#vet tech rant

[skellymom]

Hi, Skelly! Really random question here but I think your honestly the best person to ask on this topic. This is non-Star Wars related btw. Feel free to ignore.

I have these neighbours who arent the best of people. They got a dog 2 years ago I believe, a Belgian Shepherd. Unsurprisingly, she barks a lot.

We don't think the owners are abusing her or not feeding her or anything, just not taking her for a lot of walks. It's their first dog (the mum, dad and two sons, to be exact, none have ever had a dog before) and obviously shouldn't have gotten a Belgian Shepherd when they have a smallish backyard.

I was wondering if there was something I - or my family - could do? None of us blame the dog, just the inexperienced-ness of the family.

You don't have to reply to this, as I know its out of pocket and not what you expect. Was just curious.

Have a great day/night!

~Jamie.

P.S. My puppy had a scare last year when she was only 2 and a half months or so and we had to go to ER for her. Geez, that place is stressful so my thanks to you and your workers everywhere!

Buckle up and get comfortable, I have A LOT to say on this issue:

(TRIGGER WARNING-I WORK VETERINARY ER AND THERE WILL BE MENTIONS OF DEATH AND OTHER DARK ASPECTS OF WHAT VET STAFF SEE IN THE FIELD. Consider yourself warned. I am ranting as a PSA and FYI for those not familiar but REALLY need to know what we do! If you feel brave PLEASE give it the time to read. Thanks!!!)

OHHH, I LOVE SHEPPIES!!! They are SO smarticle, sweet, energetic...and extremely spirited. However, they DEFINITELY need exercise. More importantly, they need mental stimulation. A several mile walk is great for the body, but not something everyone can do daily. Plus, these guys are brilliant (only second to the esteemed Border Collie) and their mind is like a hamster on a wheel. So, training, commands, tricks, agility courses and anything that requires not just exercise, but mental stimulation is top priority. These guys were bred to run and think on their feet. THEY NEED A JOB! They AT LEAST (and this is foundational) NEED TO BE WALKED DAILY!!! Every dog needs to be walked daily as this also helps with bone density, muscle strength, balance, cardiovascular function, etc. Same with humans. If you don't exercise, you can become depressed, overweight, brittle bones, diabetic, constipated, and a host of other health issues later in life that cost money to regulate and fix.

Most owners buy a dog as a companion, and these guys can be amazing ones. However they aren't your lazy Golden Retrievers or Greyhounds (while sporting class they do a burst of energy and lay around a lot normally). Unfortunately, dogs not given mental stimulation will show the following behaviors: excessive barking, destructive chewing, inappropriate urination/defecation, escaping out of the yard and getting in trouble/injured, misbehavior to commands, possible self injury, and unfortunately even aggression towards people and other animal housemates. A LOT of working/sporting dogs wind up in shelters and euthanized due to these behaviors when all they needed was regular exercise, training, and mental stimulation. A LOT of regular non sporting dogs do too.

In order to keep their dog, they need to include them as a true member of the family. Plan family activities with the dog. Can they run errands with a family member who might just want to do a ride along and the dog comes with to sit in the car when the person goes in. They can also research places that allow shoppers to bring their dogs into the facility: Home Depot, Lowes, Michaels, some downtown shops in their area might allow it. Shop for dog snacks/food and take the dog with them to pick it up as many pet stores allow dogs in their store. Heck we have restaurants and coffee shops that cater to outdoor dining patrons who bring their dogs...and the dogs get spoiled too.

If their dog is too rambunctious, then they DEFINITELY NEED TO SIGN UP AND GO TO DOG TRAINING CLASSES. ALL THE CLASSES, and more than just puppy training. Really, this should be foundational too. Every dog needs training. Again, get the whole family involved, because the dog (like children and adults) need consistency and everyone needs to know what to do when walking, interacting, and commanding "Sheppie" to behave like a Good Canine Citizen. There is a a right way to train and a horrible way to reinforce negative behaviors in a canine. EVERYONE needs to put in the work. Everyone needs to feed the dog, fill it's water bowl, pick up the poop, and walk the dog. Everyone needs to play and pet the poochie. That's why you get a dog!

