DOG PARK MENACE
Has your dog had foot sores? Have you been taking your four legged friend to the dog park? At Palo Verde Animal Hospital we have seen abscesses between the toes of dogs that were caused by small plant seed pods poking into the skin. All of the dogs with this problem had been to Butler Park at 15th Avenue and Butler Drive.
The pods were not familiar, so Dr. Babcock went to Butler Park to see what he could find. The seed pods were there, so he collected some of the plants and had them identified by Phil Jenkins from the University of Arizona Plant Science Laboratory. Mr. Jenkins identified the seed pods as coming from the Washerwoman plant. It is a plant from South America that has become naturalized all across the southern United States.
Washerwoman plant is found mostly in the shade of the trees and along the fences of Butler Park. The plant has small oval leaves with straw colored tufts of flowers and seeds. It is these tufts that have the very small thorns that cause the abscesses in the feet. The thorns get trapped by the short hair between your dog’s toes. They are so small that you would not recognize that they were there, except on close examination. Each of Palo Verdes cases had hundreds of thorns. The only readily visible evidence of the thorns is the abscesses they cause. Removing the thorns, draining the abscess and treating with antibiotics have been all that is necessary to treat the feet. The plants are hard to see, so just stay away from the trees and fences and look out for the Washerwoman plant.
