Friday, March 18, 2016
Are You Afraid of Your Vet?
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What is normal for me, is not the normal for others. Surely, we are all guilty of this? In my profession I am conditioned to the sight of blood, the smell of vomit, poop, and intestines that are dying. I can diagnose almost as much with my eyes closed and my nose sniffing as with just my hands. But for those of you who are on the other side of the exam table I have to remind myself every single day to keep my veterinary lingo to a cool comfortable limited amount. To not lose or overwhelm a client with my big audacious words and demeanor.
If I can't convince you that I am here for the simple sake of helping your pet I have lost my purpose and strayed from helping both you AND your pet.
It was with this in mind that I provided my response to a friend's daughter when she wrote me asking for help with her elderly lab.
Hey Krista,
My lab - my love - is 12 and has arthritis and dysplasia very bad. More days than not, he has to be carried out to use the bathroom. I know if I take him to the vet, they will tell me to put him down, especially since he can't walk.
However, his mind is still good, and I just don't think he's ready. I make his meals, and give him meds, but now he has developed some sort of skin condition that is causing him to lose his hair very bad on his back end and stomach. It's almost yellowish and scaly on his stomach and his back end is just raw. Is there something I can do to ease this or should I take him in and hope for the best??
I'm sorry to bother you, but would truly appreciate any of your expertise.
Thank you!!!
My reply,
Hello,
The skin could be too many things for me to be able to guess without an exam and blood work. I would guess it's related to his overall health and would check blood work and any evidence of disease or immune system status. Most importantly you should never feel reluctant to go to the vet. It is not our place to judge you or make a decision for you. It is our job to help you understand what is happening to your pet with a diagnosis and offer you treatment options. In some cases I do think that a pet is suffering and that there are limited treatment options, so I will state this. But as long as my client has their pets best interest in mind, and the pet can eat drink pee and poop I offer pain management and extend a hand to help. Hospice is an option for all creatures and should always be offered. Whereas, euthanasia should never be a matter of convenience nor should it be the only option we provide.
There are lots of options for older dogs who struggle to get up and have pain, like injectable joint supplements, NSAIDs, glucosamine/chondroitin, physical therapy, water therapy, acupuncture and an orthopedic specialist, to name a few.
Go to your vet and explain everything that you told me. They can and will help. If they don't go elsewhere and remind that vet that they have failed you both.
That's your job, to look for help for your dog. It's our responsibility to be your pets advocate and help you both.
The answers are out there, but you have to find someone locally to start. I wish you the very best of luck.
Sincerely,
Krista
I saw my friend later that day and told her that I had replied to her daughters question. I also confessed to feeling saddened by her fears of being "reluctant to seek veterinary help because she believed that she would be forced to put her dog to sleep."
She replied, "Yes, we grew up in an area where our vet said to us, "Your dog is 12, why spend $300 to fix her? It's my recommendation that you put her down."" she paused. "It still upsets me to this day that we used to take their advice."
Another pause,, she started again,
"To which I would now reply, "Well, maybe we do."" She had changed her perception of what her role in taking care of her pet was. But that fear of not knowing what her options were, and what her dog was worth were still burnt into her memory. To her that dog was a family member, to their vet she was a commodity.
This is where my sailor mouth came out,,, and my passion lies..
"What the.. Do vets really say that?" I suppose they do?..may you all feel the burden of a heart bearing the burden of guilt of those who thought that euthanasia was their only option..
Dr. McCadden, our resident acupuncturist has an elderly dog with very weak back legs. We were talking about the options for him..I suggested trying to build him a cart.
Here is the labor of her husband's dog love..a cart from Home Depot stock that she says cost them abut $60.
Where there is a will there is always a way.
If you think that your pet is in need of help go look for someone who shares your view. Never settle for a lazy, uncaring, unwilling anyone..ever. There are some amazing rock star vets out there, knock on as many doors as you need to, one will open the door and help you, I promise.
