I was filling out a health questionnaire that is required of everyone who works with animals on campus, and it asked for the date of my last tetanus booster. Um....1998? Maybe?
I realized that wasn't good enough--I really need to be current on that because, well, chickens. You're supposed to get the booster every 10 years anyway.
So I popped over to the Student Health Center after class yesterday. I absolutely LOVE socialized medicine, which is what college students have access to. You pay a fee each term and have full access to all of their services. Lots of their services (such as counseling) are available to all students even if they didn't pay the health center fee. You might have to pay for some medicines but most are subsidized to very low costs. Sure, it's not open at night or on weekends. Sure, it's on campus and I don't live on campus. But I am on campus every day for class. Yesterday, I walked in, said that I needed a tetanus booster, was in with the nurse in just a couple of minutes, talked with her for a few minutes, got the shot, and was out the door. Total time: 15 minutes. No money changed hands. No insurance cards had to be provided. I paid up front for access at the start of the term, that is, I paid upfront for health care, and that is exactly what I got. (Health insurance is most decidedly not the same thing as health care.)
Sadly, I seem to be having a bit of a reaction to the vaccine. I don't remember being such a delicate flower when I've had the shot in the past but maybe they changed the vaccine. I'm older, too, and that could play a role. Anyway, after the shot, I met with my advisor for an hour, worked for an hour, went home, had lunch...and pretty much blacked out. I recall stumbling to the bedroom as tunnel vision closed down on me. I apparently managed to get Harry onto the bed. I woke up almost three hours later! Wow, that little shot knocked me for a loop.
And today, I can't lift my elbow above my shoulder. It's not bruised or swollen--can't even see the prick site. But my whole upper arm hurts like crazy when I move it or touch it (tetanus, anyone?). Reactions to vaccines are rare but that doesn't mean they never occur. It certainly isn't life-threatening and I suspect it will go away with time. But I guess if it isn't better by morning, I'll head back over there and have a nurse take a look. But I can do that! I've got access to on-demand health care!
Showing posts with label getting old. Show all posts
Showing posts with label getting old. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
Thursday, May 08, 2014
Striving for Mediocrity
I recently learned that that several of the pre-vet students who applied to Oregon State University's vet school took their GRE exam last summer without any preparation at all. They were laughing and joking about how they didn't buy any workbooks and they didn't take any practice exams (there are two of these available for free on the GRE website). This isn't a new behavior for them, to be honest. Most of this group have taken required courses more than once because they failed the first time. I've been in several classes with them and noticed that they also seem to have problems coming to class on a regular basis.
The GRE is a four-hour-long, general knowledge exam. It is divided into several sections (math, reading, essay, etc.). It is required by nearly every vet school that I've spent any time investigating, even the ones outside the US such as Edinburgh and Guelph (in Ontario, Canada). Vet schools base their admitting decisions on a complicated set of criteria. Although I hear and read over and over again that a successful vet school applicant distinguishes herself from the pack through her letters of reference and personal statements, there is no doubt that schools use GPA and GRE score as a threshold discriminator, weeding out truly unsuitable candidates quickly so they can spend more time evaluating the more prospective ones. But I will admit that many schools seem to set that threshold relatively low.
Still, wouldn't you want your vet school application to reflect you doing your very best in all of the elements that are considered? Even if the bar is set low, wouldn't it help to distinguish your application if you demonstrated proficiency above and beyond that?
I've taken the GRE before. In fact, it was so many years ago that it was a written exam (it's entirely computerized now) and I was also required to take a second "subject matter" exam (in geology; it was only three hours long, not four). They don't use the subject matter exams anymore. I also took the LSAT around 10 years ago during a brief period when I was considering law school. I earned very high scores for both tests (and received invitations from relevant schools to join their programs). And that was not because I'm a genius but because I put in weeks of hard work preparing for them (the LSAT in particular had some fiendish "logic" problems).
There is a rather unpleasant girl in my French class who provides us with another example. I find her unpleasant in part because she only bathes and washes her hair once a week. Unless she is living in a cardboard box under a bridge (I know she is not), there is no excuse for being so slovenly. But mainly I find her unpleasant because I heard her tell her friend that since the homework only counts for 10% of our grade, she just needed to do half of it, and since attendance counts for another 10%, she didn't need to come to class every day. She also said that she can ignore one of the writing assignments because that will only be a few percent off too. She's not shooting for an A, although her comprehension of French is good enough that she could get that grade. No, she is aiming her sights on just passing with a minimum input of effort and time.
