Alright you guys, ‘tis the season again and I’ve already seen bullshit float about so here we go: what to do and what not to do when you happen to have a tick attached to yours truly.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
DON’T cover the tick in anything. Vaseline, nailpolish, whatever. Doesn’t matter. It’ll all suffocate the tick, making it panic vomit germs into your blood stream. That’s the opposite of what you want.
DON’T burn the tick. Same problem, plus the additional option of giving yourself a burn wound in the process.
DON’T squeeze the body of the tick when you try to remove it. Again this empties the tick’s digestive system into your body. Bad.
DON’T wait for the tick to detach itself. The longer it stays on you, the higher the chances it’ll transmit anything to you. Plus when ti detaches it may again vomit germs into you.
WHAT TO ACTUALLY DO
STAY CALM. A tick hanging on you is not a reason to panick. You’re not going to keel over just like that, and if you’re unsure what to do, there are many resources on the internet on how to safely remove a tick, like this one from the CDC (aka the professionals)
USE APPROPRIATE TOOLS. These can be suitable tweezers (the pointy kind, not blunt tipped ones), tick removers (there are cheap ones out there, those you can buy at the vets are totally fine for use on humans, too!). Ideally you can remove the entire tick in one go, however if that doesn’t work and the mouth part breaks off in your skin, that’s not a terribly big deal and you can totally remove it separately after you got the body remove. Again, don’t panic.
KILL THE REMOVED TICK. But not by squeezing it. Flush it down the toilet, submerse it in alcohol in a container etc. Ideally if the tick has bitten you and not your dog, keep the tick around in a sealed container in case you start having symptoms and someone needs to identify the tick species. Also IF you start getting symptoms like the tell tale Lyme disease rash, HIT A DOCTOR RIGHT AWAY AND TELL THEM ABOUT YOUR TICK BITE. Do not wait this out, ticks can transmit a whole host of diseases beside Lyme, so be mindful of that, too!
Some of those diseases you can actually get vaccinated again, such as tick born encephalitis. Check with the local authorities if you live in a risk area, and if so, get the shots to protect yourself.
Excellent post! I would like to add that ticks hide in tall grass and bushes mostly. They do not drop down from trees or jump to other people’s heads etc. Ticks aren’t designed to jump, they latch on somewhere on your leg and then crawl upwards in most cases.
You sure have seenthis post. It has spread like wildfire over the past few days so I doubt there is any artist out there who hasn’t seen it. But even if you didn’t, you should read on because I’m about to tell you a handy little thing that can help you to protect your art from such assholes as the anon who submitted this bullcrap, as well as art thieves in general.
The magic word is Metadata.
Metadata is like an invisible signature that is embeded into a file. It can contain all kinds of information, like Title, date, keywords for online seach engines, and copyright information. And the best thing is, since this information is “hidden” in the code of your picture, it’s hard to remove it.
There is a nice basic tutorial on how to add Metadata, or “additional file information” to your images in photoshop. It’s really, really easy so check it out!
I’m not sure if you can do the same with any other art program. If you know how to do this in other programs / can confirm that it works the same way there, please tell me so I can add the information to this post.
Adding the Metadata will not stop idiots from taking and reposting your art. It also won’t make them stop editing out your signature. It WILL however, help you prove that you are the original artist whenever you have to. Always remember my friends. You, the artist, are protected by law. No one has the right to take your intellectual property and hard work and repost, use or edit it without your permission. Ever.
Wash your hands regularly and change into different clothes when you leave, shelter clothes go into the wash. You can have a dedicated pair of shoes for the shelter or you can make a dilute bleach footbath to step in / wipe shoes down with before you go inside your house.
But, honestly, you probably won’t be exposed to really sick animals as a volunteer – and if you are they’ll probably have scrubs for you to wear. All the shelters I know have pretty solid cleaning schedules and animals are watched for signs of illness, so unless you’re cleaning up after / handling a sick animal you don’t need to worry about it a ton. I would change before going home as a routine habit, but not worry about doing more unless your cat is immunocompromised. The footbath idea is very much overkill in most situations, but if concern for your cat is something you’ll fixate on, it can be a help for peace of mind.