If you have a pet question, a vet fear, or just need a shoulder to lean on, you can find me and a bunch of other animal rock stars at Pawbly.com. Pawbly is a place for all things animal related. If you have a question you can ask the community, or, if you take so many photos if your pets that you are fearing being labeled a "crazy cat/dog/ferret/horse/pig...whatever..person" you can post like mad on Pawbly. After all, we are all a little crazy when it comes to our pets!!, Why not join a group of people who embrace you for your pet passions?. And best yet, Pawbly is free for everyone to use.
Will Your Pet Have A Happily Ever After?
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There are many of us who are passionate about animals. I spent most of last evening with someone who was so passionate that she has been elevated from "oligarch owner" status to self proclaimed "adroit animal aggressor." She, and I, have a great deal in common.
When it comes to being committed to helping animals we are on the same team. We chant similar fight songs, viewpoints on the anthropomorphism, and would prefer to not go on vacation than leave our kids at home alone. But, we differ on a few points.
She was telling me a story about a dog she had been called to re-home many years ago. It seems the dog she was asked to help had been adopted by an elderly woman in her 70's after her husband had died. A few years later it was decided that the woman required full time care and needed to be taken to a retirement home, and so her companion needed to go elsewhere. She described in some detail how she believed the elderly woman was just being "selfish to adopt a pet when she was so old."
That conversation caused me to pause when I recollected the events of earlier in the week when I was talking to Dr.Morgan at the clinic.
Dr. Morgan and I were standing in the reception area. At her feet was a small Yorkie who I recognized immediately.
"What is Ben doing with you?" I asked.
I knew that Ben had been in the hospital all last week when Dr. Morgan removed multiple bladder stones and that he had appeared to be recovering well.
"I did Ben's surgery pro bono last week because his family couldn't afford it and his parents are going into a retirement home. The kids can't take him." And hence, since his recovery last week, Ben had been staying with Dr. Morgan. He was now her small silver shadow and where she went he was sure to follow.
I was dumbfounded. I had seen Ben and his mom for years and I couldn't imagine one without the other.
Dr. Morgan and I just stood there. Trying to put ourselves in the families shoes.
She said to me, "I'm not getting a pet when I grow older."
I looked at her and said, "That's bull. You will always have pets. Just like me. We couldn't exist without them."
"Yeah, you're right," she agreed.
And there we were contemplating how we keep our hearts whole, and not leave a pet to be disposed of when we can no longer care for them. And so we left it. A decision to be who we were, and a decision to hope that our family would understand that those we might leave behind still had value.
We watched as Ben's mom came in to say goodbye to her Ben. We all cried. I cried because Ben had spent all week following Tracy around like a lost sheep, until he saw his mom. He jumped, and squealed, and threw himself into her arms. We all cried. We all stood there facing their pivotal point in life that we all hope we never have to face.
Do I know what my decision will be when my time comes to be cared for and I can no longer care for my pets? Well, no. But I know that I will not let them pay for my mortality. That every speck of whatever is left of my life's accumulations and work can be left behind to care for my pets. Does my family understand my position on my pets? Yes, they do. We, my family, understands that my anthropomorphism transcends my physical life. That until the day comes where I am not of sound mind or body I will loose every single solitary physical possession to maintain the ability to care for my family, who in my case are my pets.
I have had long distressing conversations with clients who requested that I put their pets to sleep should they die. They have been the most difficult moments of my professional life. How do I tell a parent who is so worried and fearful that their pets will be abused, neglected, or hurt after they depart that they would choose to put them to sleep, that I cannot honor their fears? I can only be honest. I try to retell stories like Ben's, and remind people that there are other people out there who love pets as we do, and that your final act of love for your pets is to give them another chance at a happy life. Where there are happy, healthy days left to live there is desire in every pet to run, play, wag, purr, smile, love and breathe. How can, and why would, you deny them this?
