Regular viewers are familiar with Youna, from my joyous sharing of her dogly antics & such.
Well, this is a public service announcement because we (she's my ex's dog but still often stays with me) came within a hair's breadth of losing her this weekend. And it could happen to you

Sunday evening. Here she is, playing with her friend Oscar the whippet. On one side of the path is the beach. On the other side a freshwater lake.
Youna likes to cool down by taking a dip in the lake. And have a drink.

It's a lovely evening & we're all heading back to our cars.
Here the pictures end, because a nightmare begins.

Youna suddenly throws up. Then starts trembling & panting. She can't even stand up, let alone walk. I pick her up & my ex begins the phone hunt for an emergency vet. This is not easy on a Sunday evening.
Meanwhile I'm carrying a limp, trembling, panting dog 2km back to the car

We lay her in the back seat. We still have no vet. Youna begins to make rattling sounds when she breathes. She is shaking even more violently & soils herself. My ex sits with her, trying to comfort Youna & search for a vet. The first one she contacts is out, helping a cow

Youna is dying at this point, without question. I set off for the town where that vet is based. But he'll be at least an hour. She doesn't have an hour.

A friend we've asked to help calls. She has arranged for a vet to meet us at his clinic in yet another town. We set off.

I won't describe what it's like at this point, behind me as I drive. Distressing doesn't begin to cover it. Youna is going into seizures and having breathing difficulties.

We reach the clinic & carry her in.

The vet pumps her with 3 or 4 shots of whatever. She is now listless. Her temperature is dangerously high. He's going to put her on a saline drip & do 'more work'.

He says it's going to be 50:50 whether she survives the night.

Unbeknownst to us, back in our homes, she continues to deteriorate.

At 4am the vet's colleague apparently puts her chances of living at "less than 10%".

They are surprised she is still alive when they return after a few hours sleep

She is not just still alive though. She is improving, though still gravely ill.

We visit & take her for a tiny walk around outside, to see if she needs a poo or a wee. She doesn't, or maybe can't. But she is on her feet again. Trembling but able to walk a little

Leaving her again is hard, but she's not out of the woods.

My ex goes back in the evening & she's stronger, already standing in her cage & desperate to get out. She has ripped out her stent. The vet says this is a good sign

This morning she is declared well enough to leave. I take her & my ex back to theirs. Damn it feels good to have her back. She's even jumped herself into the car, without assistance. She is so quiet. Her bloods show kidney & liver damage. But within the margins for recovery.

She walks to the house a little unsteadily but barks at another dog & has been wagging her tail a bit.

She flops down before even reaching her bed.

Unfortunately her convalescence begins with her least favourite thing - a thorough shower. She is stoic about it.

After the shower she's a bit chilly.

So she gets wrapped up.

Then she spies her bed. I take the blanket off when she's warm again.

She gets up after a while & wanders out into the garden. She is absolutely zonked. It is just 30 hours since she was given odds of surviving below 1 in 10. But survived she has.

It's a bit warm out on the grass, so she comes back to her bed.

She looks small & vulnerable, but this 22 month bundle of muscle is nails. And she's back home. And she has a new squeaky toy.

It's the best day ever.

So, what was it that brought a powerful, fit, young, healthy dog like Youna to the brink of death in just a few hours? With onset of all these symptoms within 30 minutes.

Youna was nearly killed in a textbook case of Blue-Green Algae poisining.

This is the time of year when algal blooms form on bodies of still water. We didn't notice it because this year's reeds are particularly dense & obscure the view of the lake.

Please be aware of this and keep a close eye on your water-loving dogs, especially at the end of summer.

Google it to find out more.

Also, make sure you always know which emergency vets are open & when. Youna will take a while to recover fully & she is at her absolute peak of strength & fitness. She is powerful & healthy & it nearly killed her on Sunday. You need to act fast.

There'll be no running around with outsize pieces of wood for a while, as she was doing on Saturday. The vet insists she takes it easy.

She won't be doing any big hill climbs as she was doing with my ex the week before, for a while at least.

And no jumping onto the hay bales to outsmart me when I hide from her in the fields at mine. Not for a while.

She's been very lucky & we've learned a lesson. Please pass this on to any dog people you know, because we all let our guard down sometimes & it never hurts to be vigilant. Certainly not as much as it hurts to see an animal you love at death's door.

72 hours on: Youna is home but still has a way to go. Went to see her & she greeted me with amazing energy, jumping up & tail rotating like a propeller.
But look at those legs trembling to know what Cyanobacteria does to a healthy strong animal

I'm sharing this because although it's lovely to show that she's doing well, I want everyone to know that this is a terrible poison you don't recover from without a journey. She is 100% better than yesterday though.

Being the character she is, though, she is already importuning for walks. But she must rest. The charcoal tablets are still absorbing poison & she flops down exhausted after any period of even mild activity.

A chilling additional detail from Sunday night.

The vet had to make a call. Bring her temperature down to stop the seizures but risk her life in doing so, as that drug would slow her breathing & her airways were blocking up.

She was in severe difficulties by 4am.

I'd rather be focusing on the joy of seeing her today, but the horror of Cyanobacteria is the takeaway I'm emphasising right now. You do not want to lose your dog ever. But you really don't want to lose your dog that way.

Time for a rest after the excitement of seeing me.

Keep her in your thoughts