In the San Francisco Bay Area, a visit to the vet for removal of a foxtail in the nose runs about $600.
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| "Really dad? I have to wear this in public?" |
There is a joke of a vet wearing a golden foxtail necklace because they make so much money from this wild field weed.
OutFox mesh head protection was tested by Catherine and me on Bailey, Chloe, and Tony for a one-hour bike ride and field run and pond swim.
Now with this headgear, fields and trails that have been off limits from May to August open up to us again.
excuse the wind noise in the video.
Two thumbs up on Outfox.
They can even swim in them.
11 comments:
Interesting, good test of this head gear.
Great idea to combat what is obviously a big problem there but I had to lol at the sight - what can you NOT do with these wonderful dogs?
wow, I could not help but laugh when I saw this one. So happy we don't have to deal with fox tail much around here. The job you have done with your dogs really shows here, in their willingness to do so much for/with you. I don't know if Luna would tolerate this, and Wyatt would probably act in some hilarious fashion. Good review of the product, what about hunting? can they pick things up in them?
Great post, very interesting and I commend you for the relationship you have with your dogs.
Anna
www.akginspiration.com
Anna,
Hunting would be not practical with this headgear. Then again foxtails clear from the fields by the late summer when hunting season begins.
The headgear was put on just before we took of on the bike run so the dogs had no chance to "think about it."
To the dog, wearing these would be like us wearing shaded sun glasses.
Great videos Rod!
I've had a couple hunters work their dogs with plastic training dummies while wearing the Field Guard (not the hunters, the dogs...). From what I've heard they've been successful. These hunters are considering using the Field Guard to generally protect their dogs' eyes as they run through brush while hunting.
It's amazing how easily dogs get used to it and do things as they normally would.
Diane,
It was quite funny at the pond during the water trial when we threw a stick in for them to fetch.
As they tried to grab it the Field Guard would keep pushing the stick through the water. All three dogs tried unsuccessfully to grab the stick as it kept being pushed away.
Went walking yesterday in Briones without the dogs wearing the Field Guard on. The foxtails are at their worse right now as they are drying out. Kept waiting for "the $600 sneeze." Got lucky again.
Interesting! As a retired vet tech, I'm starting to get excited about these...talk about a real gift to the dogs!
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!
Rod, Ky is in the hospital right now with a possible foreign object in his lung which the vets think could be a foxtail. He went downhill fast the past two days because of, it turns out puss in his lungs. He is responding well to antibiotics and we are hoping we can get by without an operation, but we will see. I just ordered two of these for the dogs ... I caution anyone in California about taking your vizsla out in some of our areas. Unfortunately some of the areas we usually exercise the dogs seem to have a lot of this horrible plant. I wish we had followed up on this earlier when I saw your post and just hope my baby will be okay. Jodi, Ed, Kyburz and Rudi
I hope Ky makes it through this. The outfox headgear goes on every walk now. The foxtails are dried out and your story reminds me not to play Russian Roulette with my beloved Vizslas. Rod
What a great post! The videos really help: your dogs are surprisingly blasé about the hoods in field, stream and hard-running. I'm not sure how my border collies would react to them, but it's worth a try.
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!
BTW, your link to OutFox is broken (not sure where), but I got there by chopping off everything in the link after the ".com"
Thanks. Link is repaired.
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