HERRIMAN, Utah — Tucker has belonged to Herriman resident Joanne Bolnick for six years.
“Tucker is a little quirky. He absolutely loves people,” she said.
But last week, she noticed Tucker’s behavior was strange.
“He was eating grass, and there was loads of vomit, literally all over the grass,” she said. "I told my husband right away, something's wrong. I could tell something's wrong.”
The vet didn’t find anything on the first visit and sent him home, but Tucker got worse. They ended up going back to the vet.
“He was having trouble swallowing, he was gagging,” Bolnick said. “She took a second look, got back further, and said, 'Oh yeah, there are foxtails lining his tonsils.'"
The doctor pulled out an entire vial full of foxtails.
Alex Park, a veterinarian with Valley Veterinary Hospital, said the calls started coming in even earlier this year due to the warmer temperatures.
“We'll start to see four or five, if not 10 cases a day,” he said. "I feel like this year we have started to see Foxtails earlier, probably beginning of May… we usually stop seeing them around July, but I'm not really sure how that's going to look.”
Common symptoms in your dog can include limping, a swollen face and shaking their head. Park added that foxtails don’t just show up in fields, they can be in your neighborhoods, which is something Bolnick found out the hard way.
“I never thought that they grew around here, and I was really surprised when somebody said those are foxtails on your wall. If I had known that previously,” she said. "I would have mitigated them right away.”
This is something homeowners should consider, since experts at the Red Butte Garden released the following statement about foxtail season:
"Director of horticulture Marita Tewes Tyrolt said. “Due to our record warm temperatures this season, everything came out early—especially weeds! Which means they’re going to seed earlier and multiply that much more. Also, since there was no winter kill of anything, weed populations seem even more numerous and robust than ever!”
Interpretation and exhibits manager Lynsey Nielsen expresses empathy for fellow dog owners:
"Once you witness the suffering of one of your precious pets because of foxtails, you will start seeing it everywhere. Was it there before and you just wrote it off as another weedy back alley? Maybe, but you sure are clocking it now. From a plant-lover and pet-lover's perspective—who unfortunately has been clocking these meanies for awhile now—they do seem to be a few weeks early. “
“It's not always findable in the first go,” Park said. "They're not something that really can be seen on an X-ray. They don't show up on those types of images. Sometimes you might have to refer to, like, a CT scan to try to find these things, which becomes quite costly.”
Park said in some cases, foxtails can eventually damage the organs and become deadly, which is why Bolnick is relieved they acted quickly and Tucker is hopefully on the mend.
“It's devastating. I mean, I love my dog,” she said. "To not have him here because he ate something was just heartbreaking for us. And we just hope now that he will recover.”
Officials ask that pet owners check their pets, both dogs and cats, every time they come in from outside, especially around their paws and ears.
