6 minute read
VET ADVICE NATURE
THE PERILS OF GRASS SEEDS
By Peter Luscombe BVSc, PgC SAD, MRCVS
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Lower Acreman Street Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3EX www.newtonclarkevet.com
Grass seeds may look innocent enough, but they present a real danger to your dog. Problems are a common occurrence during the spring and summer months. While your pet explores the outdoors, grass seeds can easily brush off the tops of long grass stems onto their bodies. The seeds have pointed ends and are exceptionally sharp, so they become trapped in your pet’s fur and due to their barbed/arrow shape they can only travel in one direction. This means they can often penetrate skin or move into ears and cannot work their way back out. Breeds with hairy ears and hairy feet are more at risk if walked in meadows or woodlands where these grasses commonly grow in abundance.
Grass seeds commonly get in between the toes of the dog's foot. Once attached to the surrounding soft feathery fur, the grass seed then makes its way towards the foot itself, easily penetrating the thin skin before starting to burrow deep into - and through - highly sensitive tissues of the foot resulting in pain, discomfort, infection, and sudden onset lameness. The second most common place for these seeds to cause problems is the ear canal. Their shape allows the grass seed to work its way from the fur around the ears down along the ear canal and come to rest right up against the delicate ear drum, causing sometimes extreme pain, irritation and, if untreated, infection. Other places can be at risk too, such as the eyes and skin folds. After 30 years of being a vet, I am still surprised where we can retrieve a grass seed from!
Common signs to look for are sudden onset head shaking, paw licking, lameness, lethargy and signs of pain. If your dog is showing any of these signs, contact your vet immediately.
Treatment often involves sedation or anaesthesia to explore the area and remove the seed with special forceps. If it has penetrated the skin, your dog may need surgical exploration of the area to search for the seed and flush the wound. However, once a grass seed has worked its way further into the body, they can be much harder to find, don’t often show up on x-rays, and can start travelling around causing inflammation, infection and abscesses. On rare occasions, repeat surgeries are needed to locate these troublesome seeds.
Prevention, as always, is the best cure. Try to keep your pet away from long grassy areas since the seeds can catch onto their coat, skin or toes very easily. If you take your pet outdoors for a walk, check their fur for any grass seeds when you get home. The typical areas to check are eyes, ears, nose, armpits and their toes. Keep long-haired dogs trimmed or clipped and well groomed, especially around their feet and ears.
If you are concerned that your pet may have picked up a grass seed, please get in touch – the earlier grass seeds are found, the less damage they can cause.
THE SMALL PEARL-BORDERED FRITILLARY
Here is another of our once common butterflies captured locally by our nature photographer Colin Lawrence. This butterfly is sadly now on the UK threatened red list.
The small pearl-bordered fritillary is a beautiful orange butterfly with black marks on the upper side of the wings. It has black and silver markings on its underside, along with a row of white 'pearls' on the outer edge of the wing. Some have likened the underside to a stained glass church window!
Due to modern agriculture practices, most of the grassland habitats that sustained these butterflies have been lost to intensive farming. Because of this, the small pearlbordered fritillary has seen a serious drop in population across Europe, in some places as much as 80%. Despite modern conservation efforts, the number of small pearl-bordered fritillaries is still declining. Colin’s tip is to look carefully for this small butterfly about this time of year in damp, grassy habitats and also in woodland clearings and moorland. The adults will be stopping to nectar on bramble and thistle flowers and will be laying its next brood typically on dog violet and marsh violet which is the food plant for the next generation of caterpillars.
THE JUBILEE
By Lesley Wray
As we celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee, I decided to look back at what Milborne Port would have been like in 1952. In Europe, WWII had been over for just seven years, and sugar, butter, cheese, margarine, cooking fat, bacon, meat and tea were all still rationed. (Sugar was rationed until 1953 and meat until 1954.)
Housing was in short supply following years of war damage and lack of maintenance, and while the Festival of Britain, held in 1951, had the slogan Britain Can Make It, shortages of everything meant the public referred to it as Britain Can’t Have It.
Socially things were improving; although the welfare state was in its infancy, it did mean that everyone had access to schooling, health care, and financial help when they had no earnings. Women were still considered less important than men, in spite of their contribution during the war; they were paid less, were not admitted to many careers and had to leave work once they had children. In Milborne Port this meant most married women worked from home for the glove factories. They were supplied with a sewing machine and paid piecework for the gloves they stitched. This had to be done in whatever time could be spared from looking after their family and running a home without the equipment we have today. Few working-class homes in the early fifties had washing machines or fridges, vacuum cleaners were unusual and microwave ovens, freezers and dishwashers were not made for homes.
In 1952, Milborne Port was much smaller, but the farms and glove factories offered employment, and with few cars, there was plenty of custom for the shops. Although Milborne Port railway station became a halt in 1950, it was still usable until closed by the Beeching cuts in 1964. The Town Steps were still in use at the west end of the high street, and the small building opposite was the telephone exchange. Tom Coombes bakery employed up to a dozen people and supplied shops in Sherborne and Yeovil. When the coronation took place on 2 June 1953, television ownership rocketed as people bought TVs to watch it. The landlord of the King’s Head (now the Tippling Philosopher) had a TV and allowed many of the village children in to watch.
The Milborne Port celebrations for the coronation in 1953 started with church services and then at 2.15pm a fancy-dress procession, led by the Boy’s Brigade band, walked from Coldharbour to Ven. At Ven there were handicraft stalls, flower and produce shows, funfair stalls and a licensed bar. A bus ran around the village to transport people to the event. Tea was served from 3.50pm and there were various children’s sports. At 4.50pm the children were presented with coronation mugs and then the Girls’ Choir sang, followed by a grand cricket match. At 9.45pm the bonfire was lit on East Hill, followed by a dance in the Victoria Hall from 10.00pm to 2.00am. A great time would have been had by all.
The Queen’s silver and golden jubilees were celebrated in similar style, and a grand fete is planned for the platinum jubilee on Saturday 4 June, where the History and Heritage Group is having a stall and historical book sale.
If you would like to know more about the history of Milborne Port, please contact mphhgroup@gmail.com for information about our meetings and the museum opening times. Or visit our website www.milborneporthistory. org.uk or join our Facebook Group, Milborne Port History and Heritage.