The family needs to do some honest soul searching to figure out if this dog and breed REALLY fits with their family dynamic. If not, they the dog should go back to the rescue or shelter (many shelters have a return clause in their paperwork that says they MUST return the dog to them. It's for safety reasons) or find a RESPONSIBLE new owner to adopt "Sheppie". There are rescues, shelters, and fosters online. Again, they took on the responsibility and they need to do their due diligence to find a good home for this living breathing animal.

Let me also debunk a horrible myth that still circulates: REHOMING YOUR ANIMAL IS NOT WRONG IF YOU CANNOT TAKE CARE OF OR PROVIDE FOR IT! Screaming it for the people in the back!!! I have been working in the vet field for over 8 years (general practice, shelter med, emergency, high volume TNR) and have seen some horrendous shit when people keep an animal that they no longer wish to interact with. It can be mild contempt for the perceived burden to downright neglect and abuse. Also, I have seen family members and household pets in danger or actually mauled from dogs that people refused to put more money/couldn't afford/didn't have time for training that kept/refused to rehome to a place with no children/no pets/etc. And, understandably, many of these people LOVED that dog and kept trying to fix the situation. But sometimes you cannot, and the aggression, destruction, ingestion of foreign objects (we have frequent visitors to my ER that have foreign body surgeries due to anxiety chewing/swallowing-some end as euthanasia's). I have had owner's come in with animals that needed to be euthanized for aggression due to high drive, with their housemate mauled, and the owner mauled and bleeding (trying to pull them apart)-all of them showing up together. We have had bored dogs jump the fence to find something interesting to do and get hung up on it, needing emergency surgery. We have had them run out into the street and hit by cars. These things happen to all dogs that require someone to tend to their needs EVERY DAY!

I had to rehome a Dutch Shepherd that we took on as a foster (from a not good situation-putting it mildly) when she tried to maul my elderly German Shepherds (and that was with daily walks, daily at home training, professional training, and veterinary medical evaluations), we found a rescue that deals with security/military breeds to take her to. Sometimes the animal you choose to have in your home may NOT FIT WITH YOUR FAMILY. It happens.

So, you asked what you can do? First, thank you for caring and wanting to do something. Second, you can print out information on local dog training places, agility, and specific breed information (Belgian Shepherds include: Malinois, Turveren, Laekenois, and Groenendael, so tailor it to what their dog is), and anything else you can think of to offer to the owner. Try to approach it as helping and not frustration. HOWEVER, I will warn you now that sometimes people are not open to outside help and will not take this positively. Even people seeking out medical veterinary help can get defensive when we try to help them. Unfortunately, nice people who take on a high drive/high energy breed for their first dog are unaware of the huge responsibility they have. And, not demonizing here, but they buy the dog with the ideal they have for themselves and forget this animal has needs and is languishing without proper care...even a mental/physical outlet. And from what I have seen, this is an epidemic. For those reading this: if you feel you have to "come at me" go volunteer at a shelter/rescue or go have a heart to heart discussion with ANY veterinary professional. If someone was entrusted as your guardian with the responsibility of your mental healthcare and didn't see to your mental health needs and you had no outlet, how would you feel?

Actually...that is happening now in epidemic proportions. It sucks, right???

I wish you luck @fionajames . It's NEVER bad to reach out and attempt to help. At least you tried and I LOVE YOU FOR IT!

[perilegs]

every time there's a (chain) restaurant that stops using finnish meat i die inside a bit. like. first of all your image will suffer. it's more ecological to get things made near you. you should realize that even if you don't care about anything. and yeah i barely eat meat but i do care about animal wellbeing so i'm capable of understanding that since people at large will keep eating meat, it's good to support the industry in a country where it's actually mandatory to treat your animals somewhat well and raise them in clean environments and where antibiotics are only used if an animal is sick. and not as a preventive measure so you can raise them in dirty environments. does antimicrobial resistance say nothing to you. also this is exactly why, if i had a pet, i'd be unwilling to buy them food that has meat from a country where i don't know about how the butchery works. bc it supports everyone from the animals to the consumers and their pets and whatever to have meat that's raised with prevention of diseases with the help of systematic health care work and hygiene and literally just not dumping antibiotics into poor animals in poor conditions. thats how you get e coli. my god. all that so you can get slightly cheaper ingredients. insane.

