The outbreak of illnesses, which was first reported among dog owners in Shanganagh at the end of July and appears to be spreading since, is something of a mystery.
One dog owner, who took to social media after her dog got sick in the park, issued a warning to others after her pet became “very ill due to some form of poison.”
She added that the vet she subsequently attended said it was “the fourth dog within the last week that has suffered these symptoms”.
Another dog owner responded that their dog became seriously ill after being exercised in the dog park area, this time in the nearby Cabinteely park.
Regarding the symptoms, the common denominator appears to be “black poo and vomiting”.
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However, The Groom Room, which is based in Sallynoggin and serves the south Dublin area, gave more elaborate details when one of its clients’ dogs fell ill after being walked in the BMX/skate park in Dun Laoghaire.
“One of my clients was walking their two dogs in the green area behind the west pier in Dun Laoghaire nearby to the new BMX and skate park. The next morning one of the dogs was vomiting and quite lethargic with no appetite. He was brought to the vets to be checked over and sent home with anti-nausea meds,” they reported.
“A couple of hours later he deteriorated and started to haemorrhage blood from his bum, and so was rushed back to the vets. It is suspected [the dog] ingested some form of poison and it is most likely to have occurred in the area I mentioned above. I just wanted to share this post to spread awareness to other dog walkers, thankfully he is starting to brighten up now but is very lucky to be alive.”
While more users took to social media to raise concerns over “poisoning” in the parks, a spokesperson for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which maintains Shanganagh, as well as the other parks mentioned, said no poison had been laid.
“Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council have not laid any poison or treatments within any of our parks,” the spokesperson said. “If a particular location is identified, council staff check the park for evidence of poison and investigate the matter.”
While not able to comment on any individual cases, Bray Vet’s Dr Peter Wedderburn – well known to all dog and animal lovers as Pete the Vet – said that generally, “we see this every summer.”
Regarding the cause, he added: “The only way you could find out would be by doing extensive investigations for cases that happen. Whereas, we know that generally, what we’re seeing is dogs that get severe gastroenteritis.
“What they need is to be given treatment for severe gastroenteritis. Nearly all dogs that get that treatment, they get completely better within two to three days. And so regardless of the cause, the treatment is the same. So for that reason, we don’t know exactly why it happens.”
He pointed to three possible causes which dog owners can take note of with a few weeks of summer still left to go, but said poison was unlikely.
“The first possible cause is a virus. There are viruses that cause this, that go through the dog population,” he said. “And because dogs are out and about more often in the summer, we see this happening more often in the summertime.
“The second possibility, which I think is probably more likely, is that in the summertime, because of prolonged warm weather, any organic matter that’s in hedgerows and bushes, it tends to go off, it tends to decompose –.bacteria and funguses grow in warm weather on organic matter, food that’s been dropped or even just rotting leaves. Dogs tend to rummage in these types of substances and if they eat something that irritates their stomach and intestines, then they’re going to have gastroenteritis.
“I guess the third possibility is some sort of poison. But that’s really quite unlikely.”
However, while ingesting poison was rare, Dr Wedderburn did warn that dogs do, on occasion, ingest other substances which might not even cross the minds of most dog owners.
He described one incident where a dog had come back from a walk and was “all staggery, and then vomited and the vomit smelled very strongly off cannabis”.
“So, in that particular case, the dog had eaten somebody’s drug stash and became quite unwell. The dog recovered fine, but, poisonings are quite rare. So it’s more likely to be either a virus, or organic matter that’s gone off.”
By way of advice, the key thing is to keep an eye on your dog and be mindful of where it is and what it might be doing.
“What I’d say to people is, at this time of year, you probably should be more careful than other times of year to keep an eye on what your dog is doing,” Dr Wedderburn said. “If you let them off the leash, don’t let them go and rummage out of your sight in bushes, because you just don’t know what they’re going to eat.
“You’d be better getting what I quite like, and it’s what’s called a training leash, which is a 10-metre-long leash that you can get. You can give your dog quite a lot of freedom, but at the same time, you can get the dog back if it does go and start trying to eat something that’s not good for it.”
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