Dogged Blog

With old dogs, sometimes you do have to sweat the small stuff

It seems so easy when you're not in the middle of it. You have an old dog, a dog definitely at the end of his days, but currently healthy and happy. And you tell yourself if he gets really sick, you won't do anything big or invasive or heroic, you'll just let him go. No surgery, no chemo.



But he doesn't get "really sick." He gets just a little bit sick. He gets a foxtail, or a bladder infection, or some other problem that would be laughably easy and inexpensive to treat -- if your dog were two years old. But when your dog is old, things aren't always that simple.



Right now, my 10 and a half year old Scottish Deerhound, Rebel, has a bladder infection. That's nothing new; he had surgery a few years ago due to a genetic kidney defect and it left him susceptible to bladder infections. But the antibiotics are disagreeing with him violently, and I keep having to take him to the vet. And we made the long drive to the specialist the other day, even though in his old age he hates the car and the vet a thousand times more than he ever did. Just the drive stresses him out and takes a toll on him that last for days.



But what do you do? Euthanize a dog because he has a treatable UTI and an upset stomach?



I mean, I know what to do if a very old dog bloats or gets bone cancer: Keep him comfy as long as I can, then let him go. But I don't know what to do if he gets, say, a foxtail in his foot. (For those fortunate enough not to live in the land of the foxtail, it's a grass awn that here in California is the summertime scourge of all dogs.) Foxtails mean anesthesia in most cases, and a procedure a young dog would shake off in a day can be the last brick in the load of an oldtimer.



Theorizing aside, the fact is, I don't know what to do about Rebel right this minute. Despite a ton of pain and nausea meds, he's just freaking miserable.



I'm in my least favorite place to be, the middle ground, the gray zone. Science can't help me, and there's no research study that can help me figure it out. My vet can't help, and all the years I've owned dogs don't help, either. I never know what to do when facing what should be a small thing, a minor problem, that turns huge because even very simple procedures are so much harder on some old dogs than on that same dog at a younger age.



I need a crystal ball.

Orwellian language redux: I don ' t think " abandon " means what you think it means

I can't stand it anymore. Nearly every day, some animal welfare person is quoted in some article about the crumbling economy's impact on animal shelters. And most of them use the word "abandoning" when describing people bringing their pets to animal shelters because they have lost their homes or jobs.



Just explain to me what animal shelters are for, even in an ideal world, if not to offer a safety net to the pets of people who are in trouble so bad they can't keep them anymore? How on earth is that "abandonment" in anyone's dictionary?



I mean, we're talking about words here, right? What do they think "shelter" means? Why this barrage of condemnation, of "I'd sleep in my car before I gave up my dog," or judgmentalism at people seeking shelter for their animals at shelters?



I interviewed Betsy Saul of Petfinder.com last year, talking to her about the foreclosure crisis. I asked her what she thought about people who brought their animals to shelters:

Betsy Saul: We feel compassion for them, and a little indignant at a shelter worker or rescuer who acts angry, because for 20 years we’ve been saying, ‘Don’t abandon your pet. Don’t just let it out. Take it to the shelter, be responsible.’ And so now when people take it to the shelter, we want to act holier than thou? I mean, they’ve heard our message; they’re doing what we told them. They getting into trouble, and they’re taking their pet to the shelter. That’s the best-case scenario, don’t you think?



Sure, there are those times when people adopt a pet and then it gets hair on the sofa or it doesn’t match the carpet, and they’re back in two weeks. That’s really not the norm.



Shelters don’t have a ton of resources for training and customer service and things like that. The shelter worker is talking to this person and being adamant. They’re saying, “No, that’s it, this is the end. I’m giving it up. I’m not going to try any of these solutions.” Well, sure this shelter worker proceeds to be a jerk, because they’re faced with someone who’s not willing to try anything.



But the thing is, this is a real process that began three months ago, when they realized they may be in trouble. And two months ago, her husband said if you don’t give up the pet, then I’m going to leave. And I can go further and further down that line, and by the time the people actually get to the shelter – because it’s so hard to give your pet up – they’ve already crossed all those bridges, and at that point, they’re finished.