This striving for mediocrity is inexplicable to me. Even more of a mystery, all of the people involved seem somehow proud of their behavior, acting like they have gotten away with something or pulled the wool over the eyes of the system. They act like they have achieved something when it seems to me they have in fact lost a lot more in self respect and opportunities to learn.
The GRE is a four-hour-long, general knowledge exam. It is divided into several sections (math, reading, essay, etc.). It is required by nearly every vet school that I've spent any time investigating, even the ones outside the US such as Edinburgh and Guelph (in Ontario, Canada). Vet schools base their admitting decisions on a complicated set of criteria. Although I hear and read over and over again that a successful vet school applicant distinguishes herself from the pack through her letters of reference and personal statements, there is no doubt that schools use GPA and GRE score as a threshold discriminator, weeding out truly unsuitable candidates quickly so they can spend more time evaluating the more prospective ones. But I will admit that many schools seem to set that threshold relatively low.
Still, wouldn't you want your vet school application to reflect you doing your very best in all of the elements that are considered? Even if the bar is set low, wouldn't it help to distinguish your application if you demonstrated proficiency above and beyond that?
I've taken the GRE before. In fact, it was so many years ago that it was a written exam (it's entirely computerized now) and I was also required to take a second "subject matter" exam (in geology; it was only three hours long, not four). They don't use the subject matter exams anymore. I also took the LSAT around 10 years ago during a brief period when I was considering law school. I earned very high scores for both tests (and received invitations from relevant schools to join their programs). And that was not because I'm a genius but because I put in weeks of hard work preparing for them (the LSAT in particular had some fiendish "logic" problems).
There is a rather unpleasant girl in my French class who provides us with another example. I find her unpleasant in part because she only bathes and washes her hair once a week. Unless she is living in a cardboard box under a bridge (I know she is not), there is no excuse for being so slovenly. But mainly I find her unpleasant because I heard her tell her friend that since the homework only counts for 10% of our grade, she just needed to do half of it, and since attendance counts for another 10%, she didn't need to come to class every day. She also said that she can ignore one of the writing assignments because that will only be a few percent off too. She's not shooting for an A, although her comprehension of French is good enough that she could get that grade. No, she is aiming her sights on just passing with a minimum input of effort and time.
This striving for mediocrity is inexplicable to me. Even more of a mystery, all of the people involved seem somehow proud of their behavior, acting like they have gotten away with something or pulled the wool over the eyes of the system. They act like they have achieved something when it seems to me they have in fact lost a lot more in self respect and opportunities to learn.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Get Off My Lawn!
I'm surrounded by young people whose habits confuse and surprise me.
The campus uniform is a hoodie worn with shorts, tights, or jeans (which apparently must be low-rise for both sexes and skin-tight for the females). A hoodie is an impractical item of clothing in nearly every situation you can dream up. Heavy, bulky, and totally unsuited for a wet climate. Is the hoodie a statement of rejection of common sense? A signifier that the wearer refuses to accept reality in preference for his/her/its own construct thereof?
Water bottles have been required gear for self-proclaimed greenies for many years. But the latest craze here, mainly among girls, is glass water bottles. Huge Ball-brand jars with screw-top lids with holes lined with O-rings through which a straw is inserted. These items are inexplicably made for this purpose. The glass water bottle fits right in with the hoodie: heavy and impractical. What happens when you drop it, and you will most certainly drop it.
Unwashed hair also seems to be required. I am talking about hair that hasn't seen water or soap in days. Greasy, dull hair plastered to skulls, necks, and cheeks. It's gross and I can't help wondering if the rest of their bodies have seen soap or water either. Some of my classmates apparently wash their hair no more than once a week. You might think it was a public statement, a rejection of the bloated personal care product industry, which IMO is a perfectly fine industry to reject, but many of the women put on makeup every day (on a face surrounded by greasy, lanky hair) and most of the men shave every day. They are clearly not rejecting the superficial trappings of cleanliness, and personal care, just the actual cleanliness itself.
Admittedly the sample population is pretty biased. OSU seems to contain a student population who for the most part has never left Oregon, much less traveled outside the US. In French class today, I had a conversation with two new partners. One guy had visited Paris with his high school class for three days (I thought, at last I can chat with someone who has done some traveling--most of the class has not left the US). I asked him about the restaurants he visited--because Paris, and France in general, is of course known for its varied and interesting cuisines. The only restaurant he could recall was McDonalds. In Paris. FFS.
