Very sick dog after eating from the beach

Observation by Gillian Brubaker: 

For years our dogs have grazed on the wrack line, things washed up at high tide. Often this results in the dogs vomiting, but they love it all the same and have never been deterred from grazing on the fresh (or ripe) returns from Kachemak Bay. However in July 2018 things got serious and I felt I came pretty close to losing one of my beloved lab-poodle mixes. Luke and Emma are siblings and share their love for wrack grazing. Luke however is the worst. He eats dead anything, fish in particular and he loves to catch sand lance. On this occasion after eating whatever, he did not just vomit once, but over and over again. This was combined with severe diarrhea and fatigue. Emma the other dog was fine. Luke's illness however continued for three days before he could even move. It was four days before he could eat. There are no veterinarians in Seldovia. So I called my vet, Scott Rapp from Corner Stone Veterinary and he was fabulous and helped me figure out how to get him rehydrated with chicken broth and white rice. Other people down on the beach have had similar problems with their dogs. I wonder what it is on the beach which can make the dogs so sick? I wonder if there are ways to prevent this from happening? 7-20-19

 

Mike Brubaker, with the Alaska Native Tribal Helth Consortium, writes:: 

On recent trip to Nome to attend a harmful algae bloom workshop, Dr. Raphaela Stimmelmeyer shared the following paper with me. The paper, published in the journal Toxins, brought to mind an event last summer when one of our family dogs became very sick at McDonald Spit, near Seldovia. I asked my mom to recount the event (above) and appreciate here careful description of the tale of her dog Luke. And I also really appreciate the helpful consults provided by Kris Holdreid and Rose Masui that follow.

The event described in the journal article is a cautionary tale, important for dog owners to be aware of during periods like this summer, when the temperature of the air and water is so high above normal. In December of 2017 a family in Norfolk England walked their five dogs on Cley Beach. A winter storm had pushed a lot of debris onto the beach, attracting the interest of dogs and people alike. In the wrack along the beach were starfish, crabs and several dead seal pups. A golden retreiver consumed debris from the beach. About 30 minutes later, the retreiver began to vomit, and an hour later it was dead. Over the next two weeks eight other dogs became ill and one other dog died. Saxitoxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning was detected at concentrations over 14,000 g saxitoxin (STX) eq/kg found in one of the starfish.

We do not have a way now to determine what made Luke ill last summer. Next time, we will know to collect some of the vomit, or the thing the dogs ate and freeze it. This provides something that the could be tested in the laboratory for toxins. 

For more information about the incident in Norfolk United Kingdom, see the paper, *Fatal Canine Intoxications Linked to the Presence of Saxitoxins in Stranded Marine Organisms Following Winter Storm Activity* published in the journal Toxins. Also, news article attached from BBC News. 

Kris Holdreid, from Kasitsna Bay Laboratory, writes:

We did not see elevated levels of saxitoxin in Kachemak Bay last year, so it was most likely something else. With as hot as it is this year (2019), I don't think we will be so lucky. Rosie also said the Alexandrium (toxic algae that causes PSP) cell counts have recently increased in water samples from the KBNERR plankton monitoring program.  Good to be cautious at the moment (July 2019). We were also talking about the possibility of diurrhetic shellfish poisoning from dinophysis phytoplankton.  I don't know of any DSP events here, but we have sometimes see higher amounts of dinophysis in the water.  We will be doing some intensive plankton and oceanography sampling in the bay this week as part of the Gulf Watch Alaska monitoring program and KBNERR is collecting shellfish for toxin testing.  We'll let you know what we find out. I wonder about stuff like vibrio too - we are in a different place with these air and water temperatures.  Especially having it so warm for so long. 7-23-19

 

Rose Masui, with Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, writes: 

Thank you for passing along these comments. Raphaela (Raphaela Stimmelmeyer, North Slope Borough, copied) can speak more to the symptoms seen in the dogs, although gastrointestinal distress is a common symptom from harmful algal bloom related toxins. In early July of 2018 we were not seeing concerning levels of toxins in our shellfish samples. We were also not seeing concerning amounts of the harmful algal bloom species in our phytoplankton samples. We had seen high levels of toxins in this area in 2017 and some clam species, like butter clams, can hold toxins for up to two years. If these dogs were consuming butter clams it potentially could have been from toxins connected to harmful algal blooms. There are many ongoing studies right now to try to understand how these toxins accumulate in various fish and intertidal species, but it is still unclear. If anyone wants to see our weekly updates from early July from 2017 and 2018 please reach out and we will pass them along. 7-23-19

You can see KBNERR monitoring data and sign up for their updates here. 

Michael Opheim, with Native Village of Seldovia writes: 

I am sorry to hear your dogs got sick but am glad they did get better.  I have not heard of any other dogs in town getting sick after being at the beaches around here.  It might be some good information to get out to the communities though for sure. 7-31-19

For more about how to keep you dog healthy at the beach, see advice at Vets Now.