Sparky, Bartleby had the dread gastro bug when he came home from the shelter. It took ages to diagnose because the 'castings' don't show up in every sample...as I'm sure the vet told you. Treatment was relatively easy and he's never been reinfected.

Sources are generally ground water and mud but the cysts (eggs) can cling to sticks and other things that go in the mouth.

Also, Bboy had other pests that didn't get diagnosed for 3.5 YEARS. I've told this harrowing story here before, but the short of it is...I highly recommend a twice yearly dose of Panacur. It's way safer than the antibiotics 11 different vets put him on until the right vet figured out the problem. Not to mention, super cheap and available without a prescription.

If Sass is a mouther...and what puppy isn't, it could help.

It always makes me smile when you talk about her. My very first, all my very own pet was a cat named Sassy. (Sassafras on formal occasions.)

ION, new not-a-shrew mammal discovered: [link] The 12-inch black rumped Elephant Shrews (AKA Sengis).

Wow, I'm amazed something that bizarre looking DIDN'T come from Australia. Of course, if it did, it would also have to be poisonous.

Contrats, vw!

I'm glad that they finally found the Giardia (if we've told Sass once, we've told her a thousand times, we're never going to be able to send her to college if she keeps racking up the vet bills like this...), since it did take a couple of tries.

Thanks for the Panacur recommendation -- I'll check on that for Miss Sass.

Our cats have giardia. They are about to go on their second round of antibiotics. They are inside cats, so we don't know where they got it.

CDC on Giardia: [link]

It's everywhere! Save the children!

I thought it was just water-borne, but it can apparently live on surfaces, too.

{{GC and GF and family}} Peace to you and your family.

meara, that totally sucks. All kinds of job~ma.

Am I dumb? I can't seem to find how to write a citation for a word from the dictionary. I got it from the library's link to the OED.

MLA:

Articles or entries from reference books:

If the article or entry is signed, place the author's name first; if it is unsigned, give the title first. For well-known reference works, it is not necessary to include full publication information. Include only the title of the reference source, edition, and date of publication.

Dictionary entry:

"Accord." Def.5b. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.

Thank you!

Weather gods are fuckin' wit' me.

When we got in today the weather was all "I AM FROZEN DEATH! I ATTACK YOU WITH TALONS OF ICE AND DEADLY BREATH OF SNOW! QUAIL BEFORE ME, BRIEF MORTALS AS I TOTALLY FUCK UP YOUR ROADS! MWA HA HA!!"

In response the boss was "Well, if it keeps up, we'll probably all go home early."

So, natch, now the weather is playing coy. "Might be frozen death. Might be annoying. Might wait until you're leaving at the USUAL TIME and be frozen death THEN. Who knows?

Quail before me, brief mortals, for I am capricious and irritating."