When Eric Torres took Chloé, her Golden Retriever, 4, for their daily walking of four miles around the Venice canals last week, she seemed in good humor and health.
But later in the day, Torres’ husband phoned her, deeply worried. Something was not going with Chloé – she suddenly collapsed and had started to seize the hospital.
As the couple came to learn, Chloé was not the only neighborhood dog suddenly sick.
In the past two weeks, seven dogs in Venice have died and 11 others have been hospitalized for a mystery disease, according to a group of neighborhood group examined by The Times. All would have been healthy before suddenly starting lethargy, nausea, convulsions and other symptoms.
The district has a prolific dog cultivation, “second behind Paris,” said Torres, and the word moves when pets are threatened. The owners of dogs concerned quickly entered action.
Residents of the Venice Canals district displayed warning signs after 18 dogs fell ill. A third of them died.
(All J. Schaben / Los Angeles)
The County Health Department was informed, with the animal services and the office of the member of the municipal council Traci Park, said Christina Krause, social media manager for the Venice Canals Assn., A local non -profit organization. While they were waiting for the officials’ responses, a neighbor disseminated an online form where others could detail the daily routine of their animal, diet and medication.
When Chloé collapsed, Torres and her husband Michael Hale led her to Access Specialty Animal City Access Hospital, where she underwent a series of tests. The veterinarians checked marijuana as well as other drugs and potential poisons through blood and urine tests. All the results, however, were not conclusive, said Torres.
He and Hale had the opportunity to put Chloé in life, but Torres opposed this decision, not wanting to prolong his sufferings. Chloe died a few hours later. No cause could be determined.
“We are always disconcerted, and I know the veterinarians at [Access Specialty] were also disconcerted by this, “said Torres.” She was still relatively a very young dog. … I feel like we live in a toxic environment, and something affects them. »»
A few days after Torres refused an autopsy, other pets began to show similar symptoms for a few days, even hours before undergoing the same tragic fate as Chloé.
“My initial reaction was like, well, [an autopsy] will not bring my dog back, “said Torres.” Now that it affects so many other dogs, I think I would like to know what it is. … I always have a dog at home.
Christina Krause, caressing her dog, Buddy, meets residents of the neighborhood whose pets are recently died.
(All J. Schaben / Los Angeles)
Opinions have been displayed in the neighborhood that detailed the symptoms and warned the other owners to avoid allowing their dogs to share bowls, advised them to avoid channels and inform veterinarians if symptoms became apparent.
“People have started to bring together two and two,” said Krause. “We realized very quickly that there were too many deaths in a truly condensed area that has really healthy dogs.”
The alleys of the normally occupied canal were empty of owners and dogs on Tuesday afternoon. Sophia Rochia, owner of a local company, said that fear of pet safety had permeated the community.
“I think people are afraid. … I haven’t even walked in the canals yet in recent days,” said Rochia. “Whether you just have a dog, or have your dog for years and it happened, it’s horrible. … It’s like losing a family member or a best friend.”
Regardless of the breed, age or level of activity, district dogs were affected without discernment by elusive symptoms, said Krause. She added that the neighbors had launched various theories on the potential causes in the absence of aid to local governments.
They wondered if a popular flea medication was the cause, Krause said. “Someone else told me that there were algae that pushed sick seals. … The only common theme was that everyone had walked their dogs in the channel.”
Others have immersed themselves in the accuser. A neighbor informed others that a “snail carrier” had spread near a property and had displayed panels around the house that said: “Be careful. Keep the pets! Toxic poison. Avoid white powder. ”
The employees of the Los Angeles sanitation department surrounded the canal on Tuesday afternoon, traveling the water to “inspect, test and clean” the green algae that floated near and under the bridges in response to neighborhood complaints, an employee told Times.
The Los Angeles County Public Health Department said in a statement to the Times that it currently investigated the cause by working with local veterinarians and residents to collect information on “the acute appearance of a serious disease in dogs”.
“We understand the concern that this can cause to owners of pets in our community and want to make sure that we are dealing with this question with the greatest emergency,” the statement said.
A veterinarian, however, believes that the answer to animal owners is in the canals.
“I suppose it is a type of poisoning of cyanobacteria of environmental algae,” said Dr. Karen Halligan, main veterinarian at Marina Veterinary Center.
Halligan said that this type of bacterial or algae poison – which could increase the channel due to heat – can cause vomiting, drool, weakness, seizure and, possibly, death.
Without a medical -legal necropsy – an autopsy for animals – the neighbors will be left in search of responses, said Halligan.
For the moment, with little information on which to rely, some have taken the time to cry their lost loved ones.
Jamie Simms, whose 6 month old dog, Mackie, died suddenly last week, stops on a bridge where she was walking it.
(All J. Schaben / Los Angeles)
The Jamie Simms Rottweiler-Husky mixture has been the youngest case reported so far, Simms said. Mackie, alongside the Senior Rosie puppy, welcomed Simms with enthusiasm last Tuesday before Mackie collapsed and suddenly begins to take after a few laps around the house.
Simms precipitated her in the hospital, where all the tests have proven that Mackie was observatively “virgin”, despite her state. The veterinarians sent Simms home to rest and implored her to come back in the morning.
Half an hour later, Mackie died – the veterinarians and a family doctor told Simms that she had “probably” suffered from a brain aneurysm.
“I cried it and I mourned it and I just came to accept that it should only have been here for 6 and a half months,” said Simms. “I gave her a really happy life, and she gave me so much joy. … I came to accept that it was what it should be for her.”
Before the end of the week, there was another death. The Golden Retriever of Taylor Brumm, Ginger, had a year a year before dying suddenly on Friday. Brumm adopted Ginger because she wanted to be part of the prolific cultivation of the dogs of Venice – her house a few minutes from the canal.
“I was trying to accept that she may have a brain aneurysm … but that made no sense,” said Brumm. “Then we saw the leaflets. … Now there is something that finally makes sense.”
The feeling of loss in the community is palpable, said Simms and Brumm, but the neighbors rallied around people affected to cry each other or try to better understand the disease.
“Now, I feel like I am doing something to do something,” said Brumm, “a little more than me.”
Public health officials urged residents to closely supervise their pets outside, keep them on a leash and avoid allowing them to sniff or eat anything in or around the canals, depending on the DPH declaration. Veterinarians with relevant information were invited to contact the Vétérinaire Public Health Program at (213) 288-7060.
Halligan said that a necropsy would reach the underlying causes of the death of a pet, a service that Marina Veterinary Center and a number of other veterinary hospitals can perform at the owner’s request.
Now Simms travels Rosie in the concrete alleys of the Venice canals, trying to avoid all the areas that could prove to be dangerous while civil servants are trying to discover a cause.
“I always have a dog, I still have to let it go out pee and go out,” said Simms. “It’s just a ghost city, and we have to keep them safe and understand what’s going on.”