What Is Spring Stew?

What is Spring Stew?

I didn’t know about it until I moved to Blue Ridge Georgia in 1999.

It’s more of a “thing “up in Blue Ridge because they have horses and cows all over the place. And what happens is, the horse and cow poop is refrigerated (or frozen) all winter. In the spring, all of a sudden thousands of pounds of horse and cow poop thaw, and the flies take to it.

Then you have a massive explosion of flies all over the place for the first month of spring.

So, how is that “Spring Stew?” Well the same thing happens in Marietta or Canton, where water and leaves and dead animals and poop are deposited all over the place, AND refrigerated through the winter, and in the spring everything thaws out and achieves room temperature and begins to rot. Flies? Sure.

But also plenty of interesting disgusting things for dogs to eat and roll in, and drink.

This is why in the spring, diarrhea is always on the uptick. Especially a lot of diarrhea in March as dogs go out and discover hubcaps, puddles and discarded containers full of Spring Stew.

If the possibility of your pet having a gastrointestinal problem was related to Spring Stew, it’s recommended that you might poke around the yard and look for dead rotten things, and or standing water that has finally gotten to the kind of temperature needed to set those decay-wheels in motion.

Doc Johnson

Dr Erik Johnson is a Marietta, Georgia Veterinarian with a practice in small animal medicine. He graduated from University of Georgia with his Doctorate in 1991. Dr Johnson is the author of several texts on Koi and Pond Fish Health and Disease as well as numerous articles on dog and cat health topics.