This is now the second season using the
"OUT FOX FIELD GEAR" head netting.
Went on a 12 mile mountain bike ride this morning with Mike and his setter. Bailey and Chloe both had their medium-sized out fox head gear on the whole time.
Mike is now going off to the website to purchase one for his dog "Robin" as in "Robin Hood".
Last year the dogs could not retrieve with the headgear on.
This year Bailey found it was not a problem grabbing a floating stick to retrieve back to shore.
From Last June's first post on the headgear:
Some of the recent comments from the June 2011 post. The last posts were just last week. Thought it was time for an update:
Anaesthesia is no joke, there are always risks, and everyone would far rather do without if we could.
I have always trained my dogs to allow me to do nose and ear scopes and exams, even removals of foxtails, without assistance or drugs, but oooh, life would be easier if I never had to..!
Thanks for the great videos!
May 31, 2012 5:41 PM
Now I just wish someone would come up with an effective dog-body-armor against foxtails. The collies and their double-coats are a nightmare to clear of burrs after a hike. Something less enveloping than the K9 TopCoat would be fantastic. Maybe a larger version of the OutFox!
Jodi's scary foxtail story with his Vizsla Ky ( June 2, 2012):
Hi Everyone. An update on Ky, as I was one of the ones that posted a comment on Rod's
blog. Ky was hospitalized on Wed with pythorax (pus in lung area) he very
quickly had gone from his normal self to not eating and extremely lethargic in a
day. We started at the VCA referral center in Sacramento. Having seen
something that might be a foxtail on the xray, they wanted to go in immediately
and operate. We did a little research after talking to them and hearing that
they may go in take a piece of lung and never find the foxtail, wanted a second
opinion (they said that in 2 out of 3 recent cases they had gone in to operate
and found no foxtails). We talked to Ken (Ky's breeder) who recommended UC
Davis vet hospital. So we took him there on Thursday. They did a cat scan and
still thought they were seeing something, so we agreed to let them operate. The
great thing is that the operation was done by lathroscope (e.g. they make a few
smaller incisions so that they can insert a camera and operate and remove things
that way, so minimally invasive). I'm not sure if other vets commonly use
this yet, but it sure beats cracking the ribs to get to his lungs!
They could not
get the foxtail in the smallest lung lobe that they saw on the ct scan, so they
removed that lobe (the smallest out of seven lobes to a lung so hopefully that
will not impact him much). But they found two other foxtails that they had not
even seen on the ct! The second foxtail was embedded both into a lung as well
as into the side of his chest in a big infected glob so they have him on a very
high dose of iv antibiotics.
UCD assigns a
student to work with the animals and be your contact point, and in our call this
am, Ky was very perky on his walk this morning, so we will hopefully have him
home by tonight or tomorrow morning.
Needless to
say, I already ordered two of the outfoxed mesh headcovers on Wednesday and hope
they get here soon. Unfortunately in the Sac valley where we live, it's hard
to get out anywhere to run where there are not foxtails.
We are really
lucky with our outcome and extremely grateful to have an interested and caring
breeder that we consult with at times like this! (And also very grateful to Rod
for spreading the word on the outfoxed gear). Crossing our fingers that there
are none left inside Ky! Please learn from our experience and protect your
pups from these things and also take advantage of an amazing resource at UC
Davis Vet school if you ever get in a serious situation with your dog. They are
amazing. We're looking forward to getting our baby back! - Jodi
Great info as always. I passed this one along on facebook too. Wish more knew about these, just not worth the risk when you live in that area. Is it only during a certain time of year? Glad yours are getting the hang of wearing these even more.
ReplyDeleteAnna
www.akginspiration.com
We have nasty foxtails in our front yard & driveway... been working hard to clear them out this weekend before they dry up! We will definitely purchase a headcover for Riley.
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