Public Service Announcements

[powerfulcheese04]

PSA for those with cats and dogs:

If you use flea/tick control products for your dogs with amitraz or permethrin in them (they will be clearly labeled NOT FOR CATS), be really, really, really careful! If you don't have a tick problem, consider not using them at all. Use just the flea products. If you do have tick problems, be really, really, really careful that you do not use your dog products on your cats.


One of my cases on ER last night was a beautiful white cat whose mom had 3 tubes of flea product on the counter. 2 different sizes for kitties and 1 (with permethrin) for a dog. She put one on her first kitty and grabbed a tube for a the second kitty. "Gee", she thought, "this is a lot of liquid for this kitty. He is the bigger cat with the new bigger size.." Then she turned to the counter and realized she'd put the 100 pound dog medicine on the cat. She washed him immediately. He hid for a couple hours. She found him and washed him again. He started having tremors so she popped in the car for the hour long car ride to the vet school. He had a full blown seizure in the car. He came in seizing and tremoring. 3 doses of valium and a bottle of robaxin (methocarbamol, a muscle relaxant) later it seems like he may make it. He hasn't had any more seizures, but he also goes back to full body tremors when the methocarbamol wears off. He isn't out of the woods yet and we are about $1000 into treatment...


Long story short: Do not use dog-only flea/tick products on cats.

[thoughtreader]

so scary! We had an owner who's cat died after rubbing on her dog after she put advantix on it a few days earlier!
She was so crushed.

[buckshot]

Thats scarry!

[Mich]

Oh my god, that's rather horrifying! Makes me want to hug my cats. In fact, I will.

[LilBee91]

Poor kitty.

[fawkes]

This seems like as good a place as any to leave this. Please watch, share, and maybe comment?

[Jayelle]

This seems like as good a place as any to leave this. Please watch, share, and maybe comment?

Thank you so much for sharing that, Erica. I can't imagine what you and your parents have been through and I really hope that your sister's story will help to save others.

[Mich]

Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. I don't really know what to say, other than the fact that the song and narration were pretty much perfect.

There are times when I wish YouTube's upvote button wasn't called "Like".

[LilBee91]

I second what everyone else said.

Thank you so much for sharing.

[steph]

Erica, that is such a powerful video. Very well done. My heart and my prayers for your family. You and Phenious should come over for dinner and I'll cook something less tomatoey!

[fawkes]

Aww, I love you Steph. I'm glad it touched everyone. Mom's been trying to spread it around, so I thought I'd help. Keep showing it to people, we might be able to help someone else.

[fawkes]

So something cool happened: that video is going to be shown on the local news on the 17th, and an interview with my parents will follow. If anyone is interested, I'll post a link to the channel's site so you can watch the broadcast streaming.

[Gravity Defier]

If anyone is interested

Yes.

[LilBee91]

If anyone is interested

Yes.

Please do.

[steph]

Did Phenious say that it would be on the 4pm news? Channel 7? (I need to put a reminder in my phone.)

[fawkes]

Channel 9 actually. Feb. 17th at 4pm MST

[steph]

Thanks, Erica!

I'm just going to do a little bit of a shameless plug for a project that one of my best friends was able to participate in last year: The SnowMastodon Project. She was able to participate in the dig, which is SO AWESOME! Anyways, NOVA is airing a special on it, premiering tomorrow night. Check out the video preview, find your local listings, then WATCH IT! I'm so excited!!

[steph]

So, I'm guessing you were all slackers and didn't catch the NOVA premier last night. I'm SO glad I did. It was fascinating! I loved seeing footage of the dig, I loved hearing their theories on the lake and it's layers and the rock slides, I loved thinking about my friend Becky getting to dig up fossils up there, and I loved thinking back to the day that I was at the museum last summer and they brought through a mastodon head! (It was in plaster, but it was one of them and I saw it!!) I would highly recommend looking into other showings of it.

[fawkes]

Alright, here's the link to the interview from yesterday.

[steph]

I watched it. It's a wonderful news clip. Your parents are doing great work.

[Gravity Defier]

I watched it. It's a wonderful news clip. Your parents are doing great work.

This. Your parents are real naturals at speaking, by the way.

[Jayelle]

Alright, here's the link to the interview from yesterday.

Paul and I watched it and were both in tears. It hits us since we have two daughters just like your parents - we will do our best to raise them not to be in an abusive relationship and to look for signs that they are.

[LilBee91]

I watched it. It's a wonderful news clip. Your parents are doing great work.

This. That was really touching.

[elfprince13]

Alright, here's the link to the interview from yesterday.

Great video, and an amazing job of narration by your father....but....terrible, terrible, story. It's hard to know what to say to that kind of violence and senseless cruelty. The fight against domestic violence and abuse is an important one, and I hope something positive can come out of the work that your parents are doing. I don't think there's anything in the world that makes me viscerally angry in the same way as hearing about the sort of physical and verbal violence associated with abusive relationship.

Thanks for sharing.