Yes, yes, I was just as annoying when I was 20. I went through a punk phase, shaved my head or let my hair grow a bit and shaved patterns in it, wore clothing unsuited to the setting and weather. I lived in a radical vegetarian, clothing-optional coop for nearly two years as an undergrad. But wearing hoodies in the rain and carrying fucking glass jars around all day long are not experimenting with social norms or boundaries. They just seem silly.
The campus uniform is a hoodie worn with shorts, tights, or jeans (which apparently must be low-rise for both sexes and skin-tight for the females). A hoodie is an impractical item of clothing in nearly every situation you can dream up. Heavy, bulky, and totally unsuited for a wet climate. Is the hoodie a statement of rejection of common sense? A signifier that the wearer refuses to accept reality in preference for his/her/its own construct thereof?
Water bottles have been required gear for self-proclaimed greenies for many years. But the latest craze here, mainly among girls, is glass water bottles. Huge Ball-brand jars with screw-top lids with holes lined with O-rings through which a straw is inserted. These items are inexplicably made for this purpose. The glass water bottle fits right in with the hoodie: heavy and impractical. What happens when you drop it, and you will most certainly drop it.
Unwashed hair also seems to be required. I am talking about hair that hasn't seen water or soap in days. Greasy, dull hair plastered to skulls, necks, and cheeks. It's gross and I can't help wondering if the rest of their bodies have seen soap or water either. Some of my classmates apparently wash their hair no more than once a week. You might think it was a public statement, a rejection of the bloated personal care product industry, which IMO is a perfectly fine industry to reject, but many of the women put on makeup every day (on a face surrounded by greasy, lanky hair) and most of the men shave every day. They are clearly not rejecting the superficial trappings of cleanliness, and personal care, just the actual cleanliness itself.
Admittedly the sample population is pretty biased. OSU seems to contain a student population who for the most part has never left Oregon, much less traveled outside the US. In French class today, I had a conversation with two new partners. One guy had visited Paris with his high school class for three days (I thought, at last I can chat with someone who has done some traveling--most of the class has not left the US). I asked him about the restaurants he visited--because Paris, and France in general, is of course known for its varied and interesting cuisines. The only restaurant he could recall was McDonalds. In Paris. FFS.
Yes, yes, I was just as annoying when I was 20. I went through a punk phase, shaved my head or let my hair grow a bit and shaved patterns in it, wore clothing unsuited to the setting and weather. I lived in a radical vegetarian, clothing-optional coop for nearly two years as an undergrad. But wearing hoodies in the rain and carrying fucking glass jars around all day long are not experimenting with social norms or boundaries. They just seem silly.
Friday, November 08, 2013
Old Man Harry
Harry had some teeth pulled and the rest cleaned and polished Wednesday. It took him a full 24 hours to fully recover from the anesthesia. He was in a lot of pain so I got some tramadol for him yesterday afternoon. He's feeling much better now--better living through chemistry.
He's had a recurring soft tissue injury on the inside of his front left shoulder, and some perplexing GI issues. He's been on antibiotics for the last week for the latter, and will remain on them for another two weeks following the dental surgery. That should take care of any lingering GI problems. And his two days of rimadyl and tramadol, plus two weeks of NO TUGGING will sort out his shoulder, at least for a while.
No tugging for two weeks--for a dog that lives to play, that's going to be tough going. As I type this, he's pulled his favorite toy from the basket and is standing in front of me squeaking it repeatedly while looking at me coyly. He's such an irrepressible little bugger!
The cool part of this is that the doc that did his dental surgery was one of the vets that I shadowed with. She let me watch, even help a little bit, during his entire procedure, which fortuitously took place after I finished class for the day. She took the time to show me all the xrays and to discuss the various tools that she was using. It was extremely exciting.
You'd think it would be much more distressing to see my little guy stretched out belly up on the table, intubated, a wad of gauze in his throat to keep the rinse water and blood from going down. One of his molars had to come out--it was a very large tooth with a reasonably healthy root but that wouldn't have been the case for long--the xray showed a cavity between the tooth and bone. She had to cut that enormous tooth into three pieces to get it out. He also lost all of the little teeth in his lower jaw between his canines.
During the surgery, the entire field of view telescoped down to his mouth--it becomes a mouth and the teeth become a dental problem to be solved. I was of course aware that it was Harry but for most of the gory affair, I wasn't thinking, oh, this is Harry.
