Recent Posts

Hello!
 I've been following Kuper's story, and am located in southern KS..unfortunately, not able to send a PM yet, but wondered if you have had any offers on the little guy?



(Edited because Roscoe decided he needed to type.. silly boy)

I really thank every one for sharing your very different experiences...it really helps and I appreciate it, a lot  .

My current thought right now after snuggling up with Spartan (my now oldest rat @ 1 1/2 years) and sitting in the middle of my animal room...I want to bond all four of my bunnies...even try to bond in my 8 1/2 year old foster who has never been with another bunny. This is extremely difficult because all 4 are neutered MALES and I have failed many times due to no patience, but I think I really want to try once my temp. foster kitties leave at the end of this month...so I have the spare room to use for bunny bonding.

I think I just need to give myself something animal related (with my current animals) to keep my mind off of getting new pets because of Leo dying. With all four (or even a pair) of bonded bunnies...it will be like getting a "new" pet, if that makes sense.



That is just my current thought right now, who knows how my head and heart will feel tomorrow. I like this idea and I hope it doesn't fail again.

      I'd chew through that cube myself for some of those upside-down rattie kisses     

pimpin la eggs

Long sleeve t-shirts so they can't directly touch your skin!!  Yes, I know in the middle of summer who wants to do this.... but I also get hives and they itch like crazy.  A layer of clothing to prevent direct contact really does help.

i give her the subee's mix with dogfood, every once in a while we give her an egg or a little bit of chicken.  Should i also be giving her blocks too, or just change her diet? i thought you didn't need to give them blocks if you had the mix as a stapple.
I'm still fairly new to owning rats i've only had mine for about a year and i never had a problem with my boys. So if i'm doing something wrong please let me know, because i want my little ones to be healthy.

Im not picking on you. I did read what you have written including the bit about the other car. That car does not exist in your reality for at least 10 1/2 hours of your day. He is fairly close at 40 min but if there is a reason to need the car its a bit of a drive or someone doesnt go into work on the bad weather days or if the kids are sick and need to go to the dr. How often do you go shopping when your husband has the other car? A rubbermaid action packer works pretty good for that, you just need to remember to take it with you.

I also live in NC. It does get cold and snows a little bit. What are you planning to do on days with high wind, tornado warnings and heavy rain or snow. You can ride in all of that. Can you handle riding in all that. I was able to when I was 18-20 but now that Im in my 40s it seems to make me nervous.

The other thing that I did read is that you are working 2 jobs. If that makes your work day longer than 8 hrs you also need to consider sloppiness and inattention that can be caused from fatigue. This is one thing that I have to be careful of because I work 12 hr days and I only have a 4 mile ride home.

I never thought you were a kid. Your teenagers don't have their own car. If they need you to take them somewhere when all you have is the MC will they be comfortable with that. A good example is this morning my son missed the bus, I had to take him to school. He doesn't like to ride on the bike, I had to take the car instead.

I also see some justifying going on in your numbers.  I know for a fact you would not be stuck with a $360 month car payment. I pay that much for my 2007 SUV. A cheap kia would do just fine. I used car would be excellent. I have a truck with 107K on it and I paid $1500 for it.

As far as the cost of the MC I do have a question. I thought I read that the rebel you were looking at was new. However, at a cost including financing (by totaling the payments) of only $1566 Im assuming its used and much older.  Make sure it has very good tires and has had the maintenance done. Also rubber deteriorates quickly on a bike, be careful of old brake lines etc.

I also would like to know who you went through for your insurance. My bike is not considered a sport bike, I pay $54 a month insurance on 2 bikes together, for 100/300/100 full insurance and 10,000 medical (you really should have additional medical on a motorcycle). this is both bikes combined. It doesnt seem like much but NC rates were even higher which is why I wanted to know who you went through. Im in Hickory, NC not really a metropolis  .

I also have a $250 deductible and towing included. These are things you really should have if you are relying on it for transportation. It is impossible for me to come up with $500 to cover an insurance deductible in a short amount of time. This would delay getting back on the road.

It doesnt matter if the tires are for a ninja or a rebel. The number one most important thing is to keep traction when operating both bikes in an identical manner.

Two very important things that are independent of type of motorcycle. Ability to panic stop without losing traction and ability to stop when the road is wet without losing traction. It also doesnt take much of a lean to spill a bike in a corner. ALL bikes lean around corners. All riders make mistakes,  a good tire will hopefully keep you upright when you make a mistake.

I also dont use sport bike tires. The rims are too small. Im stuck with old fashioned bias ply tires. Your life depends on your choice of tires. Dont go cheap. BTW you can get excellent tires for the Ninja for about $75 each its the mounting and balancing that kills me. The dealers dont carry them and they charge a fortune or wont mount them at all because I didnt get them there.

You can take this for what it is. I am giving you advice based on years of hearing similar stories only to see the bike end up for sale at a loss because it didnt work out the way they planned.

Hi Scout, I was thinking the same thing. If mom is double rex, then all the babies should be rex. But we know for a fact the dad is a standard coat, don't know what he carries though.
So you think these babies are hairless?

Here's another picture of mom:



Tomorrow, I'll post the two possible dads.