[kazanskys-mitchell]

hi just a friendly fucking reminder that you should be nice to people, especially the ones who are trying to help your pets :)

[florida3exclamationpoints]

.

[northwestofinsanity]

Sitting outside on lunch trying to figure out what in the world today even is, and trying to process this morning...

[sanguistra]

wow nothing better than spending a million billion dollars on a test to see if your dog has cancer only for it to be inconclusive and the vet tells me he still MIGHT have cancer. SO WHAT DID I SPEND THE MILLION BILLION DOLLARS FOR.

[octo888]

I'm n vet tech student there's seriously something wrong with my teacher she supports animal testing n cat declawing what the fuck

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

Sorry for the rant but holy shit seriously I wish people would realize that most veterinarians ARE NOT wildlife rehabbers. I work at a vet clinic that specializes in cats and dogs, but people are constantly bringing in injured wild animals, especially birds. a few weeks ago we actually had an avian flu scare after someone brought in a sick pigeon that they found in the park. Luckily the animal ended up testing negative but seriously if you find a sick/injured WILD animal, don't just pick it up and bring it to a vet clinic. Your local veterinarian is probably not qualified to deal with wild animals and chances are neither are you! You're just putting us and yourself in danger! :(

Yep. I’ve had to fix botched wraps on wildlife from vets before because the staff had only worked on domestics and maybe a parrot or two so they didn’t know what was different between a canary patient and say an owl. And I’m very aware that even a vet tech can probably read a CBC faster than me and most have less trouble drawing the blood to begin with than I will because these are different skill sets. Can I do a gram stain? Technically, but I’m not going to compete at identifying a species of bacteria with an actual vet. Can a vet keep a wild animal alive? Maybe, but it’s going to be a lot more stressful on the staff and animal because they’ve only been trained to handle animals that are at least reasonably acclimated to humans.

[juuheizou]

what's a little crisis among friends, right?

did my loveless ace self really just sink three hours of my life into a fucking dating sim?

[nightwingbb]

What do you think Jon and Damian would pick for their college majors? Who’s more stressed out at the end of the semester?

thank you for this question, anon, because i have strong opinions on this!! strong to the point that in all of the college au's that i've written (or am writing 👀) damian and jon's majors are always the same, even if it's not mentioned and it just lives rent free in my head

damian is an animal science major with a pre-vet concentration. does it make more sense canonically that damian would probably work for and/or take over wayne enterprises and should therefore be majoring in business? yes. but he will forever be an animal science major (and eventually a veterinarian) in my head. "oh, but nightwingbb, he never shows any interest in being a vet, he just likes animals!" and to that i say one of my best friends from college hated science but loved animals, so she majored in animal science and now she loves her job as a vet tech so HA

jon is an education major. i know that in and out of canon, he's usually written as a journalism major, but i didn't want to make him a copy/paste of clark. plus, i was a journalism major in college, and i honestly couldn't see jon enjoying the major. since news is all digitized now, half of the required major courses aren't even on journalism anymore. i learned video editing, social media management, photoshop, basic web coding, etc. and i just couldn't imagine jon getting as into that as i am. after deciding he would Not be a journalism major, i actually struggled with what jon's major would be for a while when i first started writing navigating life back in 2020. i even posed the question here on tumblr asking for ideas because i was simply at a loss. then @liameowlia pointed out that jon is good with people, has a strong will to help, and radiates empathy and suggested i go from there. that, plus a fanfiction that i cannot remember ANYTHING about aside from the fact that it depicted jon as a teacher (literally don't even remember what the story was), led me to education major jon <3

apologies for the rant, anon, i know you probably didn't want a whole dissertation on WHY i chose these majors for the boys, but to answer your next question:

jon is definitely waaayy more stressed than damian come end of semester finals seasons. damian is haughty and overly confident and probably feels like if he studies for even just a few minutes, there's literally no way in hell that he won't pass his finals. not to mention that he's a classic rich kid who doesn't have that "if i have to retake this class, it'll cost me $3,000" stress hanging over his head lol

[talisidekick]

Twitter or Instagram?

