The "What's on your mind?" Thread -2017

[dahli6]

I had a victory this morning!

This is Ornament. So named because she hangs out in this tree.
She has always been distant and watchful, an untouchable feral. Early last spring she had 3 babies under my neighbor's house. After another cat stole her litter she was kicked out of the group.
Because she was so feral I could only let her alone.
In August she got my attention by meowing. She was pregnant, the dominant tom and queen were chasing her from the food and the property regularly and she was distressed.
I tried several methods to get food to her and finally came to this.

I found a branch in a tree off my kitchen doorway, that would support the food dish without slipping. When the dish is empty she sits in the tree and waits for a person to come into view, then she food calls to them.
Today was the first time she has permitted me to pet her. She then continued eating undisturbed when I came in and got my phone
And she responded to her name.
I am hoping to have her socialized enough to handle into a crate within the next month.

 

[kashmir64]

She is gorgeous. I want her.
Once you gain her confidence, take good care of her.

 

[dahli6]

I will be tnring her and her babies too if I can catch them. I want to build her a tree house.
The ferals live pretty well here. She won't want to be indoors so I will make sure she has something nice outside.

 

[Moz]

Today is Tango's gotcha day!

The way I met Tango is kind of funny. On October 20th of last year, my mom and I went to the pet store to pick up some cat litter. We always check out the kittens and pet the ones who are friendly enough (all the kittens at the store are from the local TNR group and/or the humane society - it's a satellite adoption centre). Well, on this day, as soon as we walked into the store, my mom saw this little calico/tabby kitten sleeping. She said, "I LOVE HER COLOURS!" and picked up the kitten. The kitten was totally fine with being woken up to be held by a strange human, which surprised me, because she was from the TNR group.

My mom kept looking at me as if she wanted me to say, "Let's get her!" I thought my mom was insane because we already had two cats and we've never had three cats before. My mom asked the store employees about the kitten. We learned her name was Fiona, she was born feral and she was found a trailer park in our city, and that she liked being around other cats. Eventually my mom texted my dad and said, "Would you be mad if I brought home a kitten?" He didn't answer, so we left.

We kept talking about Fiona for the rest of the day. I wasn't too convinced of the idea of adopting her because I had no idea how Indy and Squee would react, especially since Squee loathed Indy for the first ~3 weeks we had her.

Later in the evening, my mom caved and called the pet store to see if they could text her some pictures of Fiona. They did, and when my mom showed the pictures to my dad, he said, "Whatever. Get the stupid thing." (I should note that my dad loves cats; he was just tired of her begging to get this cat. )

My mom called the pet store and asked them to essentially put Fiona on hold for us. The TNR group founder and Fiona's foster mother came to our house to determine whether or not we'd be a suitable family for her. Long story short: after they saw all the cat toys, cat furniture, and two older cats sleeping (they told us that Fiona loved older cats), they said yes.

We brought her home shortly later. She ran around like she owned the place, though she eventually hid in the basement for most of the night and was very shy around people. Indy warmed up to her immediately - the next day, they were cuddling and grooming each other like best friends. Squee was a little unsure of her at first, and even now she doesn't initiate cuddling, but Tango loves her, too.

Fiona is now Tango's middle name. She's the cuddliest cat I've ever had and I believe Indy and Squee are happy that we adopted her, too.

Indy and Tango cuddling a few months ago.

 

[arouetta]

Sigh. This may be a bit controversial, but it just seems like the latest fad diet is now affecting cats. And since cats can't choose a fad diet, it would be the owners.

Note: I believe that there are legitimate cases of celiac disease and IBS. I believe they are far fewer than the claims that well over half the population has these issues.

It seems like everyone on the planet is now affected by gluten being in their diet. A grain that's been used for at least 10,000 years, that a couple of generations ago didn't hurt anyone, and now everything from tummy troubles to autism to hair loss (last one an exaggeration) is the result of gluten being eaten. Everyone has intestinal inflammation caused by wheat, everyone is allergic to wheat, wheat is the devil.

When I had allergy testing probably 15 years ago, it was the skin prick test, and the results showed an allergy to wheat. Based on absolute lack of symptoms and a couple of studies that found being allergic to more than one grass can trigger a false positive, I'm absolutely certain that this was a false positive. But how many other people with seasonal allergies were given the same exact false positive, enough to trigger a few scientific studies, that are living with the impression that gluten is causing every little headache and every little stress-related or food poisoning or a meal with excess fat related tummy troubles?

