Hi, I am a very good freind of JoJo's.

I am in S East as well, what I don't know about the algea is when the spores have gone for another year, they come in the first warm weather and used to see notices up in Richmond untill Autumn and as far as I know it hangs around till then.

I will never let my dog play with dogs which have been in infected water and if owners allow there dogs to come close after I ask them not to and say why, most take notice and keep their own dogs out.

There is a big lack of notices in most places, as far as going to parks withouyt water it depends on the control you have over your own dog.

I am not sure if DEFRA can help you with anymore info on this thing but I am sure they will put you in the right direction, in the meantime take it very seriouse especialy with this heatwave.
DEFRA 0845 933 5577

LisaQ
Don't you mean contaminated, rather than infected?

Denis
Metaphoricaly they are the same thing in the context they were written.

As far as I am aware there is absolutely no connection between drinking sea water and gastric torsion.Gastric Torsion can not be caught as it is not an infection,nor my vet says has he ever heard of a dog getting bloat through drinking sea water.

I don't th ink  you need to worry too much about garden ponds, especially at this time of year.  Blue Green Algae is a very particular beastie and very distinctive in appearence. I've tried to find some photos on the net, but none seem to show the real difference between a normal pond and the one with the algae - probably because of the polarising effect of sunlight/reflection  It normally only blooms in the UK after several weeks of no rain and very warm temps (and I don't think we're in that situation at the moment   )

On bloat: the veterinary dept. of Purdue University in the US has done a five-year study with over 1600 dogs and comes to these conclusions:

- risk increases with age: 20% increase in risk for each year
- risk is greater for dogs with deep narrow chests (chest depth/width ratio)
- raising the food bowl increases the risk: 110% increase
- risk is greater for dogs with a first-degree relative that has had bloat: 63% increase in risk
- fast eaters are at greater risk if they're large dogs
- large meals increase the risk
- dry food with fat listed as one of the first four ingredients increases the risk (as I understand it, this has to do with whether large amounts of fat are added as a separate component; it doesn't directly have to do with the fat content of the food)

Website: http://www.vet.purdue.edu/epi/bloat.htm

Cheers,
Sal