- Jade took her kids out to a pop-up petting zoo where she fed ducks and petted goats and calves
- Days later, she started feeling fatigued, developed bruises and became hot and sweaty
- A doctor ran tests and diagnosed her with an extremely rare condition that spreads between animals and can infect people who handle them
- Jade realised she mustn’t have sanitised her hands properly after the zoo and her habit of biting her nails had landed her in hospital
- Jade Strang, from Ormeau, Qld, tells her terrifying ordeal…
Sitting with my cuppa, I was biting my nails before the chaos of the day began.
“What are you guys planning to do later?” my fiancé, Joel, 31, asked.
It was a Saturday in July and we loved spending time with our kids, Lacey, 10, and Nixon, six.
But Joel had some errands to run so I was taking the kids to the neighbourhood pop-up petting zoo.
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A few hours later, Lacey was busy giving the pigs a cuddle and Nixon was enjoying feeding the ducks, while I gave the goats and calves a pat.
“That was such a fun day,” Lacey said, wondering when we could go again.
As we left, we all used the hand sanitiser provided.
Four weeks later, I was working at my craft supplies store, Imagine Vinyl, when I began feeling strangely fatigued.
“I’m so tired at the moment,” I said to Joel after work that day.
“Maybe you’re catching a flu,” he replied.
Two days later, I became hot and sweaty all over and feared the flu was worsening.
Next day, I was overcome by intense nausea. My pupils dilated to different sizes, and I could smell the scent of gas, even though there wasn’t any.
This seems like more than the flu, I fretted.
On the fourth day, bruises developed all over my legs and back.
“It looks like your veins have come to the surface,” Joel commented, concerned.
He sent me off to a doctor who arranged for blood tests.
I hope it’s not cancer, I thought, biting my nails to calm my nerves.
“You have Q fever,” the doctor said when the results came back the following week. “It’s so rare I had to look it up.”
Q fever, he explained, is caused by bacteria which spreads between animals, and can infect humans who handle them.
“That’s weird,” I said. “I wonder how I got it?”
“It can be contracted as easily as biting your nails after touching an animal,” he explained, prescribing me antibiotics.
I was just relieved it wasn’t something more sinister.
“You must have caught it at the petting zoo,” Joel said when I told him the diagnosis.
“I’d totally forgotten about that!” I gasped. “I mustn’t have sanitised my fingers properly.”
Thankfully, the kids showed no symptoms so didn’t need to be tested.
Then a day later, I felt like my fingertips were on fire.
“They’re ice cold!” Joel remarked, touching my hands.
He rushed me to the hospital.
No-one at the hospital had heard of Q fever either, nor could the doctors assure me I was on the mend.
I knew biting my nails was a bad habit, but I never thought it would lead to this!
The lethargy had become so severe that I left hospital and went straight to bed, hoping I would sleep it off.
Fortunately, after spending two weeks in bed, I began feeling better.
Now, I’m almost back to full health, though I still get the occasional bruising and wave of lethargy.
I’ve quit my nail-biting habit completely and I’m encouraging others to do the same.
You never know what sort of germs they might be carrying underneath.
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