Well fine. People want on the latest fad diet, who chew out servers over their gravy being thickened with flour while having just consumed a salad with croutons, yeah, just a fad. And again, two or three generations ago there was no such intestinal problems caused by gluten.

Now the biggie is irritable bowel syndrome. Everyone is developing it. The commercials on TV blame both diarrhea and constipation on IBS. No one knows what causes it, it just exists, and any variation from perfect stools is IBS. You have constipation, you need a pill. You have diarrhea, you need a pill. And it also seems to be the new fad diagnosis. Where was IBS back in the 50s?

And now...every time I check out the Cat Health subforum, it seems like a good chunk of the new posts are either cats having just been diagnosed with IBS or the cat is puking and IBS, an intestinal problem, is making them puke. Or avoid the litter box. Or have looser stools when more fat is added to the diet. It's almost like since gluten intolerance and IBS are now the new fads to be blamed for toilet troubles, owners have to make sure they humanize their pets to the point of having a human-like fad diet and disease, and veterinarians have seen this and see a good money maker. Where was feline IBS 20 years ago?

You know, if someone wants to do some wacky diet or pop some pills because of the fads, fine, whatever. But to do that to their cats? That's not cool.

 

[foxxycat]

there is something going on with our food supply causing constipation...my cats all had it, I do, Jon does.

In my diet this month-I refuse to eat anything with high fructose corn syrup. Guess what? I am slowly loosing weight-I have planned to not eat prepackage food. Constipation has gone bye bye as long as I eat 2 cups fof spinach and some broccoli a day..I eat a ton of cheese and so far the miralax is helping for that..I take the miralax because I need the cheese-it fills me up and gives me protein/calcium but absolutely backs me up unless I up the veggies.

We have high iron in our water=so maybe that's what's causing the constipation-also if we don't eat enough fats it also doesn't help-the fat molecules help the colon more than you think...oil/butter is good for this. So low fat diets don't help constipation I don't think-I think they make it worse.

Also the glutten=we have mass farming now=pesticides and other junk sprayed on our crops=in the old days we had smaller farms and they didn't use all these chemicals now. Look at all the people who use miracle grow-fertilizers=the plants take it in-we eat it= voila issues. I think we can do a better job of a cleaner life style. There's other ways to keep pests out of our gardens and increase growth by using compost. Compost is so much better than any fertilizer. It's natures recycling. I do compost all food. I toss it over into the woods and the wild life eat it=anything that's not tossable=I have a pile of dead tree branches/grass/leaves=-I didn't turn it over this summer-I will be doing it sometime in November before the snow flies=if there's soil ready=I shovel it into the wheel barrow n sprinkle on my gardens and lawn. I have a small lawn...but it's my way of recycling.

So yes the mass production of food has introduced chemicals and crap we never had 20 to 30 years ago. Ever notice raviolis don't taste as good as they used to back in the 1990s?! they add fructose corn syrup now...nice!

 

[Willowy]

First, I totally agree that gluten intolerance is a fad, I haven't heard as much about IBS but it probably is too. BUT

now everything from tummy troubles to autism to hair loss (last one an exaggeration)

I have a friend who actually has celiac disease and, yes, her hair was falling out before she figured it out. For celiacs, their intestines stop absorbing nutrients so they basically start dying of malnutrition no matter how much they eat. Hair loss is a symptom of that. But, yeah, now half of the people she knows have decided they're "sensitive" to gluten :/. I think that annoys true celiacs.

two or three generations ago there was no such intestinal problems caused by gluten.

Eh. Idk. There was a lot of "dyspepsia" and constipation back then. There were a ton of snake oil remedies for stuff like that. Who knows what caused it.

Where was IBS back in the 50s?

"Dyspepsia"

Where was feline IBS 20 years ago?

In hindsight, I'm pretty sure one of our first cats had IBS. We just said she had a "delicate tummy". We didn't have the internet back then, lol.

the mass production of food has introduced chemicals and crap we never had 20 to 30 years ago.