I think the secret is getting people talking about it a lot sooner, like how do we catch pet parents in that first stage of, “Oh, what have I gotten into?” as opposed to, “This has gone too far and now I just have to shirk all of this because I can’t take anymore. “



Those are two very real places along the continuum of giving up a pet and “Ah, what have I got myself into?” is where we need to talk to them. And we’re not meeting these people until they’re like, “I can’t take anymore. “



Christie Keith: Yes, and by then, it’s over. I’ve noticed that too. That at that point they’ve already detached and moved on in their heart.



Betsy Saul: That’s just exactly the way; they shut down.



[....]



Someone [who is scornful of those people] has clearly not had a sick child or has not been in real trouble; it must be a wonderful, wonderful place. But we’ll all be there at some point in our lives. We shouldn’t be that naive. And God willing, we could all be there, in that space, right? But usually life touches us, and we’re humbled, and we realize that there but for the grace of God go I, right?



I’m the president of Petfinder.com. And I have been so fortunate to never have been in a situation where I had to make that decision. And yet, I’ve had enough craziness in my life, and I’ve been touched by things that are not in your control, that I know that moment where you sit up in bed and you think, I can’t handle any more responsibility. I have to get rid of the responsibility. And I’m always surprised to meet adults who haven’t done that.



I mean, I think it’s great and amazing, to never ever feel that way. But haven’t you had those periods in your life? A lack of humility in someone I think, who doesn’t get that sometimes life gets out of control.

Amen, Betsy. Of course shelters, like every other group providing any kind of social service, are completely battered right now. Donations are down, intake is up (although in many places, so are adoptions). It's a terrible time. But it makes no sense to say that people who bring their pets to shelters are abandoning those animals; if that's abandonment, what is it when they leave them locked in an empty house or on the side of the road?



Yes, it's a tragedy. So is it a tragedy that children get only two meals a day or parents have to let their health insurance lapse and that people are losing their jobs and homes and having to live in their sister and brother-in-law's basement. And it's a tragedy, too, that their pets are caught in this disaster.



How does it make it better for the animals, their owners, or the shelters themselves to act like those people are faithless jerks who don't deserve to ever own an animal again?



/rant

No tax cut has ever been too expensive, but health insurance reform apparently always is

So, where was all the right wing angst and hand-wringing over the cost of the Bush tax cuts? Where was the rending of garments and the gnashing of teeth over how much they'd cost the nation to implement?

Why is conservative wailing and moaning reserved only for the cost of health insurance reform? Is it just that there is one rule for the rich -- tax cuts and more tax cuts! no matter how much they cost! -- and another for the rest of us -- no government services; they cost too much!

Or is it that they still genuflect before Reaganomics, the idea that if you give lots and lots of money to the rich, it will trickle down to everyone else and stimulate the economy?

Fine. Then chew on this: If you lifted the crushing burden of outrageous health insurance premiums, which rise every year wildly beyond the rate anything else we buy -- food, housing, taxes, education, cars, computers -- on small businesses, you'd sure as hell stimulate the economy. After all, small businesses are not able to negotiate for good prices on health insurance for their workers, or the owners of the businesses, because their group is too small. So they go without, or go out of business. Fix that, and you save many small businesses and make them more desirable to excellent longterm employees. That's good, right? I mean, even a conservative should be able to get behind that goal.

It's even more dramatic for individuals who don't get employer health insurance. For example, if you raised my taxes a smidge to pay for a public option or single payer health care, they couldn't possibly be as high as the EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS A MONTH I pay as a private individual to get health insurance now. (And I should say that under Obama's health insurance reform plan, my taxes wouldn't go up because I don't make anything remotely close to $250,000 a year, but even if they did, my point still stands.)

Lifting that burden on those of us who don't get employer health insurance and are on our own -- since we, even more so than small businesses, cannot negotiate better rates the way huge corporations can -- would also stimulate the economy.

And despite what those crazy dreamers on the right side of the aisle seem to think, no, I can't "shop around" for a better rate or plan. I have two choices: My current plan, or no plan. Because I have a tragic pre-existing condition -- I'm 50, my BMI is too high, and I'm in menopause -- and thus, uninsurable. I drop this plan and I'm SOL, no matter how much I would and could pay.

Yeah, that's a functional, thriving system. No wonder we have such a vibrant health insurance marketplace, full of honest competition and free market juicy goodness.

So explain it to me, conservatives. You have no problem with the cost of the Bush tax cuts, which cost around the same as health insurance reform, but you're literally wetting your pants over the cost of fixing health insurance in this country. What's up with that, really?

