Llansteffan beach: Mystery as dogs become ill after walks

Elizabeth Mcfadden, 65, from nearby Llangain said her six-year-old papillon, Sprite, had been sick in the evenings following a trip to Llansteffan beach.

“The first time it happened was about two weeks ago,” she said.

“I could hear him gagging and being ill in the night. I got up and he’d been quite ill in the bedroom in his little bed,” she said.

“I washed it and then Saturday night (25 January) he was sick again. I’d been to the beach that day and he was ill that evening.”

Ms Mcfadden said she usually took Sprite to Llansteffan every day and the experience would not put her off visiting the beach as it was her favourite place – but she wanted to know what was making her dog unwell.

“It is worrying to think there could be something like hemlock, or something in the water that could be making our dogs ill.”

Another local resident, who did not want to be named, visited Llansteffan beach on 18 January with her two dogs and said her nine-year-old pet was vomiting clear liquid “more or less straight away”, while her seven-month-old puppy had diarrhoea.

The puppy was taken to the vets where the owner received a bill of £80 for antibiotics and probiotics. The pet owner said she would not be taking her dogs to the beach until she knows “everything has been cleared up”.

She said the problem could be hemlock but she had “never actually seen it” on the beach, adding she was also concerned that “overflows from the sewage side of things up into the estuary” could be the cause.