Mystery toxin strikes pups at local dog run

Chelsea resident Sherdina Straughn (right) and her 1-year-old dog, Angel (on leash), bond with Carrie Kozlowski (left) and her 1-year-old poodle, Ned, earlier this week at the Chelsea Waterside Park dog run.

By Lawrence Lerner

It was a warm, sunny afternoon two Sundays ago when Jonathan Socha walked leisurely from the West Village to the Chelsea Waterside Park dog run with his trusted friend, Ty, by his side. The 28-year-old acupuncture graduate student had been invited by a dog-owning friend for a play date, part of Socha’s regular routine since his two-and-a-half-year-old purebread Basenji was a wee pup. After an hour of four-legged frolicking and pleasant conversation, the pair left for home, only a few minutes away from the dog run. But within 10 minutes of arriving there, Ty exhibited strange behavior.

“His pupils were dilated, he circled frantically to the left, then right, interspersed with some imaginary flea biting,” said Socha. “He wouldn’t break his pattern, wouldn’t respond to anything, not his name, nothing. He was almost acting as if he couldn’t see, the way he wasn’t responding. I started wondering if he’d been blinded by something.”

Nervous and scared, Socha watched the scene unfold for 20 minutes while frantically surfing the Internet for answers. Ty’s symptoms led him to believe his dog was overheating, so Socha stuck him in a cool-water tub for 15 minutes. When the symptoms failed to subside, he rushed Ty to Fifth Avenue Veterinary Specialists, an animal hospital on West 15th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, where the dog’s heart rate shot up and his temperature spiked to 106 degrees.

Doctors, who immediately suspected Ty had ingested a toxic substance, began flushing his system with IV fluid and held him down for several hours when he failed to respond to sedation drugs. For nearly three days, the dog remained in the hospital, improving only gradually as a continuous IV flushed the toxic substance out. “He slept for the next three days at home and is fine now, thank god,” said Socha.

Far from an isolated case, Socha’s pup was one of a handful of dogs rushed to area veterinary hospitals last week after ingesting a toxic substance at the Chelsea Waterside Park dog run, leaving at least two dogs dead, doctors and law enforcement searching for answers, and dog owners wary of returning to the park.

According to Dr David Bessler, of NYC Veterinary Specialists and Cancer Treatment Center, a Hell’s Kitchen animal hospital, about a half-dozen dogs had been referred to his center by the West Chelsea Animal Hospital, which is near the dog run, in the past three weeks.

“We saw three dogs who had been at that dog run around Sunday, Aug. 12,” Bessler said, the day Socha rushed his dog into critical care. “All of them exhibiting similar symptoms. In most of these cases, the problem passed quickly—usually by morning the dogs were okay.” Some took longer, he added, and at least one dog died.

Fifth Avenue Veterinary Specialists, where Socha brought Ty, had seen at least two dogs from the same dog run in the last two weeks, said Dr. Valerie Sauvé, an emergency critical care specialist at the hospital. “I treated a few dogs who had similar neurology signs, though we haven’t ID’d a toxin yet,” she said.

And therein lies the mystery.

While dog owners, blogs and the Hudson River Park Trust, which oversees the Chelsea Waterside Park dog run, have all speculated that Chelsea clubgoers sprinkled crystal meth or some other amphetamine around the dog run—or worse, fed it to the dogs by hand—Dr. Bessler isn’t ready to jump to conclusions.

“We’re reasonably sure these cases were stimulant cases,” said Dr. Bessler. “However, they may or may not be from an illicit drug. They could be any toxin: from a plant in the area, an illicit drug, or some environmental toxin. Even large amounts of chocolate or caffeine could cause these symptoms.”

He ruled out pesticides, herbicides or rodenticides, which Socha thought might be responsible for the problem. “Those would not produce these symptoms,” said Dr. Bessler.

But the concentration of this last batch of cases nevertheless is weighing heavily on the doctor’s mind. Although toxicity of this kind is not uncommon in veterinary medicine, “to see so many from one park is alarming,” Dr. Bessler said.

While area vets are working with toxicologists to identify the offending toxin, the multi-step screening process is far from full-proof, according Dr. Bessler and Dr. Sauvé. Not only does it take time to narrow down the possible culprits, but the tests sometimes produce false positives. “We’d have to not only do the screening but also get lucky,” said Dr. Bessler.

The Hudson River Park Trust, which learned of the cases on Wednesday, put up a sign at the dog run warning users of the problem. The Trust is also taking other measures to prevent further cases from occuring, including working with the police department, increasing park police patrols and stepping up its cleaning regimen at Chelsea Waterside Park, whose dog run is open 7 a.m.–1 a.m., seven days a week.

Area dog owners, many of whom want cleaning crews on duty at the dog run over the weekend as well (presently they are not), are understandably weary of returning to the park to run their dogs.

“I don’t think I’ll go back there. I didn’t like the state of the park before, and now this,” said Socha. “They need nighttime patrols, with all the needles and syringes have been found in and around the dog run, and at least one patrol on the weekend, when the maintenance staff is gone. I’d like to see some major changes before going back. I need to trust the city again.”

On the afternoon of Sunday, Aug. 12, Sherdina Straughn also rushed her 1-year-old Papillon, Angel, to a nearby vet hospital (NYC Veterinary Specialists) after spending time at the Chelsea Waterside Park dog run. The 58-year-old retired dental assistant has returned to the park since her dog’s ordeal but is keeping a close eye on her.

“I kept her leash on initially, then finally took her off the leash and watched her closely to make sure she didn’t eat anything,” said Straughn. “I’m still a little hesitant. I make sure everything is clean and follow her around now.”

Both Socha and Straughn are eternally grateful their dogs recovered from their recent trauma.

“I’m so lucky,” said Socha. “It was very tough. This little guy’s my life.”