It's Cheat Grass Season Again.

When Vern has to go to the vet, it's a big production. He is a German Shorthair pointer that lives at Kirby Creek Lodge, 80 miles up the Snake River in Hell's Canyon. When he got some cheat grass in his eye last weekend Mike called his Lewiston office of Snake River Adventures. He's got a satellite phone and Internet phone service. He wanted to know if cheat grass in the eye was an emergency. To bring Vern to the vet, he'd have to get in a jet boat and go down the Snake River to Pittsburgh Landing, then drive a primitive road to White Bird, along the Salmon River, then up the grade to Grangeville, across the prairie and down to Lewiston and across the Snake River again to Clarkston. It's a two or three-hour trip, depending on how much of an emergency Mike thinks it is.

The reddish brown weed growing along the roadsides is cheat grass. About this time of year, when things get warm and dry, the tiny dart-like awns, like beards of wheat, jump off and stick in your socks if you walk through it. They also get into dogs and sometimes cats. (And horses. And cows.)

Cheat grass awns most commonly get into dog's ears. The dog's runs through the weeds with all those grass awns, and sooner or later they get into an ear, When they do the dog shakes his head and the grass awn sort of ratchets it's way down the ear canal until it runs into the ear drum. It's amazing how many ears full of cheat grass we find on routine physical examinations. Some dogs just tolerate them.

Cheat grass in the eye is harder to tolerate. When the good eye moves around, looking at things, the other eye always moves too. When it does, the grass awn scrapes across the cornea - the transparent front of the eye - and almost always makes an open wound, which could lead to loss of the eye. But it is surprising how often someone will make an appointment because his dog has "had a sore eye for several days." Those eyes almost always recover with treatment. But how would you like to spend several days with something like that in your eye?

Cheat grass also gets into noses. Sometimes we can fish them out using a long "alligator" forceps with the dog awake. Sometimes not. Muggles, a little Chihuahua mix, had a persistent sneeze. My associate, Dr. Cumberland, anesthetized Muggles and after a persistent search, finally found and removed six cheat grass awns from the far reaches of the tiny dog's nose. Muggles has never satisfactorily explained how that happened.

A cat named Rusty had a persistent cough. X-Rays of his chest showed a problem in his lungs. Lungs are divided into several lobes and one of Rusty's lung lobes was full of fluid. We stuck a needle in it. It was pus. In surgery, we found one entire lung lobe was full of pus and infected. The other lung lobes were normal. After removing the infected lobe, and sewing Rusty up, I cut open the infected lobe and found one little cheat grass awn.

Cheat grass also burrows into the skin, between the toes, and in every orifice dogs and cats have. It almost always requires medical attention. Sometimes it's an emergency.

Mike called back and decided to bring Vern to town. It took about fifteen minutes to numb the eye and remove the grass awn. Mike was appreciative. Vern didn't even say thanks. He just wanted to go back home.