As for Ben; he is an extension of our Jarrettsville Vet family. He has been with Dr. Morgan for two weeks, and will go to his new home on Sunday. Because where we can find a way to make a happy ending we will always do so.
We wish Ben and his mom a happy ever after, and we will keep them both in each others heart and minds with frequent picture postings.
As far as the pets you leave behind, please come up with a plan for them. They need you to be the one who sees them as a child to be cared for after you can no longer do so.
This week also brings the return of Frankie, who's parents died suddenly and unexpectedly. She is once again looking for another home to call her own. For information on her please email me, or find me at the clinic, Jarrettsville Vet.
And as always, remember to hug your kids. Life is a very short and precious thing.
Many Thanks to Dr. Morgan for being Ben's lifesaver, for Kathleen for giving Ben a home, and for Claudia in never giving up on Frankie.
On Pets: A Provocation for Uncanny Ethics
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I call the two cats that live with me my pets. I cringe a little when people refer to their pets as if they were their children. I cringe even more when people call their pets their roommates. Are these cringes fair? Probably not. Pets are a complicated matter.
Those who have read Deleuze and Guattari probably know about their infamous cry that "Anyone who likes cats or dogs is a fool," (ATP p. 240, emphasis in the original). This rejection of domestic pets is something found not just throughout A Thousand Plateaus, but also in the opening discussion of L’Abécédaire. He explains there that despite having a cat in his household, he hates having a human relationship, and instead wants an animal relationship to animals. His concern, in both texts, is less with the animal herself, and more with how the domesticated pet oedipalizes humans. In other words, he is interested in the ways that pets are used as immunization against our own animality. I find that interesting, but that is not what makes me cringe. Instead, I want to focus on how our human relationships to pets, our decisions to make them one of the family, immunizes ourselves not against our shared animality, but rather our non-shared sovereignty. We take what should be an entirely uncanny, disturbing ethical relationship, and we, well, domesticate it. As usual, a complex ethical situation is suppressed for the desire of the innocence in roommates or children.
Why is the ethical relationship to pets one that should disturb? That should be uncanny? In a recent interview with 3:AM Magazine, Lori Gruen discussed the ethics of captivity. Her argument, that our pets are really also our captives, is important. I quote at length:
The ethical issues around captivity are remarkably complex and it is surprising how little philosophical attention has been paid to them. [...] When we start thinking about pets or “companion animals” as captives then we may start reflecting in new ways on how we treat them. Clare Palmer and Peter Sandoe wrote a provocative chapter in the book that questions the received wisdom that routinely confining cats indoors promotes their well-being. Cats may be happy with our affections and their lives may be longer if we keep them safe indoors, but there is a loss here, to their freedom to go where they want and interact with and shape their larger environment. In captive contexts, the trade-offs, between safety and freedom, protection and choice, are often obscured. [...] Seeing pets as captives, I think, does bring some of the complexities of captivity into sharper focus. [...] One justification for keeping individuals captive has been that captivity is better for them. In the context of companion animals and zoo animals, for example, one often hears that they will live longer lives and they won’t have to worry about injury or predation or hunger. The sense is that they are better off having lost their freedom. The same sorts of justifications were also heard in the case of slaves. Captors wanted to believe that slaves were better off, became more civilized, more human, because of their captivity. Of course, this is odious in the case of human beings, and there are some who argue that this attitude is equally objectionable in the case of other animals. Comparing captivity to a type of slavery, some animal advocates are opposed to all forms of captivity, even keeping pets. They take the label “abolitionist” as a way of linking their views to earlier abolitionist struggles to end slavery. But I think our relationships with other animals (of course humans, but also nonhumans) are a central part of what makes lives meaningful. Rather than thinking we must end all captivity and thus all our relationships with other animals, we’d do better working to improve those relationships by being more perceptive of and more responsive to others’ needs and interests and sensibilities. Since we are already, inevitably, in relationships, rather than ending them we might try to figure out how to make them better, more meaningful, and more mutually satisfying. Importantly, by recognizing that we are inevitably in relationships to other animals, replete with vulnerability, dependency, and even some instrumentalization, and working to understand and improve these relationships, I’m not condoning exploitation. Acknowledging that we are in relationships doesn’t mean that all relationships are equally defensible or should stay as they are. Relationships of exploitation or complete instrumentalization are precisely the sorts of relationships that should change. And this is where an exploration of conditions of captivity and the complexity of the individual captives’ interests comes in. Some animals, like whales and elephants, cannot thrive in captive conditions. As much as we might want to have closer relationships with them, it isn’t good for them. Others, like dogs and chimpanzees, can live meaningful lives in captivity but only if the conditions they are captive in are conducive to their flourishing and they are respected. Part of the problem with captivity is the relationship of domination that it tends to maintain. By re-evaluating captivity (and for many in our non-ideal situation, there is no real alternative) we can start to ask questions about whether and how captive conditions can, while denying certain freedoms, still promote the dignity of the captives.
