CROSSPOSTED
PLEASE BE AWARE AND SHARE
Original poster = Jo Hart (agilitynet) - permission gained to crosspost
Just wanted to let you all know what happened yesterday on my walk
through the woods, as I'm sure a few of you swim your dogs.
There is a stream where they all usually paddle which this morning was
more like a river with large ponds in areas. They were in and out of the
water for a lot of the walk, retrieving things from the ponds too. On the
way back from the walk my border terrier, Izzy, started limping, holding
her knee almost parallel with her body and shaking vigorously, at this point
I thought she had done something to the leg as she refused to put any
weight on it. We picked her up and headed to the car to go to the vet.
On the way to the vet we realised Izzy wasn't putting weight on the other
leg either and she was frantically licking both legs. We noticed she was very
unsteady and wobbly and thought maybe she had sprained her spine (if they
can do that?), which was causing her legs to feel numb, she had lost control
of her back end. She also wet herself on the way to the vets.
When we got her to the vet she was no longer limping, but was very unsteady
and couldn't walk properly, she was panicky, hot and scratching her feet against
the floor. Whilst I was in the vets, my partner ran in to say both our other dogs,
(which are large dogs) were now doing the same (loss of control of the back
legs, scratching, panicking). The vet came to the conclusion they have been
poisoned by fertilizer in the run off from the field in the river, and having washed
them immediately, given them steroid injections, charcoal, piriton and lots of food
and water, they seem slightly wobbly and tired but ok (I'm watching closely for
the next 24 hours).
We're not sure where the fertilizer came from as nothing has been used on the
field next to the stream (or obviously in the woods) for years but I'm aware
there is a farm next to the land... I'm trying to contact the environment agency.
I've never heard of this happening before so I thought I'd just warn you
as with the rain we have had the farmers chemicals can be spread quite a
way. My lot certainly won't be swimming for a long time.