Foxtails are dangerous to dogs as Bounce will affirm

These foxtail plants look harmless but beware; they can injure dogs. My dog Bounce sniffed one on the sidewalk while on a walk with me last week and he sneezed right away. He intermittently sneezed and shook his head for a couple days and finally had surgery to remove it on Oct. 4. The veterinarian explained that foxtails have tiny barbs so can not be easily removed and they keep going further in. Of course the surgery required anesthesia so she cleaned his teeth too, while he was "out". When I picked up Bounce at 5:30 that afternoon she showed me the foxtail she removed from his nasal passages.
He is all peppy and well today, hurray. That was 800 dollars well spent for my dear little Bounce.
A friend left a comment here telling me that her dog had a foxtail in its ear, and another that one entered through the skin on her dog's chest and it entered a lung! Surgery was successful in both those cases and for Bounce. As the saying goes about these benign looking seed heads, "for want of a nail the horse was lost", tiny problems can become huge!
On Oct. 3 I got a phone call that my step mother (age 84) had died, and I cried a lot. Oct. 4, 5, and 6 men were arriving at my house to put in new floors in 3 rooms. I couldn't cope so my older son stepped in and called the vet, and took off work Thursday morning to take Bounce in for surgery, which enabled me to go to Griefshare, where I cried a LOT and ladies gave me lots of support, kleenex and a hug or two. Meanwhile the new floors were installed.
So that is my week last week.
On the up side, the weather is lovely, my favorite temperature of mid seventies, and the new floors look very handsome indeed. And I have to say, Bounce is very Bouncy.