Volunteer Work- possibly the last straw

Disclaimer: VERY sad blog for animal lovers to read... but I know you all will anyway.

So, I was very excited to go see the chief investigator from the SPCA teach a class on animal cruelty investigations today. He was teaching at the city shelter I volunteer on the weekends for. However, the last week some really horrible stories have emerged about the shelter, and I didn't feel like I could even go down there. Not even that I couldn't go down there... but that I would be humiliated to sit in a room and show affiliation with them... that I would be a hypocrite learning about animal cruelty investigations at the headquarters of a place that should be shut down for animal cruelty... and that I didn't want to benefit from any of their resources. That might sound dramatic, and I have been torn between continuing to volunteer to help animals get out of there, and not wanting to have anything to do with this awful organization. The article speaks for itself. This particular article was written by an animal rights group here, but it gets the story across in its entirety better than any of the newspaper articles can. People have been following the story so closely here that many of the true news station articles just assume background knowledge when writing on the story. So, article below:




BARC to remove a dog’s eyes although rescuers offer to save her


BARC’s refusal of offers of humane care may have cost an injured dog her life
By nokillhouston

Kieko aka Liberty, a young dog, was brought to BARC on Monday, 3/15/10. It was obvious that she had suffered severe head/eye injuries. BARC’s vet reportedly told volunteers that it appeared that the dog had been beaten with a 2×4.

Despite, Keiko’s obvious severe injuries BARC decided that she should wait at BARC until Friday when her stray hold period would expire. At that point she would “officially belong to BARC” and BARC would remove her eyes. On Friday morning, BARC vet staff operated on Keiko. This was done despite that BARC has no diagnostic tools to properly evaluate the extent of Keiko’s injuries, nor do they have the proper surgical equipment for this type of surgery. If BARC’s services had been the only option available for Keiko, BARC might have been considered a hero for attempting to save this animal. However, this is far from the truth.

Early this week, the rescue community offered to take Keiko from BARC to a specialist where she could get the immediate specialized care that she desperately needed. This would have been at no cost to BARC i.e. taxpayers. BARC repeatedly refused these offers.

After hearing of BARC’s refusal, the community bombarded BARC and the city of Houston with requests that Keiko be released to see a specialist. BARC did not release Keiko to rescue, but on Thursday, BARC allegedly took Keiko to a specialist who allegedly recommended that her eyes should be removed. That day, BARC representative, Chris Newport told Fox 26 that the specialist had offered to perform Keiko’s surgery free of charge. This offer was refused and Keiko was taken back to BARC where BARC staff proceeded to operate on Keiko.

BARC is a clinic of “last resort” i.e. when there are no other options available. BARC staff has only the most basic diagnostic tools at their disposal; they have no x-ray machines and certainly nothing more sophisticated such as an MRI or CT scanner; their microscopes are in need of repair; their surgical equipment is geared towards spays/neuters only; they do not have the ability to run complete blood panels; many of the spays / neuters are done in a former closet. In addition, after delicate surgery such as this, Keiko would have required overnight medically monitored care. BARC cannot not provide this. Yet, BARC still proceeded with the surgery to remove Keiko’s eyes and soon after she died.

There are a number of troubling questions: 1) BARC is not equipped to diagnose nor treat this type of severe injury. Why were offers of proper care repeatedly refused? 2) Why did Keiko wait 3 ½ days before BARC’s attempts to diagnose her injuries with proper equipment? 3) BARC is severely underfunded. If a rescue group was willing to take to take Keiko and have her treated by an eye specialist, at no cost to taxpayers, why did BARC continue to refuse? 4) In emergencies, other animals have been released from BARC before the stray hold period was up. BARC’s own policy and procedure manual states clearly that animals with certain medical conditions such as ringworm and upper respiratory infections can be released before the stray hold period has expired. Why wasn’t this dog, with far more severe injuries, released when care was offered?

Had Keiko been released to rescue who could take her to a specialist the minute she entered BARC, she might have lived. A specialist might have been able to save her sight had she been evaluated at that time. However, BARC’s director and veterinarians utterly and stubbornly failed this dog and I believe it cost Keiko her life. The animals’ welfare should be the number one concern for the staff at BARC. Everything else should come second, including egos.

I think it is time for regime change. Clearly, BARC leadership is no better than it was before.