For sure, I turned right back into the worried owner when I called yesterday and said, he needs stronger pain meds. But for those couple of hours, old man Harry was a fairly routine dental surgery.
Oh, and Harry most emphatically does not like dog kibble gruel (I ran some through the food processor). I have to soak the kibble to make it soft (for two weeks! he's got some gaping holes in his mouth) but it still has to look and feel more or less like kibble. For some reason, I expected him to be less discriminating.
He's had a recurring soft tissue injury on the inside of his front left shoulder, and some perplexing GI issues. He's been on antibiotics for the last week for the latter, and will remain on them for another two weeks following the dental surgery. That should take care of any lingering GI problems. And his two days of rimadyl and tramadol, plus two weeks of NO TUGGING will sort out his shoulder, at least for a while.
No tugging for two weeks--for a dog that lives to play, that's going to be tough going. As I type this, he's pulled his favorite toy from the basket and is standing in front of me squeaking it repeatedly while looking at me coyly. He's such an irrepressible little bugger!
The cool part of this is that the doc that did his dental surgery was one of the vets that I shadowed with. She let me watch, even help a little bit, during his entire procedure, which fortuitously took place after I finished class for the day. She took the time to show me all the xrays and to discuss the various tools that she was using. It was extremely exciting.
You'd think it would be much more distressing to see my little guy stretched out belly up on the table, intubated, a wad of gauze in his throat to keep the rinse water and blood from going down. One of his molars had to come out--it was a very large tooth with a reasonably healthy root but that wouldn't have been the case for long--the xray showed a cavity between the tooth and bone. She had to cut that enormous tooth into three pieces to get it out. He also lost all of the little teeth in his lower jaw between his canines.
During the surgery, the entire field of view telescoped down to his mouth--it becomes a mouth and the teeth become a dental problem to be solved. I was of course aware that it was Harry but for most of the gory affair, I wasn't thinking, oh, this is Harry.
For sure, I turned right back into the worried owner when I called yesterday and said, he needs stronger pain meds. But for those couple of hours, old man Harry was a fairly routine dental surgery.
Oh, and Harry most emphatically does not like dog kibble gruel (I ran some through the food processor). I have to soak the kibble to make it soft (for two weeks! he's got some gaping holes in his mouth) but it still has to look and feel more or less like kibble. For some reason, I expected him to be less discriminating.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Pack Dynamics: Harry and Azza
I keep a pretty close eye on Azza when she's around Harry. I no longer fear her going Cujo without warning, but she's young and rambunctious and still mostly made up of crazy, flailing legs and tail. But he does a pretty good job on his own, growling at her when she gets too close. There's no question that she understands that special rules apply to him and around him. But I'll probably never completely relax my vigilance. Dogs are animals, after all.
I've posted before how tempting the forbidden is--how the very restrictions on Azza when she's around Harry make him all that more fascinating to her.
He's been sleeping a lot these days, particularly in the mornings. Why should he get out of bed when all I'm doing is taking a shower? Not much chance of breakfast (they've already had it), treats, a walk, or play, so it's perfectly logical from Harry's perspective to sleep in for a while.
Since Azza has been showing signs of having a couple more neurons than before, she's been allowed the privilege of being loose when I'm in the shower (I used to crate her if I couldn't see her).
This morning, I got out of the shower and went to check on what Azza was up to. She wasn't in the front room by the stove. No, I found her in the bedroom.
She had (apparently rather quietly) gathered a selection of toys (rubber ball, plush squeaky) on the bed along with her favorite nylabone, and was curled up next to Harry, quietly chewing her plastic bone. He was sound asleep, tucked into his fleece nest in the same position he'd been in when I got up, just the tip of his nose sticking out.
Was she there to keep an eye on the fragile elder of the pack? Is that anthropomorphizing too much? Whatever motivated her, it gives me warm fuzzies to know that she chose to keep him company.
I've posted before how tempting the forbidden is--how the very restrictions on Azza when she's around Harry make him all that more fascinating to her.
He's been sleeping a lot these days, particularly in the mornings. Why should he get out of bed when all I'm doing is taking a shower? Not much chance of breakfast (they've already had it), treats, a walk, or play, so it's perfectly logical from Harry's perspective to sleep in for a while.
Since Azza has been showing signs of having a couple more neurons than before, she's been allowed the privilege of being loose when I'm in the shower (I used to crate her if I couldn't see her).
