A popular South Bay dog park remains closed indefinitely as more dog owners are coming forward to say their pet became sick after a visit there.
In a story first reported on NBC Bay Area, the cause of the issue at Nuevo Dog Park in Santa Clara is a mystery and it remained closed Wednesday. The city says it is working to schedule testing at the park after another visiting dog suffered seizures.
A local veternarian says they’ve seen a pattern too. His first suspicion is some sort of toxin.
“Toxins first and foremost, that’s the biggest thing I kind of see,” said Dr. Tal Solomon, a veterinarian with ArchVet. “I usually think about either some kind of toxin in a dog park, mushrooms, who knows, snail baits, fertilizers or whatnot.”
Juliana Martinez said her dog Ozzy suffered seizures after visiting Nuevo in June.
“It was really traumatizing for me and my boyfriend; we just didn’t know what was going on,” Martinez said. “We were scared obviously. Once we got to the vet, they thought he had epilepsy.”
Benji and his owner also visited the dog park in June. The 4-year old Aussie had a seizure and died the same day.
A month later, Boba’s owner told NBC Bay Area he had a seizure and spent four days at a vet hospital. He survived, but only after $20,000 in care.
The city of Santa Clara said it doesn’t use fertilizer in its dog parks, which are cleaned regularly with eco-friendly products. Environmental testing is in the works.
Meanwhile, the vet suggests when people take their dogs to any dog park they do a perimeter walk to see if anything is out of the ordinary.
Source: NBC Bay Area