Santa Barbara has many, many things I miss terribly: beautiful weather almost year round, my friends and family, the beach, my old job, avocados, in-and-out, and the list could literally go on and on. One of our favorite things to do with Benny (our giant German Shorthaired Pointer), that we haven’t quite found a replacement for, was go to the various off-leash dog parks in Santa Barbara. We are talking about acres of trails that are designated for you and your dog to run free on the edge of the ocean. There are only two problems with these sanctuaries, the occasional aggressive dog (or human) that shouldn’t be there and the ever-present  foxtails. Some dogs are lucky enough to never have an issue with them. I, of course, figured we would never have a problem… I was wrong. When Benny was about 6 months old he got two foxtails up his nose and we had no idea that anything was wrong until he started sneezing blood. It was awful and scary and quite disgusting. Now, a year and a half later, we have found ourselves in the middle of a battle with another foxtail.

About three months ago, Benny’s neck swelled up to be the size of grapefruit within two hours. We went to the vet and he had a bacterial infection that had caused his lymph node to swell tremendously. He got antibiotics and after 10 days (and a drive across the country!) the lump was almost gone. Awesome! It stayed about the size of a quarter for a week then, BOOM, baseball! So we took him back to the vet… told him the story he prescribed us 20 days worth of antibiotics – we were going to overpower this infection. However, he was very concerned about what caused the infection in the first placed. We didn’t know, no one knew…We gave Benny all of the antibiotics and again it shrank down to about the size of a quarter. We waited, we watched and after about a week of no antibiotics, you guessed it, it was back.

So, off to the vet again. This time we were lucky enough to see a visiting doctor who had worked in California for years. She began talking about cases of foxtails and that there could be one in his throat that is causing the infection to keep recurring. I was a little skeptical, because when the initial incident happened we hadn’t been to the dog park for weeks and it wasn’t really “foxtail season.” She then assured me that a foxtail could be stuck somewhere for years before causing an issue. Okay, the next step was an X-ray to see if an air pocket could be seen in the center of the mass (we should have skipped this $180 step and just gotten surgery). Hmmmm, inconclusive. The next step exploratory surgery.

Luckily, the surgery was a success and they did find the culprit, which was indeed a foxtail. Benny has a stretch of stitches along his neck and a tube that is draining the rest of the fluid from the mass. He is on pain medication and has to be limited to only short walks to relieve himself, no running or playing for 14 days!!! For those that know Benny, you know this is going to be an incredibly difficult two weeks. Anyways, sorry for the long post and please be careful around foxtails. It can happen to anyone, or anydog.  =)