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RE: At my wit's end with Jesse
Crowe, we've been dealing with a somewhat similar sleep issue with one of our dogs. I haven't listed her in my signature line yet (need to do that), but she's been with us since late March. We "failed" at fostering her and formally adopted her in May. She's probably a Lhasa Apso or a mix, and is estimated to be 8 years old. She had always been a calm, somewhat independent dog, and an excellent sleeper until the very early morning hours of 9/22. She seemed to wake up from a sound sleep in a full blown panic or pain attack--shaking, panting, pawing at us, wouldn't settle down at all. This went on for hours and hours, well into the next day. She didn't sleep at all for almost 24 hours.
On 9/23 I dropped her off at the vet for a thorough exam and blood work. Everything checked out fine. The vet suggested trying some Gabapentin at night to see if that would help her. It didn't do a thing. We were up with her anywhere from a couple of hours to all night. Every night. We tried melatonin for several nights but that did nothing. We had to strategize every evening about what we would try for her, whose night it was to get up with her (or stay up with her if she wouldn't settle at all), etc. She continued to have the panic/pain attacks, and to have very prolonged periods of not sleeping at all. The longest we timed was 25,5 hours without sleeping.
I took her back to the vet Monday, this time for a urinalysis and xrays to see if there were any masses, spinal or joint issues that might be causing pain, or anything else that jumped out. Her xrays and urinalysis looked fine, but the vet (different one than the first time) diagnosed her with infections in both ears, and one of them was particularly bad.
The vet who saw her the first time noted some wax in her ears, but nothing else remarkable. But her ear pigment is very dark and it's very hard to see in them. Anyway, we don't know if the ear infections were percolating all this time and are the root cause of her sleeping issues or if they're recent/coincidental and unrelated. The vet treated them and gave me some Trazadone to help her (and us!) get some rest. The first night it didn't do anything, but last night she slept through the night for the first time in three weeks. It was glorious!
It's going to take a little while to see if the ear infections were the actual cause of her lack of sleeping or if it's something else. We've got Trazadone for eight more nights, so we're hopeful that all of us can get rested up, and then when that's gone--and by then her ears should be feeling much better--we'll see if she'll go back to her normal good sleeper self. If not then I'm hoping the vet will give us an ongoing script for Trazadone (assuming it continues to help her). Not getting enough sleep was really wearing on all of us after just three weeks.
Anyway, I don't know if there's anything there that's helpful to you. I mainly wanted to let you know you're not alone in dealing with a dog with sleep issues. Good luck!
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Pawz4me
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10/14/20 05:52pm |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: Why is that ....
It's just the nature of the beast. And a good thing too, how many forums would still be around if people were satisfied with one word answers? Thread drift keeps many forums alive, and lively too.
^^This.^^
Also, those types of answers are no different than what often happens in real life conversations.
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Pawz4me
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10/10/20 04:45pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Wolves as Pets
I live in the piedmont of NC and have seen several large, gray coyotes that could trick one into believing they were wolves.
As far as wanting a wolf for a pet -- Why? Just ... why? There is no logical, sane reason I can think of that anyone would want or need one. If you want protection there are quite a number of breeds of dogs who would serve the purpose better, not to mention MUCH more reliably.
I'm firmly of the opinion that the closest anyone should come to having a wild animal as a pet is the domesticated house cat. ;)
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Pawz4me
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09/14/20 11:39am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Campgrounds around Shenandoah Valley in VA?
If you want FHU/commercial type places then look at the Luray KOA. It's much nicer than the typical KOA.
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Pawz4me
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09/06/20 05:14pm |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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RE: Leather Sofa Or Fabric Sofa?
We don't consider anything other than leather. I'm huge on cleanliness, and being able to wipe off leather furniture is a wonderful thing. I wipe ours down every few months and see how much grime comes off on the rag, and then I think how filthy most cloth furniture that rarely/never gets cleaned must be. I'll pass.
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Pawz4me
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08/07/20 05:07pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Don't Panic
I read about the rabbit hemorrhagic disease awhile back, and subsequently noted that I've seen no rabbits at all this year. They're normally plentiful in our yard and throughout the neighborhood. Like many we're going out a lot less than normal, but I haven't even seen any rabbit roadkill. Unless there's been a major uptick in coyotes or other predators, which I don't think there has been, then I'm assuming it's probably the hemorrhagic disease.
