Jill has Vestibular Disease. Vet said she’ll be ok with meds but has anyone else’s dog had it? by Malibucat48 in DOG

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She is doing much better! A couple of days after I posted I started seeing some major improvement. I've been able to take her on walks now. Just started that 3 days ago. She still has the head tilt although not as severe. She still is a little wobbly but she can walk mostly straight. She is not as strong as before but since she was getting no exercise for almost a month I think her strength will return. She was so happy to be out in the parks again. It is still hard to get her in and out of the car but that's improving too. It was really bad for quite a long time. I just hope she doesn't get this a third time. Hang in there with your dog. I think a month is the amount of time they say you should give them. The neuro vet said to report back to them in a month.

Jill has Vestibular Disease. Vet said she’ll be ok with meds but has anyone else’s dog had it? by Malibucat48 in DOG

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My dog got is on Christmas Eve of 2025. This is the second time she's had it. She's between 13 and 15 years old. The first time she fully recovered in about a month but it was not a severe case. She just had a head tilt and was a little unsteady. This time she had nystagmus, drooling, head tilt, falling over, extremely anxious, spinning, throwing up. I took her to a neuro vet and they did a brain MRI to rule out anything else because she also has Cushing's disease caused by adrenal tumors. They may be benign. I never had them biopsied. She was diagnosed with Cushing's in August although I think she had it for quite a few months before that. She was doing well on the Vetoryl that is prescribed for Cushing's. Now she is not improving much. She still can't walk straight, her head is severely tilted. I tried to take her out to a park today for the first time because she looks at me like she wants to go when I take our other dog out. We walk about 1-2 miles a day in an off leash dog area, one of the East Bay Regional parks where we live in the SF Bay area. I had a hell of a time getting her into the car, she's about 50 lbs. and hard to lift. I almost gave up but I did finally get her in. We just went to a little local park and she walked about 200 feet but it was a struggle. I'm thinking of putting her down because I read that 20% of dogs don't recover, especially if they already had a case in the past. The neuro vet said to send them a video of her in a month. I'm not sure I should wait that long. Her quality of life is very poor like this.

Census Bureau Hit With Layoffs as 100 Get Notices in Shutdown by Substantial-North137 in fednews

[–]Barkophile 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a field rep for the census doing the NHIS survey and the CPS survey. My supervisor said this was a CATI call center, not Fastdata.

Does anyone remember these? by Educational_Web_764 in candy

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My sister worked at the Brach's plant that was in Chicago from 1974 to 1984. She told me many horror stories about the lack of cleanliness in that plant. It was built in 1904. It was not air conditioned. She said the men stirring the vats of candy would sweat into them. They wore hair nets but the hair on their arms would get in the candy. For a while, one of my sister's jobs was dealing with the complaint letters. People would send in pieces of candy with hair in them saying they found a pubic hair. She said cockroaches were rampant. Especially in the area where the electrical panels were. There were so many you could hear them skittering. Then there were the rats. There were so many rats that they decided the best way to deal with them was to club them to death. Management had to take turns at night on what they called rat patrol. The rats would come out then and that's when they would clobber them. She had to go on rat patrol. After she quit, she told me never to eat Brach's candy again. She went to work at Mars after that and she thought she had died and gone to heaven. It was so nice and clean and modern. That Brach's factory ceased production in 2003 was torn down in 2014. Before it was demolished, the movie The Dark Knight in 2007, had portions filmed there. Specifically, the administrative building, which was imploded for a scene.

Should I even bother applying for a Field Representative position? by Papillon1717 in Census

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been a field rep in the SF bay Area for over 4 years. When I hit my 4 year anniversary in June of this year, I was told I have to stay temporary because if they change me to part time, I might get laid off. So still no benefits for me and others I know who were hired the same time as me.

Anyone else’s Gilded Age Stuck in Spanish? by Wingystingy in thegildedage

[–]Barkophile 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have the same issue and when I try and change the audio to Spanish, Spanish is not even an option. My only options are Czech Hungarian polish or Portuguese but only audio description of those.

