Toxic foxtail weed spreading across Calgary; dogs at risk, warns humane society

A noxious weed that is particularly harmful to dogs is spreading rapidly throughout the city.

Foxtail, which is native to Alberta, can cause extreme pain to dogs because barbed seeds can lodge in their mouth, nose, and skin.

That’s why the Calgary Humane Society (CHS) is issuing a warning to dog owners.

“The concern is it’s a plant, a grasslike weed, and as it dries up as the summer goes along the little seeds in the foxtail can end up getting caught in a pet’s coat,” said Joffee

He says a couple of the common places the grass awns appear are in the dog’s ear or mouth and that they can get stuck in the dog’s tonsil leading to coughing or gagging.

“Foxtails have almost little barbs on them that allow them to stick in their fur,” said Dr. Danny Joffee of CHS. “That’s not the huge problem,” said Joffee.

“The huge problem though is the little spikes on the grass awns can actually continue to burrow in through the skin. They can also travel under the skin to other areas of the body into the thorax, into the chest cavity, into the abdomen.”

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However, if the awns get into the chest, abdomen, or eye it can become life-threatening to the dog.

“So they can cause abscess, they can travel behind the eye and cause ocular abnormalities and they can travel through the chest cavity and be life-threatening in that area,” said Joffee

Joffee says before you leave the park, brush your dog’s fur or run your hands through to make sure there’s nothing left in your dog’s coat.

He says luckily bad situations are rare and the most common thing you will see is that one of the grass awns will get underneath the skin and cause an infection.

He adds this can be remedied by minor surgery to remove the grass awn. 

Calgary Humane Society asks the public to be especially careful when walking in parks and overgrown greenspaces where the weeds thrive.

–With files from Kelly Turner