This morning, I got out of the shower and went to check on what Azza was up to. She wasn't in the front room by the stove. No, I found her in the bedroom.
She had (apparently rather quietly) gathered a selection of toys (rubber ball, plush squeaky) on the bed along with her favorite nylabone, and was curled up next to Harry, quietly chewing her plastic bone. He was sound asleep, tucked into his fleece nest in the same position he'd been in when I got up, just the tip of his nose sticking out.
Was she there to keep an eye on the fragile elder of the pack? Is that anthropomorphizing too much? Whatever motivated her, it gives me warm fuzzies to know that she chose to keep him company.
Thursday, August 01, 2013
Happy Birthday, Harry!
Harry turns 15 years old this week. Here's a pic of him after a game of ball in the yard this morning. Looks pretty good for an old man, doesn't he? His flyball days are long behind him but he sure does love to chase that tennis ball.
I started him on Adequan a couple of months ago--it's not producing the sort of miracle results that others have reported but he's certainly less stiff in the mornings and he falls over less often when playing. Adequan can be given subcutaneously so I do the injections at home. Even without drugs, for the past couple of years, I have been very careful when we play. No jumping (balls are rolled on the ground, not tossed in the air), no running on slippery floors, all tugging is very low and easy. I'm glad to report that he seems to have fully recovered from his idiopathic vestibular disease from back in April.
Happy birthday, Harry!
I started him on Adequan a couple of months ago--it's not producing the sort of miracle results that others have reported but he's certainly less stiff in the mornings and he falls over less often when playing. Adequan can be given subcutaneously so I do the injections at home. Even without drugs, for the past couple of years, I have been very careful when we play. No jumping (balls are rolled on the ground, not tossed in the air), no running on slippery floors, all tugging is very low and easy. I'm glad to report that he seems to have fully recovered from his idiopathic vestibular disease from back in April.
Happy birthday, Harry!
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
The Summer of Organic Chemistry 2 Plus Musings on Returning to School
I read somewhere that one of the rules of blogging is to never apologize when you haven't posted in a while. Makes sense. Life happens. Sometimes the pace of the happenings gets a bit frenzied.
The second organic chemistry midterm was today. I didn't do as well as I had hoped but two of my four mistakes were preventable if I had checked my work more carefully. I still made a score above both the average and median scores, and my accumulated point total for the quizzes and two midterms remains in the grade range for an A. Not bad for my first technical college course in 21 years.
The subject matter itself is complicated. While my geology training allows me to visualize, and to some degree rotate, three-dimensional objects in my mind, which is a big help in organic chemistry, I am certainly no chemist. But so far our focus has been on alkyls and alkenes, molecules made largely of carbons and hydrogens (...hydrocarbons, get it?) so I find the material interesting as well. And science is science.
What do I mean by that? Well, most sciences are underlain by the same mathematical and first-order physics rules. And most sciences utilize patterns and rules and recipes to pose and solve problems. Once you learn those, you should be able to move around at the college sophomore level in most sciences. It's learning the exceptions to all those rules and patterns that takes you to the level of specialization in a science.
Organic chemistry is no exception. It is a foundation course, like calculus, that presents concepts and patterns that I will need later on in biochemistry. I never really understood the value of calculus when I took it lo these many years ago. It wasn't until I had to apply it when doing my dissertation research and later when working in the real world hat I realized how important it was. If I can do a good job now in organic chemistry, I can focus on the bio part of the biochemistry courses to come--my foundation knowledge will be solid.
I haven't written much about being back in school. The campus of a large university is not an alien landscape, of course. I spent 10 years as a student and much later another two working in that environment as an administrator. There's a rhythm that one quickly falls into when you spend your day in that academic bubble.
I overheard the instructor talking to a couple of other students yesterday and learned that what I suspected was right. A large portion, 30-40%, of students taking the organic chemistry sequence in the summer are repeats who are hoping to get a better grade the second time around. But some are taking it in the summer because it gets the equivalent of an entire year of coursework taken care of in 12 weeks; I suppose I fall into that category because organic chem is a pre-req for some other courses that I need. Still others choose to take it in the summer because they prefer the compressed format. The same material is covered in both the summer and the year-long deliveries but the daily schedule of the summer should, in theory, lead to better learning and retention. It's certainly a messy test of that theory for some of these people.
