I have been drinking the local water, in the Banilad area. I have been doing fine, but my one cat was sick and blood test showed something in the system affecting the liver. The vet asked if we had rat poison in the house, but there is no poisons. Then I discovered that the pet Monkey down the street was prescribed the same medicine for the liver issues as my cat. Now as far as I know the cat and monkey only share air and water in common as they are not dating. So I am suspicious of the water. I tried giving the cat bottled water but he will go to the sink or even toilet water before drinking bottled water. I keep him off the domestic water for about a week, but then relaxed as he he got well quickly after going to the Vet and taking his medicine. Has anyone had similar experience? Is there a lab in town which test water quality. As I watch him drinking water out of the kitchen sink facet I realized that it could even be the piping within the house itself. I would l Maybe lead in the pipes. I would like to have the water tested. Is there a lab to do that in town?
Provincial Hospital does test very cheaply. I'm unsure though whether Pb and other heavy metals are included in the tests.
Basic tests there, E-Coli etc, things like Cholera testing etc has to be sent to Manila and out of the country(usually Taiwan). Doubt they have ever used lead in pipes here, usually galvanized iron etc on older houses, maybe your cat's suffering from rust poisoning.
From my long time experience as a resident here, I would advise not drinking the public water and here is why. As you probably know the public system pressure goes up and down and sometimes quits altogether, then illegal water pumps go on in houses everywhere to suck more water out. The problem with this, is the public pipes are full of leaks and run near contaminated canal's and septic tanks and suck all the muck into the pipes from the negative pressure. Even if your water test's good now, it can change at any time. Bottled water is cheap and a far safer way to go. Cheers, Ron Ron
That's exactly how it is, you may be lucky where you are, but the possibility of contamination is for real...
Boil it if in doubt and on a budget, but that won't remove chemical contamination. It also won't help a cat that drinks from a faucet or the toilet! For liver issues, or if you are concerned about poisoning, activated carbon pills work wonders!
= if I may recall E-coli and Cholera check can be done any Lab in PI or any city no need to be the specimen to be send to Taiwan or Manila.
Humblest apologies! Since checking the archives of our provincial history, it was the suspected typhoid outbreak in Guihulngan, more than half a decade ago. 'Authorities' at the time, couldn't test for this either in Cebu or Manila, thus, there was a public outcry in the province, that they had to send the samples to Taiwan for analysis which took so much time. Of course, this was 'back in the dark ages', for myself, I'm sure glad I live in the post corruption and apathy days of the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), DOH-National Epidemiology Center, boy, we are so lucky nowadays.
