SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — “To tell the full story, I’ve got to go back about a year,” said Michael Kaplan.
Last year in October, Kaplan took his dog Riley to a marina in Sarasota County during red tide.
Soon after, he noticed she had a cough that was getting worse.
“The vet listened to her lungs, and he said, 'I’m hearing something I don’t like. Let’s take an x-ray,'” said Kaplan.
The x-ray showed a growth in Riley’s trachea. The vet first thought it could be cancer.
“That kind of set me in a tough spot because you know your dog at that time for 13 and half years, you find out she has cancer, and you hear the terms weeks, months, definitely not years. Your heart breaks,” said Kaplan.
Then they did some more tests.
“There was nothing in there. Absolutely nothing,” said Kaplan.
It turns out Riley didn’t have cancer, and after a few months, everything went away.
Then last month, she got sick again, but this time, it was with seizures. That’s when Kaplan took her back to the vet for more tests.
“Nothing showed up, no cancer, no tumors, nothing,” he said.
They were stumped. That is until Kaplan got a news alert on his phone that K. Brevis, also known as red tide, was in the area.
“I always had an inkling that it had something to do with red tide last year. I said to the vet I said, 'could it be that she ingested this K. Brevis?'” he said.
His vet told him it was definitely possible.
“Their eyes can water, they can have trouble breathing, or sneezing, and coughing just like us,” said Dr. Melissa Webster, veterinarian, and owner of Tampa Veterinary Hospital.
And it’s not just dogs that can be affected.
“I think if you live by the beach, the other thing I was just thinking of is, you know, you see all these beautiful condos with these beautiful balconies," Webster said. "We have birds, and I was just thinking if I was trying to sun my bird for a little bit, my bird could probably have even more problems than me because they’re so respiratory sensitive. Or a cat hanging out on the balcony."
Doctors warn that if your pet ingests red tide or a dead fish linked to red tide, they can experience symptoms within minutes to days of being exposed to the toxins.
In severe cases, it can cause symptoms like seizures, vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, excessing drooling, and wheezing. If this happens, you should immediately seek medical care.
If your dog gets into water you think could have red tide in it, wash it off immediately.
“Please bathe them after you come home or before you leave the beach with fresh water and soap because that bacteria is not just going to come off with just rinsing them,” said Webster.
Kaplan believes Riley got sick from red tide two years in a row.
“I have two other dogs. I want to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
So he called several organizations to figure out if there were protocols in place to warn pet owners.
“Department of Environmental Services, Sarasota County Animal Services, the Red Tide Info Hotline, to name a few,” said Kaplan.
ABC Action News reached out to Florida Fish and Wildlife, and they told us the best resources to monitor red tide conditions are their status reports on their website.
“At the end of the day, as a dog owner, you just want to protect your dog as best as you can,” said Kaplan.
Vets advise avoiding an area with red tide because if humans can feel symptoms, so can your animals.
“Especially if you’re walking your dog along the beach, and you see the water has changed or you’re feeling respiratory issues, your dog is closer to the water most of the time than us," said Webster.