I am of course the oldest student, although there are also a handful of others who are older than the average 20 years. Not surprisingly, I am older than the instructor too!
I haven't met anybody yet. I am hoping to find a study partner, and possibly a potential lab partner, in the next session of the course, which begins in a couple of weeks, that is, find someone who passed this first four weeks and who is planning to continue on throughout the summer.
There are a few sadly stereotypical characters in the class: sorority girls; athletic types (both male and female); the usual motley back bench crew who come in late and sit in the back, probably to doze. My favorites so far are a pair of American-Asian identical twins. Twinning is rare in Asians, so that certainly attracted my attention. But these two young men are quintessential nerds. Skinny to the point of being gangly, a bit spotty, no tattoos, no "cool" branded clothing or shoes. I've never seen them apart, even on campus. In fact, I've never seen them open their mouths in class, even to each other. I guess they communicate with each other telepathically. I'd like to start up a conversation with them but I'm afraid that, like fawns, they would startle and run away if approached.
The second organic chemistry midterm was today. I didn't do as well as I had hoped but two of my four mistakes were preventable if I had checked my work more carefully. I still made a score above both the average and median scores, and my accumulated point total for the quizzes and two midterms remains in the grade range for an A. Not bad for my first technical college course in 21 years.
The subject matter itself is complicated. While my geology training allows me to visualize, and to some degree rotate, three-dimensional objects in my mind, which is a big help in organic chemistry, I am certainly no chemist. But so far our focus has been on alkyls and alkenes, molecules made largely of carbons and hydrogens (...hydrocarbons, get it?) so I find the material interesting as well. And science is science.
What do I mean by that? Well, most sciences are underlain by the same mathematical and first-order physics rules. And most sciences utilize patterns and rules and recipes to pose and solve problems. Once you learn those, you should be able to move around at the college sophomore level in most sciences. It's learning the exceptions to all those rules and patterns that takes you to the level of specialization in a science.
Organic chemistry is no exception. It is a foundation course, like calculus, that presents concepts and patterns that I will need later on in biochemistry. I never really understood the value of calculus when I took it lo these many years ago. It wasn't until I had to apply it when doing my dissertation research and later when working in the real world hat I realized how important it was. If I can do a good job now in organic chemistry, I can focus on the bio part of the biochemistry courses to come--my foundation knowledge will be solid.
I haven't written much about being back in school. The campus of a large university is not an alien landscape, of course. I spent 10 years as a student and much later another two working in that environment as an administrator. There's a rhythm that one quickly falls into when you spend your day in that academic bubble.
I overheard the instructor talking to a couple of other students yesterday and learned that what I suspected was right. A large portion, 30-40%, of students taking the organic chemistry sequence in the summer are repeats who are hoping to get a better grade the second time around. But some are taking it in the summer because it gets the equivalent of an entire year of coursework taken care of in 12 weeks; I suppose I fall into that category because organic chem is a pre-req for some other courses that I need. Still others choose to take it in the summer because they prefer the compressed format. The same material is covered in both the summer and the year-long deliveries but the daily schedule of the summer should, in theory, lead to better learning and retention. It's certainly a messy test of that theory for some of these people.
I am of course the oldest student, although there are also a handful of others who are older than the average 20 years. Not surprisingly, I am older than the instructor too!
I haven't met anybody yet. I am hoping to find a study partner, and possibly a potential lab partner, in the next session of the course, which begins in a couple of weeks, that is, find someone who passed this first four weeks and who is planning to continue on throughout the summer.
There are a few sadly stereotypical characters in the class: sorority girls; athletic types (both male and female); the usual motley back bench crew who come in late and sit in the back, probably to doze. My favorites so far are a pair of American-Asian identical twins. Twinning is rare in Asians, so that certainly attracted my attention. But these two young men are quintessential nerds. Skinny to the point of being gangly, a bit spotty, no tattoos, no "cool" branded clothing or shoes. I've never seen them apart, even on campus. In fact, I've never seen them open their mouths in class, even to each other. I guess they communicate with each other telepathically. I'd like to start up a conversation with them but I'm afraid that, like fawns, they would startle and run away if approached.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Update on Old Man Harry and Other Health Matters
Harry is almost back to where he was before the vestibular nerve incident. His head tilt is almost gone, and I only notice it in certain contexts now. One lingering effect is a persistent rear end weakness, and he is dragging one of his feet. Since I noticed symptoms of increasing rear end weakness many months ago, this could simply be the progression of that, and unrelated to the vestibular thing. Still, it's a worry although there's nothing to be done about it.