When we talk about our pets as children or roommates, we are disavowing the fundamental, more confusing relationship we have with our pets. How do we go about undoing this moral sleight of hand? One way can be by focusing on the disconnect between our rhetoric of how we think of other animals, and how we treat our pets. In Kennan Ferguson's wide-ranging and fascinating book, All in the Family: On Community and Incommensurability, he examines the relationships between humans and dogs in his chapter, "I ♥ My Dog." The chapter opens with the predicament of spending money to save your dog's life (or even to make her life more comfortable or happier), versus spending money to give to aid agencies to save the lives of other humans. Despite all of our claims that humans' lives matter more than animals, those of us with pets both do and do not act like this. On the one hand, the money we spend on our pets could easily translate into saving the lives of humans; on the other hand, our relationship to our pet will never be like the relationships with other humans in our household. The pet becomes this sort of strange liminal being. This realization is what moved Erica Fudge to ask, "Is a pet an animal?," which she follows up with this observation, "They are both human and animal; they live with us, but are not us; they have names like us, but cannot call us by our names" (Animal, pp. 27-28). Deleuze's desire that we have animal relationships toward our pets cannot but seem foolish now. After all, you cannot relate to a pet as an animal, or as a human. The pet forms a kind of becoming-human, a minor subject who enters into a becoming of a majoritarian subject. No wonder pets, dogs and cats, constantly haunt the arguments of A Thousand Plateaus. How much easier the world would be for Deleuze if it only had wolves.
As is infamously known since Donna Haraway's When Species Meet, Deleuze and Guattari write:
It is clear that the anomalous is not simply an exceptional individual; that would be to equate it with the family animal or pet, the Oedipalized animal as psychoanalysis sees it, as the image of the father, etc. Ahab's Moby-Dick is not like the little cat or dog owned by an elderly woman who honors and cherishes it. Lawrence's becoming-tortoise has nothing to do with a sentimental or domestic relation. (ATP p. 244)
Of course, Delezue is trying to invoke a certain image of an "elderly woman" here, but there is another image that an elderly woman with her dog or cat that she honors and cherishes should conjure up for us.
Regardless of age (but not class), in the witch trials there is a constant identification between female sexuality and bestiality. This is suggested by copulation with the goat-god (one of the representations of the Devil), the infamous kiss sub cauda, and the charge that the witches kept a variety of animals, called "imps" or "familiars," with whom they entertained a particularly intimate relation. These were cats, dogs, hares, frogs the witch cared for, presumably suckling them from special teats; other animals, too, played a crucial part in her life as instruments of the Devil: goats and (night)mares flew her to the Sabbath, toads provided her with poisons for her concoctions – such was the presence of animals in the witches’ world that one must conclude they too were being put on trial. (Federici, Caliban and the Witch, p. 194).