Yeah that too. All through the late 1980s and '90s my mom had terrible digestive issues. She was the first to jump on the IBS bandwagon. At some point she decided HFCS is bad and stopped eating/drinking stuff with it. And bam, her IBS cleared up. Even now, if she eats bread from a restaurant she can tell you pretty quickly whether it had HFCS in it or not. She says this is because her "baby formula" was PET canned milk with Karo syrup and a spoonful of orange juice in it! Yikes! I guess that would ruin anybody's digestive system.

 

[foxxycat]

yep I found a local bread company that doesn't add HFCS and they make burger buns-so I try to buy foods without MSG or HFCS. all the major bread brands have it and soy. Another irritant for me. I can NOT digest soy. It makes me icky and cramps...haven't had any cramps since I started eeating naked plain food this month...it's week 3 or 4-lost track. I am sure I am going to tire of it but for heck sakes I don't like that additives that make me feel bloated and nasty inside...most soy is just cheap filler-which is probably causing tons of weight gain. So that's another reason for my socalled naked clean diet=want to see if I can loose weight from not using preservatives=it's working. I still eat out once a week and try to stay away from bread but eat mostly a meat and salad meal. I do occasionally eat croutons but lately I use those cheese wafers instead of croutons..

 

[foxxycat]

On a different note Jon wanted to go out to breakfast yesterday but I just couldn't get moving until 11am..had an issue with a credit card and paypal=so wanted to wait to deal with that- one didn't open until 9am..so nothing they could do about that=basically I purchased items and returned=but didn't use original payment to refund-and trying to track down the money-not showing up on paypal or credit card-got to wait 2 days to see-then go back to the store to get my money..I wasn't paying attention when doing the returns-just put it on my visa as usually I use it...but hey no big deal right?!

So anyways we went by a local place to see if any new places were open-he wanted to go to one nearby-we drove by and it was packed..so we went to another location we used to go to every weekend-it was just as delish...of course I don't eat breakfast food normally=I get boneless buffalo wings and a salad..I know but this meal keeps me full all day long. and it's hot and spicy. Their salad dressings are to die for. All home made. Ranch is made with sour cream and no one has a better one than them. I used to buy it by the bucket from them...should think about this again=they also use naked ingredients and not much prepackaged crap.

so he got a veggie omelet with feta=it was HUGE...so we both ate good-then he wanted to drive to the sky diving place and watch the jumpers..it was sunny breezy so why not?? I wanted to go hiking but he wasn't up to walking-he needs to call his PC doc Monday and ask for help because he can barely walk and loosing muscle tone before my eyes..he complaining his knees are weak now=so I also wanted to set up the shower with a chair-he said no. I found a shower handle and he said no=I just worry he will fall and I won't be there to help him.

So for now we spend time driving around eating out and movies..not much hiking=I am on the lookout for an exercise jogger for a wheel chair-I have this idea...we could find wide bike trails/walking trails and still bring him into the woods and get out of the house..he said absolutely not..I said why not??? I said who gives a $hit what people think about you?! This is to get you out of the house AND keep you from hurting yourself...I will think of something-too bad I can't get him to see this would be a great way for us to still enjoy the outdoors..we have a fairly flat walking surface down town and various neighborhoods... maybe this is hairbrained?!?!

 

[arouetta]

The county I live in has something called Hiker-Biker trails. The county will not build sidewalks or street lights, that's left up to the property owner, but they build these trails to encourage biking and walking as alternate transportation and because they know that poor people often don't have easy access to cars for work and shopping. There's one on the route I take from work. Too dangerous to cross the road to get to it going to work, but I do take it home. And I have seen people in wheelchairs on it a couple of times.

 

[muffy]

I have had IBS-D since the mid 1980's and I also had a cat that had diarrhea his entire life. I'm not saying he had IBS-D but I have been told by doctors that I do have it and it is not because I want to take a pill every day or follow the latest fad diet. That is just insulting.

 

[muffy]

I've had IBS-D since the 1980's and I had a cat that had diarrhea his entire life. I'm not saying that he had IBD-D but doctors have told me that I did have it and it is not because I want to take a pill for that or because I want to be on the latest fad disease. That is just insulting.

