Hi, my son has a tiny water garden in his yard. They just bought the house, and they have two dogs who, (of course) drink from the pond. My son recently bought some goldfish, and plants to hopefully get the pond into balance so he can keep it going.

He has some duckweed, tiny water ferns, a blue flag iris, and a larger plant with very round leaves - an ID appreciated. Does anyone know if it is ok for his dogs to "drink" the plants along with the water? I have a pond, but no dogs, so I didn't know.

Thanks Elaine

Elaine

I googled this to get some information - apparently the duckweed is not toxic to dogs, however there are different algaes and flag iris that are toxic to dogs. The first symptoms would be salivation, vomiting, lethargy, drooling, diarrhea.

http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/...

Thanks, Carolyn. So far they are only slurping up the little plants like the duckweed as they drink. I don't think they've been interested in the iris.

He says they've been slurping up the odd fish, too. Luckily I advised him to buy very small, cheap fish so it's not too costly, at least.

I've never heard of dog health issues from eating water plants, but have heard of massive fish kills from dogs with flea collars jumping into the pond. That was interesting about the iris, I 've heard that grapes are toxic to dogs as well, so I guess you can't just assume if plant parts are safe for human consumption they are ok for dogs.

No worries on that score, Sherry. His dogs are too big to immerse themselves in his tiny pond. I don't think they wear flea collars, either.