The witch's familiar represents another vision of our relationship with other animals. These animals, of course, are not the mere pets of the witch, rather, a familiar is a witch's assistant. While I have not done the research to know the history of how we called the witch's animal companions familiars, I cannot help but see the name as being a little ironic. After all, the familiar of the witch's is also uncanny, it is a being that exists in excess of what we imagine defines the being. The familiar is that which "ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light." And what secret is that? Why, that of animal agency. The familiar is not just a pet, but also an actor.
We know that the domestication of other animals have been part and parcel of both settler colonialism and global capitalism. The abolition of domestic relationships seem straightforward when dealing with animals treated as livestock. But, what do we do with pets? Kari Weil, in her Thinking Animals, argues for us to take seriously the agency of other animals when we think about pets. She wants us to take seriously the question "could animals have 'chosen' domestication[?]" (p. 56). This is not some sort of an idea of a social contract or species contract in which animals choose to enter into a pact with humans where we provide for them and treat them humanely and the animals agree for us to eat them. Rather, it is the acknowledgement that other animals have been active participants in their own history, and this might be especially true for the unique intersubjective relationship between pet and human. It is an affirmation that not all domestication has been conscious, and that humans can be domesticated by animals as much as animals are domesticated by humans. And this brings us back to that uncomfortable truth that Gruen raises for us. Namely, that many domesticated animals, including many pets, would no longer exist outside of their relationships with humans.
The animal abolitionist wants to destroy the property status of other animals. And when we think of the animals trapped in abattoirs and factory farms and laboratories, this makes perfect sense. But what do we do with our cats and our dogs, what becomes of our pets? The usual abolitionist line is that we love and care for these animals as best as possible, and we work hard to make sure they are the last generation (through spaying and neutering). It would be too easy to wave my hand at this point, and gesture toward the absurdity of loving animals to death, of loving animals to extinction. But there is a real love here. When I think of the turkey, so changed and transformed she can no longer reproduce of her own, when I think of her body that grows so large it crushes her bones and organs, I cannot help but think we should love and care for these turkeys as best as possible, and work hard to make sure they are the last generation. Our tendency to breed animals with the thought of the corpse backwards, so that life is but preservation for the animal's flesh, has made it so that there are some animals that are no longer born living, but born deading. But most dogs and cats? They are still born living. But they are also born dependent on humans for a good life. The abolitionist desire here seems clear enough, better that an animal no longer exist than for her to be born a slave. But is this really true? I can't help but believe the abolitionist desire to no longer have pets is a bit like the person who claims their pet is their child. They are both disavowals of the great asymmetry in our intersubjective relationship. They are both claims toward innocence rather than facing the hard work of ethics.
I love my cats. And it is part of this love that means I am haunted by my cats, and the decisions that I make for them. I am disturbed by keeping them inside in the city, and disturbed by letting them outside in the country. I spay and neuter my cats, and am horrified by people who declaw their cats, and understand the sovereign violence in both decisions. I am haunted by cats, and I wish they were familiars. I wish my black cats came from pacts with the Devil, and that they could speak a language I could understand. But they are not familiars, and all I have is the opaque affective communication of our intersubjective relation. They are not familiars, but are instead that uncanny being, they are pets.
Visit the real page here : http://criticalanimal.blogspot.com/2014/10/on-pets-provocation-for-uncanny-ethics.html
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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Miracle's Touch
I gave myself a little ultimatum last week..I would write the blog about dealing with the days after saying goodbye, then I would close the last chapter and the back cover of the book of Savannah's life and put it on the shelf.
I would walk away with a sense of closure, relief, and move on..
If only life was so easy., But we all know it isn't. Our heart doesn't always listen, or obey, our head.
