Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[savingdogs]

I'm afraid this will get boring, but I guess I should explain, I have something called Meniere's disease, which is actually quite common but effects people differently. It is a chemical imbalance in the inner ear. It causes ringing in the ears, a feeling of fullness, bouts of extreme vertigo and fluctuating hearing loss. All the women in my family have it, but I have it the worst. It is also related to migraines, I have those too. But I've been slowly worsening over 25 years whereas it kind of goes away or burns out in some people, not me. It is also usually one-sided and I'm one of the fortunate people for whom it is bilateral. When it went bilateral, I started having temporary deafness because I've lost all usable hearing on side number one. Now I sometimes have about 20 percent and sometimes have around 80 percent (like now) on the second side. When I have 20 percent I cannot understand normal speech anymore, so it really varies and my life changes profoundly.

But actually the worst symptom is the dizziness, it is like no other torture invented and is truly horrible. I can stand being deaf but vertigo is not tolerable. Having both come and go is mostly frustrating and often depressing. Now that I can hear again, my life normalizes.....but it could leave again the same day or be like this for a couple months, I never know. This year I could hear on my birthday but not the month before or the month after. So I can't, for instance, buy tickets to a concert right now because in a few weeks I wouldn't be able to hear again. Unless I didn't buy the ticket...then of course I would hear great.

I would become a candidate for coclear implants as soon as I finish losing the hearing on side number two. My doctor actually says that when this happens I will hear better than I hear right now. But, with coclear implants you cannot hear music anymore. I love music so much, I want to postpone my coclear implant as long as possible, hoping to take advantage of as many of these hearing "windows" that I may be lucky enough to get....does that make sense? I do have a different type of implant, it is called a BAHA, which helps me hear on my deafer side by using bone conduction to the better side. Unfortunately this device increases my likelihood of me getting vertigo and I only wear it occasionally. But for about five years it was quite helpful, before my condition went bilateral. They also keep trying to do a surgery on me which would kill the vertigo but I could lose what hearing I have left and I keep refusing. I do have a wonderful state-of-the-art Godlike doctor whom I love and who is tops in the nation treating me, he writes text books and follow me for insurance only (I think I have been in his books!) I think because I am an extreme challenge, much worse than most Meniere's patients although better than a few. I have allergies to everything (bees, wheat, eggs, caffeine, cane sugar, mold, dust, pollen, trees, animals and lots of medications). This is probably why my Meniere's is so bad.
You will also hear me mention my diet restrictions which are part of the treatment for this, as allergies and sodium and certain other foods trigger vertigo attacks. The most notable for this forum is I'm allergic to my eggs from my chickens and I think my ducks too. And I eat low sodium. I actually think that my hearing improved because I swore off aspartame two weeks ago, and want to talk to my doctor about it. But weird things like that effect me.

Now that everyone knows more than they ever wanted to about my health issues, I will just refer them to this page of my journal if they are curious!

But you cannot imagine how liberating it is to HEAR when you have not been able to for months and months. I actually made three phone calls today!!!!!!!!!!!! That was an amazing feat for me. I don't even have a cell phone anymore, had to borrow one! But those of you who hear perfectly, cherish that gift! And your ears also balance you, which is more important than you could ever imagine.
So those of you who toughed it out through this boring explaination of what is wrong with me, thanks for listening!

 

[murphysranch]

Not bored AT ALL! DH has vertigo once in a great while, and I've had the crystals in my ears go wonky, making me dizzy for two or more days. But your condition??? I can only barely imagine the vertigo. I'm sorry for your condition, but I'm also glad that a top dr is following you, if even for his research, which is a great thing. Hugs.

 

[savingdogs]

Yes, I know about the crystals, that would cause the same effect. I had a friend who had to ride in a specialized chair that makes you have vertigo until the crystals all settle where they have to.....ick...hope you can avoid that. But that fixed it forever for her.

Those crystals bouncing around is what makes me have vertigo, too, but because my chemistry in the inner ear is incorrect; there is too much sodium vs. potassium. So I have to keep my sodium down and potassium up, which is actually a good healthy diet of fresh whole foods.......not a bad thing to need to eat and part of my interest in being self sufficient. This diet keeps me from getting too chubby, which is the tendency of someone five feet two in shoes.

They try to counteract this imbalance by giving me medications that make my kidneys work real hard to get rid of excess sodium, one for anti-vertigo, anti-anxiety and a third to slow my heart a little to prevent the migraine related vertigo, which is a seperate condition but effects advanced Meniere's patients in particular and actually a new diagnosis for me. The anti anxiety is because stress is usually the biggest trigger in all Meniere's patients. Two of these drugs are considered experimental by most insurance companies but my doctor is an innovator and leader in this....both of his parents had Meniere's disease and he dedicated his studies to learning about it. He is Korean and if you know anything about how that culture honors both their parents and their education, you'd see how he got so dedicated. I used to have a Korean boss and managed his dental office for him, my favorite job in my dental assisting part of my life in Los Angeles. So when I met Dr. Kim, his "korean-ness" was a warm and comforting thing to me, reminding me of my wonderful former boss who was about this dude's age when I worked for him.

