A dog named Bella died after being exposed to toxic water on the C-51 in West Palm Beach
Kimberly MillerBella died last month in a gush of bloody horror after the 8-year-old boxer’s owners believe she ate toxin-laced detritus from the C-51 canal – marking her as possibly the first reported canine death in Palm Beach County from blue-green algae poisoning.
Vomit from the 78-pound dog, whose owners live along the C-51 north of Summit Boulevard, had ample enough microcystin toxins in it to kill her, according to tests by Palatka-based Green Water Laboratories.
The cyanobacteria microcystis, also known as blue-green algae, has plagued Palm Beach County waterways this spring, thriving on nutrients from the watershed and Lake Okeechobee, and benefiting from a delayed rainy season, stagnating water and persistent May sunshine.
An increase in state testing has shown it popping up with varying levels of microcystin toxins at the popular Spillway Park between Lake Worth Beach and West Palm Beach, and in water samples taken closer to the home of Bella’s owners Pamela and Rob McAfee.
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Toxin levels nearly three times higher what is considered harmful
One test taken May 20 in the C-51 upstream from the McAfee house returned a toxin level of 23 parts-per-billion (ppb) – nearly three times higher than what is considered harmful to humans.
Five days later, Bella was dead.
“Bottom line, this sample is screaming high in microcystins,” said Amanda Foss, a Green Water chemist and forensic toxicologist in an email explaining the lab results from Bella’s vomit.
“Once the liver gets hit by such a high dose of toxin, you have an entire system shut down,” Foss said about how dogs react to microcystin. “Blood will diffuse into the stomach and make its way out anyway it can.”
Message of Bella's death on neighborhood app draws attention
Pamela McAfee sent a vomit sample to Green Water after posting a message about Bella’s May 25 death on a neighborhood app that was noticed by Everglades Trust Executive Director Kimberly Mitchell.
The symptoms were similar to dogs who fell sick in 2018 after ingesting blue-green algae-infected water from the St. Lucie River. One dog, a 9-year-old standard poodle named Finn, died that year with a necropsy showing it had cyanobacteria toxins in its blood, urine and liver.
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A necropsy is being scheduled for Bella, but Green Water Laboratories President Mark Aubel said he has little doubt a lethal dose of toxin is what killed Bella.
“It was an enormous amount of microcystin,” Aubel said about what was found in Bella’s vomit. “That represents something, but not everything, that was ingested or that she probably got into her system.”
The McAfees were boating on the C-51 on May 23 – a Sunday – and believe Bella ate something that had washed off the boat as they cleaned it.
“That day, the water was horrid, and you make sure your dogs don’t go in it,” McAfee said.
A picture of the canal behind the McAfee home taken May 24 shows the water an opaque green – a signature of microcystin. The McAfee’s first noticed something was wrong when Bella vomited in her crate. Later, she wouldn’t eat, and then lay down and wouldn’t get up.
Bella was taken to an emergency vet where she threw up twice. X-rays showed something small in her stomach.
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McAfee remembers the veterinarian asking if Bella may have eaten a towel.
“She’s 8-years-old, she doesn’t go and eat things like that but we do live on a canal and we do have blue- green algae,” McAfee said she told the vet. “I didn’t know it was toxic, although I suspected it.”
Saying goodbye to Bella after horrific complications
McAfee took Bella home, but the next morning the dog was in convulsions in her crate and she was rushed back to the veterinarian. She was given plasma and treated for anaphylaxis. When her arm was shaved for the IV, it started bleeding.
Later, Bella was throwing up blood and went into cardiac arrest.
“She had a tube down her throat and she was on a tray with a towel under her and there was blood everywhere,” McAfee said. “I said ‘please let her go, we have to let her go.’ And I hugged her and kissed her and told her goodbye.”
The weekend Bella got sick, West Palm Beach was facing its own toxic algae emergency. Water samples taken of the city’s drinking water showed another cyanobacteria, cylindrospermopsis, had turned toxic at levels harmful to vulnerable populations – young children, the elderly, nursing mothers pregnant woman, and anyone with liver or kidney problems.
It was also advised that pets not drink the tap water.
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City officials had shut down a feed of Lake Okeechobee water to Grassy Waters Preserve — its main water supply— in late April after signs that microcystin was in the water. Grassy Waters feeds Clear Lake before going into the city’s water treatment plant. Clear Lake’s level began dropping — creating an ideal environment for cylindrospermopsin with warmer temperatures, sunlight reaching deeper and no mixing from outside water sources.
Possible signs a dog has ingested toxic algae
Foss, the chemist with Green Water Laboratories, said the first sign that a dog has ingested toxic algae is typically an upset stomach and vomiting. The microcystin then heads to the liver followed by kidney failure, shock and internal bleeding.
“It can be a pretty gruesome death,” she said.
Because veterinarians so rarely deal with cyanobacteria toxins, it’s probably not a top suspect when a sick animal comes in, said El Cid Animal Clinic Medical Director Xavier Garcia. But even if blue-green algae was suspected, the treatment would probably be just to alleviate the symptoms.
“We don’t have an antidote, the body has to get rid of it so if they are having seizures, we would try to stop the seizures,” Garcia said. “You have to support the body so the body can get rid of the toxin.”
The water in the canal behind McAfee’s house has since cleared up, but she fears there will be more algae blooms on the C-51 this summer.
“On the weekends, we have kids wakeboarding behind the house and people just aren’t aware,” she said.
Kmiller@pbpost.com
@Kmillerweather