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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
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Things that make you worried.

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We have a staff member who is epileptic.  Her seizures are usually relatively mild, with  behavioral signs rather than grand mal.  Well, they'd been getting worse over time, and she's been taken off her meds to conduct tests.  The good news is that the tests are in preparation to doing a procedure that will hopefully lead to a big improvement.  The down side is that her seizures have been getting worse.

I know enough to wait out all but the worst, but the last one I was in the back and didn't hear the commotion until after the staff had already called an ambulance.  From their description, that was probably the right thing to do, because this one was severe enough for her to stop breathing briefly, but by the time the ambulance got there she was coming out of it and annoyed about all the fuss. She understood a bit more after hearing how bad it had been.

(I started to use "they" and "their" for privacy, but like many vet practices, everyone on staff is female....)

She's feeling fine and laughing with her friends now, and she has someone to drive her home, so it's all good now. Still, it's scary and disruptive and I really hope this procedure helps her!

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

She's feeling fine and laughing with her friends now, and she has someone to drive her home, so it's all good now. Still, it's scary and disruptive and I really hope this procedure helps her!

Me too! Here's hoping!

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When you accidentally necropost because the thread has lots of pages so you assume it's still active without checking the date of the last post.

 

 

 

Oh, also moving.

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4 hours ago, Zorua said:

When you accidentally necropost because the thread has lots of pages so you assume it's still active without checking the date of the last post.

Meh, as dead as this forum is right now, a little necromancy is probably good for it.

Speaking of which, something I've been worried about recently is how inactive the forums have become. I usually click the "go to first unread post" button but apparently I had never actually read this thread before as it took me to the beginning of the thread; it was a little reassuring to see people complaining about how inactive the forums were as far back as 2016.

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I thought I was aware of the dangers of invasive species.  Like Rabbits in Australia, Zebra Muscles in the Great Lakes, or McDonald's in Europe.

But recent strips in Mark Stanley's "Freefall" made me realize that I have not been worried about enough.

Ducks.  Who knew?

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My landlord, or more accurately my landlord's agent called me yesterday, "as a wellness check" because of something the roofers reported (police being by).

She just showed up on my doorstep.  Really less than gruntled by this.

 

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The cold water line is frozen somewhere between the bathroom and the kitchen, bathroom has cold water, but kitchen doesn't, the landlord's father stopped in earlier and poked around a bit and found that when the contractors that were renovating the space downstairs redid the water lines for out apartment (they were a mess from the previous landlord's work years ago) they accidentally put the coldwater line against the outside wall and the hotwater inside and then sprayfoamed the inside part which left the cold water line exposed to the -30c temps we've had the past couple days. He's gotta come back tomorrow to fix it.

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On 1/21/2019 at 9:43 AM, mlooney said:

I have a small leak in my hot water tank.  Less than happy about that.

As it happens, just a small leak in the cold water  input.  Been fixed.

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One of our cats is in the hospital.

A few days back, Baker, the healthier of our two cats - one who usually bounces off the walls in the mornings and at night - started throwing up at mealtime. Yesterday, he didn't eat, and he barfed a very large amount that was very smelly. My wife decided to take him to a 24-hour fully-staffed vet office.

Some background info: my wife recently brought out her serger sewing machine for the first time in decades to help make some cat trap covers. The sick cat managed to unroll one of the spools on top of the serger and string it around the house. She suspected that he might have done more: that he might have eaten some of the string. Hence, the emergency visit to the vet.

As it turns out, her suspicions were correct. X-rays showed looping of the bowel on one side of Baker's abdomen. The staff surgeon operated immediately. He had to cut into three areas of Baker's intestines to remove all of the string that he'd swallowed, but at least the string was intact and hadn't cut through any of his GI tract. The surgeon had operated just in time.

This afternoon, we went to the hospital and paid Baker a visit. He looked quite miserable, with an incision in his abdomen and an IV with fluids and with a motility factor going into him. He had yet to eat anything. The nurse showed us the string he'd swallowed, and it was a rather good amount. Scary.

Mrs. Prof brought a couple of things up with her. One item was a blanket he sleeps on. She put it in his kennel, and he immediately moved onto it, drawn by his own smell. The other bit was a few packets of meat treats. He wasn't up for taking them yet. He was up for a good deal of attention from her, and by the time we left, he looked considerably perked up.

Later on at home, just before Mrs. Prof left to run some cat errands, she broke down. She cried, saying she knew it was her fault that Baker had eaten the string. I reassured her as best as I could, telling her that there was no way we could have predicted that Baker would have done what he did, and that she took the proper steps as soon as we figured out what was going on.

