tissue and during the procedure had entered her chest cavity. Thankfully, the last cut Tom made contained the migrating plant seed (it appeared to be from a Canada Rye plant) and hopefully the source of our problems. The x-rays after surgery showed a large amount of air in her chest, which we promptly removed. She recovered quickly from the anesthesia and I decided to do all post-op monitoring at home. We had two episodes of hemorrhage the first night and no sleep on my part…I was not too optimistic. A recheck of the x-rays in the morning showed improvement, and her complete blood count remained normal. I overnighted some samples to Iowa State for analysis and started her on a broad spectrum of antibiotics. She gradually improved bit by bit each day.

A week and one day later, she’s doing great, and some of the swelling is starting to subside. We are still waiting for the final results from the lab, but we do know there are three different types of bacteria involved, one of which is Nocardia, an anaerobic bacteria common in migrating plant cases. It will likely be months before I’ll feel like we’re completely out of the woods, but at this point I’m just happy the little setter is still with us!!!

This makes for the third injury she's had this year that are all firsts in my career, and most veterinarians will go entire careers without seeing any of these injuries. While not incredibly common, migrating plant pieces are a very real risk to sporting breeds. Typically the most common plants involved are foxtails, spear grass, cheaters grass, and (in this case) plant seeds. These plant awns or seeds enter the body either from being inhaled or through the skin. The key to successful treatment is early and aggressive treatment. By no means are we completely out of the woods, but thankfully we're now on the right path.

As you can see these types of injuries can present with a variety of different presentations and outcomes. I was extremely fortunate with Maggie and nearly lost her. I am always extremely vigilant with every training session and hunting outing to evaluate the cover for such hazards.

The moral of the story: Check your dogs after each time in the field and attempt to avoid cover with these types of plants. If your dog should experience an unexplained swelling or infection that your veterinarian cannot explain please bring up the possibility of a migrating foreign body as it just might change your friends life.

Other Resources:

English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association Grass Awn Project