I have a sterile vial tucked up in a kitchen cupboard containing what I not-so-fondly refer to as the world's most expensive grass awn. I went through this a couple of years ago with Blaze, much of the story has been posted on the board.
The synopsis: Blaze apparently inhaled a grass awn (so we were able to conclude much later after gadzillion blood, urine, tick and other exotic panels, spinal and joint taps, and ultimately major abdominal surgery to remove and flush the oversize abscess that had formed.) After CT confirmed it, it was shown that the awn had traveled through lung, diagphram, and set up shop in the long abdominal muscle, intraperitoneal, ran along aorta, around ureter, over hill and dale until it hit the end of the trail at the back end.
Symptoms: Blaze was intermittently sick for several months, fevers, stiffness, elevated white count, would go away with antibiotics and recur when treatment finished. He ultimately crashed and almost died, rushed to UW Vet, hours of surgery to locate and flush/remove an enormous abdominal abscess caused by a grass awn - and because it stayed "internal", his intermittent illness lingered, made diagnosis very difficult and he kept getting a little worse with each episode. And would have killed him if we hadn't been aggressive in getting a diagnosis. Okay, read that as Lydia being a giant pain about wanting to find a root cause. And it almost killed him anyway.
Between the time he started getting sick to diagnosis was several months. But the surgeons estimated, given the size and length/track of the abscess, that it had been going on for 4-6 months prior. So add in the surgery recuperation and slow steady therapy and PT to get him back to even thinking about training.... it was at least 10 months lost - but at least I didn't lose him. Training can be replaced, Blaze can't be.
Foxtails aren't the only enemy. We in the upper midwest (and far beyond that) have to deal with Canada Wild Rye - unfortunately a cover crop that is very popular amongst wildlife preserves, prairie restorations, etc. It is a wonderful cover crop that will grow in just about all soil types and climates, and is very inexpensive. Unfortunately it has the insidious characteristics that make foxtails so dangerous - the micro spiny barbs that allow the awn to go only in one direction: forward.
It's been posted before but worth noting again, there is a website,
www.meanseeds.com, that chronicles The Grass Awn project. There is some good information regarding identification of the culprit botanicals, what to look for, treatment etc. If your vet doesn't see a lot of field dogs, make sure he/she is aware of the potential danger of an invading grass awn. Jeff tells people to watch for what he calls "the head banging sneezing" - where the dog is sneezing so violently and frequently, that they're almost (or are) hitting their head on the floor. That's a big warning sign and not to be ignored.
I carry eye flush and wound flush with me, and make it a routine activity to flush the dogs eyes after running in training or trials, especially this time of year. Doesn't make me popular with the herd when they see me approaching with the walgreens generic eye flush bottle. But they have learned that my squeeze bottle and I will not be denied, so surrender is the better part of valor.
Hadn't heard of the cola treatment.... Do I dare close this well-intended post by wondering about the merits of making my dog snort coke??? (groaner......)
Good luck.
