poulticing the dreaded grass seed - bit of a tip

[supaspaniel]

Hi all, I've not been around on CoL for a while, but hope to spend some more time with you chaps again now...

Anyways... unfortunately a grass seed managed to work its way into my boy Jacks paw recently, before I could properly get to it. So with regular poulticing, epsom salts soaks etc the seed moved its way around to the back of his leg, just next to the dew claw. I took him to the vets, but we decided to keep with poulticing / painkiller and resort to surgery in a week if it hadn't come out.

One thing the vet said, that I hadn't thought of , was to poultice just above the swelling and not just over the swelling to encourage the seed up and out without the barbs still resisting, rather than just out !!

We had a happy ending and the seed came out with some major paddling in the sea on our holiday 

[Jo-jo]

Thanks for the tip Supaspaniel.  My boy Ralph currently has a grass seed embedded in his paw.  £100 in vet fees and antibiotics has cleared the infection, but I'm sure I can still feel the seed in there.  The vet is hoping it will break down on its own, but I'm worried we'll end up with more problems.  Can you describe what the poultice is and how to use it please? Maybe i'll give it a go.  Thanks.

[Helen]

also try homeopathic silicea 

[linda c]

Thanks for this tip.  As Jo-Jo has said, what exactly do you do?
I'd certainly try that first if it helps get the dreaded grass seed out. Blooming nuisance they are.

[vixen]

also try homeopathic silicea 

This worked really well for my Marley 
Last summer a grass seed got embedded in her paw and somehow migrated up her leg 
The silicea encouraged the seed out and  I now always have it available if ever I should need it again.

[supaspaniel]

Sorry I've not been about..

I soaked Jacks leg (in a deep bowl) in a warm epsom salts solution for as long as he would, then dried. With some magnesium sulphate paste spread over non adherent dry absorbent dressing as a poultice, place that over and just above the raised area (abscess) and bandage in place. I used animalintex aswell, but I think the magnesium sulphate paste worked better. I did that 2 times a day.

I only did this because Jack was eating and mooching about as normal, but was just limping, so not showing signs of bad infection.