 

[Margret]

So, my son is in Phoenix this week for a defensive driving course. He's driven up here, but has anxiety driving. I figured if he can drive in Phx, up here is a walk in the park.
Today was his first lesson. He did very well except he got marked down for not running a yellow light.
Excuse me? If you're not in the intersection when it changes to yellow, you must stop. Cops up here will nail you for that. Although, Andy and Barney will nail you for anything up here. I guess the town needs money or something.

The rule is "stop if you can stop safely". Slamming on your brakes for a light that turned yellow when you are too close to the line is not considered safe as it doesn't give the driver behind you a lot of reaction time. A good rule of thumb for multi-lane roads is if you are so far forward that the white dotted line between you and the other lane going your way is now a solid line, you are too close to stop safely. Safe stopping distance on a sunny dry day is often how road planners determine where to start the solid line.

My mom teaches Defensive Driving. There is actually a point (known as the Go Point) that you must continue even if the light is yellow. Not doing so, is dangerous since even if you have time to stop, a person behind you with less than adequate stopping distance may not. The Go Point moves dependent on weather and other factors.

Yes, and when pulling a trailer, you don't stop either. But this wasn't the case. He wasn't even up to the cross walk yet. Up here, the only time the cops give you a break is when you are pulling a trailer, or it's a big vehicle like an RV. The speed limit is only 35mph and I guess they figure you need to stop. And don't try to fight it, the cops are related to the judge. It's easier to pay the fine and the $25 to the traffic school in the neighboring town.
I wish they'd take speeding in the school zone as seriously as they take the 2 lights we have. (one at each end of town)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Diversity of Creatures, by Rudyard Kipling
(Note: Despite the way this link displays, it's actually a link to the story "The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat," a hilarious revenge story about a village with predatory traffic cops and a corrupt and insulting judge.)

Margret

 

[dahli6]

I just spent the day looking over and helping clean up my son's first home.as an adult. It is in the middle of a cow pasture and has sat empty a few years.
I am pretty wiped out.

 

[segelkatt]

First, I totally agree that gluten intolerance is a fad, I haven't heard as much about IBS but it probably is too. BUT

I have a friend who actually has celiac disease and, yes, her hair was falling out before she figured it out. For celiacs, their intestines stop absorbing nutrients so they basically start dying of malnutrition no matter how much they eat. Hair loss is a symptom of that. But, yeah, now half of the people she knows have decided they're "sensitive" to gluten :/. I think that annoys true celiacs.

Eh. Idk. There was a lot of "dyspepsia" and constipation back then. There were a ton of snake oil remedies for stuff like that. Who knows what caused it.

"Dyspepsia"

In hindsight, I'm pretty sure one of our first cats had IBS. We just said she had a "delicate tummy". We didn't have the internet back then, lol.

Yeah that too. All through the late 1980s and '90s my mom had terrible digestive issues. She was the first to jump on the IBS bandwagon. At some point she decided HFCS is bad and stopped eating/drinking stuff with it. And bam, her IBS cleared up. Even now, if she eats bread from a restaurant she can tell you pretty quickly whether it had HFCS in it or not. She says this is because her "baby formula" was PET canned milk with Karo syrup and a spoonful of orange juice in it! Yikes! I guess that would ruin anybody's digestive system.

I've had IBS-D since the 1980's and I had a cat that had diarrhea his entire life. I'm not saying that he had IBD-D but doctors have told me that I did have it and it is not because I want to take a pill for that or because I want to be on the latest fad disease. That is just insulting.

Cats cannot usually digest cow's milk, they get diarrhea from it. It's called lactose intolerance. So if you fed your cat milk (oh, they love it so!) it would constantly have loose stools. Well, so do I when I indulge in regular dairy products. We now have milk and ice cream without lactose, you can feed that to your cat without problems and I can have ice cream again. I think there are more people with lactose intolerance than they believe. Only people who for many thousands of generations have lived on a dairy based diet do not usually suffer from that. That leaves out many people in the US who are a mixture of many ethnic groups including all the Mediterranean people, near Easterners, Asians, most Africans and American tribal people. It's really only Northern Europeans who do not have the sensitivity to cows' milk.

I agree that too many people will blame the latest fad on whatever ails them. I do not eat prepared food (I like to cook and it's all "from scratch" and mostly from my garden or the farmers' market) although I do eat sourdough bread with very few ingredients. This is how people ate for centuries.

