The other day, during a particularly brutal heatwave near my home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I took my dog, Ollie, on a shaded hike that ran alongside a stream. After being cooped up inside for a few days, he desperately needed to burn off some energy—and cool down—so I let him dive in.
In the middle of his dip, I noticed a clump of green algae creeping toward him. I’ve seen horror stories about dogs dying after ingesting toxic blue-green algae (and just last month, a woman claimed in a viral TikTok that her sweet pup, Cora, died after ingesting blue-green algae in Lake Tahoe), so I ushered him out of the water, snapped a photo so he could get properly treated if he got sick, and wrapped up our hike. I was being a total helicopter dog mom, I figured, primarily because I wasn’t exactly sure how to tell the difference between safe and dangerous algae. But I’d much rather err on the side of caution, especially when it comes to Ollie’s health.
It turns out my concern was…