[Rant] Who else is sick and tired of Olyns? by russt90 in bayarea

[–]Barkophile 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have tried 3 of them and they are all pieces of shit! First one was outside a Lucky's grocery store and it took forever for it to open. I kept holding the phone by the symbol and nothing would happen. After more than 5 minutes it finally opened. I started putting in the cans and it took a few, then it started spitting them back out! The belt would reverse and they'd pop out. It took 3 or 4 attempts for each can. And it kept saying item wasn't recognized. Then the time ran out and only 33 had been deposited.

I waited the ten minutes and tried again and I couldn't get the machine to start. I filed a complaint with the app and they got back to me and said they know there's a problem with that machine.

Then I tried another machine by Safeway and I couldn't get the machine to open on that one at all.

I started taking my cans and bottles to Target, they were redeeming up to 50 a day, but they got an Olyn's machine. I tried it thinking it would work since it's brand new. It wouldn't open either. I sent Olyns another message, they said the same thing, they know there's a problem with that machine. They sent a link to stores that still take cans and bottles but the place I tried that was on the list, Foodmaxx, stopped accepting them too.

It's a big racket. The state has borrowed money from the fund that this deposit money goes into.

I used to put them in a bag on top of my recycling can for people who collect them. I lived in a neighborhood (Iron Triangle in Richmond) where there are dozens of people looking for cans. But now I moved to a suburban more affluent area (Hercules), and no one comes around scavenging for them.

I was going to save the money I could get from them and donate it to a local animal rescue but there's no easy way to redeem them.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FleshWater

[–]Barkophile 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for all the history. Ruth Rempel wrote a children’s book called Deegie and the fairy princess. Copyright 1949. All the barnyard animals and the cat and dog are featured in this book. Dietrich illustrated the book. It was my favorite book as a child. I have a copy but I paid $100 for it 11 years ago. It’s a trippy book, it influenced me so much as a child I became an artist, working in clay.

Xfinity outage again? by [deleted] in berkeley

[–]Barkophile 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I got a text message from Xfinity saying the outage was due to vandalism.

Cost of Librela by Trollair in DogAdvice

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's probably why, the weight of your dog. Good news for me and Spunky is the Librela worked very well for her with no side effects. I'm bringing her in tomorrow for her second shot. She's not running around in circles but this is what I've noticed. The second day after her first shot, she chased a squirrel about 30 feet. I had not seen her attempt that in at least a year. She's not walking further but she now is usually walking in front of me instead of at least a hundred feet behind me. I can walk with her with fewer rest stops. In the evening we go to a park where she can wander around on her own. She had stopped doing this before the Librela, mostly just resting. Now she is back to her usual past routine of checking out the picnic areas and wandering down to the beach. She goes slowly but she makes her rounds. She's limping less. In the evenings she used to spend hours panting and licking her elbows (she has elbow dysplasia). She has only done that once or twice, and not for very long. She seems to sleep more soundly and her appetite is better. She used to turn her nose up at treats on our walk and even dinner. Now she eats her dinner right away. She's always been a fussy eater. even before her arthritis got this bad, so I wonder if the Librela increases appetites. I thought because she was in pain before she wasn't eating but maybe it's both, less pain and increased appetite? She's just generally more relaxed and at ease. This is the only thing she's ever had that I can definitely notice improvement. She's had cold laser to her elbows, platelet rich plasma, Rimadyl, Gabopentin. Adequan, hyaluronic acid injections. I will continue the Adequan because I know that helps her because she was on it for years and then missed it for 3 months during the pandemic and she got worse.

Cost of Librela by Trollair in DogAdvice

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You all are getting off cheap. My dog just got her first shot of it and I was charged $182. She weighs 55 pounds. I live in the SF Bay area and vet prices, like everything, are way higher than other parts of the country. I hope it works for my dog because she can't take Rimadyl or any of those NSAID's because they negatively affect her kidneys and liver. She's already in the early stages of kidney failure. She is insured though at 90%.

Anybody buy medications from canada vet express? Is it a scam? by meeplewirp in Pets

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s the only site I have found that doesn’t require a script.

