Macintosh a 3 year old male West Highland White terrier came into VetCare in mid February with a sore on top of his right hind paw.  He was initially treated with antibiotics and it seemed to clear up.  He was also under the care of Allan Bell a skin specialist as West Highland White Terriers often have allergic skin disease which can be difficult to control.  After several more weeks of antibiotics and shampoos for his skin the wound still hadn’t cleared up so we decided to anaesthetise him so we could find out what the problem was.

When he was asleep we made a small cut over the swelling and explored the wound with a special instrument called a crocodile forcep.  We soon found the culprit which was a grass seed.  His foot was cleaned and the wound left open to drain.  

We have been seeing quite a lot of dogs lately with grass seeds embedded in their paws.   It is known as a foreign object and the body’s reaction is to wall off the foreign material in the tissues and they often get a infected tract that bursts out through the skin. 

Grass seeds are particularly dangerous as they have little barbs on them which mean they only move in one direction – further into the tissue!  They are good at getting stuck in animals fur and can cause wounds anywhere on the body such as ears, armpits, abdomen etc.  There have been reports of people finding grass awns/seeds in the brain and spinal cord and I know of one that went into a paw and came out a dogs shoulder.

 We also shaved all Macintosh’s feet to prevent him picking up any more of these and recommend this to all at risk dogs. 

The main breeds we see problems in include:

Spaniels

Collies

West highland White Terriers

Poodle crosses

Schnauzers

Soft coated Wheaten terriers

If you are unable to keep the hair on your dog’s paws short during January through April, then it is important you check their feet after each walk and remove any grass seeds stuck in the fur to prevent annoying and expensive problems.  Usually the first sign of a problem is the dog constantly licking one area on the top of their paw. Often you can’t see the hole so get your vet to check this as soon as possible.