05/27/2021
Keep your babies safe! Remove foxtails from your yard and avoid walking in areas where foxtails grow!
FOXTAILS: They are beautiful and appear harmless, but they can be lethal.
SAFETY TIPS: If your pet is exposed to foxtails, do a thorough inspection afterwards: Brush coat, feel every part of body with hands. Look closely at ears, nose, eyes, underbelly, tail, behind, between toe pads, and underneath collar (foxtails burrow quickly & are hard to see).
Check inside mouth & around lips. Leave NO body part unexamined!
FOXTAIL SYMPTOMS: Continuous sneezing, pawing at & licking an infected area, violent shaking of head, frequently tilting head to the side, scratching at an ear incessantly,
sores or abscesses, swelling, discharge, coughing, and limping.
WHAT ARE FOXTAILS? Foxtail grass (also known as Wall Barley, Spear Grass & other names across the globe). is a type of grass with lethal seed awns (the fox tail- shaped tip of a grass blade containing seeds). Foxtails also refer to the tip of ANY grass going to seed that resembles a fox tail, many of these are a nuisance, but not lethal like Foxtail Grass.
WHERE DO THEY GROW? "Foxtail is common all up and down the West Coast but has also spread across the country, according to the U.S. Forest Service, populating all but seven states: Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. It’s also found throughout most of Canada, as well as in some areas of Mexico.
The w**d tends to grow in grassland areas and is common along roadsides, trails, and areas that include human disturbance, such as dumps. It also grows well along the edges of salt marshes, on flatlands and Western prairies, and in irrigated meadows."—WHOLE DOG JOURNAL