 

[tallyollyopia]

So, my son is in Phoenix this week for a defensive driving course. He's driven up here, but has anxiety driving. I figured if he can drive in Phx, up here is a walk in the park.
Today was his first lesson. He did very well except he got marked down for not running a yellow light.
Excuse me? If you're not in the intersection when it changes to yellow, you must stop. Cops up here will nail you for that. Although, Andy and Barney will nail you for anything up here. I guess the town needs money or something.

There's a town (actually, more of a village that charges city-like taxes) that seems to have been built to be a speed trap. (It wasn't--the town actually sprang up because there's only so many people you can have living in the same area before you need to build a bar. Or a church. Or a school. Fun fact--one building used to hold the school, courthouse, library, newspaper office, police station, fire station, and city records. The building still houses the courthouse--all departments, and the library--which is pathetically small and made me glad, as a child when I lived in the town, that all the county libraries are interconnected and they swap books.) Here's what makes me say that; on every street leading into town there is a fifty-five mph zone that changes, abruptly and with no warning whatsoever to thirty-five mph. Usually around a curve. So--they used to collect a lot of money from speeding tickets until a local judge ruled speeding was no longer a city ordinance, but a county one. (I say local--he was on loan from the next city over; our usual judge had caught the flu.) So--could be worse.

So today is Samai's and Onsa's 7 month birthday. Haven't weighed Samai in a while, thought I would do that. 10 lbs. no joke, had to weigh her twice. I thought the scale malfunctioned or something. She is getting so big. I'm almost afraid to see how big she gets when she's grown.

Take heart! I used to wonder the same thing about my cat Ra, and he stopped at eleven and a half pounds! (Of course, if Samai has some bigger cats in there, she could get up to twenty or twenty-five--something else I learned when I was worried that he wouldn't stop growing.)

I had a victory this morning!
View attachment 201287
This is Ornament. So named because she hangs out in this tree.
She has always been distant and watchful, an untouchable feral. Early last spring she had 3 babies under my neighbor's house. After another cat stole her litter she was kicked out of the group.
Because she was so feral I could only let her alone.
In August she got my attention by meowing. She was pregnant, the dominant tom and queen were chasing her from the food and the property regularly and she was distressed.
I tried several methods to get food to her and finally came to this.
View attachment 201288
I found a branch in a tree off my kitchen doorway, that would support the food dish without slipping. When the dish is empty she sits in the tree and waits for a person to come into view, then she food calls to them.
Today was the first time she has permitted me to pet her. She then continued eating undisturbed when I came in and got my phone
And she responded to her name.
I am hoping to have her socialized enough to handle into a crate within the next month.

Advice--don't try to handle her into the crate right away, I think it would break whatever trust the two of you have built with each other. (Made a similar mistake trying to socialize the lovebirds--which are, admittedly, an entirely different species, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt.)

Sigh. This may be a bit controversial, but it just seems like the latest fad diet is now affecting cats. And since cats can't choose a fad diet, it would be the owners.

Note: I believe that there are legitimate cases of celiac disease and IBS. I believe they are far fewer than the claims that well over half the population has these issues.

It seems like everyone on the planet is now affected by gluten being in their diet. A grain that's been used for at least 10,000 years, that a couple of generations ago didn't hurt anyone, and now everything from tummy troubles to autism to hair loss (last one an exaggeration) is the result of gluten being eaten. Everyone has intestinal inflammation caused by wheat, everyone is allergic to wheat, wheat is the devil.

When I had allergy testing probably 15 years ago, it was the skin prick test, and the results showed an allergy to wheat. Based on absolute lack of symptoms and a couple of studies that found being allergic to more than one grass can trigger a false positive, I'm absolutely certain that this was a false positive. But how many other people with seasonal allergies were given the same exact false positive, enough to trigger a few scientific studies, that are living with the impression that gluten is causing every little headache and every little stress-related or food poisoning or a meal with excess fat related tummy troubles?

Well fine. People want on the latest fad diet, who chew out servers over their gravy being thickened with flour while having just consumed a salad with croutons, yeah, just a fad. And again, two or three generations ago there was no such intestinal problems caused by gluten.