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There is the article. It's the worst thing I've heard in a long time. Not even releasing the dog to receive proper care is disgusting. The dog might have died anyway with such massive head trauma, but obviously that's not the point. The other thing that emerged this week (because if you have bad publicity like this, someone is going to go digging for more) is that the shelter is immunizing pregnant bitches that come in, which apparently gives the puppies whatever disease they are immunizing for. It's obvious when I volunteer on the weekends, just by the looks of the animals, that the vets they hire don't know their asses from a hole in the ground. It's not uncommon to see worm infestations, dogs having diarrhea all over the place, and one of the girls I work with recently took a dog home to foster that ended up having distemper. These people are just reckless incompetents! On one hand I want to help the dogs get out of there, on the other hand I feel horrible for the dogs that land there but feel like they are potentially toxic disease carriers being sent out into the community. I've mentioned to some of you, I strip at my washing machine when I get home from volunteering and Lysol my shoes top to bottom so my own dogs don't catch anything.

I don't even know how to bring this blog to a close. I'm sure everyone will have comments, though. If you're interested in reading more or seeing pictures of the dog that died (her eyes were red and bulging out of her head) it's a really easy Google search... just type in BARC Keiko.

What to Ask a Pediatrician

So I finally set up a couple consultations with prospective pediatricians for Matilda. Both are in my good graces so far for not making snide comments about me taking care of this the same week as my due date. They also both seem to have friendly staff. One put me off slightly by having the "If you speak English press 1" menu, followed by the "What do you want?" menu, and then keeping me on hold for about 3 minutes. The person who answered the phone was really nice, though, and I need to meet with more than one doctor for the sake of comparison (and this is one that came highly recommended), so I went with it.

I just need a list of questions to ask. Here is what I have so far, and am hoping for some help filling in the blanks:

*What if the baby is sick at night and we need advice? Is there a line to call? What is the response time? (This is a question courtesy of my midwife... I would probably just call grandma or auntie, LOL. They aren't always awake, though, so this is important).

*Do you offer same day appointments if the baby is sick?

*How long is your wait time in the office, and will an emergency appointment bump my pre-scheduled appointment and cause a wait?

*Views on feeding: breastfeeding vs. formula, etc.

*Views on shots (of course we are still working out our own views on shots and scheduling them, so I am not really sure what I am looking for with this question other than a willingness on the doctor's part to be flexible with our decisions).

Are there any other really important questions I am overlooking?

Right now I am leaning towards the doctor whose office did not put me on hold, because she has a website with lots of newborn Q and A's on it, as well as safety tips. It talks about what to expect at each one of the visits, and it says if you have trouble with certain things (like breastfeeding, for example) to call them and get help rather than getting discouraged. I really like that willingness to help even if it's not a true illness. She gets very good recommendations, also, but my midwife doesn't know her as well as she knows the other doctor. I got both names from the midwife, though, so at least I know that I won't get criticized the second I walk in for doing a home birth.

So I guess we'll see how the consultations go!

Lily In a Basket

This is where Lily likes to lounge when it's sunny out:

Waiting

OK, I am seriously disliking the birthday poll because the majority of you are guessing an April birthday. Noooooo!

I keep having contractions... and they keep getting stronger. There is absolutely no pattern to them, though, and then they stop. Last night I woke up with strong ones and a really sore lower back ache. Everything in my books say that is a great sign, so I went back to sleep like I've been told over and over I should do, figuring I would be woken up by stronger ones still. Well, I ended up sleeping through the night with absolutely NO progress! ARG!

Earlier this week I thought my water may have broken. The midwife said it sure sounded like it. Then when she did a test she said she didn't think so after all... or that it might be a very high leak which is nearly impossible to detect. So now I am incredibly paranoid that Matilda has sprung a leak, and the midwife told me to count her kicks each day, to make sure she's not in any distress. She also refuses to predict when I might have her, but told me not to be surprised if I don't have her until April. GRRRRRRRR!

Today I went out and mowed the lawn, and have been doing just about anything I possibly can to inspire this kid to come out. The possible sprung leak has me wanting her out ASAP. It probably doesn't help me that we have two possible due dates, too. The ultrasound said March 18th and the calendar said March 28th. I tend to believe the ultrasound since the calendar method is just an estimate give or take a few days, but since the ultrasound was done 2 weeks late (my bad) our midwife says it can't be relied upon and she prefers to stick with the calendar.