I have entirely kept off the major social media giants. This includes never having a Facebook account, never having a Twitter account, never touching Instagram, not once having a TikTok account, and only having a Reddit account since 2020. Unfortunately, this isn't helping me get a job in tech because the vetting process for big companies is to find your social media, and if I want to make my YouTube account more a thing, I'll need something more than Tumblr.

So, what would you choose? I'm inviting even the security minded to go off on comparative informational rants.

Also, please let this breach containment. I need the biggest possible sample size.

[songbird-oracle]

If I have to explain the states law to clients ONE MORE TIME TODAY

I’m gonna bang my head against a wall 😀

I’m sick and tired of being cursed out, and screamed at, and complained to because people think that somehow WE are the issue.

ITS NOT MY FAULT THAT WE CANT PRESCRIBE YOUR PET MEDICATION! WE HAVENT SEEN IT IN OVER THREE YEARS! LEGALLY WE CANT DO ANYTHING UNLESS YOU SCHEDULE AN EXAM!

But sure, WE are the problem because we are “extorting you” and are “selfish”

Have you ANY idea how hard we cry when we can’t help your pets? How worried we are about them? Do you ignore the options we give you about payment options or other referrals? How we direct you to cheaper companies for medication because we sympathize? How we still make an effort to be kind to you despite how you blatantly disrespect us day after day after fucking day!

If you don’t like the price of certain procedures like nail trims or ear cleanings, LEARN TO DO THEM YOURSELF! Or, go to a place like petsmart. No, it’s not a free procedure, no, you can’t just walk in and demand to be seen, but hell, even if we do, we will accommodate you, and YOU STILL SCREAM AT US!

Every day I pray to Hermes to grant me strength as a technician and a receptionist. Because I’ve had two clients make my cry on the same day because they were so rude and unkind, and I’m over it. I’m done.

Kindness doesn’t cost a fucking thing, and despite what I have going on, despite being cursed out and screamed at and having things slammed in front of my face and chastised for doing my fucking job, I STILL wish you a good day afterwards.

This has been the rant of a very exhausted vet tech, CSR, and Hermes devotee.

Thanks.

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

Global House Diva 2 by DJ Irene 2001 House / Trance / Hard House / Progressive House / Tech-House

God, I really can't fuckin' stand this frenzied and debased style of DJing, man. It's just such a terrible joke. Don't get me wrong, prolific LA scene vet DJ Irene definitely stacked up a whole bunch of turn-of-the-millennium bangers here, but that doesn't really mean much, because the way she went about it is just so transparently cheap and silly. I mean, I often think that DJs can be an overappreciated bunch in the first place, because at the end of the day, they're really just playing other peoples' music, and then with the right marketing, they can overshadow the musicians themselves, but there is glaringly so little care that went into crafting this monstrosity here. Basically, DJ Irene tried to stuff 10 pounds of shit into a 5-pound bag with this totally jumbled-up, incoherent mess of a set, which is really more like three mini-sets in one: atrocious, mindless, simplistic, blaring, transactional, Euro-rave-type hard house to start; then a run of vocal trance; and then some sweet house tunes to close out.

Now, I have nothing against genre-hopping as a concept. In fact, as I'm sure some of you are all too aware by now, I love it when shit's eclectic. 80s DJs mixed all sorts of stuff together, from synthpop, to electro, to disco, to house, and so on, and I love that spirit. But there was a certain sort of logical fluidity to it all, and this is just so goddamn slapdash by comparison. Between the three mini-sets, there are pretty clear lines of rigid demarcation, and then within those sets themselves, the transitions are often times just dogshit, and are sometimes attempted to be masked with some sort of vocal interlude.

On top of that is the fact that there are a total of 31 tracks in this 69-minute mix, which means that a song, on average, only lasts for about 2 minutes and ~15 seconds, which is *way* too short, considering how long dance tunes typically are. But then when you take into account that two of these tracks, which are run back-to-back, actually take up around an *an entire fifth* of the whole set itself, that means that the average length of the other 29 are shrunken down even more significantly, which *really* prevents the listener from getting into *any* sort of rhythm.

