Pretty Blue Things at the beach

Last month we went to Port Aransas' beach, outside of Corpus Christi. 
I just got through looking at the pics and was surprised at how many blue things attracted our attention.

Sure there were a few Portuguese Man of War.

But it was these guys that really got our attention.

There were a few clusters of them together, 
but mostly there was just one by itself, 
about every 30 to 50 feet or so.

Some had slightly longer tentacles than others...
but still less than one inch short.

As they get older or shrunk in the air, the bluish soft portion lose their roundness,
and this one is actually more like a septagon.

To me they they seem related to the Sand Dollar,

because when these are alive, the internet shows that they too have short but tan-colored fronds radiating form them.

As ours dry up, they lose their blue fronds and leave behind 
a much more intricate and brittle lace-like skeleton.

Their skeleton seems to vary slightly, specially at its center.


Pretty fragile they are, compared to the mineralized sand dollar.

Now you might think that they are innocuous 'cause they look so pretty.
And, yes the tentacles of the the Portuguese Man of War and other jellyfish just don't seem to sting much when they are dry and you step on them on the beach.

But, I must report that these do have some activity left in them...........at least if you eat them.

Yep, our trusted dog passed a hundred or so of them, smelled a few and then, all of a sudden, decides to grab one with his mouth and swallow it before we can get to him and take it out. 

A little concerned we headed back but he still looked healthy and energetic.

Less than 5 minutes after this pic, he was slowing down and eating grass.
By the time we got back to the van, he was breathing much faster than just from heat.
So we decided to head for our old Vet. in Corpus Christi.
And, unfortunately got caught in Friday afternoon's rush hour traffic.
As he laid on the van's floor (instead of looking out the window) his breathing and heart rate increased, and he started foaming at the mouth....and we fought the traffic.
So we stopped along the way and gave him 100 mg of Benadryl from a CVS pharmacy. 
And being a lab, just getting something in his mouth brought him back to complete normalcy.

Finally we approached the Vet's parking lot 1 1/2 hour after his sea-side "treat". 
By then his vital signs were all back to normal. 
And aside form the sleepiness of the Benadryl, he would have been ready to go back to the beach.

P.S. We returned to the beach the following week and there were no more blue things for him to eat.