Most people you meet who have Meniere's have just a few bouts, every once in awhile, and some might have one-sided hearing loss or get ringing in the ear. This is how I was for about 15 years, and it didn't really effect me too much. But the last ten years it has started to have more impact.

I can still hear this morning.....my husband WOKE ME UP getting ready for work....his snoring was terrible and he left the dang TV on and the commercials are so stupid and I had to go shut the thing up! I realize our roo is very loud and annoying in the morning and why my son laughed the other day when I told someone our roo is not noisy. Now I hear my foster dog yipping and barking to be let out and go potty, does he usually do that? Poor guy must have been crossing his legs before this. How does my family handle all this noise? I must admit that one-sided hearing loss has one big advantage, you can put your "good" ear down on the pillow and most everything is pleasantly silenced.

 

[savingdogs]

Have today off.................BRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it is cold here this AM. No rain for a change at least, but we always get a cold snap when that happens. I guess it is the marine influence over us going away and letting the artic air in. We lost a good deal of our fall color with the last storm, but it is still very pretty outside.
I have a ton of projects for a non rainy day, guess I have to pull out the winter coats.

Heavens knows the animals have grown them! My goaties look so fat with their long hair. They hate hate hate this rain and expect every speck of food to be brought inside for them, so that means that WE get wet! I need to try to get my hubby to make me a feeder like the one OFG shows on her blog, would hold more in a small space....but we are still working on the egg roll away next as the next honey-do project. He is home today and I need to borrow someone's cattle prod to get him away from his computer usually. Course he would probably say, Look who is talking...........I have to learn to be handy and make things myself. My goats seem to like to throw down their hay to make a nice cushy bed with and then bellow for me to bring them something better.

Still hearing today, which is awesome except for hearing those spoiled goats. I go again to try to get Harry adopted, we are doing a home visit. How nice I will be able to hear them! I don't think Harry will be coming home with me or coming back this time. I'm gonna miss him but these folks are people I know and will let me babysit him, and pay me even. I dog-sit for several of my former fosters, just the most special ones get this offer so eventually I might have a nice little clientle.

One of my favorites is Mr. Furley, he is a big anatolean mix. Maybe with lab? Dunno, but he is kind of leaner than a normal anatolean but not smaller. Mr. Polite. Very good dog, I was wishing I had gotten a dog like him as a pup so I could train it to be a guardian dog. As it was, he was already extremely bonded to people. I got hiim adopted to a dog trainer who wanted a way to show off her skills. With material like that to start with, she could look really impressive fast. I'm not one who believes all dogs are created equal, they just ain't.

 

[savingdogs]

Well we are having a sunny day here in WA state, which is always refreshing in the fall. We've had nothing but rain and everything is soggy still. But I fed the goats outside this morning and they were frisking around their pen. I do think my does must be pregnant because they are looking rounder than my wether. That is the most exciting thing I have to look forward to at the moment.

Still no eggs from the lawn-ornament coop, but I wasn't expecting things to change. Hubby went as far as bringing home wood for the nests and there it sits. In my big coop, the baby chicks are teenagers already. I had thought I had a couple cockerels in there, but now I think they may all five be female. What were the chances of that? My Russian orloffs, their "moms" even though they are Buff Orpingtons, look stunning for the first time in their lives, I think the way they were supposed to! Their names are Pretty and Unpretty, named that because one was slightly less ugly than the other, meant to be facetious. But now the only name of the two that is silly is the one named Unpretty. I wish I could upload a photo, but Unpretty is magnificient! She could have her picture on a bag of chicken food or the cover of a Poultry magazine. Talk about ugly duckling! or, well, pullet....

Can't hear again this morning, deaf. Such a change from yesterday, I must say I've been depressed. I know I should be used to this but every time my hearing comes and goes, I seem to mourn its passing again. Feel so useless. I got to help a very special friend who has helped me very much lately regarding other things with a dog issue she was having and it made me feel useful when I needed it. I feel so utterly dependent and, well, kinda slow when I'm deaf as everything has to be translated. Thank goodness for my computer and the internet or I'd feel so completely isolated/handicapped.

Also been coaching little Harry's new parents via internet.....he is the one who beat up the 110 pound dog in his last home despite being only 10 pounds himself. Well now in this new home I got for him, there are no other dogs. So today they report, he has been trying to bite people they pass on the street! Even a three-year-old....I can't even believe that little stinker would want to do that. I think perhaps these folks are the type that walk so softly he thinks he needs to be the one carrying a big stick. He always behaved for me so I find the things he does in his other homes to be very interesting, how different their behaviors are with a different handler. Animals truly fascinate me. The best part of my life right now is I get to have so many.

