Foxtails are annual grasses that are common in weedy areas around roads, paths, and fields. They are soft and green January thru March or early April. In late spring however,   the heads begin to dry and that’s when the danger begins, lasting throughout summer and fall.  There are more than 40 species of foxtails around North America.  Most species have dense, cylindrical, often brush-like flower clusters that resemble foxes tails. These structures have sharp points at one end and microscopic barbs, so that they easily move in the direction of the point, but not the other way. Foxtails slip easily into holes, but their tiny barbs make them difficult to pull out.

Foxtails cause problems for all breeds. If your dog has thick wooly hair, foxtails embedded in the coat will eventually burrow through the skin and into his body. For dogs with short hair, foxtails get started in between the toes and burrow into the feet. The following are common foxtail problems:

Nose foxtails: pawing at the nose, severe sneezing, and possible bleeding from the nose. Symptoms sometimes diminish after several hours, becoming intermittent.

Ear foxtails: tilting and shaking the head, pawing at the ear, crying and moving stiffly. 

Eye foxtails: squinting the eye, redness and swelling, and mucous discharge. 

Throat foxtails: swallowing repeatedly, stretching the neck, gagging and coughing.

Feet foxtails: licking excessively, redness of the toe web, possibly a bump or draining tract.

If your dog shows any of the above symptoms, schedule an appointment immediately. In addition to causing pain, localized abscesses, and infection, foxtails can migrate and lodge in the lungs and other internal organs making major surgery necessary. Even then, foxtails don’t show up on x-rays and are sometimes impossible to surgically locate and remove.

Prevention goes a long way

v     Keep your dog out of fields with long grass.

v     Keep your lawn trimmed, and free of weeds and brush.

v     Examine your dog daily.  Brush its hair, feeling for any raised areas out of the ordinary that may be harboring a foxtail.

v     Check the ears, armpits, and groin area daily.

v     Have long-haired dogs clipped short in the spring & summer and keep the hair between the toes clipped short, making it easier to locate foxtails.  

Heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) is a fairly large worm, up to 14 inches long, that in adulthood lives in the heart and pulmonary arteries of an infected dog. Dogs acquire this infection through mosquito bites as mosquitoes readily pick up larval heartworms from infected dogs and carry them to new dogs. Some geographic areas have severe heartworm problems while other areas have virtually none.

In a normal dog, blood is pumped with ease through the arteries of the lung. With the arteries plugged with worms, the heart must pump harder against the pressure of the plugged arteries. This condition is called pulmonary hypertension and the right side of the heart must drastically increase its ability for the heart to work. If worms begin backing up into the heart, there will be less space in the pumping chamber for blood to be pumped. In order to meet the body’s oxygen demand, the heart must pump faster and stronger still. There may come a point when the heart simply is not strong enough.

Early after infection, many dogs feel normal and show no signs of illness. Eventually, however, dogs with heartworm disease will become sick. Their clinical signs can include coughing, exercise intolerance, difficulty breathing, and in progressed cases, congestive heart failure. Fortunately, heartworm disease is both treatable and preventable!

The first step in treatment is clearing the migrating immature worms. By addressing the migrating immature worms first, we minimize the number of adult worms we must kill in the second step. Fewer adult worms dying at once means less risk. Fortunately, the immature worms can all be killed by monthly heartworm preventive products (i.e. Sentinel®, Interceptor®, Heartgard®, etc.). The American Heartworm Society recommends 1 to 3 months of a preventive prior to treating the adult worms. The only product currently available for the treatment of adult heartworms is Immiticide®. Treatment can be done in two to three doses, depending on how severe the infection.

Heartworm testing and the use of heartworm preventative is mandatory to prevent infection in your dog.  Even if your dog stays in the house much of the time, a heartworm preventative is still important.  Considering the severe damage that heartworms can cause and that treatment of the disease is expensive, prevention of the disease with a single monthly tablet is a great deal.

