Embarrassed to ask, but what are foxtails....

[linkhttp://www.sonic.net/setters/foxtails.html]http://www.sonic.net/setters/foxtails.html[/link]

Here's a picture of it when green. It's when it is dry that it is most dangerous. We have this all over the area of Alaska where I live, too. Mushers hate it, I hate it. And it's impossible to get rid of.

and of course I have to upload twice, as usual....(anyone else have this problem???)

Okay, THREE TIMES....

apparently I need stronger glasses.........or it's a REALLY small picture.
 
 
OK, between your post 2 and post 3 I posted and it just NOW shows up.....and now I see the picture. 

Yes, I figured out the stupid problem. It's the board software. Apparently even though it's told you that the picture is uploaded and ready to go, unless you click OK, it won't show up.

To me, a dialog that says "Your picture uploaded successfully" means I can put that window away now. But if I do that, the picture won't show up.

To make things more confusing, the OK button appears to merely put that window away. arrrggghh

Anyway, now we have a nice photo of foxtails. []

Im glad we don't have any foxtails where i live.  I've seen plants that look like that more out in the plains of colorado, but im not sure if they're foxtails...

thanks for the link and the pictures.....wow, that's a reaallly gross and nasty demon plant! No wonder my friend freaked when she saw them in her doggy's ears and missed the dog show. I would certainly do the same if it were my furbaby.

wow, the only time ive ever heard the word foxtails was on little house on the prairie when their dog jack died because laura didnt clean the foxtails out of his ears,   i had no idea what they were.  im really glad we dont have those here!

We had them where I grew up.  Our friend's Lab/German Shorthair mix got one in his NOSE when he was out bird hunting one fall.  It was AWFUL.  I have also seen them get into eyes.  Darned things should be illegal! Grumble, gripe...

They are pretty prolific in AZ, as well.  They used to get in between the dogs toes and that really hurts them if you don't get them out quickly.  We never had problems with them getting in their ears, though.  I've yet to see them where I live in OH.

We have an empty field (about 8 acres) near our house that actually belongs to the school district. It's full of foxtails and within a week or so they will be dry and dangerous. I've never let a dog go in that field between late spring and early fall, but a couple of times of year the city comes and mows the field. The dry foxtails then blow all over and I had a dog get one in his foot years ago just from walking down the bikepath. This was about 1992 and it cost me $130 to get it removed because, of course, they had to put him to sleep to do it. There's a retired vet who's out on the greenbelt a lot and one day we got to talking about the foxtails.  She told me that she's had dogs in surgery who had a foxtail pierce the skin on the chest and work its way into the heart and she's seen dogs die because foxtails in the ears worked their way into the brain. They are really a noxious, DANGEROUS weed. I wish the city would just come douse the whole dang field with Round-Up and start over.

Joyce and Max

Years ago my cat came in the house and she had one right in the corner of her eye.  We hurried to try to get it, but within seconds it was gone behind the eye.  We rushed her to the vet and they did emergency surgery to remove it.  The worst thing about them is that they're sticky, so they attach to the fur and then just start moving along.

Foxtails are awful.  They are how I lost my first dog 'Samson'.  My ex-hubby wanted to keep 'OUR' dog after we split, so I said okay.  Big Mistake.  One of our biggest issues was poor/inadequate grooming now that I was no longer doing it.  Needless to say, he did get one stuck between his toes and it went unnoticed.  Each spikey foxtail is covered with very tiny barbs which help it to propagate itself no matter where it is.  Any orifice or warm fold of skin will do and it digs its way in.  They tunnel inside just by the natural body movement of the dog.  Hard to believe its only a seed. They start out green and turn straw colored and are dangerous at any color.  If you take your dog anywhere there are weeds, check your dog everywhere, and I do mean everywhere.  They are pointed on one end, and brush like on the other end, about one inch long or shorter from point to the opposite end. It only take anywhere from a few mins to a day to get one lodged into anypart of a dogs body.  Anything more than just the point buried, have a vet remove it right away, they are painful to the dog at every stage.
Jules