foxtail sadness

Yama was walking on three legs the night before yesterday, so John and I checked to see if anything was caught on his foot that was not touching the ground. We didn' see anything unusual or feel any broken bone at first, but then we noticed there was a puncture wound in between two of his toes.

John tried to clean it up but it was making Yama very uncomfortable. We decided to call the vet and bring Yama in yesterday.

The vet checked Yama and realized soon that there was a Foxtail seed that burrows in his foot! Apparently this happens a lot to dogs, especially around this time of year. Poor Yama!

These Foxtail seeds will work their way up into an animal's body (usually through their feet or ears and act as barbs) and it can be fatal if the Foxtail seeds get into the animal's lungs or other organs! Scary.

The Foxtail seed almost worked its way through Yama's foot. The vet had to sedate Yama and dug out the little pieces of the seeds.


Yama is OK now but he's on antibiotics and some pain meds.


The open was on the opposite side of the red spot on his foot.

I'm sad Yama was hurt, but on the other side I'm happy we caught it in time. Here's what I found about removing a Foxtail from dogs' paws if it's still only on the surface. We've been checking out each of our dogs' paws and fur after they play outside.