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Pawz4me
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07/02/20 04:37am |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: 2019–20 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
Ummm... I kinda hate that I need to ask what should be obvious, but you do realize that many people can't wear masks for serious health issues. Even their Dr's advise them not too.
That's a straw man, unless you can post a link to any mask mandate that doesn't provide an exception for those people.
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Pawz4me
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06/26/20 11:22am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: 2019–20 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
Tell you what. If you're going to be impacted by C19 I suggest you stay home and protect yourself. Wear a mask in your house and keep all people away. Have a fried shop for you and drop your groceries off on your porch.
IOW, do your thing without trying to bully other people.
Ummm . . I kinda hate that I need to ask what should be obvious, but you do realize that many people with high risk factors have to go out to work, right? They have no choice in the matter if they want to be able to pay their bills and buy food.
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Pawz4me
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06/26/20 10:18am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: James Island
I don't think there's any bad site. Preferably I wouldn't want one of the shared ones unless I was traveling with someone else, but it also wouldn't be a big deal to have one.
If you want to take the shuttle downtown make sure you get your reservations ahead of time unless it's really an off time of the year. Don't wait until the morning you want to go, the shuttles fill up early.
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Pawz4me
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06/23/20 05:11am |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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RE: Parasite control issues help
Nexgard for fleas and ticks.
Heartgard for heart worms.
Our Shih Tzu had a horrible reaction to one spot-on flea product, and he's had a couple of vaccine reactions. The above two products work wonderfully for him.
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Pawz4me
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06/20/20 05:48pm |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: Basic questions about Class B's
If you're on Facebook you might consider joining the Travato Owners and Wannabees group (it's a private group). The overwhelming majority of those people pride themselves on their ability to boondock for extended periods of time. Some carry extra water, others don't. DH and I aren't into roughing it or depriving ourselves by constantly fretting over water usage, but we have no problem boondocking for a couple of nights in a row.
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Pawz4me
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06/09/20 05:04am |
Class B - Camping Van Conversions
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RE: 2019–20 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
There used to be 5. But I supposed you would get the idea. Negative air pressure. Auto sealing three containment levels.
LOL! I seriously doubt BCSnob is "lost" on this issue. As far as I'm aware he, along with Dr. Doug, are the most eminently qualified members to discuss it. RV.net is lucky to have both of them.
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Pawz4me
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04/15/20 05:33am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Coronavirus
An article about the infected dog from the Washington Post --
A pet dog in Hong Kong has a “low-level” infection of the coronavirus that causes covid-19 in people, in what may be the first known human-to-animal transmission of the novel coronavirus that has sickened more than 90,000 people worldwide.
The case has raised the specter that dogs might be swept into the epidemic, which, even now, public health officials say does not appear to infect or be spread by pets. But experts say much remains unknown about the dog’s infection, and they emphasized the lone case is not yet cause for alarm or reassessments about interactions with pets.
The dog is owned by a person who was hospitalized with covid-19, and it has been quarantined since Feb. 26, according to Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. The department said last week that the dog’s “weak positive” test results, from nasal and oral swabs, might have been the result of “environmental contamination,” not infection. But positive tests since then suggest the dog does have a low-level of infection, the department said Wednesday. The animal has shown no symptoms, and a second dog under quarantine in the same facility has tested negative for the virus, the department said.
“At this point, we can say there’s evidence dogs can get infected, but we have no idea what that means for dogs or people … is it one of a million or is it one of 10? We have no idea,” said J. Scott Weese, a professor at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College who studies zoonotic disease. But, he added, “a weak positive would suggest there’s not a lot of virus there.”
Weese said he is less concerned about the possibility of dogs becoming widely infected with the novel coronavirus than he is about cats, which, along with ferrets, were shown to be susceptible to infection with the SARS virus in laboratory experiments. A study published in late January in the Journal of Virology, he noted, predicts the virus that causes covid-19 can attach to receptor cells present in cats, pigs, ferrets and some primates — meaning those species might be at greater risk of being infected.