He can still jump up on the couch unassisted (most days) although he is not allowed to jump on and off the bed anymore. And he needs a bit of help getting outside in the mornings. It is easier to carry him outside since the two steps down are proving to be a bit too challenging.
He can't wait to go for his hour-long walk every morning, rain or shine. My dogs now have fleece-lined raincoats for those damp, cold mornings. It was 41 F and raining yesterday at 7am!
And Harry is always the one to initiate a game of tug and fetch with the toys. If he's decided it's time to play, he won't settle until we play.
He's more frail than he was six months ago but he's still got a lot of heart and joie de vivre. He will be 15 years old in August.
Shortly after we got here, Azza developed a horrendous case of flaky skin. It was really getting gross. She didn't act like it was itchy but brushing her would produce a snow storm of flakes, and she left a trail of flakes everywhere she went.
Since it didn't seem to be an allergic reaction, I thought it might be diet related. (By no means can I rule out an environmental cause since just about every plant out here is blooming and spewing some sort of reproductive stuff at the moment. She just didn't have any of the usual symptoms you might associate with a histamine reaction.)
I was giving her vitamin E but I decided to increase that to six 1000 IU capsules a day (three with each meal). Then I noticed that Harry's joint supplement had flaxseed as the first ingredient so I added that to her food as well. And after some more thought, I realized that the homemade diet I had been feeding them in Dhahran had a lot more protein than she's been getting so I upped the protein content of her food.
The flakes disappeared in about three days. SInce I made all of these changes at the same time, I don't know which one helped! Bad experimental design but the outcome was good. I'll have to back them out one at a time to sort it out.
He can still jump up on the couch unassisted (most days) although he is not allowed to jump on and off the bed anymore. And he needs a bit of help getting outside in the mornings. It is easier to carry him outside since the two steps down are proving to be a bit too challenging.
He can't wait to go for his hour-long walk every morning, rain or shine. My dogs now have fleece-lined raincoats for those damp, cold mornings. It was 41 F and raining yesterday at 7am!
And Harry is always the one to initiate a game of tug and fetch with the toys. If he's decided it's time to play, he won't settle until we play.
He's more frail than he was six months ago but he's still got a lot of heart and joie de vivre. He will be 15 years old in August.
Shortly after we got here, Azza developed a horrendous case of flaky skin. It was really getting gross. She didn't act like it was itchy but brushing her would produce a snow storm of flakes, and she left a trail of flakes everywhere she went.
Since it didn't seem to be an allergic reaction, I thought it might be diet related. (By no means can I rule out an environmental cause since just about every plant out here is blooming and spewing some sort of reproductive stuff at the moment. She just didn't have any of the usual symptoms you might associate with a histamine reaction.)
I was giving her vitamin E but I decided to increase that to six 1000 IU capsules a day (three with each meal). Then I noticed that Harry's joint supplement had flaxseed as the first ingredient so I added that to her food as well. And after some more thought, I realized that the homemade diet I had been feeding them in Dhahran had a lot more protein than she's been getting so I upped the protein content of her food.
The flakes disappeared in about three days. SInce I made all of these changes at the same time, I don't know which one helped! Bad experimental design but the outcome was good. I'll have to back them out one at a time to sort it out.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Update on the Old Man
Harry is much improved today (Thursday). His head tilt is still quite pronounced but he's walking better. We went for our normal walk this morning v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y but we did the entire route. He still managed to pee eleventy million times although he never was able to pee on a slope. He doesn't seem quite as agitated as he was yesterday. His right eye is jerking around a bit but I hope that subsides. I'll continue to keep a close eye on him and give him lots of extra love but thankfully this isn't getting worse.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Old Dog
We had quite a scare at CircusK9 yesterday. The dogs were enjoying a midmorning nap in the sunny front room. I came bustling in getting ready to run some errands and the dogs got up to see what I was up to--except for Harry. He staggered around in large, looping circles, repeatedly falling over as his right leg gave way beneath him. He could't stand back up without assistance. "Drunken sailor" came to mind.
My first thought was that something neurological had happened, perhaps a stroke. I shooed Azza outside to keep her from bumping him then I made Harry walk up and down the hallway, and gave him numerous treats. His tail was up, his ears were alert, his eyes were tracking me and the treats. He ate plenty of treats and drank some water. I carried him outside (he couldn't negotiate the steps) and when I set him on the ground, he peed. The only problem that I could observe was that he couldn't stand up for long or walk very well. It was clear that the weakness was isolated to his right side and focused mainly in his hindquarters.