Now the biggie is irritable bowel syndrome. Everyone is developing it. The commercials on TV blame both diarrhea and constipation on IBS. No one knows what causes it, it just exists, and any variation from perfect stools is IBS. You have constipation, you need a pill. You have diarrhea, you need a pill. And it also seems to be the new fad diagnosis. Where was IBS back in the 50s?

And now...every time I check out the Cat Health subforum, it seems like a good chunk of the new posts are either cats having just been diagnosed with IBS or the cat is puking and IBS, an intestinal problem, is making them puke. Or avoid the litter box. Or have looser stools when more fat is added to the diet. It's almost like since gluten intolerance and IBS are now the new fads to be blamed for toilet troubles, owners have to make sure they humanize their pets to the point of having a human-like fad diet and disease, and veterinarians have seen this and see a good money maker. Where was feline IBS 20 years ago?

You know, if someone wants to do some wacky diet or pop some pills because of the fads, fine, whatever. But to do that to their cats? That's not cool.

I spoke with someone in my local community who had a good idea as to why so many people have recent digestive issues, and it's not the one that doctors encourage. (Of course not! Why treat the real cause when they can milk money out of seeing people over and over for the same thing? Sorry--little sore about what's happening with a coworker's kid. More on that later.) Her idea is this--about the same time that IBS became a common medical complaint (and I'm convinced it's a symptom, not a diagnosis--no matter how it's treated!) is the same time that farmers started using genetically modified crops. It seems like the kind of things companies would want hushed up--but then I'm the cynical, suspicious sort.

 

[tallyollyopia]

First, I totally agree that gluten intolerance is a fad, I haven't heard as much about IBS but it probably is too. BUT

I have a friend who actually has celiac disease and, yes, her hair was falling out before she figured it out. For celiacs, their intestines stop absorbing nutrients so they basically start dying of malnutrition no matter how much they eat. Hair loss is a symptom of that. But, yeah, now half of the people she knows have decided they're "sensitive" to gluten :/. I think that annoys true celiacs.

Eh. Idk. There was a lot of "dyspepsia" and constipation back then. There were a ton of snake oil remedies for stuff like that. Who knows what caused it.

"Dyspepsia"

In hindsight, I'm pretty sure one of our first cats had IBS. We just said she had a "delicate tummy". We didn't have the internet back then, lol.

Yeah that too. All through the late 1980s and '90s my mom had terrible digestive issues. She was the first to jump on the IBS bandwagon. At some point she decided HFCS is bad and stopped eating/drinking stuff with it. And bam, her IBS cleared up. Even now, if she eats bread from a restaurant she can tell you pretty quickly whether it had HFCS in it or not. She says this is because her "baby formula" was PET canned milk with Karo syrup and a spoonful of orange juice in it! Yikes! I guess that would ruin anybody's digestive system.

That's--that just sounds gross.

yep I found a local bread company that doesn't add HFCS and they make burger buns-so I try to buy foods without MSG or HFCS. all the major bread brands have it and soy. Another irritant for me. I can NOT digest soy. It makes me icky and cramps...haven't had any cramps since I started eeating naked plain food this month...it's week 3 or 4-lost track. I am sure I am going to tire of it but for heck sakes I don't like that additives that make me feel bloated and nasty inside...most soy is just cheap filler-which is probably causing tons of weight gain. So that's another reason for my socalled naked clean diet=want to see if I can loose weight from not using preservatives=it's working. I still eat out once a week and try to stay away from bread but eat mostly a meat and salad meal. I do occasionally eat croutons but lately I use those cheese wafers instead of croutons..

AWM is allergic to onions, and onions (similar to HFCS) are used in everything--and they're not always clearly marked. Sometimes the onions are slipped in under the generic title of "spices"--so, back when I had the time, I used to cook all the meals we ate to make sure that there were no onions in any of it. (And oh, it is hard. One of my favorite foods is vidalia simmered in butter--and the very smell makes AWM ill so I can't eat it unless she's not home--and I still have to air the house out after!) Point is--you'll find yourself making a lot of your own food. Roll with it. Cooking can be enjoyable when you get into it.

