Blue Green Algae Poisoning from a Backyard Pond?

“Spots” is a young English Setter mix. She had suddenly become uncoordinated, and was drooling and shaking all over. She lives in a pretty sheltered environment, with a securely fenced yard. There was no access to garbage or a compost pile. She had eaten her usual dog food, a couple of hours before she got sick, and had vomited most of that back up before she was brought in to see me.

Poisoning is always an important consideration in cases like this. Epilepsy, or some other brain disease, or, especially in puppies, low blood sugar or a type of birth defect in the liver, are also possibilities. Her blood sugar was normal, however, it just didn’t look like a brain or liver problem.

The symptoms looked a lot like “organophosphate” poisoning. This is a common ingredients of insecticides like flea sprays and dips, some ear tags used on cattle, and some garden chemicals. But a simple little test we did not indicate organophosphate poisoning and Spots’ owner was very sure she had not been exposed to any of these things, nor to any moldy food or garbage. Molds may contain toxins that could cause these symptoms.

A disease called “White Shaker Syndrome” can cause these symptoms in young puppies, typically white Maltese and West Highland White Terriers. We considered that possibility, but that wouldn’t kill Spots that night, whereas some poisons might. I had to treat her as though she had been poisoned.

First, we made Spots vomit some more, just to be a little more certain that we got everything out of her stomach that would come out. Some poisons are so irritating that they can do more damage coming up than they would staying in the stomach, but that was very unlikely with Spots, and she had already vomited once at home, and again in my clinic. I gave her medication to make her vomit again, until her stomach was as empty as we could make it.

I had given Spots an enema with a sedative in it, which alleviated the tremors, and sent her home with another one for the owner to give her, if needed. As he was getting ready to leave, he said, “You know Doc, we do have a little water pond in the back yard that we’ve just lately noticed a little algae in. Do you suppose that could have been the problem?”

Blue Green algae – cyanobacterium – can produce toxins, especially during “blooms” that usually occur in the summer time, on hot dry days. Deaths have been reported in many animals – cattle, sheep, pigs, ducks, fish, wild animals - and dogs. The risk is higher on calm days, when the algae accumulate on or near the surface at the edges of the pond.

Spots recovered completely but we will probably never know for sure what caused her tremors. All the things on the list are worth being careful about. If you see symptoms like Spots had, call your vet – better sooner than later.