As if I didn't know.

Some Missouri bust dogs already in foster homes; evaluations begin today

Evaluation of the Missouri bust dogs begins today at the Humane Society of Missouri. The folks at Bad Rap took in 10 dogs who were signed over by their owner and given an "early release," and several of them are already in foster homes. From the Bad Rap blog:

Ten bust dogs slid through a legal loop and were signed over by a Missouri dog owner last week who'd neglected them terribly, but who also gave them the gift of early release, so they were as free as birdies. It was only a few short months ago that this same batch would've probably been destroyed, but you remember how we all made a big fuss about that? --- Times, they sure have changed.

They sure have. Check this out:

Nothing else you can do in these situations but dial up friends and holler for help. So, hollering ensued and the most wonderful thing happened: People shouted back with a chorus of 'Yes.' People, as in, our shelter partners and rescue friends and foster homes. Immediate relief came from three east bay shelters who all offered temporary kennel space until the dogs could rest and be distributed. Beautiful.



Oakland Animal Services, East Bay SPCA and Berkeley Animal Care Services all opened their doors. And with that incredibly kind offer (hey, we have our own crushing pit bull overpop problem like everyone else), a crew from the HSUS loaded up the dogs - these dogs - and drove all night to get them to friendly territory. The dogs arrived a week ago Monday - scared, curious, excited and beautiful.

The dogs still at the Humane Society of Missouri will begin being evaluated today. From an AP story in the Washington Post (and definitely click over to the see the slideshow of the dogs and read the rest of the article):

On Friday, teams of animal behavior experts from across the nation are set to begin assessing more than 400 dogs seized from alleged dogfighting operations in Missouri and Illinois earlier this month. About 100 more pit bulls taken from operations in Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Nebraska also will have to be evaluated.



So far, the humane society has heard from just over a dozen rescue groups willing to find homes for one or two dogs, but said more are needed. Animal groups say they haven't had a crisis response of this magnitude since thousands of pets were dislocated in Hurricane Katrina.



"We're going to need a whole lot of new friends to help the animals in this case," said Debbie Hill, the Humane Society of Missouri's vice president. "There are so many more in this unprecedented raid."

All the groups involved with rescuing and rehabbing dogs seized from fighting situations are going to be strained the max with this bust. The numbers of dogs involved will ultimately be well over the 407 initially reported.



Yes, I know we want the large national animal welfare organizations who helped organize this series of busts to take care of the dogs first and foremost. I know that some of them are already involved -- note that it was HSUS that transported the dogs cross-country to Bad Rap -- but I don't know the extent of that involvement. I hope it's huge and includes lots and lots of money to help the dogs.



But whatever the big organizations do, it's critical that all of us who want to see these dogs saved put our money -- or time, or foster care -- where our mouths are, too. Let's show the big guys how real dog lovers do it.



Donate to HSMO, and donate to any local groups who are taking in fight bust dogs. Consider, too, donating and volunteering to help groups who are taking in other dogs to make room for the bust dogs with foster homes and rescues experienced with dogs from fighting situations.



If you want to support one group that's always there for the pibbles, check out this wonderful video of Beauty, a scarred dog with a painful eye injury, getting her butt scratched and being carried around in the arms of Tim from Bad Rap, and then considering giving them some love in the form of a donation for their "Barn Raising" -- I did!

Update on my mother's breast cancer, the "Who said blogging can't change things?" edition

After I recounted my mom's nightmare story about her long-undiagnosed metatastic breast cancer last week, someone from the hospital system where she gets her care, UCSF Medical Center, left me a comment. She said she might be able to help, and asked me to email her.

So I did.

And yes, she was able to help, although not with the things I was complaining about in that post. Those were over and done with. Last week, we had a brand new problem, one I didn't know about yet when I made that first post. So I dumped it in her lap and said, can you fix this?

The problem was a strange one, which even a number of friends of mine in the medical field found bizarre.  My mom wanted to be assigned to a different oncologist. There were several good reasons to change, but the main one is that she didn't have good communication with the oncologist she had seen only once, shortly after her mastectomy this winter. She didn't feel that she listened to her, and felt her concerns, questions and complaints about pain had been dismissed. Just the kind of relationship you want with the doctor who is going to help you fight for your life, right?