I have put away all of Savannah's blankets, bedding, rugs, bowls, baby gates, and baby monitors. I have given away all of her clothes, her harnesses, and anything else of any value to another pet in need. Having the daily visual reminders left me feeling as if I was forgetting someone?, something?, somewhere?, and all of the worry that has consumed me for a year flooded back on top of me.
Today, two weeks later, I cleaned out the cupboards of junk pet food, baby food, cat food, soup, and supplements, and medications that I had gotten for her. Two bags of food stuffs and meds to leave at the clinic for some other pet struggling to find anything interesting enough to contemplate prehending and swallowing. Older dogs, sick dogs, and medicated dogs often need a change of pace to be coaxed into eating. Or, maybe her pile will have the possible elusive miracle elixir for another pet suspected of suffering from cognitive dysfunction, sleep arrythmia, infection, pain, anxiety..the list goes on.
Savannah will once again try to help another pet even though she isn't present.
Her reminders might be packed and distributed but the house is still brimming with cards, flowers, and trinkets sent from far and wide. The generous gestures of condolences and sympathies from people who read Savannah's story and were touched enough so to send a card, a basket of flowers, a tiny rose bush, a medallion in silver that reads "Always With You", and some of the most heart felt words of encouragement, sympathy and understanding imaginable.
There are many people to Thank. I wanted to send a special "thanks" to you all..I am grateful from the very bottom of my heart.
On Thursday night I helped a family say goodbye to their beloved German Shepherd. He was the shadow of every step of the last decade of their lives. Mom, dad, and two boys sobbing in desperate grief over saying goodbye to their very ill but still soo stoic and brave dog. Half of the staff told me that they couldn't be present. They knew that dog too well, were too sad to be present, and the tears of two young boys was all too much. I understand. But, someone had to help this dog who clearly was ready to move onto a life without pain and trouble breathing..so I had to help.
As I sat in the room with the family the mom looked at me tears streaming down her face and said, "I told my co-workers that I wasn't sure I could work tomorrow. They laughed at me. That I would need bereavement for my dog."
All I could do was hug her, and tell her that "there are some people who never know what it is to love, and therefore they never understand what it is to grieve."
I know how lucky I am to be surrounded by people who understand. There is great comfort in knowing that I don't have to explain why I am sad, why I feel a sense of loss, and why I need time and space.
I cherish the letters, I will keep them forever. I will use them to help my clients, my staff, and myself. Loving a pet is simply a way to feel less alone..that's what we give to each other..Thank you Savannah, family, and friends for giving me that..
I wanted to share a few letters that I thought might help others;
Dr. Magnifico,
I am not a client of your vet center but follower of your Facebook site. A friend recommended your site after my dog Miracle passed. I have enjoyed also your blog. You made me smile and cry with all of the adventures. Most of all dear Savannah caught my heart and I cheered for her and prayed.
It is strange how people often question why some people work so hard to extend a good life for a pet.
Why?
It comes down to true love.
Most people don't understand it. But both of us do.
Savannah and you were a team and like a soldier you don't leave a member behind. No one could have done a better job.
As I read your goodbye blog my heart broke for you and I cried. All battles do have an end that I know. The battle has been finished but in my eyes you won. She was surrounded by people and animals that loved her. Wren's pictures with tears proved that.
The years of love and memories will carry us until we meet our beloved animals again.
Just let me say - A job well done.
Take care dear lady,
Sharon
Also from Sharon,
I would hope that in a person's lifetime they get to share their life with an animal. And if you are very lucky one that becomes your best friend. I was lucky to share almost 15years with an extraordinary mix breed dog that was left on the side of the road. We rescued each other.
At her passing Miracle's Touch became alive to help pay forward kindness that we had recieved. Every month part of what had been Mir's monthly medicine cost is still put aside to share with others.
It is with great honor Miracle's Touch would like to donate in Savannah's memory..to your hospital fund to help other animals. She was an amazing animal who reminded me of my dog.
Memories can never be taken away from us. Our hearts will never ever be the same but we were blessed.
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