Weed:  a plant you didn't plant, don't like, and/or don't want, that is supremely adapted to its climate and resists all attempts to eradicate it !  I give you the Foxtail. 



The Evil Foxtail

This noxious invention of nature is the plant world's version of the cockroach.  It proliferates in yards across the west and will not only choke out other plants, but will always hitchhike on anything that passes it from your socks to your pets. Especially your pets.

Foxtails comes in a large variety of species and sub-species.  They rise from the ground with the first Spring rain and pretend to be grass so you don't notice them until it's too late. Suddenly the grass sprouts fat seed pods, and they fan out like a broom, more or less. Don't confuse these with Fluff Grass or Fountain Grass, mounding grasses that are relatively benign. These things have sharp edges and pointed barbs that are adept at drilling into any object they touch, including, probably, solid rock.

Veterinarians see these things as magicians, wondering how on earth they get to where they get.  Of course, they know, but did you know they have been found in ears, eyes, between toes, stuck in fur and burrowing into skin, up the nostrils, and even up into the bladder and uterus of, mostly, dogs.   Cats are not at all immune to their evil ways.  Long haired cats that travel in the yard will bring them in on their coats and end up with them in their stomachs.

The end of just one of these seeds is needle sharp.  The barbs ensure that the thing hangs on and then augers its way inside your pet causing tremendous pain, abscesses, and infection in a very short amount of time, from days to just hours.

You must kill the weed in its green stage before they dry and cast their demonic seeds to the wind. They have shallow roots and I recommend pulling them out with your bare, or gloved, hands, and removing them to the nearest trash can and landfill.  Don't put them in your compost pile as they are remarkably resilient (remember the cockroach).Another good way to remove them is with a sheet of black plastic over the top of their patch, weighted down with bricks along the edge.  The lack of sunlight will all but melt them. Salt is another non-toxic weed killer, but it will kill your other plants as well, so use this only where the weeds grow.  Vinegar, applied weekly, will kill the things so you can easily remove them - recommended for those that grow in sidewalk cracks as vinegar, like salt, kill other plants as well.

If chemicals don't bother you, try any herbicide with GLYPHOSATE in it.  You SHOULD, however, use a mask and never use when it's windy (thereby eliminating the entire month of April).

Here is the problem with simply killing them.  They croak and leave their seeds right where they die.  Now what do you do?  Remember the cockroach:  they just don't die. As I mentioned, you must do this when they are GREEN and pretty, innocent looking and swaying gently like a field of wheat in the sun.  You can try to blower them away, vacuum them, burn them (altho this can enrich the ground so more will grow back).

I felt an urgency to talk about this horrid plant today as yet one nasty seed head found its way into my dog's ear the other day.  Of course, the family and I are pulling these nasties by hand over our one acre when the dog joined us. In 72 hours he was howling, holding his head to one side, doing his best to shake out the menace in his ear.  Unable to see it, or hold him still for the pain, it was off to the vet ASAP.  After sedation, the doc was able to pull out a 1 inch seed head with a still sharp-as-a-pin point on it that had been crafting its way into his ear drum.  At the cost of $152 to remove.

I have personally removed them from between the toes of both cats and dog, the eye of a cat, the chest of a hunting dog, cat's fur, and the nostril of a particularly nosey dog that wouldn't stop sneezing.  Being they are barbed this is not a pain free procedure nor an easy one. Thus, from years of personal experience with this wild weed, keep your pets as far away from possible from this by whatever means you have at your disposal.  If you spend $150 that is less than a vet visit, and a lot less pain and suffering for everyone!

If you are looking for a compassionate and educated pet sitter in Las Vegas, be sure to look us up and see what we can help you with - from vacation visits to taxi, nail trims to exercise.  www.allpetscs.com   

 

poisonious plants

Spring brings the growth of all kinds of plants that you didn't even know were planted in your yard.  Wild things can be poison to your pets, as well as the everyday houseplant and shrubs you tote home from the nursery.

I don't want to list the hundreds of plants and symptoms here in the blog.  Instead, I want you to keep this website handy:

http://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/

And when I mean handy, I mean write it down and stick it on your refrigerator or tape it to the inside of your medicine cabinet, or in your pets' medical record books, and so on.  It can save a life.  Pets often eat things we don't think of as food, like cigarette butts, rocks, flowers, bees, sponges, batteries, jewelry, wood, prescription pills, marijuana, cocaine, and a host of other things you'd probably not imagine had you not seen it (as those of us in the veterinary profession have on an x-ray or in the bloodstream).

So don't spend any more time looking at this post.  Go to the Pet Poison Helpline website and take a look at what you never imagined could happen to your beloved beasties. Pre ready in advance.  Eating junk isn't just for goats anymore.