Washingtonians

[Farmin Momma]

Quote: So they still haven't had you seen by an Orthopaedic doctor yet?

It sounds like they hoping that you will die of old age before they have to treat you for anything.

As for the lady that wanted the puppy. She knew just enough to say the right words, but there had been clues. She is on a fixed disability income, and has multiple health problems. I felt bad for her, so I was making things work. Still I knew that she really couldn't afford a pet, and sure enough as soon as one of her brothers got sick she needed money to go help him out. She hadn't even completely paid for the pup yet. She wanted to pay me off so that she could sell the puppy, but I opted to refund what she had already given me. I didn't want one of my puppies bouncing around from home to home. It was a blessing that this all happened on a payday for DH and I. I am still out the cost of nearly 450 miles on my car, and the microchips. I don't know though that I regret having tried to help her. She did watch at least one of the puppies during the week that my kitchen was remolded. So I'm going to put this down to the cost of doggy daycare. lol It helped to have fewer dogs underfoot that week.

I'm delighted your back amongst the group here again.

I am sorry that it didn't work out with the placement of one of the pups, but I am very glad you can look at it in such a positive way! That takes a really strong and special person.

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:
The PNPA show in Salem next weekend.

I'm kind of excited about it now that I can go. Usually DH isn't one to go to animal shows.

 

[DeesHens]

Quote: Thank you for the welcome. Nice to meet you.
Also thanks to you and all the other members here that have shared their sympathy with all of us stricken with loss & injury by predators.
It warms my heart. You all rock!

~Dee~

 

[Stumpfarmer]

And DH has said we will skip the clam dig scheduled for that weekend and go to the chicken show. 


He's hoping to find some heritage brahmas I think. He's got a thing for big old birds. Not that we really need anymore chickens at the moment...  Who's the enabler in this relationship, me or the guy who cuddles the cockerels and tells them how they have to grow up really big and kick hawk butts? 

Wait.... chicken show? Where?


Not that I can go; the level of wiped-out-ness I feel after the past three days (which included a daytime social event that left me gathering eggs in the dim twilight) leads me to believe I'm better off staying home and keeping my head down.

The PNPA show in Salem next weekend. 

I'm kind of excited about it now that I can go. Usually DH isn't one to go to animal shows. 

Take lots of pictures!

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

Salma is eating much better this morning!

Her energy level is a bit higher, too. She's not eating on her own but she is more enthusiastic about being fed. She even pecked some out of our hands somewhat vigorously. Her comb and wattles look more red and less pathetic. In another hour or so when it warms up, I'm going to put her outside with the flock in the dog crate. Unfortunately the blue mutt can sense that Salma's weak and is keen to terrorize her, so she's staying in the dog crate until she fully recovers. I swear I will not hesitate to rehome the blue mutt if it becomes a long-term issue, despite the fact that she's our best layer both in terms of quantity and big, dark, delicious yolks. Anyway, for now I'm just glad Salma is improving.

Her poop is pretty runny, but I imagine that's normal when she's getting an entirely new diet? It's a blend of plain whole milk yogurt, her own egg scrambled, dried mealworms, and sugar. We may try the B-12 thing if we can find something cheap enough.

Her eye looks OK. It's got a thin layer of bloody goop over it, but I keep squirting saline in there. She does open it sometimes. I don't know if she can see out of it or if she ever will again, but at this point I don't think it's going to heal shut, so that's good.

I really think it all started with the sugar water. My wonderful boyfriend's idea, of course. She just didn't have enough energy to eat and that really perked her up enough to do so.

I'm not celebrating yet because I know she could get worse again, but for now, I'm a pretty happy crazy chicken lady.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
In my opinion, Obama care is going to make this worse. 30 million people who previously did not have insurance, will be covered by 'the rest of us' through our taxes.

There are two major problems with our current health care system.

First - Our current system is a 'pay for service' system. By that I mean, that every time you go to a doctor, or get a test done, the doctor gets paid. The doctor is incented to see you more often, not to make you better. If he/she 'heals' you right away, they loose out on income. But if they have you come back for a follow up, or they order additional tests, then they make more money. There is an alternative, called 'Episode of care', or 'Bundled payment' where a 'budget' (either annual for chronic illness like diabetes, or episodic, for things like knee replacements) is created. This budget is then spread across all medical providers involved with your care. If the providers can avoid complications (a list of Potentially Avoidable Complications - PACs for short - are also generated based on the patients past medical history) they receive a bonus. This type of payment system actually encourages the providers who are taking care of you to do two things. One - get you healthy, with the least number of visits/tests necessary, and two - make sure that you are doing your best to avoid those complications. The challenge here is to get providers to agree to this type of system, as they will argue amongst them selves as to who should get the biggest part of the budget - and how do we hold the patient accountable. If the patient's providers tell her to take her meds, and she doesn't the providers should not be punished. One proposed method is to require a non-conforming patient to pay a higher premium. There are several insurance payors already using this type of payment system, but the vast majority of them are small and own the hospitals, clinics and doctors that the covered patients see. Another advantage of the EOC (episode of care) system is that the data it provides helps us determine which doctors have the least amount of PAC (potentially avoidable complications). We can also determine which doctors had a higher number of patients in poor health (those patients will have a higher EOC budget). Dr's whose patients have higher EOC budget AND whose patients have a lower PAC rate - that's a **** good doctor.

