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Hello thought it best to let people know that our dog died within 36 hours after apparently eating something very near fort perch rock
The vet said toxic poison
Coul be from algae or old food left on the beach
However it was a very nasty bug which after like a tsunami on my poor dogs immune system
Sickness vomiting high temp shaking etc
Happened 6 August to 7 th August
Any one else had similar stories ?
Just to let people know
How do I inform the Wirral warden dept ?
Thnks

hi billy, wellcome to wiki. What awful news regrading your dog ,i am sure something of the same nature happened on hoylake beach last year,it was in the globe .I not sure who you would inform sorry ,how distressful for you and your family to lose your pet in those circumstances. How old was he/she.I read in-day,s paper about 3 pups having a run in with a porcupine, one had a2 hr op to remove all the spine,s.TAKE CARE

really sorry to hear about your loss..

how awful. So sorry to hear about your loss.

Would this be Environmental Healths Dept?

How terrible my condolences. It says the council investigated it last time so I'd say start with them

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/9...ating_mystery_substance_on_Wirral_beach/

Hi Billy so sorry to hear this but I am sure everyone on here really appraciates the time you have taken to keep us all informed about this and hopefully the council can sort this before any more disasters happen.

Hi Billy

So sorry to hear about your furbaby. Very sad and upsetting. Definately get in touch with the council about it. Thank you for sharing this all with us. I was going to take my dog there today, but after hearing about what has happened, I'm going to avoid there.

Sorry again for your loss and thank you for letting us all know of the danger that is down there.

Tillie

billy , have you reported this to any one, would like to hear the outcome of the situation.

There are poisonous algaes (blue-green cyanobacteria) that live in fresh and salt water. They are also toxic to humans and, after they're spotted, signs are put up to warn people not to swim in lakes, ponds etc. The main issue is that someone jumps in and, swimming along, they swallow some of the surface water, complete with the algae.

I would be surprised if that was the case down at NB. I was down there this morning and, it being so nice and sunny, decided to stay the entire day. There must have been a thousand plus people down there. The marine people, fishermen, parents etc would likely have reported the problem if it was blue-green algae.

I went on a massive wander, investigating the storm relief ideas that'd been used around the new build, with people no doubt wondering why on earth I was photographing bits of concrete.

Having scored some warm beer from H&B for lunch, and realising it may be inappropriate / curious, for a lone 27 year old to be sitting around families boozing it up mid day, taking photos, I went off round the back of Fort Perch and sat in the middle of the breaker wall.

I suspect I may have also found a possible cause of death for your dog. Unfortunately, at least one other pet owner has also lost their friend.

There is a very bloated, and very dead, small aminal on the rocks around the back of Fort Perch. It's probably about... 20-30m? from the back of the Fort. And pretty much in the centre of the breaker wall.

Given all the kids were around looking for crabs, I sat there for a while, thinking stranger (drunk) danger would steer them away, as that isn't really the kind of thing a 5 year old will enjoy seeing at the beach. Honestly, it took me a few minutes looking at it, wondering if it was a gigantic rat, small dog, something that'd fallen off a freight ship or what.

I'm fairly sure it is a cat, based on it having long pointed front side teeth as per all my own kitties. And that it was someone's pet, because it seems to have a (blue ?rubber?) collar on; cracked with exposure.

It seems to have been dead for quite some time. It's fluff is all matted and rough, the skin is missing from it's head. It's eyes have gone black and seem to be swollen out of it's skull.

I have had my hands in many places (e.g. chicken house bottoms / manure), but I decided to draw the line today at checking it's collar.

What I found odd, is that all it's fur is still on except for it's head. And it doesn't look mangled. I would assume it's wandered onto the beach at night and gotten stuck maybe? Perhaps it belongs to someone in those flats near there.

There were one or two flies around, but that was also kind of odd, in that it wasn't teeming with them or maggots - all that salt I guess.

I didn't really think about it much after that, figuring it'd just be washed out with the next tide. I seriously doubt kids will want to touch a dead cat, but they may touch it accidentally (i.e. give it a poke with pole of crab net, then get hold of the pole again / put the pole in their mouth).

All animals (including humans) sense 'harm' when rotting meat releases sulphur compounds as the bacteria get to work - rot. They are the 'smelliest molecules known', because we've all evolved to smell them at parts per million and to find it digusting, as they're associated with lethal bacteria in our food supply. It's amazing really, when it comes to these compounds, our noses match others, like a dogs. Parts per million detection is considered 'the limits' of practical chemistry in university labs.

For chemistry experiments, I've made a gram or three of Aluminium Sulphide to generate Hydrogen Sulphide (one of the decomposition gases). Just it being in contact with the air, without trying to release the sulphide as a gas, I could smell it out in the road.

But... not much from the dead cat. I suspect all the salt water and UV baking are fending off some of the natural decomposition processes.

It is possible that moggy did not die there, but has been dumped there (see: jettisoned medical waste). Dogs in particular can fend off many diseases from their food due to their short digestive track not giving enough hiding spaces for infection.