On a different note Jon wanted to go out to breakfast yesterday but I just couldn't get moving until 11am..had an issue with a credit card and paypal=so wanted to wait to deal with that- one didn't open until 9am..so nothing they could do about that=basically I purchased items and returned=but didn't use original payment to refund-and trying to track down the money-not showing up on paypal or credit card-got to wait 2 days to see-then go back to the store to get my money..I wasn't paying attention when doing the returns-just put it on my visa as usually I use it...but hey no big deal right?!

So anyways we went by a local place to see if any new places were open-he wanted to go to one nearby-we drove by and it was packed..so we went to another location we used to go to every weekend-it was just as delish...of course I don't eat breakfast food normally=I get boneless buffalo wings and a salad..I know but this meal keeps me full all day long. and it's hot and spicy. Their salad dressings are to die for. All home made. Ranch is made with sour cream and no one has a better one than them. I used to buy it by the bucket from them...should think about this again=they also use naked ingredients and not much prepackaged crap.

so he got a veggie omelet with feta=it was HUGE...so we both ate good-then he wanted to drive to the sky diving place and watch the jumpers..it was sunny breezy so why not?? I wanted to go hiking but he wasn't up to walking-he needs to call his PC doc Monday and ask for help because he can barely walk and loosing muscle tone before my eyes..he complaining his knees are weak now=so I also wanted to set up the shower with a chair-he said no. I found a shower handle and he said no=I just worry he will fall and I won't be there to help him.

So for now we spend time driving around eating out and movies..not much hiking=I am on the lookout for an exercise jogger for a wheel chair-I have this idea...we could find wide bike trails/walking trails and still bring him into the woods and get out of the house..he said absolutely not..I said why not??? I said who gives a $hit what people think about you?! This is to get you out of the house AND keep you from hurting yourself...I will think of something-too bad I can't get him to see this would be a great way for us to still enjoy the outdoors..we have a fairly flat walking surface down town and various neighborhoods... maybe this is hairbrained?!?!

When I was sick in high school, for part of that time I was in a wheelchair. One of the most hair-raising things (and most fun) that AWM used to do was run, as fast she could, down the hall (in the hospital; our house is not handicap friendly), down the grocery aisle, wherever we were. It could be fun for both of you!

I've had IBS-D since the 1980's and I had a cat that had diarrhea his entire life. I'm not saying that he had IBD-D but doctors have told me that I did have it and it is not because I want to take a pill for that or because I want to be on the latest fad disease. That is just insulting.

I don't think arouetta was saying that it's not a real disease--I think she was saying that it's a current medical fad to give that out as a diagnosis. Remember how there used to be a lot of children diagnosed with ADHD? Certainly some of them really had it, but others were just restless at being trapped behind a desk for so long during the day.

I just spent the day looking over and helping clean up my son's first home.as an adult. It is in the middle of a cow pasture and has sat empty a few years.
I am pretty wiped out.

I bet. Get some rest!

Cats cannot usually digest cow's milk, they get diarrhea from it. It's called lactose intolerance. So if you fed your cat milk (oh, they love it so!) it would constantly have loose stools. Well, so do I when I indulge in regular dairy products. We now have milk and ice cream without lactose, you can feed that to your cat without problems and I can have ice cream again. I think there are more people with lactose intolerance than they believe. Only people who for many thousands of generations have lived on a dairy based diet do not usually suffer from that. That leaves out many people in the US who are a mixture of many ethnic groups including all the Mediterranean people, near Easterners, Asians, most Africans and American tribal people. It's really only Northern Europeans who do not have the sensitivity to cows' milk.

I agree that too many people will blame the latest fad on whatever ails them. I do not eat prepared food (I like to cook and it's all "from scratch" and mostly from my garden or the farmers' market) although I do eat sourdough bread with very few ingredients. This is how people ate for centuries.

 

[tallyollyopia]

One of my coworkers is being torn into shreds about her daughter's condition. The girl is about six or seven years old, and has been in and out of the ER multiple times within the past week. For the most part, the kid's completely fine--then she gets a splitting headache, her eyes go out of focus, and she gets a heavy nosebleed. No fever, no raised blood pressure--nothing like that. She seems, apart from the headache and nosebleeds (which are so severe that the hospital has been administering clotting agents when they come in), to be perfectly healthy. She's active, she's bright, and she's socially average (meaning a lot of time on Facebook, but not obsessively so). She has been diagnosed with everything from migraines to PTSD. (She's seven. PTSD from what, exactly?) She told me that one doctor even claimed the child was "pretending" to have headaches for attention (and I guess she pretended really hard to get the nosebleeds). All I can do is offer a shoulder to cry on, poor girl.