Second - Pricing transparency. Right now many hospitals are at the mercy of their suppliers. For example a young lady that I was close to had a very serious car accident. As a result she needed to have her neck fused. The two metal rods and the 18 screws cost the hospital 94k, not to mention any of the costs involved with the surgery itself. These exact same screws, from the exact same manufacture, when used in the equine industry, cost veterinarians only 18 dollars each. Hospitals are at the mercy of their vendors, and we are at the mercy of those hospitals. We, as a nation, need to get transparent pricing in place in our health care system. Hopefully we can soon get to a point where if you need a knee replacement you can not only "price shop" but you will also be able to view the track record (success rate, and ability to avoid those complications) of both hospitals and doctors.

The United States spends 2.3 BILLION dollars on health care alone. If that is compared to the GNP of other countries in the word it would stand in the top 10. Consider another travesty - Drugs are cheaper in Canada than they are in the the USA. Why? Simply because our government allows it. Anyone familiar with Medicare's prescription drug program is keenly aware of that -- but did you know that the US government, according to law is not ALLOWED to negotiate prices with the drug companies -- those companies are allowed to set their prices to anything they want and Medicare will pay it.

VF " your preachn to the choir" here my friend! I have read some of this not all so I appreciate the update, but, yea, the VA system is much like what it will be like, so there's no argument here!
Also, as a vet tech, I have obviously seen the prices of not only veterinary drugs but most supplies we use, there is NO excuse for the high prices, except for the reasons you have stated, so......yea. Got the message!

Agreed; Dave, great, concise description of how Obamacare is going to be very bad for this country. I just wish more people would understand that!!

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

Correction: she's leaving the eye open MOST of the time, and I just sprinkled some mealworms on top of the dish of yogurt mixture we left in her crate and she pecked them all right out!!!

 

[FirewifeJess]

UE- Glad for a good report this morning on your hen.

I am almost certain now that whatever rodent is living under the coop is also stealing eggs when the hens aren't around. We've already gotten 6 eggs today before 11am, and I've gone to check 3 times. I'm keeping the gals locked in the coop and run for a few days to see if that's the problem. We did a major family easter egg yard search yesterday and didn't find anything, which leads me to believe my theory even more. I am going to try and discourage the rodent under the coop from going to the chicken run for food by adding hardware cloth under the coop, hopefully this week sometime, and closing up the lid of the nest boxes on the sides that are open due to me raising/tilting the lid. Hopefully that will solve this problem. I may even shove some poison under the coop and add cement blocks all the way around it so the chickens can't get to the poison but the rodent can.

 

[itsren]

Quote:
I understand your DH's concern, obviously with this in the family, I too have been WAY freaked out about mosquito's too! I use spray when I go out and I am super freaked out when I find them in the house! At this point there hasn't been enough studies done on the West nile in people. My sister's MS condition and West Nile, is complicated, as in the Dr's aren't sure what's causing what. Thanks for the kind words, I was just being the Big sister!!

One reason why I got my Scovies is cause they love mosquito's and flies and all kinds of bugs!! They do a pretty good job, but, I have noticed a few more squito's tryn to get into my house!! Everyone just needs to be careful, and watch your babies!! The tough part about that is trying to find a lotion that works that doesn't have toxic substances! I'm sure in this next year, there are going to be lots of information and lots of stuff put out about it!
Don't be too hard on the hubby he's just concerned and for good reason!

It's funny - he's usually not overly concerned about illnesses that gets mentioned in the news. For some reason, the West Nile thing has him bothered. He watches a lot more news than I do, so he may have seen some pretty bad news stories about it.

I'm always the one saying "don't put that chemical on my kids" and I'm anti-chemical control in the yard, too. He and I have battled that one for years. He's now threatening to bring back chemical fertilizer for the lawn and I'm like "don't you dare!" I think I'm going to make up some chicken poop tea and try to get to the lawn before he does. Even if I make the tea wrong, I doubt I could kill it any worse than it already is.

 

[itsren]

Quote:

Yep! I remember when I used to think I'd never get to 25. Today 25 seems so very young.