When my mom was in the hospital, the oncology residents who'd seen her told her she wouldn't be able to switch, but honestly, I didn't understand the sheer scope of that prohibition when they said it, nor how intransient the policy would prove to be. How could my mom be married for life to someone she'd been assigned to randomly, had seen once, and didn't care for? What kind of system is that?

However clear that seemed to me, it turns out that the oncology group that treats breast cancer at UCSF Medical Center has some very restrictive policies about changing from one oncologist to another within that group. "Restrictive" as in, they won't let you do it, for reasons that were explained to me but made zero sense. "When you've seen one oncologist," the spokesperson told me, "We consider that you've seen them all."

I might have to remember that if I ever can't pay all my bills. "When I've paid one bill," I'll say, "I consider that I've paid them all."

Although the person who delivered the news that my mom would not be able to change to the new oncologist she was being referred to by her primary care physician to treat the cancer that had gone undiagnosed by them for months and for which she was (and is) still not being treated also told me she'd have someone call me to see if an exception might be made, I confess I sat there in my car at the side of the road and cried my eyes out in anger, grief, and frustration.

Now, for the good news. It was when I got home after that phone call that I saw the comment on my earlier post, from someone at UCSF offering to help. I Googled her email address and saw she was who she said she was, and emailed her. She forwarded my email to someone in the patient relations department, who was able to get my mom some really compassionate, quick and effective help. The old oncologist released my mom, the new oncologist agreed to see her, and we have an appointment next Monday at noon.

So let me give credit where it's due: UCSF Medical Center not only helped us, they came to us and offered to help. They were protecting their brand, yes, but at least they put their money -- well, their time -- where their PR was.

And they monitor blogs. Who knew?

Bunny love: The inside story on a pet you didn ' t know you wanted

I confess I've never had a rabbit -- I'm sure some people do it, but somehow, sighthounds and rabbits just don't seem like a good combination to me. But bunnies are pretty much the perfect pet for a lot of people who've never even considered one, and who may not realize just how well a rabbit might fit into their lives and homes.



"Homes" being the operative word, because life in cage or hutch is not life at all for a pet rabbit -- and it's not too fulfilling for the pet owner, either. From my column this week on SFGate.com:

When Jennifer Lee reluctantly agreed to take care of a friend's rabbit for a while, she set him up in a wire cage in her laundry room, just as his owner told her to do. But that didn't feel right to her somehow, so she did a little research online about rabbit care.



What she discovered surprised her. "Everything my friend told me about taking care of rabbits was wrong," Lee said.



Rabbits, it turns out, don't do very well when they're left alone in a cage or backyard hutch. They're bored, because they have nothing to do all day and no one, human or animal, to interact with, and boring, because watching a fuzzy creature stare at the cage wire isn't why most people have pets.



But once you bring them out of the cage and start interacting with them, it's a different story. They hop around, investigate things and love to play with toys. You can even train them, using a little tool popular with dog and cat trainers known as a clicker. "They're completely engaging," said Lee.



So engaging, in fact, that not only did she persuade her friend to change her rabbit-caging ways when she reclaimed her pet, but Lee went out and adopted three rabbits of her own, named Burt, JoJo and Megan.



"Anyone who thinks rabbits are boring pets should see mine," she laughed. "Every night they follow me up three flights of stairs, and sleep under my bed." Except, that is, for 13-pound JoJo, who jumps right up on the bed and sleeps on Lee's feet. "Then in the morning, Burt hops up onto the bed and hops all over me, trying to wake me up. Then he hops down and races over to a little carpet next to the bed, sitting there looking like he's talking to me, telling me to get up and feed them. And the three of them follow me right back down the stairs and run into their little corral to have their breakfast."

Read the rest here!

Today's spineless media mourns Walter Cronkite, apparently not noticing journalism itself is dead, too

I was just now watching CNN. They did a piece on Walter Cronkite, in which they used the clip of him flatly contradicting the government party line on the war in Viet Nam, and Johnson responding that if he'd lost Cronkite, he'd lost America.

And then the same anchor followed it up with an example of  the most egregious and vacuous "he said she said, fake balance" crap on health care reform, in which she didn't even comment or put anything at all in context. And that was followed with a piece of political advertising reinforcing the exact message of the (factually false) Republican talking head sound bite that preceded it.

The media today lacks all awareness, all understanding of its role and how they have abdicated it. They mourn Cronkite while they spit on and disgrace his legacy.

