# Beware of grass seeds!



## gertchie (Jan 28, 2012)

I had a large ornamental grass plant out on my 2nd story deck this summer that had reached the end of it's life so finally decided Monday to get rid of it. The seeds were everywhere so I swept off the deck to keep them out of the house. Later, Ozzie was out for a pee and went in to rlh mode and jumped into a lawn chair that was on the lower patio before I could stop him. Sadly, I am a bad momma and forgot to clean that area of seeds and there were a bunch in the chair  Immediately he started sneezing violently and we rushed him into the bathroom to try and get some water in his nose to try to flush it out. Finally it seemed like it worked and he stopped sneezing. Tuesday morning I was in the kitchen and he started sneezing again but this time, blood was spraying out of his nose!! I freaked! We were at the vets in about an hour and by then he had stopped again. They put a light in his nose but didnt see anything so sent him home with nose drops (that is a nightmare too!) Everything seems ok now but I just wanted to warn everybody about these nasty little buggers. They are shaped like a little arrow with barbs on the end kind of like this <=. I feel awful that Ozzie had to pay for my stupidity...never even thought of them being dangerous


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

oh my gosh! How scary!!!! I hope he is on the mend!!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

gertchie said:


> I had a large ornamental grass plant out on my 2nd story deck this summer that had reached the end of it's life so finally decided Monday to get rid of it. The seeds were everywhere so I swept off the deck to keep them out of the house. Later, Ozzie was out for a pee and went in to rlh mode and jumped into a lawn chair that was on the lower patio before I could stop him. Sadly, I am a bad momma and forgot to clean that area of seeds and there were a bunch in the chair  Immediately he started sneezing violently and we rushed him into the bathroom to try and get some water in his nose to try to flush it out. Finally it seemed like it worked and he stopped sneezing. Tuesday morning I was in the kitchen and he started sneezing again but this time, blood was spraying out of his nose!! I freaked! We were at the vets in about an hour and by then he had stopped again. They put a light in his nose but didnt see anything so sent him home with nose drops (that is a nightmare too!) Everything seems ok now but I just wanted to warn everybody about these nasty little buggers. They are shaped like a little arrow with barbs on the end kind of like this <=. I feel awful that Ozzie had to pay for my stupidity...never even thought of them being dangerous


We had a very similar episode, and _I_ had been stupid enough to bring them into the house for a dried flower arrangement in our front entry. It had been there for several weeks, and Kodi had ignored it... until he didn't. I heard him sneezing like crazy, and found him surrounded by seeds. When he hadn't stopped sneezing after an hour, I took him to the vet (along with some of the seeds)

By the time we got to the vet's office (which is 35 minutes away, the sneezing had slowed way down. They looked in his throat and in his nose, and couldn't see anything, and then examined the seeds under high magnification. Fortunately, the ones we had were NOT barbed. (the vet said the barbed ones like you described are the really dangerous ones) So we decided that since the sneezing was calming down, it made sense to wait and see if he worked it out, rather than automatically do something more invasive, which would require anesthesia. They had me feed him a couple of slices of bread, because they said that would push anything in his throat down, and would clump around it in his stomach.

He kept sneezing intermittently for two days, but he did seem to finally clear it on his own. As you can imagine, the dried flower arrangement is now up where he can't reach it!!!


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## whimsy (Apr 3, 2010)

oh no... poor baby!! I feel so bad for him! That is a very frighteningthing to happen..thanks for the warning.


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Wow, that's crazy you guys! I would have never thought about that and am so glad for the warning. When you think about it, it can easily happen since dogs sniff around so much!

Thanks for your stories and the warning!


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## The Laughing Magpie (Aug 20, 2009)

Good thing you realized what it was! Gosh our little pups get into everything.


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## gertchie (Jan 28, 2012)

Thanks everyone! Thats why this forum is so great....if something bad happens you can at least warn others to save them the worry. I have learned so much from everyone else! And Karen, you made me feel better...I too decided to wait. I didn't want to put him under anastesia if I didn't have to (especially after the vet told what they were going to do!) He is fine now....just waiting for the next thing


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

gertchie said:


> Thanks everyone! Thats why this forum is so great....if something bad happens you can at least warn others to save them the worry. I have learned so much from everyone else! And Karen, you made me feel better...I too decided to wait. I didn't want to put him under anastesia if I didn't have to (especially after the vet told what they were going to do!) He is fine now....just waiting for the next thing


I know! Who would have thought!!!