And my final complaint within this multifaceted rant about this soulless waste of time is that, while I certainly dig a whole lot of the songs that were chosen for this mix, when it especially comes to the trance, DJ Irene is really doing little more than scratching the surface. She too often just haphazardly mashes together some of the biggest commercial hits that this genre had to offer at the time, not really connecting them in any type of way that could be considered even close to satisfying. There doesn't seem to be, like, any super deep knowledge of this particular type of music, because, I mean, any DJ can slap together Bedrock, Ferry Corsten, and Tiësto, man; it's not impressive, and you're basically the equivalent of a top-40 bar DJ spinning Pharrell's "Happy" at that point. And likewise goes for lining up Roger Sanchez' "Another Chance" and Kings of Tomorrow's "Finally" in the house set, and then cheesily transitioning into the final track with Chuck Roberts' iconic, but frequently used "In the beginning there was jack" monologue too. Please, just spare us all 😒.

So, believe me, I really hate to sound like a snooty purist here, but this thing was pretty much unbearable from start to finish. Grating, empty-calorie madness that feels like a forerunner to what our soon-to-come generation of AI DJs are gonna be spitting out, which honestly, might be better than this.

Listen to the full mix here.

Highlights:

Bedrock/John Digweed/Nick Muir - "Heaven Scent (original mix)" System F - "Exhale" Ratty - "Sunrise" Gouryella - "Tenshi" Johnny Vicious - "Here With Me" Operatica - "Melancholy Rose (Richie Santana's Anthem mix)" Delerium - "Innocente (DJ Tiësto remix)" Pusaka - "You're the Worst Thing for Me (DJ Irene & the Evolution P.H.D. remix)" Two Phunk D-Lux - "Night Out" CZR & ITO - "Bring in the Funk" Raoul Zerna - "Feel tha Funk" Proton 2 meets Monie - "Higher (Tony B remix)" Hatiras - "Space Invaders (Hatiras' 2nd Encounter mix)" Static Revenger - "Happy People" Roger Sanchez - "Another Chance" Kings of Tomorrow - "Finally" Exodus - "Real Close"

[halinski]

Tagged by @all-or-nothing-baby 🥰🥰

15 QUESTIONS, 15 (or whatever) TAGS

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYBODY?

My mother's hs best friend basically! She lives in Bosnia so i don't know her much but I have met her

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Uhh i can't remember but probably like last week or so. I dissociate too much to remember when or why lmao

3. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

nope

4. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?

Not much tbh. Im afraid of being misunderstood too much bc people generally do

5. WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED?

Softball mostly!

6. WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT SOMEONE?

My gut feeling about them, and if they might understand mental health stuff or not

7. EYE COLOUR?

Hazel-green

8. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

Scary movies for sure. Irrational happy endings make me angry

9. ANY SPECIAL TALENTS?

10. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

Central europe, meh

11. WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?

Nature, reading, writing, sports, chilling with animals, learning stuff

12. DO YOU HAVE PETS?

2 cats! And a few past darlings in spirit

13. HOW TALL ARE YOU?

173cm

14. FAVOURITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL?

I used to always try to come up with some answer to this to please people but i didnt have one past 3rd grade bc i absolutely detested school, the educational systems and academia so fuck no, no favorite subjects. Fuck schools.

(The one good school i went to grade pre till 3rd i enjoyed also had really good pedagogists. In 3rd grade i think i loved math the most bc my teacher designed individual plans for us and my classmate and i raced to finish higher level work, in 2nd i think it was the class where we read and wrote and were creative like think tank and reading dino topia and writing our own magical treehouse, in 1st grade it was science and experementing and the frogs and butterfly class.

On my own time i watched so many animal rescue shows and nation geography and we had so many of their magazines and natyre magazines my mother got that were sorted out from the library. And i read a lot of history books about ancient and pre-historic times and different cultures and that was great. I was also obsessed with animals and read cyclodpedias and had them quickly memorized. But by the time i was 9 i was too depressed and i dont know shit anymore my brain too forgetful

and that's why i'm so mad about the school systems bc i truly loved, loved learning. But even the good school would give me failing grades for my social behavior. And without ranting even further, lets just say math used to be like breathing for me and now i can barely put 48+32 together without a calculater anymore bc my brain is so dead

So much more complicated issues yeah but school still makes me so fucking mad)

15. DREAM JOB?

somehow i got lucky and i kinda ended up in the field of my dream job: vet tech/nurse

i wish i could save any animal i come across though. Regardless of money, laws, etc. I wish i could save nature. Fix what humanity has done to the earth and to so many animals. Relieve suffering. Give love to every stray. Make sure every living being has a home. Get rid of ownership over land and living beings of any and all kind

---

If you see this, tag you're it and pls @ me!