I did some poking around on the internet and it looks like Harry was hit by an episode of idiopathic vestibular disease, also known as "old dog" vestibular disease. Some forms of this can be congenital but the "old dog" form appears out of nowhere in old dogs with no clear trigger, which is what idiopathic means. (Edited to add that "vestibule" means small passage or entry way to a larger room; in this case it refers to a space inside the inner ear).
It is related to a misfiring or other problem with a nerve in the inner and middle ears, which of course are the organs that dogs, and we, use for balance.
Of course a stroke is always possible but Harry's symptoms fit the idiopathic vestibular description well. His head tilt is quite pronounced today and the right hind leg weakness is still there. He falls over when he tries to shake but I figured out that if I gently hold his hips, he can get a reasonable head and shoulder shake going without hitting the floor.
Thankfully he doesn't have any eye rolling, which is probably what leads to motion sickness and the vomiting and diarrhea reported by others. He is eating and drinking like normal. This morning he made it outside on his own for a poop and a pee.
He is not in pain.
While not an official symptom, anecdotally it seems that many dogs get confused or worried about their bodies' failure to respond normally. Harry is certainly agitated, following me everywhere, slowly crashing into walls and objects as he goes, and takes quite a long time to settle down.
And based on comments on several websites, this disease can be much, much worse. Harry can at least walk (we went for a very short walk this morning and I made sure that all of the interesting pee spots were on his right side so he could lift his right leg and put weight on the more reliable left one). He even negotiated a couple of curbs although I tried to make the dogs use the handicapped access ramps when I could. He had a lot of problems walking uphill so I stuck to a relatively flat section.
Many times the symptoms of idiopathic vestibular disease disappear (mixed info on the interwebs about this, some sources say they disappear as quickly as they showed up, others say they fade over several days). But they should noticeably abate by Thursday so until then, I am keeping a very close eye on my little old man.
My first thought was that something neurological had happened, perhaps a stroke. I shooed Azza outside to keep her from bumping him then I made Harry walk up and down the hallway, and gave him numerous treats. His tail was up, his ears were alert, his eyes were tracking me and the treats. He ate plenty of treats and drank some water. I carried him outside (he couldn't negotiate the steps) and when I set him on the ground, he peed. The only problem that I could observe was that he couldn't stand up for long or walk very well. It was clear that the weakness was isolated to his right side and focused mainly in his hindquarters.
I did some poking around on the internet and it looks like Harry was hit by an episode of idiopathic vestibular disease, also known as "old dog" vestibular disease. Some forms of this can be congenital but the "old dog" form appears out of nowhere in old dogs with no clear trigger, which is what idiopathic means. (Edited to add that "vestibule" means small passage or entry way to a larger room; in this case it refers to a space inside the inner ear).
It is related to a misfiring or other problem with a nerve in the inner and middle ears, which of course are the organs that dogs, and we, use for balance.
Of course a stroke is always possible but Harry's symptoms fit the idiopathic vestibular description well. His head tilt is quite pronounced today and the right hind leg weakness is still there. He falls over when he tries to shake but I figured out that if I gently hold his hips, he can get a reasonable head and shoulder shake going without hitting the floor.
Thankfully he doesn't have any eye rolling, which is probably what leads to motion sickness and the vomiting and diarrhea reported by others. He is eating and drinking like normal. This morning he made it outside on his own for a poop and a pee.
He is not in pain.
While not an official symptom, anecdotally it seems that many dogs get confused or worried about their bodies' failure to respond normally. Harry is certainly agitated, following me everywhere, slowly crashing into walls and objects as he goes, and takes quite a long time to settle down.
And based on comments on several websites, this disease can be much, much worse. Harry can at least walk (we went for a very short walk this morning and I made sure that all of the interesting pee spots were on his right side so he could lift his right leg and put weight on the more reliable left one). He even negotiated a couple of curbs although I tried to make the dogs use the handicapped access ramps when I could. He had a lot of problems walking uphill so I stuck to a relatively flat section.
Many times the symptoms of idiopathic vestibular disease disappear (mixed info on the interwebs about this, some sources say they disappear as quickly as they showed up, others say they fade over several days). But they should noticeably abate by Thursday so until then, I am keeping a very close eye on my little old man.
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