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

I bet that was scary, thanks for that.


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## Dory (Jan 4, 2012)

Quincy has found the dried up and dead hosta plants. Sigh. He has tried to chew on the stalks that the flowers pop out on and has just generally been "into" that area. I know hosta is on the dangerous list, so hubby will now be pulling it all out! Of course, since he knows that I don't want him in that area, that's exactly where he wants to be! This is one of the reasons I go outside with him every time. Hubby thinks I'm crazy, but at least I know what he's trying to get into.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Dory said:


> Quincy has found the dried up and dead hosta plants. Sigh. He has tried to chew on the stalks that the flowers pop out on and has just generally been "into" that area. I know hosta is on the dangerous list, so hubby will now be pulling it all out! Of course, since he knows that I don't want him in that area, that's exactly where he wants to be! This is one of the reasons I go outside with him every time. Hubby thinks I'm crazy, but at least I know what he's trying to get into.


If you like your Hostas, you might want to wait another season before making the decision. Kodi drove me crazy trying to eat the flowers off my Rose of Sharon (considered more "irritating" than seriously toxic) when he was a puppy. By the next summer, he totally ignored them. Now the only outdoor plant material he eats is grass. He eats a LOT of that... We call him our little "cow dog".:biggrin1:


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Could someone post a picture, or a link to pictures, for this type of plant?


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## Anna6 (Oct 21, 2012)

That was a scare. I am glad to hear he is ok.


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## misstray (Feb 6, 2011)

Poor boy. That sounds very scary!


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## gertchie (Jan 28, 2012)

These look like the plant I had but mine was smaller, in about a 5 gallon planter. I have since heard another scary story of a dog that got a grass seed up his nose and it travelled up towards his brain. They caught it in time, but he had to have surgery and the vet said if it had reached his brain he would have died. Who knew???


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

looks sort of like little fox tails?


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## Dory (Jan 4, 2012)

krandall said:


> If you like your Hostas, you might want to wait another season before making the decision. Kodi drove me crazy trying to eat the flowers off my Rose of Sharon (considered more "irritating" than seriously toxic) when he was a puppy. By the next summer, he totally ignored them. Now the only outdoor plant material he eats is grass. He eats a LOT of that... We call him our little "cow dog".:biggrin1:


I don't really care about the hostas in the back yard. Hubby put them there and he likes the hosta. We have them under the deck in the front and around the trees. As far as I'm concerned they can go LOL. The ones he is getting into are right near the gate to the yard and when they're "alive" during the spring/summer, they're always in the way of closing the gate. He seems to be getting better about it with my directing him away from the area, but I do keep a close eye on him.


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## gertchie (Jan 28, 2012)

TilliesMom said:


> looks sort of like little fox tails?


Yes Tammy, just like that! They are really pretty but a mess when they die.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Dory said:


> I don't really care about the hostas in the back yard. Hubby put them there and he likes the hosta. We have them under the deck in the front and around the trees. As far as I'm concerned they can go LOL. The ones he is getting into are right near the gate to the yard and when they're "alive" during the spring/summer, they're always in the way of closing the gate. He seems to be getting better about it with my directing him away from the area, but I do keep a close eye on him.


Yeah, if you don't care about them, by all means pull them out! In my case, I have large Hosta gardens, and would feel terrible if I had to throw out my collection. Same with the Rose of Sharon... I've had it since it was very small, and it is now taller than our barn. To chop it down and lose its long bloom time in the summer would be very sad. So I'm REALLY glad that Kodi just lost interests in these things as he grew up!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Tom King said:


> Could someone post a picture, or a link to pictures, for this type of plant?


Here are the ones Kodi got in trouble with... Look very similar to the other ones posted. They were from ornamental grasses, growing in a large pot of annuals I'd had by the steps all summer. When they started to dry in the fall, I thought they'd make a nice addition to my dried Hydrangea flower arrangement.


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