[chaosjedimasterk]

It might an unpopular opinion but I’m chill if they throw romance into Star Wars. I’ve seen a lot of dislike of the Tech and Phee flirting lately and while I can understand not being interested in it, I think it’s trying to speak to a place we’ve seen very little of. There’s like a whole rant under the cut here about my thoughts on the season so far. I’m cool if you have different opinions I’m just throwing these into the void.

I also preface this with I am honestly pretty chill about the media I consume and general have liked most of everything Star Wars puts out. I’m here for fun and vibes.

This whole season of the Bad Batch is trying to explore who these men are without the Republic. Who they are without being soldiers. Who they are as their own men, in their own right. What choices are they going to make for themselves and Omega. What does life look like for a tool of a governing body that exists no more?

Which like, is often times what real life soldiers have to do when they’re no longer useful to their government. Like the clones being decommissioned - super realistic to how the US government treats its vets. In my opinion at least. They care about you until you’re not useful. Who are you then if you’re not a soldier?

Additionally this last episode showed us the literal foundation of Star Wars which is hope, community, and light existing in darkness. Sure shit is bleak, but if we come together and WORK together, it’s so much better than alone. The batch is used to being their own squad. They didn’t have a whole battalion like the 501st or the 212th. They were 4 to 5 dudes. They need to learn how important community is to fighting fascism . Each way someone learns is different, hunter is learning who he is through being a father figure, Crosshair is being thrown through the absolute ringer to learn this lesson, and maybe Techs is being a partner and learning nuanced social interactions? Wrecker i haven’t pinned but he’s very much protect my brothers and protect my sister.

While Phee had gotten kinda stereotypical pirate treatment, she’s one of the first black characters we’ve gotten who hasnt moved through some sort of extremest route. Yes she’s a pirate but we are getting to see a relatively soft black woman on screen. Who is warm, and kind and funny and very laid back. Who is “liberating treasures” and I think that has to speak for something too.

I could be totally wrong about this, but I’m honestly so curious to see where the writers take this show. And how they continue the tech and Phee narrative.

[stevishabitat]

Long rant/emotional vomit incoming…. 

Where to start? 

In August, our neighbors moved out and left their outdoor cat, Franklin behind. We'd gotten him neutered last year during the big TNR project, so he'd retired from both the kitten factory and the tom cat fight club. So he was left kind of hanging around at loose ends.

Franklin in his previous outdoor life

He'd come to the porch for dinner with the ferals, but we could tell he wasn't super healthy, and when we had a heatwave in the 100°F range, and saw him looking like melted cat on the hot pavement, we just couldn't stand it anymore. Clearly they weren't coming back for him, and no one else was taking care of him. So we brought him inside.

This brings our indoor crowd to six. Four adults and two kittens (all courtesy of the same neighbors who had a constant stream of kittens that they would raise and then put outdoors to fend for themselves - we are not regretting their departure from the neighborhood).

The Crew at Feeding Time

So Franklin actually adjusted really quickly to full-time indoor life. But he came with a bunch of hitchhikers. Ear mites, fleas, and tapeworm for certain. I tried OTC treatments at home, but wasn't making progress, and Franklin clearly also suffered from flea allergies and secondary ear infections and skin infections from the mites.

So off to the vet we went.

He had two different bacterial infections in his ears (the tech that read the ear swab slides said "beyond reality"), so he got a full-spectrum antibiotic shot, twice-daily ear mite treatment, and I ended up with a Revolution Plus prescription and tapeworm meds for all six cats, to break the parasite cycle.

Franklin at vet visit #1

I'm hoping we're on the upward swing of things, although Franklin still has raw patches from the flea allergies that he licks compulsively. I've used an OTC cortisone spray for him, but he may need a more systemic approach. Meaning either a shot or prescription. Another trip to the vet is in the works.

