Hello, I have recently come away from the vets with my girl with suspected grass seed abscesses. They are between 2/3 digit on both front but not causing any problems but I am a little bothered though as she is on day 37 of gestation. There is a small hole on each paw sufficient to say that the skin has punctured. They look better today and reduced in size but if it was a grass awn where will it go!

It is not uncommon for the sharp awns of grass seeds to work their way under the skin and cause a large pus filled swelling. It is the long sharp pointed type of seed that has minute barbs like a tiny arrow head that only allow it to move forward through the body tissue that cause the problems.

They occur most commonly in late summer or autumn and can affect any dog, though most commonly longer haired active dogs that are exercised in reserves or long grassed areas.

The seed can get caught in the coat and works its way down to and then though the skin. Once it is under the skin the body tries to eliminate it and pus is formed that can swell into an abscess. Sometimes the entry hole can heal over leaving no clue to the source of the problem.

Common sites include between the toes and in the cheek (coming from the inside of the mouth) though the seeds can end up any where, even in the middle of muscle tissue. Once under the skin they can keep migrating - even moving 10 - 20cm or more!

Often dogs will need to have a general anaesthetic and the vet will need to explore the tissues surgically to find the offending seed - This can be quite a challenge but need to be done.

In extreme cases a seed might migrate through muscle tissues and into the spinal cord - with very serious consequences.

To prevent problems a concerned owner should check the pets coat after an outing where a dog may have picked up seeds. Focus between the toes and in thick hair on the dogs underside - prevention if definitely better than cure.

My vet says that she couldn't look for them as she would never find them, which I can understand, and that antibiotics would reduce the swelling. I declined the drugs for 24 hrs to see if the swelling reduced due to her condition and am so pleased to saythat they are looking good.

Do any of you have any experience of these and what was the outcome?

Have had experience of these on a couple of occasions.  Once the vet was able to locate it in the foot and managed to manipulate and encourage it out with the stoical forbearance of my brave dog and secondly when it just worked its own way out through the top of the foot.

I've been to the vet on 3 seperate occasions to have grass seeds removed from inbetween my dogs toes.Believe me!Now i check every orifice of my dogs if we have been around areas where those seeds are everywhere.My experience with them are that they are very painful/uncomfortable for the dogs and they wont stop licking at the site until the seed is removed.
TBH i would be too scared to leave a seed inside my dog to migrate to goodness knows where,but in your case it sounds as iff the seed has travelled to far for the vet to simply pull it out with forceps,as was done with my dogs.And an operation to remove it could be in order :(

A friend of mines dog got one stuck up inside his nostril,the vet couldnt remove it and somehow he ended up sneezing it out after a couple of days(of nearly constant rubbing and sneezing).
All i can advise is to check inbetween your dogs toes and other areas where they can lodge after each walk,it only takes a minute or so and is well worth it when you find some and easily pull them out from their fur,which i have done on numerous occasions!

I dont know what you should do with your current dog..maybe get another opinion?? Because as i said i would be worried about where the little sucker could be travelling to.

Thanks Isabel, Ktee, I am worried, and although I am thorough with my grooming regime, if grass awns have caused these they didn't hang about! Today one has completely healed, no swelling but one is much the same/no worse. She is not lame nor is she licking or irritated by it I'll get a 2nd op.......

Dogs can get inter-digital cysts without there being grass seeds.

http://www.barkbytes.com/medical/med0025.htm

A good article here: http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/70800.htm

Hi Barbara, yep I googled this piece which rings true more than the grass seeds saga. She hasn't been on grass (apart from the lawn) since the grass got too high on the farm ready for the cut.

my dog had an interdigital cyst recently and had it operated on last week.  I had wondered if it was due to something stuck in her paw but definitely worth checking out. 

FWIW if you do decide to bathe your dogs foot in salty water don't leave the room to get anything while you are doing it.  I was trying to soak missy's foot in the water but she was having none of it so I went to the kitchen to get a towel and when I came back there was an extremely sheepish looking dog in the living room with a serious drool problem   She drank some of the salty water and got a bit of a surprise - looks like water, smells like water, tastes yuck, cue copius amounts of drool

Lol cheekychow! I've been doing the salt water soak but know only too well what her caperbilities can be! I put my little boys socks on her after i've dried, she walks around like she's the first 'person' to ever have socks! The interdigital cyst is the more likely at the moment.