Every summer the California grass dries up and foxtails are born. This is a season where many dog owners find themselves needing to check their dogs - especially long haired ones - between the toes, under the coat, behind the ears searching for small barbs stuck to the skin or fur. If not noticed right away, these small pieces of the larger seed head can get stuck up noses or embedded deep under the skin, needing surgical removal. If you haven't seen what foxtails look like, you can take a look at http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/dogs/foxtails.html .

Yesterday, when J and I took a trip to one of the shelters we work with, we tested, fell in love with, and took in a yellow lab mix, later named Clementine. Clem's a bouncy adolescent pup, around seven months old. Full of energy, friendly and social, she was everything we want to see in the dogs we take in to our shelter. She was in good health, with the exception of what looked to me like a very bad ear infection (though I'm no vet, so I was only guessing). I was sure she'd need to see one of our vets as soon as possible to get the ear flushed, and wondered if she would even need to be treated under anesthesia, possibly during her spay surgery. Clem kept shaking her head, something dogs often do if their ears are painful or itchy, and I was glad we would be able to help her to be more comfortable soon.

Today, after our vet's daily rounds for the shelter animals, our shelter lead, C, came to me and said that they put Clem under anesthesia immediately. I knew this must mean that Clem's ear was in very bad shape, possibly worse than I thought, because the clinic was very busy, it was an hour before they closed for the day, and dogs very rarely need to be put under right away like that.

About 45 minutes later, C returned and told me that the surgery was over. Dr. A had pulled what she said was the biggest foxtail she'd ever seen in a dog out of Clem's ear. It wasn't a small barb like what normally works its way into a dog's skin - it was the entire foxtail - a good two to 3 inches long. There was also a second piece of a foxtail, and addition to being deeper than the first, it was pretty long for a foxtail barb, at least an inch itself. She reported to me that Dr. A said Clem was most likely going to be deaf in that ear.