Story: some good news about aphrodite!

[CarolC]

Yeah, you definitely need to be sure it is a safe enclosure--top too, for hawks. Mine is just on grass, but it is an enclosure inside a fenced backyard inside a city of 1,000,000. The real varmints are human. A four-legged marauder would have to tunnel under the yard fence, then under the enclosure fence. Also, my cat does not stay out there all day, he spends most of the day in the house but he likes being outside.

[Robyn]

Carol, plain blueberry juice is just as effective for urinary tract health as cranberry juice. I hope (because I don't KNOW) blueberries are okay for cats; if so, a health food store will sell plain juice, and if you are near a Trader Joe's, they also sell plain cranberry as well as plain blueberry juices (as in no other sweeteners or fruit juices).

[Robyn]

Heather, I often come across women who claim that they try to do monthly breast self exam but they're just not sure they're doing it right or what they're feeling for. I always tell them to start out either in the shower and do the exam while soaped up, or afterward or before bed with a dollop of lotion and practice a massage type of motion with the fingers. When all else fails, it helps to close the eyes and visualize what it is you're feeling and feeling for.
It may be worth a try, even though a very messy try, but put some jojoba oil in your hands and then do a massage sort of movement on Aphrodite's belly. Don't concentrate on 'looking' for anything, just massage and close your eyes if you can and simply get to know the different little bulges and such that your fingers come across. Sometimes, it helps to purposely NOT look for anything, and you might just find what you're not looking for.
Also try it both ways -- with her lying on her back and with her in a natural position. Lying down, you can move her intestines 'out of the way' sometimes, and with her in a natural position, the bladder can 'drop' closer to the skin's surface and be easier to palpate.

[Barbara Boehmer]

There are all kinds of materials and methods that you can use for costructing an enclosure. Mine is 30 feet long parallel to the house by 18 feet away from the house by 6 feet tall. The wall of the house is one side and the other three sides are chain link panels, with a gate in one panel. Some of the panels are 6 feet by 6 feet and some are 6 feet by 10 feet. They connect to one another with panel clamps that you put a bolt through to a nut on the other side. I was concerned about digging under, so I used chain link panels on the ground around the edges as well, leaving the center portion open. The chain link panels on the bottom are covered with dirt and grass, so you can't tell they are there. I used rolls of wire mesh that is stronger than chicken wire with slightly bigger holes, but lighter weight than wire, for the top. There are several strips of wire mesh, 30 feet long by 6 feet wide across the top. The wire mesh is attached to the top poles of the chain link panels with hose clamps and each section of wire mesh is attached to the adjoining section with wire cage clips. I have a dwarf avocado tree in the center section and pots with various bushes (red tip photinia fraseri, pygmy date palm, camelia, and others) around the edges of the interior. I put vertical green plastic slats through the chain link panels. I have some vines (honeysuckle, star jasmine, creeping fig) planted around the exterior that have grown up over the sides and are beginning to spread across the top. I also have some bushes and dwarf fruit trees (peach, cherry) planted between the enclosure and the backyard fence. The whole thing is very safe and secure and provides significant shade and privacy. The biggest problem I had was with the top sagging. I added some pvc supports, by just making a rectangular free-standing frame using straight pieces, elbows, and tees, but they bent too much. I have since added a similar support made of half-inch diameter copper water pipe, that is much sturdier.

[Robyn]

I would never call a veterinarian "stupid" unless I had good reason to know that the vet was actually incompetent.
A vet can be impersonal and maybe act like s/he should be in another line of work (like drilling for oil somewhere in the Sahara or blowing up mountains), but that doesn't make him/her 'stupid'.
To call a vet 'stupid' implies that you know more than the vet does, and I highly doubt that.

I say this because I can't tell you how many times I've heard a patient refer to this doctor or that doctor as 'stupid' just because the patient wasn't getting his/her way. Usually what that means is that th epatient felt s/he needed immediate attention or drugs or diagnostic work-up for some thing or other and the doctor (rightly) disagreed. If you think you know more than the doctor does, then get your medical license and go into practice for yourself. Same with veterinary medicine.

[critters]

I have to say that I HAVE run into vets who were stupid, or, at least, extremely closed-minded. Around here, ANY disability or difference is highly apt to be considered a death sentence from the vet world, including CH, seizures, and blindness.

Even the vets I trust know I know more about disabilities than they do, and I don't mind being a resource for them. For instance, yes, they can express, but they don't do it day in and day out. They don't diaper, and they didn't realize the likelihood of radial nerve healing until I proved it to them with Tristalyn. NOBODY knows everything, not a vet or an MD either; my area of specialization happens to be narrow, and pretty complete in that range.

