On the 14th of February 2008 I brought my cat Kuba to Rosebery.Within a few days of him living in Rosebery he came down with severe flu like symptoms even though had no contact with other cats as he was only 9 weeks old and stayed inside the house.
He suffered serious breathing difficulties and often would hide under the bed and I’d hear him breathing heavily and grunting. It took 4 weeks for him to get over it. During that time he started showing signs of abnormal and sometimes violent behaviour.
From chasing people across the house including myself, cornering them and then attacking. As he was young he was still manageable and would often put him in the laundry for time out. The time out never worked .If anything, it would make the situation worse.
He would start attacking the door and it sounded like I was going to lose the door. He would start ripping up carpet every time I put him in the laundry.He developed diarrhea which was constant but I thought it was possibly just his diet.
I used to cook him up a lot of rice to help with his diarrhea but it never, ever helped, no matter how much he ate it and how often I cooked it. His violent behaviour escalated as he got older. I was not allowed to walk across the room of the house as he would leap out and attack my ankles.Sometimes when I tried to stroke him he would bite me severely.
My life had to revolve around Kuba as he would randomly attack me and the slightest thing would trigger him off. By mid September 2008 I saw Kuba drinking the water seepage lying in my garden. I picked him up out of the water seepage immediately. Kuba put up a big fight and tried to chew my ankles off. I would scream in pain as my Kuba would dig his claws and sink his teeth in hard. Often I had to grab tissues to wipe away the blood.
A couple of hours later Kuba started walking a little wobbly and not long after he repeatedly vomited quite violently. He meowed in pain and not long after developed terrible diarrhea. After a while I seriously thought I was going to lose my beloved pet.
By midnight Kuba was sprawled out on the floor with glassy eyes, his long, painful, deep meows sounded like a scream for help. I lay on the floor with him cuddling and crying all through the night whispering “Kuba” over and over again hoping that he would survive.
I had the feeling that there was something terribly wrong with the water seepage.
Next day Kuba was still severely ill, but the vomiting has slowly eased back. The constant and severe diarrhea continued. I was so upset as I had no car, no transport to take Kuba to the vets up in Burnie.
I had to nurture him, kept bringing water over for him and rice to eat. He then started developing hallucinations attacking randomly at the wall, getting angry and throwing himself at the wall. He also became constantly thirsty and would sit five minutes at a time at the bowl of water lapping it up.He could not get enough of his water.
I always gave him filtered water.I sent samples of the seepage water to be tested in Hobart at the Analytical Services Tasmania laboratory.
The results that came back were absolutely shocking: Arsenic – 482 ug/L acceptable level 70 ug/LLead -1530 ug/L acceptable level 100 ug/LManganese – 15100 ug/L acceptable level 5000 ug/LChromium – 98 ug/L acceptable level 50 ug/L.
From this time Kuba’s health declined rapidly while his violent behaviour escalated even further. Often Kuba would run to the litter tray and meow in pain while passing green diarrhea. He suffered from this diarrhea for months on end even in his sleep. I had enough of seeing my cat suffering and deteriorating daily and eventually, as I was also extremely ill; I took my cats and left Rosebery.
Kuba has been almost one year out of exposure now. His violent behaviour has eased immensely. He still has his moments but they are not so frequent or severe. Slowly, for a few months he seemed to recover a little .A friend of mine in Rosebery gave me her beautiful Himalayan cat named Storm as he was also suffering heavy metal poisoning symptoms and she did not want him to suffer any longer in Rosebery.
Initially he suffered from severe thirst and diarrhea, hallucinations and was constantly lethargic. After he was 4 days out of exposure from Rosebery I got his blood tested. It showed an Arsenic level of 1.1 umol/L. My vet told me he was very concerned as the level of Arsenic in a cat’s blood should be zero.
I also took some hair samples from Kuba and Storm, and sent it to Dr Gloria Dodd a Californian Veterinarian. Dr Dodd has 34 years experience with toxic heavy metal poisoning of animals.
Results showed that BOTH Kuba and Storm had severe electrolyte imbalance and were chronically poisoned with Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, Mercury and other heavy metals.
Dr Dodd gave me advice on how to help my cats and I’ve changed the cat’s diet. The toxic heavy metals did their damage in Rosebery.Unfortunately, Kuba is declining rapidly again, even as I write. Every night I watch him suffer in pain, he is still suffering severe diarrhea and is exhibiting neurological problems with bouts of paralysis and fits. His claws are splitting into little shreds.
Kuba is turning 2 in February……..I doubt my precious baby will survive his 3rd birthday…..
