Good news: Zoomba has gained weight, from 15.4 to 16kg in one week! So the ehrlichiosis treatment works like a treat, so far. Still very grateful she's leishmania negative.
Environment
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Trusses yes and no GRETVERRDRIE! // Damn!
But, Zoomba is really getting better, so we do not complain. Really. From 15.4 to 16kg in a week!
Friday, June 16, 2017
UPDATE: Zoomba is Leishmania NEGATIVE
UPDATE: Zoomba is NEGATIVE for Leishmania according to the (more precise) lab test!
Thursday, June 15, 2017
New car!
A Spanish license plate is compulsory, you cannot drive a foreign car as a resident. Well, some British people can, but they can be heavily fined for that.
When you emigrate you can bring your car, and not pay import tax etc. But, in practise that does not work, as you need to matriculate your car within 30 days after arrival in Spain. But, you can only do that when you are a resident, which takes about two months. Perhaps I should write a letter of complaint? "Dear señors, with abhorrance..."
Insurance should be cheaper her than in The Netherlands. It isn't. And the insurance people are chaotic. Before you have your car in their computer with the proper type... In NL the premium was about €150, with 18 years no claim, and thus 75% reduction. Here its €355. Alright, gas is cheaper.
Though I now have to pay road tax again, about 100€ per year, to the local council. Here you can be exempted from road tax too for old cars, if your city council allows that. I'll tell you next year, this year I simply had to pay.
License plates are just stuck on to ones car with two-sided tape! No bolts and nuts with special anti-theft... Although my license plates are from 2000 (AD), and it wasn't easy to remove them, actually.
Zoomba Leishmania and Erhlichiosis
It's Tuesday, June 13th, and according to the Spanish, that's our Friday the 13th. An unlucky day. And that's true. Zoomba tested positive for both leishmania and ehrlichiosis. And that's not good news.
UPDATE: Zoomba is NEGATIVE for Leishmania according to the (more precise) lab test!
UPDATE: Zoomba is NEGATIVE for Leishmania according to the (more precise) lab test!
Zoomba hasn't been eating well for a few weeks and has lost weight. She was once 18 kilos (40 pounds) and a bit overweight, but now she's 15.7 kg (51.5 pounds), and that's really too thin. Nothing else to complain about. She's just going for a long walk, which is still much more important than eating. And she's pooping and peeing happily, and not throwing up. But still.
I thought it was really crazy now, so off to Vera, to Veravet. This weight loss started around the time she was fed chicken carcasses, occasionally raw meat with bone. However, the gastro issues should be gone in a few days. The vet wanted to treat her stomach upset first, and if that didn't help, a blood test. I said I'd rather have a blood test now to make sure she didn't have leishmania or something else.
Leishmania is a very nasty disease. It's a protozoan transmitted by a tiny mosquito that's active between dusk and dawn. Dogs are the "reservoir" for the leishmania parasite, so it's important to protect your dog. You can do this by giving him a special spot-on and keeping him indoors at night. We give him Vectra-3D, which works against long-sucking pests like ticks and fleas, killing them, and against sand flies with a repellent. In addition, we give him a monthly worming pill to protect against heartworms. (Normally you do that every three months, but here every month.)
Ehrlichiosis is also a nasty canine disease. It's a bacteria-like bug transmitted by ticks. The dog becomes tired and has a decreased appetite. (Hey!)
Both Leishmania and ehrlichiosis are typical diseases that occur in warm, dry climates. Around the Mediterranean, that is.
Ehrlichiosis is treatable in dogs. You'll get a few weeks of (yes, indeed) antibiotics. After a few days, you'll be much better, but you have to finish the treatment.
Leishmania is a different story. You can cure people of it, but not dogs. It is, however, easily managed with a simple and inexpensive pill called Allopurinol every day. It's a medication for humans that works against gout, and in dogs, against this parasite. It has no side effects, which is good. Leishmania is a sneaky disease in dogs. You can't see it, but once symptoms do appear, it's too late. Then the kidneys, liver, eyes, and skin are affected, and it's a real feat to get a dog back to a reasonably healthy state and keep it that way. There are also dogs that remain asymptomatic, and therefore have Leishmania, but don't become ill. Only when their health dips does the disease strike.
Despite taking preventative measures and frequently checking the dogs for ticks, Zoomba tested positive for both leishmania and ehrlichiosis. And that's not good news.
When we found her at our house, almost two years ago now, we had her tested for the three endemic diseases because she was very thin. However, she tested negative for these two. So she contracted them after that time, under our care. It's possible she contracted leishmaniasis just before our time, when she was outside day and night with her puppies. The test could still be negative because no antibodies had yet been formed. The ehrlichiosis is likely recent; it's not a dormant disease.
The vet is a bit surprised, because the blood tests don't show anything unusual, except that she tested positive for these two diseases. And that's actually very good news; her blood doesn't show any signs of illness. Another blood sample is being analyzed at the lab, where they're determining the severity of the infection by counting the number of leishmania parasites ("titer"). Perhaps it's not so bad. She's a local dog, who knows, perhaps one that's fairly resistant to this disease. In any case, the leishmania isn't very active, and it's the ehrlichiosis that's caused her weight loss.
This means a blood test every year or six months, and a daily Allopurinol pill for the rest of her life. With that pill, most dogs live a normal life and grow old healthily.
Zoomba has been on antibiotics for a few days now, and we think she's already getting a bit better with food.
