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Mutt Muffler
Let's not put those things in our ears, hey, boy? | |
My dog has just come home from the vet. About a week
ago we took him to the vet because he kept shaking his
head. "Nothing wrong with him", they said, "Maybe a
habit", they said.
It continued, not anything to be alarmed about. Last night
he was back to shaking his head but doing it every
few
seconds, so we took him back to the vet.
Lo and behold! There was a grass seed way down inside
the ear canal and it was infected. Brief operation,
antibiotics, local anaesthetic, vet stay for 6 hours'
observation... $850.00
Proposal: A set of gauze earplugs that fit snugly into the
ears of man's best friend, to keep bad things out of the
ears. A bit of training, to get used to them (maybe during
the daily walks) and insects and seeds get to stay outside
the dog's ears.
Poor little buggers... they can't talk, to tell you what's
wrong.
Mutt Muffs
http://www.safeands...pets.com/index.html
[DIYMatt, May 01 2012]
Aussie seeds and dogs
http://www.dmvs.com.au/grassseeds.html
Corrected link [AusCan531, May 01 2012]
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Annotation:
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Some hunters around here train their dogs to wear foam
earplugs to protect against foreign bodies and waterlog,
muffle gunshots, etc. |
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My father has performed numerous such extractions. He
usually goes after the foreign body with his endoscope
before he opts for invasive surgery. That seed must have
been really jammed in there. Glad your dog's alright. |
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// Poor little buggers... they can't talk, to tell you what's
wrong.
// |
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That's part of the steep learning curve for vets. Some have
a knack for communing with their patients. |
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Muffs for your mutt? Like Mutt Muffs? |
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No, not like those, [DIYMatt]. I want something that
allows airflow to the ears, because I live in a hot
climate. I don't need to protect the dog's ears from
gunshot sounds. |
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The seed is from a grass called Rough Speargrass,
(Austrostipa scabra). It's a barbed spear that
"unwinds" and rotates when it's wet, allowing it to
drill into the ground or flesh. |
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Nasty. You Aussies sure have some downright hostile
organisms in your great land. |
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In instant retrospect, maybe not so much... Just
completely foreign to me. I mean, we have moose, which
can be pretty damn dangerous if you don't know how to act
around them. Plus bears, coyotes, and very rarely
mountain lions, though nobody ever sees them. Not to
mention a whole host of extreme allergen/toxic plants. I
guess you guys must know how to move around your
environment the same way I do mine. |
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Anyway, perhaps a modified expanding foam plug,
hollowed into a tube, with soft mesh screens at each
opening. |
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A lot of nasty seeds down here. Check [link] for an Aussie
vet's page showing the seeds and the damage they cause.
Some suitable accessories for the Mutt Muffler are also
shown: I like the "doggles" best although our dog has had
surgery to remove the little buggers from her feet. |
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I remember stepping on Goat-head Burr (Caltrop)
when I was a kid, many times. It also made short
work of bicycle tyres. |
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One idea about feeds, and this idea involving seeds. You didn't formerly work at the place that was called Chuck's, by any chance? |
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Reactive ear-muffs, with small tanks of hypergolics and miniature RCS clusters, that shoot a jet at incoming nasties.
Obviously, both sides of the head would fire simultaneously and in opposite directions, to eliminate head-shaking symptoms.
Object detection would be by sonar, using ultrasonics, so that Fido's owner is not disturbed by it. |
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Is there _anything_ in Australia that doesn't want to
impale, envenomate or poison people and animals? |
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Or all of the above, in the case of the Murdochs. |
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//Is there _anything_ in Australia that doesn't want to impale, envenomate or poison people and animals?// - Australian beer compensates for everything else in Australia with its weakness and unassertiveness. |
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To paraphrase Terry Pratchett: |
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A list of all harmless flora and fauna of Austrailia: |
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Earplugs definitely effect a dog's hearing, but despite how
good it is, dogs don't rely on their hearing as much as you'd
think (with the exception of so-called 'sight hounds' such as
German Shepherds and Dobermans). The nose is a dog's
primary sense organ, as much as or more than the eyes are
ours. |
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As I mentioned, it takes training to get a dog to wear ear
plugs, but once they are accustomed to them it does not
hamper them much (according to the hunters in my area
who do it). For nasal protection, I'd propose some sort of
screen or mesh mask that goes over the nose entirely,
including the side-slits. This, too, would take training
before a dog could wear it comfortably. Although specific
examples may prove me wrong, I cannot imagine a dog
willingly wearing nose plugs--it would be like a blindfolf. |
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Many high-quality booties are available today, including
some with kevlar or 'fire hose' soles. They're popular in my
locality because the entire valley is basically a 50-square-
mile glacial moraine and is strew with sharp and/or
abrasive stones. |
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My girlfriends dog snuffed up some foxglove weed up
his nose, and it was positioned sideways, making it
very painful, and it too had to be extracted via Vet. |
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Not fun. Give 'em a little snout guard too! |
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// They're popular in my locality because the
entire valley is basically a 50 square- mile
glacial moraine and is strewn with sharp
and/or abrasive stones // |
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Or in Maine terms, "premium real estate"… |
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How about something akin to a beekeepers hood that protects the entire head? |
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Such things exist. I think they're mostly marketed as anti-
mosquito/biting fly accessories. |
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The dog is dumber than shit, 21, but your mesh idea
is quite good. |
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Couldn't tell you what Australian, or any other, beer
tastes like these days. I don't drink any of it, on
suspicion it has all been filtered through a dog, to
give it that pale yellow colour and frothy surface. |
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Erghhhh, puke, gag, puke again... |
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