I think knowing what kind of shelter the OP is volunteering for is important when it comes to the level of safety measures they should take. I fully agree with having separate clothes, dedicated shoes or a bleach bath, etc. but grew concerned when I read that “most” shelters wouldn’t expose volunteers to seriously ill animals. I have worked in a huge variety of shelters and rescues in a number of states, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that “your mileage may vary” – and greatly.
The OP said “humane society” instead of “shelter” or “pound” which makes me think they are probably not talking about an animal control shelter or impound in a rural or poor urban area. Most “humane societies” I’ve volunteered for have been northern or west coast, well funded, and in areas where the majority of intakes are owner surrenders or owned pets who have roamed. They do generally have good disinfection and isolation protocols and the volunteers are normally doing things like walking dogs, scooping litter, and interacting with the healthy/adoptable population. The animals are generally vaccinated and vaccination is normally a routine practice in the surrounding community. So you don’t see much in the way of desperately sick animals unless they’re doing an intake on a hoarding situation or something similar.
Urban and rural shelters, especially in poorer areas, however, are a whole different ball game. In these types of shelters, there are often very poor health and disinfection protocols in place, if any. There are often not discrete isolation areas. Parasites are widespread and communal housing of animals (as many as 6 to a kennel run) spreads it. In my experience many rural shelters, especially in the south, do not even vaccinate animals unless there is adoption paperwork on them because they can’t afford to vaccinate animals on intake with a 70-90% euthanasia rate. And vaccination is not a routine community practice. This, paired with a significant portion of intakes being unowned stray and even feral animals, means you will often encounter disease in a significant portion of the population.
In these types of shelters, I’ve been exposed – as a volunteer – to parvovirus, kennel cough/respiratory infections, canine and feline distemper, intestinal worms, protozoal parasites, scabies, fleas/ticks, feline leukemia, feline enteric coronavirus (which can mutate and cause feline infectious peritonitis), mycoplasma, toxoplasmosis, and a host of other nasties.
Because of this, I use separate shoes and clothes for shelter work, never bring my shelter shoes inside, wash shelter clothes immediately upon arriving home, and shower before making any contact with my animals. And I make sure my personal animals are current on vaccinations and consistently on preventives for external parasites.
Basically, my advice to the OP is to know the kind of shelter and shelter population you’ll be working with, and respond appropriately. It is pretty much impossible to be too careful working with shelter animals, but it’s definitely possible to not be careful enough.
Thank you for this addition, it is absolutely correct.
This is potentially life saving information everyone should know.
No you guys this post helped me find my cat. He was missing for almost a month and I’ve had him for over 12 years. After seeing this I put his favorite blanket he always slept on outside hoping he would smell mine or his scent and he was back the next fucking day asleep on it.
the new snapchat update lets any of your snapchat friends see where you are on a map!!! apart from being really creepy,, this is unsafe especially if you don’t want people you’re snapchat friends with knowing where you are down to the EXACT location (ppl dealing w/ abusive ex’s, sex workers, etc)
I can see myself in my kitchen and my friend at work on the map its v accurate make sure you set your status to ghost mode
I should probably add how to go ghost
Update snapchat
Go to the stories page and zoom out (as if you were zooming out on a map) and itll open the map
Tap on yourself
Go to the upper right settings and turn on ghost mode
since its summer and getting hot: dont shave ur huskies/any double coated dog
Wait how come?
its because theyre double coated and if you shave them that coat will never grow in correctly again. it will permanently mess up their ability to thermoregulate bc they dont have their different fur layers to insulate them or use for sun protection. heres a link going into a little more detail why
Shaving your husky can actually raise the chances of it suffering from heat stroke! The best thing to do in summer months is to comb out the undercoat that’s already shedding on its own using a rake. It looks like this:
This takes time. If you don’t have time to maintain their coat, don’t get a husky. On a side note, the Furminator grooming tool seems popular, but can cause damage to the coat if overused or used improperly. Do your research before using it.
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