As for getting my vet license, I would consider it if I didn't have to move all the way across the state to do it; at my age it'd be more trouble than it was worth.

[Jean]

Dear Robyn,
I can't really speak for Bendy but there are vets out there that are NOT knowledgeable concerning special needs pets. Like Critters said many of them need to be educated concerning the progress that is likely in a pet with a SC injury when they are given time to heal.

Most owners either choose not to treat or do not have the financial resources to treat a severe SC injury. As a result, many vets are clueless. That is evident when they say the pet should be euthanized in 2 weeks if progress is not noted. Continually, that time frame of 2 weeks is mentioned by owners who frequent this bb.

I guess I consider it a good trait when a vet is willing to learn from an owner that has "gone the distance" with a severe SC injured "fur child."
Jean

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

one left St.Jude with 2 sharp shards of bone scraping his pelvis after his fho. And sent me a bill for $8000.
Another killed my AllixMurderedPup dead, because altho he catheterized her, he did not evacuate her. She asphyxiated on her feces on her way to another vet, because this one wouldn't operate. Too dangerous he said. I screamed "She is DEAD without surgery!" So I found a doc who would operate, and said the ground breaking meds this doc was administering (as he told me) the medical community had been using for 40 years. Imagine a death more hideous? Only my son's. Who was under a doctors care as well. hmmm...
Yeah I got a bunch of stupid doctor tales to tell.
We won't even go into my stupid doctor who nearly killed me. Nearly let me bleed to death internally. A gastroenterologist! Said I had bleeding gums and the blood I was vomiting was swallowed from my mouth. 4 transfusions and 3 surgeries later, something that could have been prevented with proper care at the gitgo.
Let's share stories, wot? wot?
Some of us survived in spite of our medical care, but the two most important DID NOT!!!

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

Was NO WAY I would trust my baby's life with these inHUMANE PEOPLE.
I found another hospital immediately and taught them EVERYTHING they know about the homozygous genetic defect! They Love the Lethals!

[Robyn]

I agree with both of you; however, not being knowledgeable in the arena of special needs is not tantamount to being 'stupid'. Thickheaded, stubborn, cold, clueless, yes those terms are accurate, but 'stupid' is not.
I wouldn't get on the soapbox about it except that ... if the vet is 'stupid', then what does that say for the person who takes his/her pets to that vet for care and treatment, and keeps going back.
The reason so many vets seem clueless about elderly/ special needs care is because this is a fairly new field of expertise. It wasn't so long ago that animals were routinely euthanized for even a broken leg. I think it's amazing that this board is peopled by so many experienced caregivers, and every day at work I mention some thing or other that I've learned about pet care.
Aphrodite's vet sounds like a blockhead, but not stupid, not at all. If I treated my mammogram patients that way when they ask me about breast self exam or the best way(s) to detect cancers, I wouldn't be serving them to the best of my ability, and nor would I be doing my job saving lives through education and early-detection mammography. But I also wouldn't be 'stupid'.

[Robyn]

I'm sorry to hear of your terrible experiences. Yours are extreme, and sadly you aren't alone. Where mental illness is concerned (which I assume is what your son suffered from), the number of people who commit suicide while ostensibly under a doctor's care (or some other professional's) is astounding, but I can't fairl attribute all of those deaths to the doctors' or professionals' failures.
I am not saying that stupid doctors, incompetent doctors and the same for veterinarians don't exist. I am saying, however, that a vet who isn't very compassionate toward a pet-ma who is willing, able and wants to learn to care for a disabled pet vs putting it down, is not a 'stupid' vet. Aphrodite's vet is guilty of needing an attitude adjustment, not of stupidity.

That is the only point I'm trying to make.

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

He was being treated for anxiety because he lived under a threat of death (felony auto. 5 years, but gollly gee, stupid deputy could not trace the cingular to cingular telephone call) for testifying against a gangsta who beat him and 5 Crowne Plaza interns senseless counting coup.
He died when his baby died. But he was on Zoloft and Xanax. I've done a TON of research on those drugs. Aint good. When my doc Rxd them for me, I threw out the Rx.

[Bendy Kitty]

nor does lack of education make a person stupid

there are stupid people in all walks of life, some with many letters after their name and some with none.

bendy

[Bendy Kitty]

she got a 10 x 10 dog pen and put a roof on it that is made from a roll of welded wire fencing.
there is a cat door that goes out to it. It is for Bast, who is much happier with a little fresh air. Bastie and I are kept seperate because she wants to eat me, so I don't get to play in the pen but i do go out on a leash from time to time.

you'll get the expressing, just keep on practicing. glad you found a vet there who is willing to work with you, that is so important.

headbonks and purrs,

bendy

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]