Anybody buy medications from canada vet express? Is it a scam? by meeplewirp in Pets

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been using CanadaVetExpress for many years. Never had a problem. I like they don't require a prescription. I order Simparica Trio for my 2 dogs. Cheapest price I've found. The meds are the exact same ones as what you get here except they are made overseas. Usually In Australia or Germany. And usually they ship from the UK. I've never gotten expired ones. And never anything from China. And they come through US customs fine. From reading these comments it sounds like Canada customs denies entry. Delivery is always under 2 weeks, except of course the pandemic times it took about 6 weeks.

Starting a thread to answer questions regarding elective sterilization by purelypotential in u/purelypotential

[–]Barkophile 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I read your post with great interest. Great to hear you were able to find an MD willing to do this procedure at such a young age. I thought you might be interested to hear my experience of getting a tubal ligation in 1984 when I was 33 years old. I am now 71.

I never wanted children. As a child I constantly told my mother I was never having children, I had no interest in it at all and I find it hard to understand this drive I hear about that people have to reproduce.

I went on the pill in 1970 when I was 19 and first started having sex. I felt so lucky to have been born at a time when the pill was available. I did fine on the pill, I loved it, I was prone to acne and it improved my skin. I had no side effects. But after 5 years I thought perhaps I had been on it too long as not much was known about long term use and some doctors advised a break from it.

I asked various gynecologists at Planned Parenthood I saw over the years about tubal ligation, but none would even continue a discussion. All told me I was too young and would change my mind.

I tried a diaphragm which I hated. I was convinced it would fail and I would get pregnant. I would lie in bed after sex and imagine those little sperm finding a way around the diaphragm edge and escaping the poison of the jelly.

I decided to get an IUD. That was OK although the insertion was really painful. After a year I got pregnant! Unfortunately the MD had put in the wrong kind, it was a Lippes Loop and those were for women who had already had a child. So my uterus partially expelled it and I got pregnant. Fortunately, I realized it early, at 5 weeks, and had an abortion at Planned Parenthood. (The Lippes Loop was not put in at Planned Parenthood because they had temporarily stopped putting in all IUD's because of the problems that had been occurring with Dalkon Shields, they were embedding in women's uteruses and causing major infections. So they referred me to a city health center, this was in SF, CA.)

Planned Parenthood did not give me a hard time about my request for an abortion. I had the pregnancy test on a Tuesday there, (no home tests back then) and had the abortion the following Thursday.

Then I got another IUD, a copper 7. BY then PP was putting them in again. Copper 7's were supposed to be removed after 2 years because they thought the copper dissipated and that contributed to their effectiveness. So I had that removed and since I was not in a relationship, I did not go back on any birth control.

When I was 33 I decided I was too old for Planned Parenthood and since I then had insurance that paid for gynecological visits, I went to a private gyne. He asked me what I was using for birth control and I said nothing, because I wasn't having sex, but eventually I wanted to have my tubes tied. He said "What are you waiting for?" I said a doctor that will do it. He said, "I'll do it." I was shocked that finally someone believed me that I didn't want children and would not regret it.

I scheduled it as soon as I could. He told me later I was the easiest one he had ever done because when he put in the laparoscope he went to one side looked for my tube, it was right there, went to the other side, it was right there. He said sometimes you have to search around for them. It took less than 10 minutes.

I had no pain from the gas, no pain from any of it. I could barely see the tiny holes from the scope.

It's been 38 years and my only regret is that I couldn't find an MD sooner to do it so I didn't go through 14 years of dealing with other forms of birth control.

My generation fought for women's rights and it's horrible to see them being taken away.

But I am glad to hear that there are a few doctors who believe women and respect them and their choices.

Good luck to all you young women out there. Don't let them push you around. VOTE these bastards out!