My younger daughter -now 16 (don't start!) - still gets mildly offended because I tend to tell people what wonderful pets rats make, a "good will" ambassador, so to speak.  So far I've only gotten some disbelieving looks, although I did get one very negative response - one out of about 15 or so - when I had two boys with me at work who needed to se the vet at lunch time (5 minutes from work, 20 minutes from home. )

I would not reccommend Lyme vaccines even in endemic areas. Dogs just don't react to Lyme's Disease like people and alot of dogs test positive and never have any symptoms. If they do exhibit symptoms then a couse of doxy is prescribed. I went onto IVIS.org (my trusty info site for all sorts of info only most vets get.. ok I posed as a student and subscribed ) and found this article, among others that pretty much say the same exact thing. I only pasted relevant parts of the article.. it talks about stuff not really pertaining to Lyme's (ie other tick borne illnesses and Lyme's stats in affected people)

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In:  NAVC Proceedings 2006, North American Veterinary Conference (Eds). Publisher: NAVC (www.tnavc.org). Internet Publisher: International Veterinary Information Service, Ithaca NY (www.ivis.org), Last updated: 11-Jan-2006.

Lyme Disease: What to Do When the Snap Is Positive
M.P. Littman

School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.


ASYMPTOMATIC SEROPOSITIVE DOGS IN LYME-ENDEMIC AREAS
Since the SNAP test includes the heartworm antigen screening test, it is often used on healthy dogs. In endemic areas, veterinarians are finding many asymptomatic seropositive dogs with antibodies against the C6 peptide antigen on the SNAP test, which is a sensitive and specific test for natural exposure. Some veterinarians have decided not to use the SNAP test as their heartworm screening test precisely because they don't want to know the Lyme test results on a healthy dog. Finding a positive Lyme titer in those dogs may open a can of worms that many vets just don't want to deal with. It means educating ourselves and educating the owners. That takes time, work, even talent- maybe let's not go there. But the best veterinarians in my opinion are using the SNAP test, educating themselves, and communicating with owners, teaching them about tick control and public health issues and what there's evidence for and what there's not. I think owners really appreciate veterinarians who can do that.

Knowing the seroprevalence in healthy dogs in your community will help you assess the risk for exposure in your area. You will be able to emphasize to owners the importance of careful property landscaping as well as chemical tick control if you have the facts about seroprevalence in the neighborhood. Once you know the seroprevalence for Lyme positivity in your practice, you will also know what percentage of dogs sick with cancer, cruciate rupture, etc. will be seropositive just by chance, and that you should not be so quick to make a diagnosis of Lyme disease without doing a thorough work-up.

If you are using the SNAP test in a Lyme-endemic area, chances are you will see a lot of asymptomatic positive dogs. There are areas where 70 to 90% of the healthy and sick dogs are seropositive. A study in such an area showed no association with positive titer (or how high the titer was) for prediction of illness or severity of illness. The main questions we have when we get positive SNAP tests on healthy dogs are these: (1) Should we treat them? (2) What should we tell the owners? (3) Should we monitor them in some way? (4) Should we vaccinate them? Here are my answers.

Should We Treat Them?
I don't treat all asymptomatic Lyme-positive dogs. Most (>95%) will not get sick from Lyme disease. In some areas, 90% of the healthy dogs are Lyme-positive and I think treating all those dogs is not good medicine. Some dogs could have side effects from treatment, and using antibiotics rampantly (for one month, each dog) could cause general microbial resistance in our environment. Besides, there are studies that show that one month of antibiotics doesn't even clear all dogs of the carrier state. There are situations in which I do treat an asymptomatic dog, for instance, if it has proteinuria (see the question about monitoring below), or if the owner is very concerned about possible Lyme nephropathy for some reason.

What Should We Tell the Owners?
I tell the owners that their dog has been exposed to Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease, and that most (>95%) seropositive dogs remain asymptomatic carriers in a premunitive state, and are not genetically predisposed to getting that sick with Lyme disease (different than in humans, where <10% are asymptomatic). I tell them about the experimental tick-exposure model of canine Lyme disease studied at Cornell, in which exposed 6- to 12-week-old Beagle puppies had no signs of illness until 2 to 5 months after exposure; then they had a 4-day illness that went away without treatment. The self-limiting illness included anorexia, fever, and lameness with joint swelling in the leg closest to the tick bite. Some pups had a few other episodes which were similar or even milder in the same leg or different leg, several weeks apart, but again these went away without any treatment. Older puppies had even less trouble and adult Beagles seroconverted without any signs of illness. Dogs are also different than humans in that dogs have no acute illness, whereas people often get flu-like signs and a rash soon after the tick bite. Other manifestations of Lyme disease seen in people, such as neurologic, cardiac, or skin signs are rare and not well-documented in dogs. Canine Lyme arthritis is usually very responsive to a short course of inexpensive, safe, oral antibiotics (doxycycline). I don't recommend treating healthy seropositive dogs because there is no evidence of benefit. Some dogs do seem to be genetically predisposed to having more serious forms of Lyme disease, which are probably immune-mediated diseases triggered by Lyme antigens, such as polyarthropathy (which is treated with doxycycline and sometimes steroids). If we're very unlucky, we may see immune-mediated glomerulonephritis and protein-losing nephropathy, especially in Labradors, Golden retrievers, and Shelties. That is why I recommend that all seropositive dogs be screened for proteinuria (see next question).

Should We Vaccinate These Dogs?
I do not recommend using Lyme vaccines. There is no evidence that Lyme vaccines help treat or clear the carrier state, and giving dogs Lyme antigens via vaccination may theoretically contribute to more immune-complex deposition in their kidneys or synovia, if they are so inclined. We stress good tick control in Lyme-endemic areas, because we have many tick-borne diseases to worry about besides Lyme disease.

References
1. Littman MP. Canine borreliosis. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract 2003;33(4):827-862.
2. Littman MP. Lyme disease in dogs. Standards of Care: Emerg and Crit Care Med 2004;6(5):1-6.