So, for now, Baker is stable, still at the hospital until at least Thursday. Mrs. Prof is more or less stable, although this is going to hurt for a long time. She's ordered a case for her serger so that Baker can't get to the spools anymore. In the end, we're waiting for the hospital to call us on Thursday and let us know if Baker can come home.

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Update: Baker took a turn for the worse overnight. His fever spiked to around 104°F. The doctor told my wife that he's showing signs of pancreatitis. They've got him on a wide-spectrum antibiotic and are watching him closely.

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Baker's temperature is still going up and down. His bilirubin and white blood cell counts are elevated now. A two-day blood test should bear results tomorrow and tell whether the diagnosis of pancreatitis is correct. The doctor is planning to run an abdominal ultrasound in the morning as well. If pancreatitis is confirmed, they'll start feeding Baker with a tube.

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Eek!  My heartfelt sympathies.  My Pippin got into dark chocolate twice, xylitol gum once, and oatmeal raisin cookies once.  Oh, and an entire pound of turkey once, and this was the dog with the shunt on a low-protein diet.  A vet I know, her newly adopted dog ran out the front door and got hit by a car right in front of her.  It can happen to anyone!  The important thing is that she took good care of him and is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Pancreases are funny things, sometimes they go through bad stuff directly and are fine, sometimes you just look at them funny during surgery and they get inflamed.  The section of gut where the pancreas is may have gotten folded up and pinched the wrong way, or they may have needed to make an incision in a place they couldn't help but handle it.  I'm glad he's at a place he can get such good care, with ultrasound and 24-hour staff and all that.  I'll be sending good wishes his way in hopes it's not too bad and he recovers soon!

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Blood tests and ultrasound results are back for Baker. The diagnosis of severe pancreatitis has been confirmed, with his pancreas described as "angry" on the ultrasound. Pancreatic numbers were around 25, way above the zero-to-threeish normal range. No other problems were found in his abdomen.

The doctors are now going to insert a feeding tube into Baker's neck so he can be fed liquids to prevent fatty liver development. They'll then send him home so that we can take care of him. They said they want him out and about, and no longer cooped up in a kennel. Fortunately, our other cat should avoid him just because of the odd smells.

He's not out of the woods yet, but he'll be out of the hospital soon enough. Any step forward is an encouraging one.

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Glad he's stable enough to send him home, even if it is for home nursing care!  Those esophagostomy tubes are very popular these days, they seem to help a lot of cats especially.  When I was in vet school, I saw a cat on my Oncology rotation with a tube through the abdominal wall that went right into the stomach, but apparently they don't do that nearly as much any more.  That cat was an odd case; usually the tube is taken out as soon as they're eating reliably on their own again, but that particular cat decided it meant he didn't have to bother eating any more, and he never wanted to eat more than a nibble or two since -- he'd had it in a full year!  Meds were very easy to give, just suspend them in water and squirt them in, then a bit of plain water to make sure it's all in the stomach.

(It's funny, you'd think cancer would be horrible to have to deal with every day, but I think the Oncology rotation was one of the happiest!  The staff werre great people, the clients were all devoted loving owners, and the pets were usually getting some extra time of a good quality of life being with their humans.)

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The feeding tube is in, however it hasn't been tested yet and won't be for another 30 minutes to an hour. Mrs. Prof. got to see Baker briefly in an exam room - he didn't want to be held (nothing new), just wanted to bounce around clumsily as he was still coming out from under anesthesia. She ended the reunion quickly, then spoke to the doctor about his continuing fever. She was told not to treat it, but to treat the underlying condition instead.

All in all, Baker will be coming home either this evening or tomorrow morning, depending on the success of using the feeding tube. We're braced either way.

Now to find an E-collar that fits. Baker is mostly fluff. It's going to be difficult sizing something to his actual neck.

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Note: overall, we're both glad we have very good pet insurance. Mrs. Prof took the prudent step to call and confirm Baker's coverage this morning. The agent on the phone said we are covered, thankfully. There's a $250 deductible, then everything is covered at 90%. We're already approaching (if not exceeding) $5,000 in real world charges for Baker, so this takes the sting out of that and makes decisions about his care much easier. We haven't had to say no to a procedure yet.

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Baker is home. His first act was to try and run under the sofa. Twice. He's since been isolated in a prepared bedroom, where he's spotted all of the areas that we didn't prepare properly and tried to get out through them or hide in them. The cat is well and truly freaked.