Frankie being just the Sweetest

Little man, Henry, still needs to be neutered and he's going on six months old, so I can't put it off much longer. Three of the others need annual vaccinations. The plan was to do one vet visit per month, if I can swing that financially, but that's looking more difficult than I hoped. 

The Babies: Henry and Patches

We are also fighting a losing battle to keep our water heater running. It was damaged by the flood last July, but we've kept it limping along for a whole year. We've now been without hot water since the beginning of September.

My grandma (who owns the house, but is currently living with another relative) is still hesitant to invest in a new water heater. It will take all of us (me, my parents, and grandma) to jointly pay for it. So without her go-ahead, we're kind of in limbo. There are a couple more parts we can try replacing before we're certain it's unfixable. But my dad doesn't want to pay a plumber, he wants to do those himself.  

I bought a tankless point-of-use water heater so we can at least put together a temporary shower and sink in the basement.

But getting that installed and set up has been more difficult and costly than expected (needing extra adapters and fixtures to connect to old plumbing) and although my dad is doing the work when he can, he's also working part-time and can barely walk most days. He can really only do at-home projects once a week at most, and some weeks he just doesn't have the time or physical capacity. 

My pharmacy, insurance, and neurologist can't seem to connect the dots to get my Aimovig refilled, so I'm now more than a month without a migraine preventative and I'm running out of rescue meds.

I had been paying someone to help around the house for an hour twice a month, but I really can't afford it. But without the help, and without migraine meds, and with cats that are still having digestive issues from the worms, and fleas still hatching out and infesting the house... It's a hot mess.

Can you believe this service exists???

Anyway, we're floundering.

Physically, financially, mentally, emotionally... It's draining.

Anyway, I basically ended up maxing out my credit card on all of this chaos. And this is the time of year that work slows down and overtime dries up.

I wasted so much money on things that didn't fix the fleas, or Franklin's illnesses, or the water heater, or my migraines... or... or....

So much money on meal replacement shakes because I'm too nauseated to eat, and delivery for kiddo because I don't have the energy to cook.

Bought a bunch of rinse-free body cleansers and shampoos so we can try to maintain self-care and hygiene without hot water. Got that tankless water heater and a shower tent and floor mat hoping to make kiddo more comfortable with showering somewhere other than the bathroom (they're still very much against the idea). 

The payment for kiddo's therapy bounced this week, and my biweekly paycheck can't cover that and the credit card payment. So it will probably bounce next week too. I think after two non-payments we have to give up our time slot. Therapy is so important for kiddo's mental health. I have to find a way to keep up with that if nothing else. 

Kiddo is absolutely at max capacity for demands and just can't help at all, can't even do basic self-care, clean up after themselves, or help with the cats like they used to. The state of the house is stressing them out, and they want more connection with me and Grandmummy, that we don't have the time or spoons to give.

Kiddo, Jack and Henry

My mom has also been without her meds for several weeks, and honestly, she's been in an autoimmune flare for most of this year. I think all the physical work from the flood, plus the mold, and a case of covid in the last year really messed her up. 

My dad going back to work (which was financially necessary) means he's physically unable to do things at home, and time wise he's not able to pick my sister-in-law up from work, or take grandma to doctors appointments - so all of that is on my mom now. So she's less able to spend time with kiddo - leaving me as sole caregiver most of the time, including when I'm working from home.

My car is still dead from the flood, and the vehicle I share with my parents has multiple issues. So I get groceries and necessary supplies delivered and only do errands on the day I take kiddo to therapy. That's about as much as I can physically do anyway.

That one time we thought the car was driveable (we were very wrong)

I was supposed to meet my (long-distance) girlfriend for renaissance festival this weekend, but I don't have gas money and her car is in the shop getting necessary brake repairs. It's our twice a year getaway without kids, and I think we're going to miss it.

RenFaire in the Spring

I'm really just venting because I don't have anyone to talk to who isn't also in the thick of it with me. 

I think a lot of my mutuals will understand all of this. So if you're in a mess like this, know that it's not just you. You aren't a failure. 

We're all doing the best we can, and sometimes no matter what you do, the best still looks like a disaster.