Oscar suddenly starting vomiting upon returning home from his walk (Picture: MEN Media)
A seven-month-old puppy has died after contracting a mystery illness within hours of a walk.
Chloe Vickers headed out with sproodle puppy Oscar to Wythenshawe Park in Manchester last Thursday.
It was a walk the pair had enjoyed on many an occasion before.
But this time was different, with Oscar becoming sick mere hours after returning home from the walk.
He died three days later.
Oscar’s devastated family are now urging other dog owners to take care and watch out for the early signs of sickness.
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.
The family has been left heartbroken at the loss of Oscar (Picture: Chloe Vickers/MEN Media)
‘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.’
Manchester City Council have confirmed they have been made aware of the issue and have staff looking out for what may have caused Oscar’s sudden illness.
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 fears Oscar ate something in the woods which made him ill (Picture: Chloe Vickers/MEN Media)
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.’
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Oscar suddenly starting vomiting upon returning home from his walk.