 

[Denim Deb]

SD, . I also suffer from MD, but mine is not as bad as yours-even though I have it in both ears. My right ear is worst than my left. I still have the majority of my hearing, and it's rare for me to get a bad vertigo attack. I did have it the worst this summer than I've had in years, and finally figured out what was causing it-Barq's root beer has caffeine in it! I never knew that since most root beers don't have it.

If you ever want someone to gripe to, feel free to shoot me a pm.

 

[urban dreamer]

Wow. I can't imaging what it would be like to lose my hearing. The things we take forgranted.

 

[savingdogs]

So I finally have someone coming to look at Sebastian. They have nubians and want to make mini-nubians. She is hoping he is big enough.

I told her I think he will give it an A for effort! I wanted to ask her, haven't you seen how long a goat's thingy is, but I don't know her well enough.

But it would happen, right? He is an experienced feller......


Wish us luck.....I'm also taking the son out for another driving lesson, he is about to take the driver's test and we are doing freeway driving today. We are taking his ballot down, he is voting for the first time! Feels weird he is voting but not driving....but that is his own choice, not mine!

But wish us luck that Sebastian is what she is looking for!

 

[ksalvagno]

Hey SD, I give you a lot of credit living with MD and still moving on with life, even with bad days. That is so wonderful that you foster dogs. I would love to some day. We have 4 dogs of our own and right now fostering is out of the question. The dog pack is a delicate balance and we worry that if we brought in another dog, we would have problems with the dogs fighting all the time. Our oldest dog used to love other dogs, now she isn't happy when we bring another one in. She is also a "talker" and other dogs sometimes don't understand that she is just talking so a fight starts.

As far as a small goat reaching a large goat, just have a hay bale behind the female and let the male get up on the hay bale. That is what I had to do for my Alpine. I used my largest Nigerian Dwarf but he just couldn't quite reach and while the Alpine was standing nice, she didn't squat down for him. So the hay bale worked out perfect. I did have to hold her so she would stand right against the hay bale.

 

[savingdogs]

Well we don't have a foster at the moment, which is weird for us. I asked for a hiatus because we need to work on our house....we have had a lot of house damage from some of the ones we had over the summer and I need to get hubby to do some repairs around here.
You are right about the pack hierarchy....it is a delicate balance and every time a dog comes or goes, it changes. I have five of my own, but I acquired all five while doing rescue, and would not have kept dogs that did not adapt to my lifestyle. All my dogs actually LIKE fostering and are good for teaching the dogs how to behave. People often compliment me on how much improvement I make in the foster dog behavior, when actually the credit should go to Anika, Raider, Deirdre, Bandit and Bindi Jo, my dogs.

When we started fostering we had two male dogs that loved all females, so we just did females. When they passed, we ended up keeping five fosters, one of whom has also passed, we lived where only three dogs were allowed by law and we had four, but there were no puppy laws. So we fostered puppies, as many as 10 or 20 at a time, while we lived there. That was my way of flipping off the city for having such silly laws. They would not allow me an extra license to have even ONE more adult dog, but I could have had fifty puppies. Dumb. The even dumber thing was the local police force knew us and would bring us dogs (adults!) to take care of when they found ones that they did not have the heart to turn over to animal control as they knew we went through the legal routes for finding owners and rehoming dogs. I used to just always say, "Don't count how many are in my backyard and I'll take this one for you, okay?" We never were ticketed, but then, we also never ever let the dogs bark while we lived there or ever run loose, our back yard was Fort Knox.

But you see why we felt compelled to get a place in the country...we were tired of helping the city with their strays while not being officially allowed to. And we loved those police men sneaking the dogs to us, we just didn't like the animal control officers trolling for strays so they could make their 100 bucks per dog or EUTHANIZE the extras whom no one picked up. For many years I had the unofficial job of collecting the strays in that town and rehoming them. Most "bad" dogs are just displaced and untrained. Very few dogs are truly bad.

Later we moved to a group that offers us SCREENED dogs, which is much better. We kind of take the pick the humane society has to offer. Since so many need help, this makes sure we are helping the most deserving. And did you know, I never EVER received a reward from ANYONE whose stray I returned, even though I did it more than 100 times? A couple I returned more than three times. After two times I always tried to make them give me the dog so I could find it a better home. Some people should not own animals!
Anyhow that was a long soapbox I got onto, but I do have a lot of dog rescue stories you all have not heard.....some day I'll have to tell you the story of Chloe the heart dog, Red the hit-by-car-stray and Prince the starved pit bull, both of them are my best rescue stories, and Buddy the stray, whose tale fits in with the city issue I was just describing. I don't know how many of you are interested in rescue stories however. I guess the story of Violet and Lily and also Lillianne might be interesting....I have had over 400 foster animals now but a few stick out because the before and after were so dramatic.

But at this step of my life, selling Sebastian is my goal.....I'm going out to try and pretty him up. Anyone buying a buck in the fall should expect it to stink, right? I was thinking of trying to clear the urine marks off his dang head though.

Thanks for the bale idea Karen, I'll suggest that to her. Or couldn't they get up on anything, if a bale works?