So I guess the short story is Matilda could be here anytime, and I would really like it to be sooner rather than later. I'm not as constantly uncomfortable as I assumed I would be, but some days it is pretty bad, especially with the warmer weather we're starting to have. I am snoring a lot (haha, now Jeff knows what it's like to share a bed with someone who snores!) and wake up quite a few times each night because I can't catch my breath. I am assuming it's a pregnancy thing and won't worry about it unless it is still happening after she's born. It was a problem the first month or so, then went away, and now it's back. I notice there are a lot of little symptoms from the beginning that have popped back up this last month- like feeling nauseous and wanting to drink TONS of milk :)

I guess I will just keep everyone posted.

birth date poll

there's a new poll up on the blog, so everyone vote on when you think the baby will be born. if you comment this post with an exact date and you win, i might just have to send you a candy bar :) kind of cheesey, i know.

Fish Farts

Bunny was having some belly problems again so I have been doing a little trial and error that included changing her food one more time. I had been taking bones out of her chicken at every meal in case they were irritating her old lady tummy, but it got to be so time consuming that I would procrastinate feedings (or sometimes I would plan to do it all at once, and recently procrastinated that until the chicken started to rot in the fridge and had to be tossed) and started to feel like I wasn't really preparing her food properly. Since I am not in the right income bracket to be buying $2/lb low maintenance boneless skinless for the dog right now, I figured it was better to change :)

I got some sensitive stomach salmon- pretty much the same stuff Cosmo used to eat. All is well so far, except that she is not nearly as enthusiastic about meal time now (she was becoming quite the little raw meat savage)... and she FARTS! She farts all the time, and I have never smelled such a horrible thing! She's very energetic and she hasn't had an accident in the house since switching, though, so I am assuming the farting doesn't indicate a problem. Well, no problem other than the smell wafting out of the kitchen as I type.

I feel bad for taking her off raw since she loved it and was clearly looking terrific, and I am still a huge fan of raw, but hopefully she'll do well on this for now. Life is just getting too complicated.

Almost Ready

It's almost baby time, and we are close to being prepared. Not quite there yet, but close.

I've been trying to put our boxes of goodies together for the birth. Mine is the big laundry basket full of towels, a heating pad, and there is more to come. I'd say my box is the hardest to put together because pretty much everything that goes into it, we won't want to use again. I still need a nightgown (I don't really have one I want to part with), a strainer, a bowl... then we need to gather basic household things like a couple garbage bags, some ammonia, a flashlight. I should probably do those things tonight since we actually do have them around the house.

Matilda's box was much easier. All she needed were diapers, a nightgown, cotton balls, q-tips, peroxide and alcohol. The only things left to go in her box are 6 receiving blankets, and I am struggling with that one because we only have really nice new blankets we have gotten as gifts, and we are supposed to use ratty old disposable ones. Then she needs some olive oil, and it's just a matter of putting that on the grocery list and then making sure Jeff doesn't cook with it :)

All the other pictures are of the birth pool, in case anyone was wondering what a birth pool looks like. The top picture is just a photo from the company web page. It would be really hard to take a pic of the inside of our pool because we already have the disposable liner on it, so all you can see is thick plastic. You can see from the picture, though, that is has a padded bottom and also a seat to sit on. Quinn said he is mad, because that is what a proper kiddie pool should have looked like growing up. The other pictures are of the actual pool I will be using. Jeff blew it up last night for me since he is out of town this week, and I tried getting into it (which was REALLY hard to do because I am uncoordinated and lost my balance on the padded floor!). It's a lot taller than I thought, which I really like. Someone had told me the pools were only waist deep, but this one is shoulder deep. It's supposed to be one of the better pools out there. My midwife said I should fill it up and practice relaxing in it, but considering it takes over 100 gallons of water, and the hot water heater has to be turned all the way up in order to have enough hot water for it, I think I will just wait until the day of! All we need to do for the pool is get a hose for fill up (has to be a clean, potable water hose) and get a tarp to lay under it.

The only other major thing left to do is order the birth kit. That consists of most of the medical items like gloves, syringes, vitamin k, a cord clamp, and all that kind of good stuff.

So reading over this, we would actually be in big trouble if she came this week since we are missing some major things. I guess we better get on that! we're getting close, though.