I went to journalism school in the years immediately after Watergate. I thought it was my job to tell the truth about the powerful, not regurgitate their messages without analysis or judgment.

RIP Walter Cronkite. And RIP journalism as he knew it.

British dog shows in 1938, 1953 - and Deerhounds!

This amazing footage just came across Deerhound-L, and I had to share.



First is silent film of a British dog show in 1938 -- notable for the Poodles. It's only a few seconds long, and the quality is bad, but still... amazing.



The second is a much longer and better film of the same show in 1953. It shows the dogs arriving, being checked by a veterinarian (who never washes his hands or does any form of infection control between dogs -- I guess he's just looking for signs of distemper), being groomed, in the bench area and in the ring.



My favorite, however, was this silent footage of Scottish Deerhounds owned by Miss Richmond on what is apparently a vast, misty estate with rolling grassy meadows, acres of puppy paddocks, and a river. The scenes of her riding out with her hounds on horseback almost made me cry.



Check out the whole site. It's just loaded with astonishing vintage film, much of dogs but of all kinds of other things, too.

Food safety crusader Marion Nestle: Veterinary group is putting self-interest ahead of health

The issue of antibiotic use in farm animals has been in the news lately, as the Obama administration has sought restrictions on the non-therapeutic use of the drugs in agriculture.



Such use, which is generally intended to stimulate growth in food animals as well as compensate for some of the infectious disease risks of extreme confinement methods of raising livestock, may be to blame for the emergence of many drug-resistant strains of bacteria, many of which threaten human health.



The Washington Post wrote that a report issued by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the "'economies of scale' used to justify factory farming practices are largely an illusion, perpetuated by a failure to account for associated costs." They continued:

Among those costs are human illnesses caused by drug-resistant bacteria associated with the rampant use of antibiotics on feedlots and the degradation of land, water and air quality caused by animal waste too intensely concentrated to be neutralized by natural processes.



Several observers said the report, by experts with varying backgrounds and allegiances, is remarkable for the number of tough recommendations that survived the grueling research and review process, which participants said was politically charged and under constant pressure from powerful agricultural interests.

Among those interests? The American Veterinary Medical Association. From food safety crusader, author, and nutritionist Marion Nestle -- also a member of  the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production:

There is much fuss about this issue this week because the House is holding hearings on the Preservation for Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act.  If passed, this will phase out the use of seven classes of antibiotics important to human health that are currently allowed to be used as growth promoters in animal agriculture.  The FDA testified in favor of the act.  So did members of the Pew Commission: Robert Martin, Fedele Baucio, and Bill and Nicolette Niman.



So who could possibly be opposed to such a good idea?  How about the American Veterinary Medical Association, for starters, apparently more worried about its members’ self interest than about sensible use of antibiotics.

Here's the rest.



AVMA: You're supposed to be about animal welfare and protecting human health. Let big ag look out for itself.

SF Raw opening membership again: Sustainable, humanely raised, pastured meat, eggs and other products for dogs, cats -- and people!

I've been a member of the SF Raw since it was founded several years ago. I joined it to buy humanely and sustainably raised meat, eggs, and dairy products for my dogs, but fast found out it was a great source of food for me, too.

Because it's a buyer-run volunteer group, membership had to be closed a while ago. The group had simply gotten to big. Now the group's founder, my friend Kasie Maxwell, has taken a bold step, and expanded the group to include multiple pick-up points and dates throughout the Bay Area as well as a central main freezer and sales location in San Francisco.

I can't recommend the products Kasie obtains highly enough. The savings are incredible --  many of the products I buy from SF Raw are at half or less what they cost at places like Whole Foods, and others are simply not available anywhere, for any price. Backyard eggs, goat milk from pastured goat, beautiful grass-fed beef at affordable prices -- it's incredible. And they also sell all kinds of household products, canned goods, supplements, herbal products. It's just astonishing.

Here's the notice Kasie sent out this morning announcing that she was opening membership again. I strongly urge anyone in the Bay Area to check the group out. There is a very small annual fee, and you have to volunteer once a year for a piddly three hours. The new distribution system means you can almost certainly pick up your order in your own neighborhood, too. My new pickup location is just four blocks from my house!

And if none of that convinces you, not the prices nor the convenience nor the selection, then I'm going to guess the beautiful little handmade artisanal chevre wheels will. Trust me on this.

All the details below...