But Botulinum (sausage bacteria) lives in uncooked / uncured meat; all processed meat contains Sodium Nitrite to stop it setting up home.

There are not many things that can kill something in a few hours / day that are also undetectible to the senses.

The toxins (aka: 'Botox') released by Botulinum are one of those thing and are insanely poisonous. For example, lethal doses per kilo of body mass:

Strychnine, 1-2 milligrams
VX (nerve agent), 2-3 millionths of a gram
Botulinum toxin, about a billionth of a gram

Making Botulinum officially the most lethal thing on the planet, and 100% organic, and available in all domestic kitchens.

If the carcass of the dead moggy has some small amount of something like Botulinum in it, that would make any other animal very sick should it happen to lick / nibble the cat.

Symptoms of poisoning; Tiredness / Vomitting (applies for just about anything and everything)

Droopy eyelids / fixed stare / fixed face > progressing to > lack of limb movement / fixed stillness ('numbing' / paralysis) > progressing to > depressed heart rate / breathing ('sleep') > progressing to > death.

If your dog has licked / nibbled such a carcass, that would be a likely cause of death.

Bump: I actually have some photos, but didn't post them as I'm not sure if it's really appropriate.

Thanks for all of your help and support on the matter
I think our dog billy actually took a small bite of something off the beach which was food that was discarded in the past .ie like a picnic piece of bread,chicken meat or pork such like which had gone mouldy

-----------------------------------------------------------CSI Catwatch----------------------------------------------------------

I returned this morning to collect the kitty, whom I named 'Mogs', believing it would be worth a check since the beach would be filling up with kids over the next hour on, and it's not a nice thing to find.

I noticed a lot of dog walkers out & about this patch, a few of them using this specific path round the back of Fort Perch just in the five minutes I was stood there. One dog walked directly up towards Mogs and myself prior to running off to catch up with it's owner.

Despite the tide, Mogs was still in exactly the same place, well enough wedged to have been there for a while. Completely floppy at the time, which usually means someone's been there for at least few days.

I took Mogs to the RSPCA centre off Leasowe road, filled out the form and they're going to check for a microchip. Moggers the Mitten has a collar on and seems to have enjoyed many happy Meow Mix dinners, so someone is likely looking for him and, my own cat having been run over, I know I would prefer to know that rather than spend years looking out for them.

I took some photos to show where I'm talking about, thinking that'd be the easiest way for you to judge whether or not Mr. Mogs is the unwitting culprit.









On a related note, I would like to mention that over approximately the last 5 years, I have found a few tens of particularly irresponsible examples of littering. For example; significant quantities of still unopened / part used controlled sale / prescription only medicines, at least one insulin syringe poking out of an air grill on the side of a busy pavement (blade first), endless tampon applicators / condoms and so on. What has surprised me more than the items themselves is how little pattern there is to finding these particular things. They are not reserved for stereotypically 'dirty' areas or dropped / left by a specific group, they're dotted around universities, beaches, underpasses, parks, paths, doorways on busy streets. These types of litter, a university, hospital or commercial cleaning company has special bins, bags and procedures in place for entirely due to the risk the waste presents; it's pretty much all boxed and incinerated without human contact. E.g. tampons and applicators are removed from the special bins in bars by companies who have gone through all the paperwork to handle the contents. The person using the bin need not have any disease or infection but, because the item has blood / human fluid on it, the bacteria out in the wild will move it afterwards. Because it's blood / human fluid, they (unlike other germ problems) can be pathogenic, so they'll infect and seriously harm other humans.

Dog owners are by far the most likely people to spot such litter when out walking and it's worth checking what the dog has suddenly become interested in if it's not obviously a tree, ball, stick or burger bun if only to look out for your pet. Remembering though that dog owners can be fined and forced to pay up for not picking up their dogs poops, with the reason being it can cause Toxocariasis, you're also likely to appreciate the bias in people feeling fine to discard things that are as, or more, dangerous as litter; glass / paracetamol (kids can't metabolise some things adults are fine with) / proplus (there's enough caffeine in those to cause adults to have a heart attack, seriously...) / any and all forms of medicine packaging / toiletries / aluminium cans (particularly on playing fields, as the mower shreds them to something similar to razor fencing).

I would urge dog owners and walkers to keep an eye out for these things and to consider reporting it to wardens / rangers / the council. Hopefully people will become as bothered about those things (due to an impending fine) as they are about dog owners and poop. The best way to make the point might be to organise a week when lots of dog walkers take a camera / phone with them and photograph it, then compile the weeks photos to illustrate the point.

There's been some one on Wellington Road looking for a lost cat....hope this isn't bad news for them

Hi all. there was a similar dead animal on moreton shore yesterday. First i thought was a badger but reckon it was also a cat. Very putrid smell and not sure why this hasn't been picked up by the council as it poses a health and safety risk. Good job our dog decided to avoid! I have noticed council clean ups/bins not being emptied which seems to be on the increase. The wirral wont stay as good as it is for long if this continues.