“The big question for me is: Is it exclusively a human virus, or is it predominantly a human virus right now?” Weese said. “What we don’t want to do is get an animal reservoir,” that could spread the virus, he added, such as feral cats. “But that’s probably unlikely."
That a dog is infected with the virus is not surprising, said Gregory C. Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Duke University. Coronaviruses are “promiscuous” and move between species, he said. The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in bats and may have passed to humans from pangolins; the SARS coronavirus came from bats via civet cats; and other types of coronaviruses are common among canines.
“Certainly, it raises the hypothesis that perhaps dogs could play a role in the ecology of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to man, but you’d be going way out on a limb to assume that right now,” said Gray, referring to the virus that causes covid-19 in people. “I don’t see any reason to change the social connectivity with our dogs or other dogs or to put any sort of respiratory apparatus on the dogs, like we’ve seen on the Internet.”
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist serving as technical lead for the World Health Organization’s coronavirus response, said at a news conference Thursday that the dog is an older animal that is “doing well.” The organization and its partners are looking more closely at other pets of covid-19 patients, she said.
Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told reporters that the role of animals is “always a question” with emerging diseases.
“Are animals intimately associated with the spread of this disease? The answer to that is no,” Ryan said. “This dog was a victim, more than others, and we need to establish quite clearly what part animals might play in further transmission.”
The Hong Kong government said it had consulted with local public health and veterinary experts, as well as the World Organization for Animal Health, before concluding the dog was infected. The dog will remain in quarantine until it tests negative, the agriculture department said, adding it “strongly advises” people who have covid-19 or have had close contact with infected people to quarantine any pet mammals.
But there’s no reason to fear pets, the department said.
“Apart from maintaining good hygiene practices, pet owners need not be overly concerned, and under no circumstances should they abandon their pets,” the department said.
Gail Golab, chief veterinary officer with the American Veterinary Medical Association, said in an email that the Hong Kong dog’s lack of symptoms could mean it “has a low level of infection, but that replication of the virus in the dog has not been sufficient to cause the dog to become ill.” Given that, she said, the association’s advice to pet owners remains the same: Focus on hygiene, and if ill, stay home and away from pets — “including petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food."
Humans can transmit pathogens to animals, though this direction — sometimes called “reverse zoonosis” — is less-studied than animal-to-human transmission, Gray said. Chimpanzees in several countries in Africa, for example, have been hard hit by respiratory illnesses that came from humans.
Most important for now is that people who are infected with or have been exposed to covid-19 think about their pets, too, Weese said — because of the unknowns about their vulnerability to infection, and because a pet can host the virus on its fur or skin, just as cash or a doorknob might.
“If I’m self-isolating at home and living in my basement, away from other people, but my cat comes to sit on my lap, and I cough on it and pet it, and it runs upstairs and rubs against my kid and goes outside, then we’ve maybe got a little bit of a problem,” Weese said. “Consider your cat just like your kid.”
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Pawz4me
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03/05/20 06:45pm |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: Shopping by phone or text
I don’t understand how a person can’t make time for shopping.
I'm not so sure that it's "can't" as much as it is "don't want to." People nowadays don't mind paying someone to do things they don't want to do. When I was a kid it was unheard of for middle class people to have a yard service or a house cleaning service. Now it's common, almost ubiquitous in my area. Many people have found that spending some money to free up more of their time for enjoyable things is worth it to them. Of course Walmart's pick up is free and works very well, so . . why not? I've only used it one time, just because I wanted to see how it worked. But I'm one of those weirdos who kind of enjoys shopping. I certainly understand why busy working parents use it.
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Pawz4me
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03/05/20 04:53pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Shopping by phone or text
I've only used Walmart's pickup service one time, but it worked very well and I was very satisfied with the merchandise selected. My neighbor has used it almost exclusively for almost a year. She has three kids, so lots of groceries. And she's very happy with it. I believe they have a very good guarantee as far as quality of produce selected and things like that. When I'm doing my shopping and observe their shoppers they really do seem to be conscientious about what they're picking. I've also observed the shoppers at a local grocery chain, and they also seem to be very conscientious. I wouldn't hesitate to use either.
