Dog owner's worry as pet collapses with mysterious illness after a walk on Teesside beach
A dog owner told how his pet became seriously ill and later collapsed after a walk at the beach.
Rob Whinstone noticed a change in the behaviour of Lucy the two-year-old Labrador just half an hour after their stroll in Marske at the weekend.
The following day she collapsed and had to be rushed for emergency treatment by a vet.
"She was playing with my little boy, just tootling around. She doesn't really like the sea; she doesn't drink any water and doesn't eat anything off the beach.
"She's just really obsessed with her ball or a stick - it's the only thing she will ever pick up. The only thing the dog got in its mouth was sand, so whatever made her ill is in that sand."
Rob's experience is not unique, hundreds of dog owners have reported their pets falling ill after walks on the coast in Teesside, East Cleveland and Yorkshire in recent weeks.
Veterinary nurse Brogan Proud advised people to keep their pets off beaches after being "inundated" with cases of dogs with sickness and diarrhoea.
They include owners at Whitby and Scarborough areas as well as Redcar and Cleveland and further north at Hartlepool and Seaton Carew.
After their walk, Rob said Lucy became withdrawn and subdued before being repeatedly sick.
"Within half an hour that's what she looked like sat in her crate. It was almost instantaneous. She was sitting, almost like a person, on her haunches as if her stomach was hurting. She would have a drink of water and then go and throw up."
Rob said Lucy was sick eight or nine times through the night. And the following day she refused to eat or drink.
Lucy was taken to the vet and given treatment to rehydrate her.
Fortunately, she is now on the mend, but Rob said: "She still isn't 100 per cent herself. She doesn't seem to have the same energy as she did beforehand. It's hit her quite hard."
Rob believes dogs are picking up the illness at the beach and it may be then spread by faeces.
He said many dog owners don't pick up their pets' mess at the spot.
Rob said Lucy also became ill after a walk on the same beach last year, shortly before piles of dead crabs were found washed up there.
Dead and alive crabs, lobsters and all manner of crustaceans were seen on the beach between Marske and Saltburn - in piles that were 'waist deep' in some cases.
He said: "That time when Lucy was ill it was mild vomiting and diarrhoea. I said at the time there was something going on."
Rob said Oliver and Holly, now three, saw the piles of dead crabs on the beach and were "mortified".
A Redcar vet said "more dogs than ever before" are coming into their surgery suffering vomiting and diarrhoea.
However, Scarborough Council said there have also been reports from owners that the same symptoms are affecting dogs only walked at inland locations away from beaches.
Defra, the government department for environment, food and rural affairs, says it is aware of the concerns.
A spokesman said they do not know of any link between that and the ongoing investigation into the dead crustaceans which washed ashore along the Teesside coast in October.
The government's Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has also been made aware of the reports about pet dogs.
APHA is responsible for identifying and controlling "endemic, exotic diseases and pests" in animals and plants and bees, and surveillance of new and emerging pests and diseases.