UPDATE: Zoomba is NEGATIVE for Leishmania according to the (more precise) lab test!
UPDATE: Zoomba is NEGATIVE for Leishmania according to the (more precise) lab test!
Zoomba hasn't been eating well for a few weeks and has lost weight. She was once 18 kilos (40 pounds) and a bit overweight, but now she's 15.7 kg (51.5 pounds), and that's really too thin. Nothing else to complain about. She's just going for a long walk, which is still much more important than eating. And she's pooping and peeing happily, and not throwing up. But still.
I thought it was really crazy now, so off to Vera, to Veravet. This weight loss started around the time she was fed chicken carcasses, occasionally raw meat with bone. However, the gastro issues should be gone in a few days. The vet wanted to treat her stomach upset first, and if that didn't help, a blood test. I said I'd rather have a blood test now to make sure she didn't have leishmania or something else.
Leishmania is a very nasty disease. It's a protozoan transmitted by a tiny mosquito that's active between dusk and dawn. Dogs are the "reservoir" for the leishmania parasite, so it's important to protect your dog. You can do this by giving him a special spot-on and keeping him indoors at night. We give him Vectra-3D, which works against long-sucking pests like ticks and fleas, killing them, and against sand flies with a repellent. In addition, we give him a monthly worming pill to protect against heartworms. (Normally you do that every three months, but here every month.)
Ehrlichiosis is also a nasty canine disease. It's a bacteria-like bug transmitted by ticks. The dog becomes tired and has a decreased appetite. (Hey!)
Both Leishmania and ehrlichiosis are typical diseases that occur in warm, dry climates. Around the Mediterranean, that is.
Ehrlichiosis is treatable in dogs. You'll get a few weeks of (yes, indeed) antibiotics. After a few days, you'll be much better, but you have to finish the treatment.
Leishmania is a different story. You can cure people of it, but not dogs. It is, however, easily managed with a simple and inexpensive pill called Allopurinol every day. It's a medication for humans that works against gout, and in dogs, against this parasite. It has no side effects, which is good. Leishmania is a sneaky disease in dogs. You can't see it, but once symptoms do appear, it's too late. Then the kidneys, liver, eyes, and skin are affected, and it's a real feat to get a dog back to a reasonably healthy state and keep it that way. There are also dogs that remain asymptomatic, and therefore have Leishmania, but don't become ill. Only when their health dips does the disease strike.
Despite taking preventative measures and frequently checking the dogs for ticks, Zoomba tested positive for both leishmania and ehrlichiosis. And that's not good news.
When we found her at our house, almost two years ago now, we had her tested for the three endemic diseases because she was very thin. However, she tested negative for these two. So she contracted them after that time, under our care. It's possible she contracted leishmaniasis just before our time, when she was outside day and night with her puppies. The test could still be negative because no antibodies had yet been formed. The ehrlichiosis is likely recent; it's not a dormant disease.
The vet is a bit surprised, because the blood tests don't show anything unusual, except that she tested positive for these two diseases. And that's actually very good news; her blood doesn't show any signs of illness. Another blood sample is being analyzed at the lab, where they're determining the severity of the infection by counting the number of leishmania parasites ("titer"). Perhaps it's not so bad. She's a local dog, who knows, perhaps one that's fairly resistant to this disease. In any case, the leishmania isn't very active, and it's the ehrlichiosis that's caused her weight loss.
This means a blood test every year or six months, and a daily Allopurinol pill for the rest of her life. With that pill, most dogs live a normal life and grow old healthily.
Zoomba has been on antibiotics for a few days now, and we think she's already getting a bit better with food.
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Plants
Monday, June 5, 2017
HCl or H2SO4?
This is a salwater pool, where you need to make up for lost chlorine ions by adding hydrochloric acid (HCl). Even wikipedia understands it this way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_water_chlorination
En zelfs: "Use of another acid, such as sulphuric acid to neutralise pool alkalinity will reduce the pH but will produce sulphate ions rather than chloride ions. Sulphate ions conduct electricity equally well as chloride at the electrode, but will not produce any chlorine. A salt water pool "poisoned" with sulphate may have to be drained and refilled to remove the offending sulphate ions."
But, what is on the label of our small (now depleted) tank, apart from it being a product especially for "Cloractión Salina"?
SULFURIC ACID!
En zelfs: "Use of another acid, such as sulphuric acid to neutralise pool alkalinity will reduce the pH but will produce sulphate ions rather than chloride ions. Sulphate ions conduct electricity equally well as chloride at the electrode, but will not produce any chlorine. A salt water pool "poisoned" with sulphate may have to be drained and refilled to remove the offending sulphate ions."
But, what is on the label of our small (now depleted) tank, apart from it being a product especially for "Cloractión Salina"?
Engineer Jansen is quite (sul)furious.
Friday, June 2, 2017
The Great Big Succulents Rescue
The balsa is made of soil, but soil dries up here, and blows away in the wind. Or, it starts raining very very hard, and the soil washes away. So we need to plant the soil with something that can withstand both sun and rain.
Remember this? It's our ex-neighbour's garden, with nìspero and nice flowers. The flowers are a ground covering succulent, called "Carpobrotus" (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpobrotus_acinaciformis).
However, the neighbour has left, and those nice succulents are cleared away, and thrown on a pile.
We fetched six wheelbarrows full.
And replanted them on the edge of the balsa.
So next year it will look like this, according to this nice impression.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)