New Findings Show Toxic Mold May Affect Dogs
This story about toxic mold and pets is interesting. I've never heard anything about mold being a danger to pets before, but we may need to consider it in the future. This is not ordinary mold. This is the kind of mold that can make you sick — the kind that won't go away if it's in your house. I have known a couple of people who were unlucky enough to have it in their homes and they required professionals to practically sterilize their homes before they could move back in. One person even moved to a new home and within a few weeks the mold began to appear on some of her walls, so it had apparently traveled there on some of her belongings.
According to a 1999 Mayo Clinic study, nearly all chronic sinus infections (afflicting 37 million Americans) are a result of molds.
A 300% increase in the asthma rate over the past 20 years has been linked to molds (according to a 1999 USA Today cover story).
Molds (sometimes referred to as black molds, even though mold can come in a variety of colors) can cause a wide array of adverse responses in humans depending on the type and quantity that is present. However, these are not the lone factors when considering the health affects to mold exposure. Since dose and human response can be highly individualistic, the sensitivity of the person exposed is also an important consideration. For example, infants and young children, the immune-compromised, and the elderly are at an increased risk of experiencing adverse health effects related to mold exposure.
There are many routes of exposure to molds including dermal contact, ingestion, and inhalation. The health risks associated with mold exposure include, but are not limited to: allergic reactions, irritation associated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), invasive disease, mycotoxicosis.
Allergic reactions are elicited when a substance such as mold that is not harmful in itself causes an immune response in susceptible individuals. The most common symptoms of an allergic response to increased levels of mold range from runny noses, itchy-watery eyes, coughing, sneezing, and throat irritation to more severe symptoms caused by chronic conditions such as sinusitis and asthma.
Air purifiers, especially HEPA filters, are usually effective at removing mold particles from the air in your home. Other measures will need to be taken once mold begins to grow.
However, it's highly unusual, if not unheard of, for mold to kill pets.
New Findings Show Toxic Mold May Affect Dogs
Two cats died of exposure to toxic mold, and a similar reaction could be likely in dogs.
Marissa Heflin
from DogChannel.com
Toxic mold may be a new health concern for cat and dog owners, according to a report published in the Sept. 1, 2007, issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Assn., which outlines what is believed to be the first documented case of toxic black mold poisoning in pets.
Douglas Mader, DVM, of Marathon Veterinary Hospital in Florida, and co-author of the study, was performing routine dental procedures on two healthy, indoor Himalayan cats — examinations conducted prior to the dental cleanings showed no indications of illness — when he noticed a frothy blood within the endotracheal tubes used to supply anesthesia to the two cat siblings.
Mader immediately stopped the procedures. However, one cat died the following day and the other about two weeks later.
“The circumstances of these cases are just not heard of,” Mader says. “Anesthesia doesn’t cause pulmonary hemorrhage.”
Blood collected prior to the cats’ death was tested and showed the presence of the toxin produced by Stachybotrys chartarum, also known as toxic black mold, which can cause respiratory-related health problems, pulmonary hemorrhage and death in people, Mader says.
He says he suspected the mold because they live in an area that had been devastated by hurricane and flooding. After questioning the pet owners, Mader found out that their home had sustained water damage during a hurricane in October 2005, seven months prior to the development of pulmonary hemorrhage. Mader asked the pet owners to check their home for mold.
“Sure enough, they had very severe mold contamination in their walls,” he says. The walls have since been gutted and replaced.
The pet owners’ other two pets, another cat and a dog, appeared fine, but Mader says that if they had undergone the same procedure it is possible that they may have experienced the same thing as the two cats.
Although toxic black mold poisoning in pets has never been documented before, Mader says he suspects that this is not the first case.
It’s possible that the symptoms have been there, which can range from mild respiratory disease to pulmonary trauma, but was attributed to other things, he says. There’s also no commercial test available, he adds.
Mader says that veterinarians should ask pet owners about mold, especially those in high-risk environments.
“I think any veterinarian living in an area where there is high humidity or previous exposure to flood or water damage needs to put this on their list of what we call history questions,” he says. “When they check an animal in and do any kind of preoperative physical examination, they need to include, ‘Are you aware of any exposure to mold in your house?’”
However, cat and dog owners also need to share this information with their veterinarians, Mader says.
“I think the most important thing is for clients to be aware of things in their environment that could potentially impact the health of animals,” he says. “They need to let their veterinarian know.”
Mader and co-author Dorr Dearborn, Ph.D., MD, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, plan to look into validating a test for toxic mold that can be used for commercial laboratories.
