A NORTH EAST dog owner has described how his dogs were left violently vomiting after visiting the beach in a week-long ordeal of unwell dogs.

Stephen Rich from Stockton said one of his dogs started violently vomiting after visiting Redcar Beach on January 8 and was forced to take him to the emergency vets.

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Stephen was walking his two golden retrievers, Lincoln and Hettie, on Redcar Beach last month and they were both fine for about 24 hours when one started to become unwell.

After phoning the emergency vets, Lincoln was admitted where he was given fluids, anti-sickness drugs and painkillers.

The Northern Echo:

Around 24 hours after Lincoln became unwell, the female do Hettie, contracted the same symptoms and they were both became unwell for a week, according to Mr Rich.

He said: “He was poorly right through the night and to be honest with you, it was probably a bit of man flu, my wife slept downstairs with him and he was quite poorly for probably a couple of days.

“Around 24 hours after he was ill the bitch started with exactly the same symptoms and whether she caught it from where we’ve been or whether she caught it from him I’ll never know.

“But she coped with it much better, she was violently sick and then it was coming out of both ends for the pair of them for several days.

“She was off her food which is a sure sign that she wasn’t too well because she’s usually a very greedy dog but she pulled round a little quicker than him.

“I think today they are much better, and I think we’ve probably turned a corner, but it’s been a full week of unwell dogs.”

Speaking about the rumours that beaches have been the cause of the illness Mr Rich added that he felt it could be something to do with the water.

He said: “I’m aware there’s been talk of the beaches for a few months, and the walk they were on they  didn’t go in the sea we kept them on the sand.

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“However they did enter some pools that had been left by the tide going out. So they may have drunk water from that pool.

“Now I’m not saying it was the beach but since then, everyone has been giving a story of their dog being ill while on the beach.

“People have messaged me personally, I used to work for them and they’ve had similar incidents and they were at Redcar last week or North Gare.”

Mr Rich who is a diver, believes the problem was caused due to Storm Arwen as well as dredging being carried out, although he stressed that he was “probably wrong.”

He said: “My theory, and I’m probably wrong, but it might be the storm which hit us, storm Arwen, which has disturbed the sea-bed.

“I’m a diver off the North East coast and, although I haven’t been in since, some other people have and they’ve said the storm has altered the infrastructure if you like.

“It was really, really violent so it’ll have ripped the sea bed to bits, and there’s also a lot of dredging, and I’m not saying it is that, but If you go diving in the days after the dredging, the sea has filthy to the extent where you can’t see anything.

“Maybe it’s a combination of the storm and us disturbing the sea bed, I mean, that storm was one of the worst in 30 years and smashed the coast to bits.”

After recently contacting Mr Rich, he revealed that both dogs were now doing very well and were back to normal and there had been no further incidents.

Charles Longworth, Bridlington, was another dog owner who’s unwell dogs were now doing well and are back to normal.

Back in January 15, Mr Longworth described how his dog Chester had similar symptoms for four days, and he would be avoiding beaches until the cause of the problem was solved.

He said: “Chester our 17 month Black Labrador was poorly after visiting Bridlington main beach along with visiting Fraiserthorpe beach.

The Northern Echo:

“Like all the other reports, same symptoms for 4 days. We are back home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire but are planning to visit Bridlington again soon.

“Unfortunately for Chester he won’t be going down to the beach until we find out what the problem is.”

After contacting Mr Longfield again, he revealed that Chester was “fine and back to normal” and had made “a full recover.”

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Chester even returned to the beach again where there was no further incident.

Mr Longfield added: “I am far from an expert but it seems to likely that some sort of virus was getting passed between the dogs.”

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