A family has been left heartbroken after their seven-month-old puppy died of a mysterious illness days after a walk in the park. Chloe Vickers took her sproodle puppy Oscar to Wythenshawe Park last Thursday (February 9) as she would always do, but within hours he was being sick.
Just days later, on Sunday, Oscar died at home with the family. Chloe is urgently warning other dog owners who walk on the park to be careful and watch out for the first signs of sickness.
She posted on a Wythenshawe social media group to tell her story as a warning. Manchester City Council have confirmed they have been made aware of the issue with the RSPCA urging people to contact their vets straight away if they experience something similar.
READ MORE: Urgent police appeal as 12-year-old Manchester girl not seen for days
"The park is always full of dogwalkers, it's just happened to us which feels like really bad luck," Chloe told the Manchester Evening News. "I took Oscar out on a walk on the park on Thursday morning as we would always do and he was running around as he always would.
"This day we went a slightly different route from the café and into some woods. He was running around as normal here still though and everything was normal.
"But when we got back he wouldn't drink anything which wasn't like him at all after a walk like that. Later on he was sick and we took him to the vet where they gave him anti-sickness drugs.
"But at this point he started passing blood and was vomiting a lot. It seemed he was quickly deteriorating and becoming really lethargic.
"The vets said they couldn't see him straight away again as he wasn't insured yet. It was horrible ringing around all day on Friday and Saturday trying to get some kind of help, we could just see he was dying at this point.
"The next appointment we got we were told to take him home to die. It was heartbreaking to see him dying right in front of us, we had no idea why it was happening."
Chloe said it wasn't the first time she's heard of something similar happening at Wythenshawe Park, with a friend also losing a dog in similar circumstances last year. She's hoping to use her story to raise awareness for other dog owners.
"We'd only had him since October, he was such a good dog. My young son absolutely loved him, he still calls for him now, asking 'where are you Oscar?'. This was our first dog as a family, it's just so sad, we've done so much crying."
Chloe does not know for certain what caused the illness but suspects something in the woods may have poisoned Oscar or given him Parovirus.
An RSPCA spokesman said: "This is concerning and our thoughts are with dog-owners who have been affected by this. We haven’t been made aware of these incidents, however we urge anyone whose pet falls ill in similar circumstances to contact their vets straightaway."
Manchester City Council said they had been made aware of the issue. They have asked their parks staff to remain vigilant.
For more of today's top stories click here.
READ NEXT:
