Many municipalities mow the verges less often than before, so that the grasses occur in abundance. Lian Janssen can talk about it. Her six-month-old pup, Skip, became life-threateningly ill after a grass blade got stuck in one of his nostrils. “It was really close,” she tells RTL News.
For weeks the dog had a bit of a cold, but because the sniffling persisted, she went to the vet in Harderwijk. Kennel cough, a contagious infection of the respiratory tract, was feared, but that turned out not to be the case. After Janssen’s son was accidentally bumped against the puppy’s muzzle, the animal howled in pain.
“When I went to check, his whole nose was swollen,” she says. “I went to the vet again and he immediately said: this is not good.” The next day Skip went under anesthesia so that it could be examined what was in the snout. Within half an hour, Janssen was called with the news that a grass had been found and that there was a ‘major infection’.
She thought the worst was over, but ‘an hour after we got home he started spitting’. “So we went to the vet again, with the puppy in my arms. He couldn’t walk anymore, didn’t respond to anything anymore,” says Janssen. “He was just a bunch of misery.”
“We really thought: the dog is going to die,” she continues. “It’s been really tight.” In the meantime, a few days later, Skip is slowly recovering. According to Janssen, the only question is whether he will recover completely.
Hundreds of operations
Dog Protection would like to talk to municipalities ‘for a joint solution’. According to the organization, veterinarians perform hundreds of “grass-ear operations” every week in the summer because of the severe inflammation caused by grass-ears. “Sometimes the grasses end up in the lungs or other vital organs, which can lead to serious complications or even death,” says the Dog Protection.
Municipalities are called upon to ‘at least mow the grasses along walkways in recreation and dog off-leash areas’. It is also requested that the clippings be cleaned up properly. Lian Janssen, who has so far spent almost 300 euros on the treatment for her puppy, also hopes that municipalities will heed the call. “Otherwise I have no idea how it will be next summer.”
Check well
Until then, the Dog Protection Association advises dog owners to avoid the places where grasses grow as much as possible and to always check the dogs carefully after a walk. And to clean up the dog poop properly, because grasses do well on dog manure.
The petition has already been signed almost 50,000 times this morning. On September 7, the document will be handed over to the mayor of The Hague, Jan van Zanen.
2023-08-26 05:00:14
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