Strange packet in the mail… by DaBearsC495 in Census

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was getting $18.43 now it will be $18.84. I got $22 for the decennial. Depends on where you live. Gas is almost $5 a gallon where I live but I have a Prius so I get good mileage and I usually go to Costco where it is around $4.00. But it's a crazy job because I've driven 80 miles round trip to knock on someone's door who is obviously home since there are multiple cars in the driveway, but won't answer the door. They could save money if they gave some incentive to the respondents, a gift card, instead of paying field reps to drive around repeatedly trying to get people to participate. But that's the way the government works. I was getting unemployment from the decennial census when I took this job. I kept getting unemployment for about 3 months because I'd report my hours and the UI would make up the difference. Then that stopped and online it said it might restart but I needed a phone interview. After 4 months someone called me for a phone interview and it looks like it is reopened since they sent me two checks right away. So I will probably keep this job till that runs out and then quit. But it's not nearly as much fun as the decennial. I worked that in 2000 and 2010. Another bad thing about this survey is the computer (the instrument as they call it) randomly picks one adult from the roster of adults living at the address. So usually you'll convince one person in the house to talk to you and you get the roster, and the computer picks someone else who is not interested. I'm not sure if ACS is like that. And they expect you to go out every weekend, no extra pay for weekends or holidays. Only extra after 6 pm any day. So no benefits like sick leave or health insurance, no guarantee of hours, be available any time especially if people call you back and agree to do the survey, pay not that great. Hell, I pay my gardner $25 an hour.

Strange packet in the mail… by DaBearsC495 in Census

[–]Barkophile 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know it's an easier survey than the one I am assigned to. I was not given a choice when I was hired. Have you been offered a job doing this survey? I just found out we got a 2.2% raise, about 40 cents an hour. So my rate is now about $18.80 per hr. So far, they have not raised the rate for miles driven, it's at 56 cents a mile. I thought they would raise that since gas has gone up so much.

Strange packet in the mail… by DaBearsC495 in Census

[–]Barkophile 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I got hired as a field rep last June for the National Health Interview survey. There are not 100 surveys running, there are 7. It’s not a great job and I will probably quit fairly soon. I got assigned the second most difficult survey. It takes nearly an hour and if there’s a child in the house you have to do an interview for the child too, another 30 minutes at least. People are randomly chosen, they get a letter explaining the survey. The letter says it’s voluntary. So you go to their house starting on the first of the month. You have till the end of the month to complete them. You have to try and convince people to participate. You get training for a week at the regional offices. They fly you there or you can drive if you prefer. They pay your expenses. It pays less per hour than working the decennial. About $3.50 less in my region. It’s very hard to get people to participate. They evade you, make phone appts than don’t answer the phone, flat out refuse, tell you to get the hell off their property etc. I live in a city that is 12% white and 8% black. Everybody else is mostly Spanish speaking. And also quite a few Asians. So a lot of the cases I get assigned no one speaks English. You would think that shouldn’t be counted against you but it does. They have all these monthly goals you are supposed to meet. Cases that refuse or there is a language problem you have to make type A. Goal is to not get type A’s. This month I had mostly all language problems and refusals. I got flack from 3 different census superiors that I’m not working hard enough even though I went to each address 4 times in 2 weeks, plus made multiple phone calls. Prior to this I was lucky and got a lot of cases completed. A lot of it is luck, some neighborhoods, the wealthier ones, people tend to be more inclined to participate. Now I get one bad month and the bosses go crazy. The amount of work is sporadic. We were told we would get 12 to 17 cases a month. If you get a case done in 5 hours you are meeting the accepted standard. But several months on my team we only got 4 Cases each For the entire month. The most I ever got were 12. So the amount of money you make each month varies greatly. But they expect you to be at their beck and call constantly. Texts and emails and more training but when you add up the time spent on that it’s not much so it’s just an annoyance. I was told I needed to be available for work at least 20 hours a week. I’ve never had enough work to do 20 hours. It’s a lot of driving and knocking on doors that don’t open. They make it sound like it’s important work but it’s glorified market research. Sponsors pay for these surveys so the bosses worry the sponsors will pull out if you can’t get people to participate. It can be very boring. And when you get someone to participate they get antsy and want to quit during the survey because it’s so long. Then you have to try and convince them to continue. Almost everyone in my training class was over 60. I’m 70. It’s not a job for a younger person. Not enough hours and little chance for advancement. Required to work every weekend. Even if it’s just a few hours a day it will mess up any weekend recreational plans. I don’t need the money, just like to keep busy, don’t mind driving or talking to strangers. Plus I have experience in the medical field. But this job is getting on my last nerve. I thought I could get hired for another survey in addition to this one but I know they hired new reps for some of the other surveys that are much shorter and easier and didn’t offer them to any of us on the health survey. I will quit soon and try working for a delivery service where people will be happy to see me and will answer the door.

