Achoo!

So I have to tell you this story.

(As an aside, I keep composing blog posts in my head which never make it to pixel form because of the craziness of life... I have so many pictures and stories to share!!! Even some about knitting!!!)

Piper and I headed up to Eric's this weekend to visit and attend a wedding reception for a couple that got married in Ohio, but live in Cali. The party was at a good friend's house that is in Three Rivers. In Three Rivers, there are burn regulations that require the tall grass to be cut around the house, but on the outskirts of the property there is lots of dry tall grass.

Back to the party, there were a couple of dogs there that Piper was desperately trying to make friends with... she was so cute. Emma, an Australia Shepard, was telling her to back off... but Piper just like LET'S PLAY!!! WEEEE! Actually, she was minding Emma pretty well. Anyway, I was enjoying the food and drink and chatting with the grown ups and always keeping an eye on Piper. She went down to play with some girls on the swing in the tall grass. Suddenly, she was sneezing herself silly! Propelling herself backwards in circles she was sneezing so violently... So I ran down and picked up her little sneezing butt and took her to the bathroom. I had a sinking feeling I knew what it was... a freaking FOXTAIL. One of those pokey annoying things that gets stuck in your sock when you take a hike... Like this:

Google "foxtail dog" and you will find horror stories about how foxtails are really invasive sneaky things that have barbs like a fishhook and thusly move in one direction... IN. So if a dog gets one in it's eye, or ear, or NOSE... it could definitely go to it's brain or lung within 10mins and terrible things will happen. Ok... not really 10min but that's what I assumed.

So back to sneezing Piper... I set her on the bathroom counter and looked her over. The whole right side of her face was squinched up and her eye was watering sad little tears. I looked up her nose, but have you ever looked up a puppy nose?? You can't really see much, especially if they keep sneezing in your face. Then I noticed she was sneezing BLOOD. UGGGGH. This is not good. Not good at all. By this time she was starting to calm down and I checked out her watery eye... it looked fine. So I carried her out to consult the other dog owners at the party. Should I rush her to the emergency vet an hour away? Or can I wait until Monday to take her to her regular vet. Everyone said it was probably ok to wait... the foxtails don't really move at the speed of light to the brain and lungs. I tried to settle her down as much as possible and she seemed to be ok except for occassional bursts of sneezies. She was actually acting very normal on Saturday and even Monday morning, but still the sneezing... so I took her to the vet. They kept her for an hour and sedated her for a good look up her nose. This is what they found.

Holy cow that thing is HUGE. It's 3.5 cm long. Just imagine having that up YOUR nose. Poor thing. She was really disoriented last night... searching and searching for something she couldn't find. Maybe she missed the smell of foxtail in her nose? Or maybe she was just excited to not have a horrible pokey tickely thing up her nose as she sniffed around? Who knows... OY! What will it be next???