 

[tallyollyopia]

To change the subject to something happier, AWM and I were talking about rashes. Both LS and I have sensitive skin, and we'd get rashes at the drop of a hat (or brush of a plant, or playing in sand, or something). Once, when I was a kid and shortly after DD and AWM divorced, IB, DD, and I were up at a family reunion (they used to have one every year), and on that particular trip I brushed against--something, I guess, but didn't really notice anything until one of my aunts screamed and pointed. I had a red, blotchy rash running from my left shoulder down to my wrist (summers were hot and I wore as few clothes as I could get away with). The aunt started yelling something about taking me to a doctor immediately and another aunt calmly said, "It doesn't hurt, itch, or burn so it's merely--what was the word you used Tally?" "Aesthetic," I replied.

 

[dahli6]

Advice--don't try to handle her into the crate right away, I think it would break whatever trust the two of you have built with each other.

Oh yes, I know. My husband has November 21st off so we can surrender the most recent group of kittens, well 4 or 5 of them anyway. That would be my first opportunity. If I can't hold her by then I will have to wait.

ugh, since everyone seems to be talking about food issues...
I agree with the consensus that too many people claim to be gluten intolerant. I don't dismiss people because of it though. If they say they have allergies or are intolerant then I avoid using foods in those groups but my personal feeling is that a real medical issue has been publicized and marketed and turned into a fad.
This happens a lot, I noticed a spike in Autism diagnosis too. Either these kids are the next step in evolution or ASD is the hot new diagnosis for kids who don't sit still or know how to follow along with the group. It is frustrating because some people really do need help (therapy, intensive structure, unconfusing explanations and one on one attention) while others just need discipline and gentle guidance.

My personal journey; when I was a child my mother discovered that I was citrus intolerant(not allergic but intolerant). As a child any citrus at all caused explosive results. In my teens it tapered off only to return with a vengeance in my adult years but I was honestly never a big fruit eater. I love berries and melons but melons are sometimes troublesome too. I have to wear gloves when I handle raw tomatoes and tomato vines.
When I was in my teens two new actual allergies became apparent. They actually do affect my immune system and one of them is actually worsening to a point that it causes me trouble breathing. I got my ears pierced and after everything was fine but when I changed from my piercing studs to regular earrings my ears started itching. They swelled around the earrings and got kind of yucky. We thought it was an infection, I stopped wearing them and after a few days they cleared up. I wore earrings and it happened again. I started getting rashes from necklaces and bracelets too. I switched to hypoallergenic plastic earrings and I had a nearly identical reaction but it also made my eyes and skin itch.
I have tried various metals, plastics, vinyls... I can't wear make up or sun screen. Those are actually distressing because society seems to view cosmetics as a mark of a woman and I have never been able to wear them for very long because they make me itch, they affect my breathing. When I have found one I could wear comfortably people stare so I take it off.

My parents didn't take me to the doctor over every little thing when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's. I was never formally diagnosed with anything. Common sense; if the kid barfs and or has diarrhea after eating certain foods and only after eating those foods then don't give them those foods.
My allergies to metals and anything plastic or latex are undocumented but people have seen the effects of these things on my body and both allergies are getting worse. In recent years I have had to stop eating nuts and carrots altogether. Recently I am having trouble with potatoes. I am even allergic to my own sweat.
When people approach me wanting to help my overcome my limitations by offering substitutes and alternatives because those things worked for them I don't get mad or offended. They are basing my allergy on their perceived sensitivity and thinking that what worked for them will work for me. I know it won't.
Things I get a little offended by; the looks I get from people when I wear a hoodie and several layers of clothing in the summer. I sunburn but can't wear sunblock. I learned years ago that dressing in layers can be insulating and at worst soaks the sweat away from my skin if I wear the right fabrics. When I dress like that in 90 degree temps people get upset at me.

If gluten-intolerance is really on the rise and not just a fad then people need to look more closely at ingredient labels.