teaching my husky to talk

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

Happy Veteran's Day 2009-2015 Active Duty Navy

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

So about 2 weeks ago I came downstairs and found my debit card on the floor half eaten. I picked it up to take a picture and she tried to finish it off. Smh

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

Taco dog on Halloween

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

Just goofing around on the couch.

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

Sleepy girl

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

What a lady… smh

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

Enjoying the cold tile.

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

[pr1nceshawn]

What Everything Looks Like To Dogs by Robert Brown.

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

Someone thinks she's a kitty.

[petcareawareness]

Do you guys have any resources on heartworms and heartworm preventatives? How necessary are they? I am not comfortable with the idea of giving my dog that kind of medication year-round. Is there a better way?

Very necessary. Trust me, you do not want your dog to get heartworm. Heartworms are much more damaging than the medicine that prevents them.

Here is a good place to start. Warning, though, there are pictures of the worms there.

- Dark

[mint-panther-deactivated2015032]

I’m looking for studies that show long-term effects of heartworm preventatives (looking to justify the claim of “much more damaging”) but having no luck, so if anyone sees this and can point me in the right direction, I’d appreciate it! 

Thanks for the prompt response. I do live in a warm humid area with tons of mosquitoes so it’s definitely a higher risk area. 

[petcareawareness]

looking to justify the claim of “much more damaging”

Did you… read about heartworms?

That sounds like a very high risk area and going without heartworm preventative would be putting your dog in unnecessary danger.

- Dark

[blankkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk-deact]

ivermectin is the most typical ingredient in heartworm preventatives. here’s an article about its potential negative effects. despite the scaremongering title of the article, please note that it says: “the dosages of ivermectin in heartworm preventives are significantly lower than doses used for other purposes.” the amount of ivermectin is minimal, just enough to cause neurological damage to the parasites. some dogs can have a bad reaction, however, as noted. but this is extremely rare, unless there is a mistake in the dosage or the dog has some underlying weakness. i do believe there is a minimum age at which heartworm preventative can be used, since puppies are more sensitive.

higher dosages of ivermectin are routinely & successfully used to treat other parasitic diseases, including mange. my dog is on ivermectin right now because she has demodex. the doctor told us to watch for symptoms of neurological issues; i have not noticed any & she has responded very well to the treatment (she only has dead mites left).

while i couldn’t find much on the longterm effects of exposure to ivermectin, i do know that heartworm is a horrible disease. it is literally worms in the heart. it is extremely expensive to treat; furthermore, the treatment is very painful & not always successful. many dogs die in treatment.

if you live in a part of the country where mosquitoes aren’t really a problem, you could risk not protecting them. but if there are mosquitoes, there will be heartworm. it’s really not worth the risk when prevention is so simple & harmless. believe me, you don’t want your dog to get heartworms. if it happens, you will deeply regret not preventing it.

[mint-panther-deactivated2015032]

Thanks again, all. I’ve seen this article  circulating around quite a bit. As in, the text basically copy and pasted (or just reworded slightly) over and over again, so I’m having trouble tracking down it’s original source.  At the very least, it makes a compelling case for why year-round preventative is extremely unnecessary. Thoughts? 

But, if the toxicity is negligible then there would be no reason not to. 

For the record, I do not have a dog at the time of this posting. I’m looking to adopt one in the near future, and need to have my i’s dotted and my t’s crossed. 

[petcareawareness]

The title of that article alone screams ‘bullshit’ in my opinion. There’s literally no reason to risk it, so why risk it?

- Dark

[mint-panther-deactivated2015032]

I’m going to leave this here for anyone interested:

I actually did manage to find the old journal article that talks in depth about the lifecycle of the heartworms and mosquitoes and why year-round prevention is unnecessary in most parts of the country. In case anyone wants to read up on it. Know thy enemy and all. 

I don’t like how some of this information was co-opted and misrepresented in subsequent non-journal articles, such as the one I linked above and the many, many times it has been repeated on various websites. One such discrepancy I found is that the journal is pretty clear that heartworm larvae development is only temporarily halted by temperature drops, while other places insinuate that the process is stopped completely. Plus there’s some other speculation that I’m not entirely comfortable with, including but not limited to what a dog’s natural parasite load should be. 

And while the journal entry is old, it is an interesting read. 

[petcareawareness]

I’m just hoping you don’t get your future dog sick at this point.

- Dark

[impostercollie]

Please for the love of god just give your dog heartworm preventatives. Volunteering with rescues I have seen many dogs with heartworms and recovering from heartworm treatment, and it is not pretty. Heartworm treatment is expensive and extremely hard on the dog. They get sick and they have to be confined with very little activity for weeks on end. It’s heartbreaking, quite literally.