Sentinel® is the preventative that the doctors at The Drake Center recommend. It is a once-monthly tablet that clears immature worms and will suppress the female worm’s ability to reproduce. It also provides a broad spectrum of parasite control (roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms) as well as prevents any fleas feeding on the dog from laying viable eggs.

Heartworm in Cats

Heartworm disease in cats is quite a bit different from dogs. The cat is not a natural host for the heartworm, which means the migrating larval heartworm is not likely to complete its life cycle. The cat’s immune system is extremely reactive against heartworms, and for this reason, it is virtually impossible to detect immature worms in an infected cat. (The cat’s immune system removes them too quickly.) Also, symptoms of infection tend to be more immune-related than heart-failure related, unlike dogs. Cats develop lung disease, complete with respiratory distress, and chronic coughing or vomiting. Feline heartworm disease is often misdiagnosed as feline asthma. Because cats are more resistant to infection and the prevalence is low in San Diego, the doctors at The Drake Center don’t routinely recommend a monthly preventative.

Since the major signs of disease in cats are due to inflammation and immune stimulation, a medication such as prednisone (steroid) can be used to control symptoms. In general, if the cat does not appear sick, the American Heartworm Society recommends attempting to wait out the worm’s 2 to 3 year life span and simply monitor chest radiographs every 6 months.

The same heartworm adulticide therapy used in dogs is best not used in cats as it is extremely dangerous to do so and is considered a last resort. The good news is that feline heartworm infection is preventable, with monthly preventatives such as Revolution® or Advantage Multi®.

For many people, nothing beats lounging in the backyard on the Fourth of July with good friends and family—including the four-legged members of the household. While it may seem like a great idea to reward Rover with scraps from the grill and bring him along to watch fireworks, in reality some festive foods and products can be potentially hazardous to your pets. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center offers the following tips:

• Never leave alcoholic drinks unattended where pets can reach them. Alcoholic beverages have the potential to poison pets. If ingested, the animal could become very intoxicated and weak, severely depressed or could go into a coma. Death from respiratory failure is also a possibility in severe cases.
• Do not apply any sunscreen or insect repellent product to your pet that is not labeled specifically for use on animals. Ingestion of sunscreen products can result in drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst and lethargy. The misuse of insect repellent that contains DEET can lead to neurological problems.
• Always keep matches and lighter fluid out of your pets’ reach. Certain types of matches contain chlorates, which could potentially damage blood cells and result in difficulty breathing—or even kidney disease in severe cases. Lighter fluid can be irritating to skin, and if ingested can produce gastrointestinal irritation and central nervous system depression. If lighter fluid is inhaled, aspiration pneumonia and breathing problems could develop.
• Keep your pets on their normal diet. Any change, even for one meal, can give your pets severe indigestion and diarrhea. This is particularly true for older animals who have more delicate digestive systems and nutritional requirements. And keep in mind that foods such as onions, chocolate, coffee, avocado, grapes & raisins, salt and yeast dough can all be potentially toxic to companion animals.
• Do not put glow jewelry on your pets, or allow them to play with it.While the luminescent substance contained in these products is not highly toxic, excessive drooling and gastrointestinal irritation could still result from ingestions, and intestinal blockage could occur from swallowing large pieces of the plastic containers.
• Keep citronella candles, insect coils and oil products out of reach. Ingestions can produce stomach irritation and possibly even central nervous system depression. If inhaled, the oils could cause aspiration pneumonia in pets.
• Never use fireworks around pets! While exposure to lit fireworks can potentially result in severe burns and/or trauma to the face and paws of curious pets, even unused fireworks can pose a danger. Many types contain potentially toxic substances, including potassium nitrate, arsenic and other heavy metals.
• Loud, crowded fireworks displays are no fun for pets, so please resist the urge to take them to Independence Day festivities. Instead, keep your little guys safe from the noise in a quiet, sheltered and escape-proof area at home.