An urgent warning has been issued after dogs started falling seriously ill after walking along the British coast.

Dog owners across Yorkshire and the North East took to Facebook to report incidents of their pets suffering from sickness and diarrhoea after a visit to the beach, Hull Live reports.

This was in reply to Yorkshire Coast Pet Care's post on the social media site, which said: “I work within several practices up and down the North East coast and we have recently been inundated with dogs coming off the beaches with vomiting and diarrhoea.

“Personally, until the local authorities have got to the bottom of it, I would not recommend taking your pets on the beach for the foreseeable future.

“I have been in touch with governing bodies and they are currently looking into it.

“If your dog is showing symptoms please let the local authority aware as well as seeking veterinary attention should your pet need it.”

The post sparked a big response with other dog owners recounting their experiences in the last couple of weeks.

One said: “We went to Fraisthorpe Beach on December 30 and our puppy started being ill with vomiting and terrible diarrhoea.

“We had her to emergency vets that night and she had anti sickness injection and came back home with her, she stopped being sick but the diarrhoea continued. She became dehydrated so had her back to vets and they kept her in.

“She a 5-month working Cocker, my seven-year-old has been fine but I think her being so young and small her body couldn’t cope with it. It has put us off the beach now.”

Another said: “We were at south side Bridlington a few days ago and noticed so much seaweed, normally the beach is so tidy. We thought this strange, now our puppy has sickness. Had to go to the vets.”

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A third said: “My puppy had her first time on the beach, loved it, as did we. Two days later totally out the blue she had really bad runs and was sick.

“She was not well for five days. I was in touch with the vet who said lots of dogs were suffering with it at the mo. Could this be it? We visited a beach just up from Bridlington.”

People have been speculating the issue may be due to sewage or seaweed, others say it could be bird poo while some say it could be dead sea creatures washed up by recent storms.

Others say it is just a general bug going round which is not related specifically to the coast.

Owners are being advised to keep dogs on a lead to reduce the chance of coming across the possible cause of the illness.

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