Black Toxic Mold Deadly to Animals, Study Says

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association Reports

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association news release, a new report that was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association shows that toxic mold can be a hazard to your pets health.

The report came after a veterinary specialist, Douglas Mader in Marathon, Florida, had been performing a dental procedure on two cats. While performing the procedure the dentist noticed that there had been frothy blood in the tubes that were used to supply the anesthesia to the animals. When the vet noticed this, he immediately stopped the procedure he was performing. Both animals however died, one the next day and the other around two weeks later. After the cats had been deceased, blood was collected and tested. When the tests came back, the test showed levels of the toxin produced by Stachybotrys chartarum, which is also known as "toxic black mold". When exposed to the mold, it can cause respiratory problems, pulmonary hemorrhage and death in people. The symptoms have never been associated with animals until now.

The two cats that died were healthy, indoor cats. Before they received the dental procedure, both cats were tested and showed no signs of any illness. It is known that both of the cats had lived in homes that had received water damage from a hurricane back in 2005. Once Mader found out that the test came back with the results of the toxin in them, he urged the owners of the animals to check their house for mold. According to Mader the two both had severe mold contamination in their walls. This then lead to the weakening of the animals capillaries in the lungs which then burst and then bled. Both of the animals died from complication which came from a pulmonary hemorrhage.