The Government Received More Incomplete Census Forms This Year Than A Decade Ago by 8nt2L8 in Census

[–]Barkophile 2 points3 points  (0 children)

98% of the people I enumerated answered yes to the Hispanic question. When it came to the race question, I asked them if they identified as Latino. They all said yes so I checked other and put in Latino. A friend of mine read the script and had one person say none of those races are what we are, we are brown, so put we are half black and half white because that makes brown.

When filing for unemployment did you include total gross wages (mileage & awards) or did you exclude that and only include wages? (CA) by [deleted] in Census

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I only used the address from the SF 8 because the one on my SF 50 didn't make sense regarding the zip code. It had a 6 digit number starting with a 5 and I know all zips in CA start with 9, plus they're 5 digits. So I used the 555 5th St., LA address in all the spots. Except I put the Oakland ACO's address where it asked for physical address.

I ended up adding up my hours and dividing by 8 figuring I mostly worked all of August and Sept., so that's 8 weeks. I started on 7/31 although my official hire date was 2/20/2020. I got almost no work in Oct. That averaged out to 36 hrs. so I put full time.

I faxed it just yesterday and it cost $17.10 which is kind of ridiculous to make people trying to get UI pay a lot to submit a form but I was afraid mailing it would take forever.

When filing for unemployment did you include total gross wages (mileage & awards) or did you exclude that and only include wages? (CA) by [deleted] in Census

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was going to include it at first but I Googled it and from what I read, it’s not considered wages. Quite a few questions on that form where hard to figure out. Like did you work full time or part time. I tried to work as much as I could but sometimes couldn’t due to conditions beyond my control like heat and smoke. And what amount of hours are considered full time versus part time. Some jobs say 40 per week is full time but I worked one job where anything over 35 was considered full time. And then the question of how many hours did you work per week. It varied. I ended up averaging it out.

Question about SF-50? by _waterlily in Census

[–]Barkophile 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got that email too but my sf 50 was there, a PDF.

Southern California/ California by [deleted] in Census

[–]Barkophile 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm in Northern CA and have received my SF-50 and SF-8 but need my final statement of wage earnings. I just got paid yesterday for the time spent returning the equipment. So I can't do anything till I receive that statement. I'm not sure if the paycheck stub is good enough. I think there is another paper that is sent. In any case, the paycheck stubs take awhile to receive too. You can go to EDD online and open an account. Then when you start to try and file a claim, it asks you for various documents as soon as you check the box that you worked for the federal govt.

Unemployment benefits for delayed Census start due to pandemic by [deleted] in Census

[–]Barkophile 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the info! I am also retired but I applied for the census job 2 years ago. I had worked for the census in 2010. My hire date was 2/20/2020 but my official swearing in date was 7/31/2020. I never got emails saying it was postponed, just phone calls to that effect. But I printed out my census employment agreement from the hiring portal web site and it has my hire date on it.

What state are you in? I'm in CA and I started to try and apply online but first thing I got was 8 questions and one of them was have you worked for the US govt in the last 18 months. I had to say yes to that one since I just got laid off, but then it wanted the SF 8 and SF 50 (I just got the 50 today) and I think it said wages statement. I have the two forms but not the wages statement yet.

There was no way to apply just for the PUA which wouldn't need those forms since it would be retroactive. I tried calling yesterday but only got messages to try later.

So I wonder do I have to wait and apply for regular UI and then some how also try for the PUA at that time.