Grass seed alert

[Neil]

When I picked Bobby up from day care yesterday evening the staff alerted me to the fact that he'd been shaking his head and rubbing his ear a lot and they thought he might have an ear infection. I rang my vets as soon as I got home and they were most insistent that I should bring him in this morning as it might be a grass seed in his ear and he might need sedation for them to be able to get it out.

So I didn't give Bobby any breakfast today and took him in for his appointment at 10:15am. Sure enough it was a grass seed and, although he's normally very tolerant and safe to handle,  it was too sore for him to let them poke around in there while he was awake.

I collected him at 5pm, they were keen to show me the very large seed that they had extracted, he's still pretty dopey atm, but hopefully will be his usual self tomorrow.

The vets told me this was their 4th case this week so its clearly a problem at the moment. I live in Cheltenham, the council are leaving areas of grass unmown in the public parks, presumably to be insect & bee friendly, but I'm not sure it does any favours to dogs!

[bizzylizzy]

Poor lad! Humphrey had a corn seed in his ear a few years back which had to be removed under anaesthetic, we hadn‘t been aware of it until it became infected and he was in pain. Horrible things to which spaniels are particularly prone unfortunately.
Sending  to Bobby!

[Finvarra]

All Dylan does on his walks is sniff around in the long grass (he would make a good drug detection dog), so I always check his ears when we get back from a walk. I have had dogs in the past with grass seeds, it's really horrible for them. Make it part of post walk routine to monitor those lugs!!

[ips]

Oh dear, hope he is ok now 👍

[Jaysmumagain]

Hope Bobby is back to normal soon.

[cazza]

Poor Bobby, sending healing hugs. 

I also check Ash when we get back in from a walk for grass seeds, sticky willies - I think she is a magnet for both 

[Archie bean]

Archie has just had two in two weeks. One in his ear and one in his foot. He’s never had one before but they have stopped mowing round me to encourage the bees. It’s impossible to avoid them because we live next to a small field and they migrate into the garden. I keep finding them blown into the kitchen! Absolute nightmare.

[Mudmagnets]

Yes the non cutting of grass is a nuisance for all sorts of reasons, should dogs wander into it, and I am not at all sure it is done for the bees (or any other environmentally spirited thought) more likely to keep council costs down. 

[Neil]

Archie has just had two in two weeks. One in his ear and one in his foot. He’s never had one before but they have stopped mowing round me to encourage the bees. It’s impossible to avoid them because we live next to a small field and they migrate into the garden. I keep finding them blown into the kitchen! Absolute nightmare.

I think that's the issue. I take Bobby to the local park, only about a 5 minute walk, after his breakfast and tea for toilet breaks. Recently the council have left some patches of grass unmown, presumably to encourage bees. Bobby loves long grass. I have him on a flexi-lead because he cant be trusted not to leave the park where ungated exits exist but even so its difficult to keep him out of the long grass.

I'm not sure that the councils are doing the right thing to encourage bees if they are causing harm and distress to dogs. It cost me over £200 to have the grass seed removed from Bobby's ear.