Tomorrow afternoon I am transporting a dog for a rescue who is heartworm positive - she’s a purebred husky, probably a beloved family pet, who was surrendered to a kill shelter to be euthanized because the owner was unwilling/did not have the means to pay for heartworm treatment.

Oh and by the way, my dog takes medicine year round that is MUCH harsher than ivermectin (Corticosteroids! Woohoo!). Do I worry about her? Hell yeah! But I fucking give it to her anyway because she has an autoimmune disorder and without her meds she could end up with permanent muscle damage. The dog’s health comes first, not your own incorrect notions that all drugs are BAD BAD and dogs have to LIVE NATURALLY NOT ALL THIS BIG PHARMA!!!!1!

Give your dogs their damn heartworm medicine. It is not worth the risk to skip it. Do not get a dog if you are not going to be responsible with it.

[kyleighandlainey]

These people don’t want to give their dogs heart worm or flea and tick medicine but then they’ll be setting up go find me accounts begging and crying for money when they can’t afford treatments. It’s completely preventable and it’s ridiculous people still argue against it.

[my6woofs]

I get SO pissed off when I see GoFundMe’s for heartworm treatment for a family pet that they just didn’t want to give preventatives to.

[galactic-companions]

My dogs are on preventative now. BUT…

My vet that I had been going to since I was born (my family went to him too) told me that heartworm preventative was useless in Colorado since the risks are so low. I know differently now because I learned differently. Luckily my lesson wasn’t finding out because of my dog being diagnosed with heartworm. Instead I was educated by someone.

I doubt my old vet was the only one telling me it was unnecessary. But my family dogs not being on preventative was not a matter of me being like “Psh I don’t want to give them this. I don’t love them that much” it was just a matter of being young and stupid and thinking that if a college educated vet declared I didn’t need it then I didn’t need to Google it.

[cynological]

You can probably get away with it in some places, but I live in the south and we’re basically heartworm central. Trust me, its not worth it to not go on prevention. My last foster dog was hw positive and could not go on the transport north and would have probably been put down had someone else not decided to keep him. Healthy young lab.

Yeah, hw meds are expensive. So is killing the dog. Which would you rather do?

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

That's what pet insurance is for. I get 80% refunded for everything, including heartworm and flea/tick meds.

[nursenotes]

1. Fist: Make a fist around the epi-pen, don’t place your thumb/fingers over either end

2. Flick the blue cap off

3. Fire. Press down into the outer thigh (the big muscle in there), hold for 10 seconds before removing (the orange cap will cover the needle). Bare skin is best but the epi-pen will go through clothing. Avoid pockets and seams. 

- Ring an ambulance even if everything seems to be fine!

[sassyjavert-deactivated20151015]

Oh my god. So as someone who has to carry an epipen EVERYWHERE I am so happy to see that there’s an info post about them. Like in the extreme case that I can’t inject myself, somebody else would have to do it, but nobody knows how to do it! Thank you, this may just save my life some day.

[imnotjellyatall]

very accurate

make sure you carry around more than one though, and also make sure they aren’t expired.

another important note is that (from my experience) it does not make the reaction stop. it only buys enough time for an ambulance to arrive, so calling one is super important!

also, about those new epinephrine injectors (auvi-Q i think), i’ve used them twice in the past two years, and they did not work either time. the only thing that stopped my reaction at all was an epi-pen. so fuck those

[templarsalad]

Additional tips: don’t store them in extreme temperatures.

Auvi-Q’s formula is not strong enough+doesn’t have a long/thick enough needle so it’s not good for anything but mild reactions.

symptoms of allergy attacks DONT ALWAYS HAVE EXTREMELY VISIBLE SIGNS. You must be vigilant. Symptoms include but are not limited to vomiting/gagging, shortness of breath, swelling of lips or eyes, nausea, itching, rash (either red patches, small bumps, or hives), lips turning blue, etc.

DONT WAIT. Anaphylactic shock can set in in seconds and kill in a minute. I’ve seen it happen. It’s scary but you must take charge of the victim is unable– and don’t be afraid to inject if you aren’t sure if it’s a reaction or not. IT IS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. Epi pens won’t hurt you if there’s no reaction, so use it even if you’re not sure.

Be careful allergy buddies. Reblogging will save a life.

[caffeinatedwaterbug]

After 9 months, she's finally sleeping in her bed.

[carazelaya]

So I woke up this morning in a pool of my own blood.

Wait, let me back up.

Hi, my name is Cara and I’m a 21 year old woman. Every 28 days, give or take, I have a period. And it fucking sucks. Today, was one of those where I take from the 28 day cycle. I wasn’t due for another period for at least a week, but considering that my period is pretty much permanently irregular, I get to wake up a lot of mornings in a pool of my own blood. Hmm. Lovely.

