More pictures of the Columbia

This is about five miles upstream of the McNary dam,  just south of the famous Wallula Gap National Landmark.



The water here is about 80 feet higher than it was before McNary dam was built. During the Missoula Floods, water would have about 800 feet higher. Just, you know, for some perspective.

All Natural BS

My baby is fourteen months old now. Plenty coordinated enough to hold a bottle or sippy cup on her own, but I still feed her on my lap when I can. Like when she was younger, she will completely relax into my arms, glassy eyed and limp except for slowly fidgeting hands. It's very sweet and relaxing, and I know soon she will graduate out of babyhood and moments like this will be gone. I'm enjoying it while I can, even though it's during these moments that I still get occasional twinges of regret (salted with guilt, of course) for not being able to breast feed past five months. "In the wild" humans would breast feed until at least age seven or eight, right? Stealing a few minutes to feed a bottle of cow's milk to my one year old is hardly "natural". Then I quickly remember that, "in the wild", my baby and I would both be dead, killed due to minor complications I experienced during childbirth. Nothing "natural" about me being alive in the first place, why would I wring my hands over the way my daughter gets nutrition (especially since she's incredibly healthy and happy.)

Fuck "natural", or, at least, the version of the concept our society is currently using. What, after all, could be more natural than using our big, naturally-derived brains to invent helpful technology?

Rare animal illustration

The tropical coral deer Cervus scleractinia

Found near the equator near clear, warm, shallow water.

McNary Dam

A good portion of my electricity come from here. It's only a few miles away from my house as the crow flies, and sometimes I forget what a massive, and relatively rare, structure it is. The Columbia is one of the largest rivers in the world, and there aren't many places where people get most of their electricity from water.

These pictures are from a visit in mid-May of this year, when the river was fuller than usual.

This pipe is (I think) the downstream end of the juvenile salmon bypass system. Basically a tube that (hopefully) carries all the baby salmon around the dam so they don't get chewed up by the turbines. In the spring, they turn on these high powered sprinklers around the mouth of the pipe to deter birds from the tasty, tasty endangered species that are flung out of the mouth of the pipe. I imagine it would be like McDonalds having a pipe that spat chicken nuggets out onto the sidewalk, but then posting a guard holding a fire hose to keep people from eating them. Must be very frustrating to the seagulls.






I watched this pelican fly upstream towards the spillway rapids, then ride the waves downstream, then repeat. She repeated this process three times in the time I was there watching. I don't know if she was surfing the waves for fun, or contemplating braving the fire hose to try to get at some salmon snacks.





There's an Army Corps of Engineers maintained park downstream of the dam called Spillway Park. It has a large area of man-made wetlands and a network of walking trails. It's pretty obvious that they're "fake" wetlands; nothing looks completely natural, but they tried hard to make it appealing to a variety of bird species and it pays off. There are a lot of happy birds in those ponds.

Vaccinating cats and dogs: should you ever use less than the full dose?

Should these two canines receive different doses of vaccine based on size?

Short answer: no.

No, not even for kittens/puppies.

I've done this too, don't feel bad. There's this widespread feeling, especially among dog breeders and animal rescue folks, that splitting vaccines between young/small animals is a good thing. It saves money and seems like it would be safer somehow. The thought process goes: if a one mL dose is good for an 80lb dog, than shouldn't half or less of that amount be fine for a 10 lb dog?

But vaccines aren't drugs. You don't measure dosing by weight.

And everyone who knows what they're talking about says don't do it.

All you need to know is in the following email response from an expert to one of our board members' request for clarification:

You are correct regarding the recommendation AGAINST splitting vaccines.  This is applicable for both dog and cat vaccines.  The idea behind the recommended vaccine dose is that it contains what has been determined to be the minimum amount of antigen needed to adequately stimulate the immune system- regardless of the pet's size.  If you do not administer the vaccine properly (route, dosage), then not only can this result in vaccine failure but it also negates the manufacturer's warranty regarding the efficacy of the vaccine.  

 Regarding references: it is difficult to locate primary references since these concepts were validated in studies done some time ago.  I did find two references that might help you though - one is a recent publication, "2013 update on current vaccination strategies in puppies and kittens" by GM Davis-Wurzler (Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 2014 Mar;44(2):235-63.).  Here is the applicable quote from this publication: 

 

"The practitioner is advised to always follow the manufacturer’s directions for dose

and route of administration. Using a topical product parenterally or splitting doses

should never be done. A full dose is required to stimulate the immune system; there

is no medical basis for giving a smaller dose to a toy breed dog, and this practice could

lead to vaccine failure in that animal. If done with a rabies vaccine the practitioner is

not following federal requirements, which carries potential legal implications."

Also, WSAVA (the World Small Animal Veterinary Association) publishes vaccination guidelines for cats and dogs and under its FAQ section it states, 

"26. May I use smaller vaccine doses in small breeds to reduce the risk of adverse reactions?

No. The volume (e.g. 1.0 ml) as recommended by the manufacturer generally represents the minimum immunizing dose, therefore the total amount must be given."

(http://www.wsava.org/sites/default/files/VaccinationGuidelines2010.pdf)

I hope this helps, 

Chumkee 

Chumkee Aziz, DVM 

Resident, Koret Shelter Medicine Program

UC Davis Center for Companion Animal Health

www.sheltermedicine.com

www.facebook.com/sheltermedicine