Pet owner's urgent warning after dog almost dies following trip to beach: 'Scary'
A Queensland woman is warning pet owners to be vigilant after a trip to the beach almost killed her beloved dog. Billy the kelpie had only been out of the car for "one minute" when he found something in the dunes that left him incredibly unwell.
Brenda De Pol Cope and her husband are caravanning through Western Australia, and this week found themselves at Song Beach in Denham on the state's isolated west coast. After parking up and letting their two dogs out of the car, Brenda quickly realised that she couldn't see Billy.
After spotting him near the dunes, she saw that his mouth was covered in drool. While she didn't realise at the time, Billy had found a sea hare – a type of sea mollusc that is toxic to dogs and other animals.
Sea hares are mostly around 20cm in length or smaller, and have a soft body with an internal shell. They have large 'wings' to help them swim and are usually well camouflaged, making them difficult to spot.
The couple continued their afternoon, playing fetch with the dogs and returning back to the van for dinner before Billy started showing signs that something was wrong.
"We'd settle down, and then he'd start crying again, and then the vomiting started," Brenda told Yahoo News. "It was probably about 9, 10pm. He had us up till 3am vomiting and eventually it was just bile coming out."
As well as the consistent vomiting, Billy grew "unbelievably" weak and couldn't get into his bed on the lower bunk. By this point, Brenda and her husband knew it had something to do with Billy's find on the beach.
With the closest vet more than three hours away in Canarvon, the worried owner had a phone appointment to see what could be done.
"He said, 'you either take him down to Geraldton or you take him up to Canarvon, but I'm going to be honest with you, by the time you get there, he could be dead'," Brenda recalled. "It was scary."
Small dogs can die in just six hours from consuming a sea hare. Luckily for Billy, his 23kg build helped him overcome the poisoning. And the biggest thing that helped was the vomiting.
Four days later, the 13-year-old kelpie is feeling much better.
"He's quite old, so he's still a bit unsteady on his feet, but otherwise he's eating and he seems very happy," Brenda said.
She's now looking to buy a muzzle for Billy as an alternative to keeping him on the lead all the time, and she's urging other dog owners to do the same.
"Keep them close," she said. "If you want to go off lead, use a muzzle."
Sea hares produce a purple ink and toxic chemicals as a defence mechanism against predators. The ink contains a mix of secondary metabolites, some of which can be irritating or toxic to other marine organisms.
Their toxicity comes from their diet — primarily red and green algae — which contain compounds that can be harmful if ingested.
Dr Tim Hopkins from Northern Beaches Emergency Vet previously told Yahoo News that dogs will usually require immediate attention from a vet.
"You'll see immediate symptoms from them having mouthed the sea hare, and then usually within hours, you're seeing those systemic signs," he said.
"It's often hard with these inquisitive dogs, they'll find a random washed up item or animal and we do see that [poisonings] sometimes after mass beaching events, with jellyfish and other venomous animals.
"It's about knowing what to do if they do get exposed, and then it's really about knowing where your closest emergency vet is."
Hopkins said if a dog is exposed to a sea hare, owners can attempt to wash their mouths out, but that "shouldn't be done at the expense of getting prompt veterinary attention".
Symptoms in dogs can include vomiting, drooling, lethargy, tremors, seizures and death in severe cases. While not all sea hares are equally toxic, ingestion is risky, and pet owners are advised to keep their animals away from these creatures when they wash up.
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