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Pawz4me
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03/05/20 01:24pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Coronavirus
Deleted -- BCSnob posted at the same time and cleared it up.
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Pawz4me
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03/04/20 11:42am |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: Coronavirus
If this source is reliable (and I think it is), then the first case of human-to-pet transmission has now been documented.
Hong Kong health authorities confirmed on Wednesday that a pet dog belonging to a Covid-19 patient had contracted the coronavirus, with experts calling it the first reported case of human-to-animal transmission.
The Pomeranian, which repeatedly tested “weak positive” since last Friday – suggesting it was surface contamination, with the dog picking up traces of the virus in its nose and mouth rather than being actually infected – will now remain under quarantine with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department for further testing.
“It is positive to tests and has been infected, so it is now quarantined in a centre by the department,” health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee said during a regular press briefing.
“Further tests will be conducted and it will not be released until the tests return negative results.”
The department said experts from the University of Hong Kong, City University and the World Organisation for Animal Health had been consulted, and all “unanimously agreed that these results suggest that the dog has a low level of infection and it is likely to be a case of human-to-animal transmission”.
A spokesman stressed there was still no evidence that pet animals could be a source of infection of Covid-19 or that they could fall sick. He added that apart from maintaining good hygiene practices, pet owners need not be overly concerned and under no circumstances should they abandon their pets.
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Pawz4me
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03/04/20 08:50am |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: Preparing for isolation to avoid contact with Corona virus
"Everyone, by the time they reach adulthood, should have some immunity to some coronavirus,” said Tim Sheahan, a coronavirus researcher at University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health."
I'm sure Dr. Doug will be able to address this better than me, but common colds are also coronaviruses. So yes, just about everybody will have "some" immunity to "some" coronaviruses. I'm not sure that means that anyone will have ANY immunity to a novel coronavirus.
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Pawz4me
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03/03/20 02:49pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Preparing for isolation to avoid contact with Corona virus
"The true death rate could turn out to be similar to that of a severe seasonal flu, below 1 percent, according to an editorial published in the journal by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and Dr. H. Clifford Lane, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
I just happened to still have the editorial that the above quote comes from open in another tab. Here it is for anyone who wants to read the full piece --
Covid 19-Navigating the Uncharted
One needs to understand all the numbers, though. And I don't pretend to fully understand them. But I know enough to know that the reproduction rate (the rate of transmission) is very concerning, especially considering this is a novel virus for which no one has any immunity whatsoever. As I said before, focusing on mortality rates alone is shortsighted. It's the sheer number of people who may be infected, even mildly, and the disruption those numbers may cause to our health care systems, our first responders and other essential personnel (and yes--supply chains, too) that is most worrisome to me. And I say that as someone who is on an immuno-suppressant medication, and is the sole caregiver for a person with stage IV cancer, and for an elderly person. All of us can help slow the spread (which protects ALL of us) by doing the basic things the CDC, NIH, etc. are advising--wash hands often, cover coughs and sneezes, self quarantine if you feel sick, etc.
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Pawz4me
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03/03/20 07:24am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Preparing for isolation to avoid contact with Corona virus
the treatments are almost identical
I don't mean to pick on you. I'm sure it probably feels that way. I believe it's very important to stick to facts. And unfortunately the above statement is inaccurate. There is currently no known treatment for Covid 19. There are four antiviral medications that have been proven to treat influenza. The NIH has started a trial to see if the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir might be an effective treatment for Covid 19. I believe China is also doing its own trials.
Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., is an investigational broad-spectrum antiviral treatment. It was previously tested in humans with Ebola virus disease and has shown promise in animal models for treating Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which are caused by other coronaviruses.
“We urgently need a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19. Although remdesivir has been administered to some patients with COVID-19, we do not have solid data to indicate it can improve clinical outcomes,” said NIAID Director and U.S. Coronavirus Task Force member Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “A randomized, placebo-controlled trial is the gold standard for determining if an experimental treatment can benefit patients.”
(Bolding added by me for emphasis)
Link
Right now all that can be done for Covid 19 patients is to treat the symptoms and any secondary infections, and try to tamp down the immune response/cytokine storm that is causing most of the deaths.
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Pawz4me
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03/02/20 06:08pm |
Around the Campfire
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