Spring Weed Hazards and Your Pet

Saying “goodbye” to the cold temps of winter and “hello” to the warm days of spring is an exciting time for everyone, including pets. Time spent romping outdoors in the sunshine should be fun for your dog or cat, but unfortunately spring also brings with it certain hazards that could be dangerous for your furry companion.

Pet grooming is especially important during the spring and summer months to ensure the health and safety of your pet from certain harmful Arizona weeds, such as the following:

• Foxtails: When the needle-like seed heads on foxtails grasp onto an animal’s fur, they can burrow inside their nose, mouth, paws, eyes, armpits, and/or tails. This is particularly true of longhaired dog and cat breeds. Once they become ingested or embedded in your pet, the hooking design that allows them to drill into soil to germinate, will also keep them plowing forward inside your pet. This can cause pain, infection, perforated lungs, abscesses, and even death.

• Hedge Parsley: Also known as “the Velcro plant”, hedge parsley has small, quarter-inch burrs with barbs that can latch onto almost anything. These burrs can be especially hurtful to an animal’s paws if stepped on.

• Speargrass: This plant starts growing in the spring, but it becomes even more rampant during the summer. Its fine, hair-like tips can burrow into the paws, armpits, ears, and groin area, and they can be very difficult and painful to remove if not done immediately.

• Burclover: This weed has a multitude of limbs with tiny, cutting burrs. It also lies flat on the grass, giving it the ability to evade lawnmowers and causing excruciating pain to pets (and also humans) if trampled on.