I then proceed to dump my sheets, my underwear, and my pajamas in my laundry room in a tub filled with cold water, with the hopes that this time I haven’t ruined them permanently.

What next? Well, a shower of course! To wipe off the smell of rotting blood from my body! Squeaky clean and towel fresh I have about a two minute window before the volcano of blood begins to erupt again from my vagina.

What will it be today? A piece of chlorinated toilet paper cardboard with a string that I get to shove up my hole wherein the blood will sit and rot until the next time I can shove another piece of chlorinated cardboard up the same hole? Or, a plastic lined toilet paper diaper attached to my underwear that causes rug burn to my vaginal area when I walk? Well the later requires less coordination, and it is early, so I guess I’ll be sitting in a period diaper today. The best ever.

Of course, I could always just get birth control, and lessen this whole shit. But 1) I can’t afford it 2) I can’t ask my dad to pay for it because, guess what? Just like the men who run my government, my father correlates birth control with sexual promiscuity! Thus, sitting on my rotting blood, undergoing severe cramps that have on more than one occasion caused me to black out, it is! (Not that birth control is such a walk in the park either, our bodies have to learn to deal with the hormones and other chemicals and consequences that birth control entails.)

Then, I get to go to class, where I have to pretend that I am not a leaky faucet of blood and tissue. I get to sit in Calculus, and if heaven forbid, I need an additional pad, I have to be discrete about it, so as not to offend the men’s gentle sensibilities to the fact that I am the one dropping tissues and blood from my body through my vagina.  

I once asked a male to take me to the pharmacy so that I could pick up (GASP) pads, or as we like to call it “feminine products” (again, so as not to offend the gentlemen’s overly sensitive natures) and had him equate me talking about my period to him talking about his erections.

ARE

YOU

FUCKING

KIDDING

ME

No.

This is nothing like your fucking erection’s. I don’t derive any enjoyment from this. I can’t mentally control any ounce of this entire process. I can’t masturbate my problem away. My period does not end in orgasm.

It stays. For at least five days in my case. Draining blood out of my body. Causing me severe cramps, making me irritable -not because I’m uncomfortable (which mind you, would be reason enough) - but because my hormones are all over the place, bloating me up to two sizes larger than I normally am, I have to actively fight not to smell like a fish market, and on top of that, you want me to be hush-hush about this? Because it’s icky for you?

And this is not an attack on that one man, this is an attack on ALL MEN who on top of sitting on their throne of gender privilege want me to stay quiet and be content about the fact that five days out of every month I get to undergo this happiest of joys.

And then, these very same men have the audacity to get annoyed because we don’t want to listen to their bullshit complaining about traffic? Or whatever other meaningless story they happen to tell us while our bodies are actively fighting against us? Then we get to be the butt of their tired-ass jokes? Sorry, I am most certainly not sorry.

I repeat NO. I say women come out of the period closet and say, “You know what, this happens to me. Every. Fucking. Month. And it’s terrible. LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY MORNING.” Because the truth is, if I live in a country where Viagra is covered by medical insurance, but birth control isn’t, I can no longer keep denying that I live in a country that is actively waging a war on women. And if I live in a country that is actively waging war on my sex, the least I am going to do is break patriarchal social propriety to inform anyone and everyone of the shit biological process I was BLESSED enough to be born into.

Hello, my name is Cara, I’m a 21 year old woman, and today I’m on my period. Let me fucking tell you about it.

[cancerously]

hello yes this is a good post

[constant-instigator]

I get why a lot of people hate the whole princess culture aimed at little girls. There’s a hell of a lot of toxic bullshit in there.

But when I was a tiny princess, my dad used to be my royal advisor. He would come to me, and over tea we would discuss the problems of the kingdom. He would tell me that new people wanted to move to the kingdom, and ask me what we should do. Or he would tell me that the teddybears and the dolls were fighting over the enchanted forest, and ask me what to do. Basically, he took the trappings of the princess culture, and used it as a tool to teach me about leadership, civic responsibility, and compassion. 

So if you have a little princess around, consider helping her figure out how to run her kingdom. There’s no sense in telling a kid they can’t be a leader, or that they can’t wear sparkles while they do it. 

[dealanexmachina]

Parenting: You’re doing it right.

[huffpost]

Homeless People Read Mean Tweets About Themselves To End Stereotypes

When celebrities read mean tweets about themselves, it’s funny. When homeless people do it, it’s heartbreaking.

In a powerful PSA by Canadian advocacy group Raising the Roof, people who are dealing with homelessness read actual tweets written about those living without stable shelter. See all of the emotional reactions here. 

Watch the full video here. 

[housewifeswag]

this is important.

[audreyloves-fitness]

It breaks me down

[queen0fswordss]

wtf homeless people are really nice wtf