WOW. Interesting that we were just talking about this as my wife asked me about insurance the other day. I guess I’ve been lucky that my dogs didn’t need something like that. But for the first time in decades I’ve bought a puppy and with that investment comes more attention to “what if?”. Plus the insane $$ a vet bill can be.
My immediate fear was realized just last week. We have foxtails here and they are horrible on dogs. A dog just wants to run in grass and foxtails end up in their hair and if they ever penetrate the skin they are like a one way ratchet. Like if they go between the pads they can follow the bone until they come out on their shoulder.
Had a setter that would always crash after a run but this one time he just sat in front of me staring. When I asked what was wrong he lay on his back and held up his left front paw. In his armpit was this big pocket. Took him to the vet and the vet pulled 6 bloody foxtails out of the hole! Another time the other dog a little terrier mutt in the middle of a run out in a field came up and jumped one me. I didn’t allow the dogs to do that and shushed him away but he kept jumping up on me and when I looked at him he was staring at me even though he knew he was doing wrong. It was then I saw the last little tails of a foxtail embedded next to his eyeball. He stood very still and I plucked it out and he got all happy and ran off to find the setter.
So I’ve been paranoid of that 50yrs later. We have been diligently pulling all the weeds but still I would find a foxtail in Gus’s hair. i was getting ready to hit the shop and I noticed him pawing his face. And there it was, a foxtail completely buried in his tear duct next to his eyeball just like George all those years ago! Gus wasn’t anywhere near as cooperative but I finally got hold of it and pulled it out. Gus got totally happy about that but who knows if he’ll trust me like my dogs of the past. I