Deadly Blue Green Algae

[Industrial Toys]

I never heard of such a thing. Apparently due to temperature rise and reported in all fifty states.

Apparently, kills pets.

Anybody have any input on this?

 

[skipperbrown]

The news is all over the dog forums. It's not really an algae but a bacteria. The bacteria grows primarily in ponds but is also in rivers and lakes in smaller amounts. It apparently likes still, warm/hot water vs moving water. If a dog drinks the water and consumes a small amount, it can cause renal and liver damage is a very short time frame, like 3 or 4 hours. There is no known cure. So the best thing for your pets is to not allow them to drink pond water especially in southern ponds. Just when you thought it was safe to play fetch the stick in your pond ....

 

[wwdiii]

Never heard of it. Guess I better google it.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Fished a bloated and partially eaten (turtles??) raccoon out of one of our ponds a month or so ago. I wondered at the possible cause of death.

 

[MossRoad]

We've had several cases of it here. Sad. People took their dogs to a pond or lake for a swim and the dogs died from the algae. All over the local news. It can make people very sick, too, but kills dogs.

It has two ways of killing

1 takes a couple days.
2 takes 15-20 minutes.

 

[ruffdog]

When it is bad on the lake, the smell is sharp and burning and will make my throat sore for a day. Nasty stuff.

 

[jjp8182]

First thing I found was from the state of Minnesota: Blue-green algae and harmful algal blooms | Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

..seems like it's blooms that are hazardous -- and even then it seems more like it's problem primarily if the bloom is actually toxic and the water/algae is ingested.....

Actually from what I'm seeing I'm getting the impression (rightly or wrongly) it's a modern freakout over something completely natural which has been around for years/decades/centuries, and wasn't/wouldn't be a problem for anyone with enough sense not to drink scummy water (or let their pets do so either).

....or in other words swamp water (or water that looks like swamp water) isn't the smart/safe choice for quenching thirst as it tends to be full of microbial life along (with it's waste products) -- with blue green algae being one of the things present that can cause problems (especially if it's present in large amounts).

 

[Industrial Toys]

Yes, freakouts! I found a bristle BBQ brush yesterday and positioned it close to my BBQ, being unimpressed with the 2 cent worth CEDAR stick my lady friend had bought to clean the grill in the wake of the BBQ brush bristle freakout. Another friend shows up today and of course can't help but be freaked out of me using this brush. I simply indicated that people have been cleaning grills this way for a very long time. I inspected the grill prior to use. What's worth our worry and what is just aniother freakout?

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I never knew of this.

It has killed at least 5 dogs in Austin recently. It's in the news, and the city has posted signs. That lake has relatively slow water movement right now.

I remember seeing blue/algae growing up, but never thought anything of it.

One owner sadly explained his dog's demise. He said his front legs stopped working, then whole body and vital organs quit. From totally healthy to dead in 2-3 days, with huge vet bills often.

Sad.

 

[jjp8182]

As unfortunate as it is for the pets involved -- I'm really thinking this "blue algae problem" is more a problem of lack of education on basic survival skills (which is problem that seems to be very prevalent in urban areas).

Might just be me and the pictures I'm seeing, but almost all the pictures I've seen leave me wondering why anyone would enter water that looks like that, much drink from it or let their pets drink from it. The lack of clarity and overall color make it seem pretty evident that the water has a tremendous amount of microbial life in it, which would imply it's a high-risk water source for consumption (and possibly even entry depending on lack of clarity and duration of being in the water).

So I'm rather befuddled as to why this would even be an issue -- unless it just comes back to lack of a relatively basic survival education and applying it to pets/livestock.

Actually this confusion reminding me of the first time I saw that a zoo had exhibits with basic farm animals (e.g. chickens, cows, pigs, horses)..... animals I've previously thought everyone would already know and recognize, but it turns out that's apparently not the case. That of course reminds me of a (sadly) amusing freakout I've heard of by a late-teen/young adult who was seeing a cow for the first time in their life (their entire life had been spent in Los Angeles). It almost cause the coworker (whose neive was visiting from LA) to have a wreck as they were driving along and she started screaming and freaking out wanting to know what the animals were she was seeing.....and it was nothing more than one of the many (small) herds of cattle in this area.