The only solution was for Mrs. Prof to go back and sleep with him on the guest bed. Baker is, after all, her cat, based upon how much time he spends with her and how much she spoils him. (Loudmouth would be considered my cat by those same benchmarks.) When I last checked, Baker was curled up against the wall on the mattress, and Mrs. Prof was curled around him, with her nightly accoutrements close at hand. Baker was no longer trying to get away.

This is going to be a very long, very tedious, and very trying time for all of us. Please wish us (including Baker) luck so that we can make it through the ordeal.

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12 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Eek!  My heartfelt sympathies.  My Pippin got into dark chocolate twice, xylitol gum once, and oatmeal raisin cookies once.  Oh, and an entire pound of turkey once, and this was the dog with the shunt on a low-protein diet.  A vet I know, her newly adopted dog ran out the front door and got hit by a car right in front of her.  It can happen to anyone!  The important thing is that she took good care of him and is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I know that the other items are bad for dogs and cats, but is the turkey bad for them or is that just because of the low-protein diet?

On a similar topic, my cat (18 months old, neutered male) has taken a liking for french fries. Should I keep them from him or is it safe to let him eat them? He will eat 2-3 fries typically. I have noticed no anomalies in his stool from eating them . . .

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17 hours ago, ijuin said:

I know that the other items are bad for dogs and cats, but is the turkey bad for them or is that just because of the low-protein diet?

A pound of turkey would have been a bit much for this dog even withiut the liver issue, because he only weighed about ten pounds himself.  ;-P

17 hours ago, ijuin said:

On a similar topic, my cat (18 months old, neutered male) has taken a liking for french fries. Should I keep them from him or is it safe to let him eat them? He will eat 2-3 fries typically. I have noticed no anomalies in his stool from eating them . . .

Carbs aren't exactly health food for a cat, and proportionately three fries for him is a large pile of them for you.  Maybe break off the tip of one or two fries?  In my experience, pets get almost as much enjoyment from a small amount of treat as from a large amount, especially if the small amount is spread out among multiple pieces.  If I break a dog biscuit into six or eight pieces, and make the dog sit or otherwise earn each one, they get a lot more enjoyment than when one of the receptionists casually tosses the same dog a whole biscuit that they gulp down in half a second!

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Latest update: We've figured out how to stop Baker from yowling and scratching. All he wanted was a place to hide. So, Mrs. Prof made up a cardboard box with a fabric curtain cover. Baker immediately dove into the box, behind the curtain. He's happy now.

Baker is not so happy with being fed via his tube. Mrs. Prof hasn't been able to give him an entire syringe of food at a single sitting, and Baker struggles through the entire procedure. (Baker is not a lap cat.)  She manages to get most of the food in, but not without Baker burping at the end.

In other news, she's got to make another trip to the vet to pick up more medicine. The nurses gave her too little of one of the prescriptions, so she needs to get more before tomorrow morning's dosing.

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6 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Carbs aren't exactly health food for a cat, and proportionately three fries for him is a large pile of them for you.  Maybe break off the tip of one or two fries?  In my experience, pets get almost as much enjoyment from a small amount of treat as from a large amount, especially if the small amount is spread out among multiple pieces.  If I break a dog biscuit into six or eight pieces, and make the dog sit or otherwise earn each one, they get a lot more enjoyment than when one of the receptionists casually tosses the same dog a whole biscuit that they gulp down in half a second!

Ah, all right. I just wanted to be sure this wasn't a "Goodness, get that stuff away from him at once!" sort of issue.

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9 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Carbs aren't exactly health food for a cat, and proportionately three fries for him is a large pile of them for you.  Maybe break off the tip of one or two fries?  In my experience, pets get almost as much enjoyment from a small amount of treat as from a large amount, especially if the small amount is spread out among multiple pieces.  If I break a dog biscuit into six or eight pieces, and make the dog sit or otherwise earn each one, they get a lot more enjoyment than when one of the receptionists casually tosses the same dog a whole biscuit that they gulp down in half a second!

My old Burmese affectionately named Catso (my wife-to-be took one look at him and called him Fatso, and I turned that into Catso, and the poor patient thing was stuck with that name for the rest of his life) would occasionally steal one or two french fries but would only lick them off and then leave them behind. I didn't have the heart to take them away from him, I just tossed them when he was done.

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That fits what I was thinking: that the cat wasn't really eating the french fries, he was eating the salt and maybe the grease - and the french fries just came along for the ride.

Cats have no interest in sweets as such. They can't taste "sweet". Which of course doesn't mean the sweets can't contain other things that cats DO like, such as fats and milk proteins.

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